Having grown up in Atlanta, I've always had a soft spot for Home Depot. Seriously. I remember shopping at their first store. They were known for having good service. The founders of the company were known for being down-to-earth, and now that they've cashed out they've given back to the ATL community in numerous ways. So John Wagner's recent experience there, along with lots of other things I've heard and read about …
JWT Says Iceland And Soft Natural Hair Are “In”
This is pretty good. On PRNewswire, you can see the list of 70 things JWT trendspotters say are "in" for 2007. "Trends are illustrated by the products and services that exemplify them," says leading trendspotter Marian Salzman, EVP, chief marketing officer of JWT Worldwide and co-author of the new book Next Now (Palgrave Macmillan), a travelogue into the near future. "By examining what resonates with consumers, we …
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The NYT’s Ad Crystal Ball Is A Bit Cloudy
Writing in The New York Times, Louise Story takes a stab at what's ahead for advertising: Not surprisingly, many agencies are focusing on how the digital world will continue nudging the offline world in new directions, and consumer-generated content is in the forefront of everyone’s mind. But ad executives also say they think companies should pay attention to shoppers’ interest in knowing more about the products they …
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Second Life Reality Check
From reading the trade press, you'd think every marketer was falling over themselves to get on Second Life, thinking the site's popularity is exploding. But over at Valleywag, Clay Shirky parses the claimed numbers of "residents" and "logins" and finds huge discrepancies. He also suggests that reporters have simply parroted Linden Labs' inflated numbers without question in their gushing profiles of Second Life. This …
Can A Fake Band Sell Out?
Maybe they have to pay out lots o' life insurance for all those spontaneously combusting drummers, but as a huge fan of This Is Spinal Tap, I can't help but be bummed out about this. Why Ogilvy has to do this to a good song, particularly by using it in a completely humorless way, I don't know. I mean, it's such a fine line between stupid and clever, isn't it? …
Rotten Dusenberries
If jolly ol' Saint Nick stuffed your stocking with an Amazon or Borders gift certificate, our friend George Parker has a word of caution of you. Seems that last year, BBDO veteran Phil Dusenberry released a book of memoirs called "Then We Set His Hair on Fire: Insights and Accidents from a Hall of Fame Career in Advertising." That book has now been re-released in paperback, with a new title: "One Great Insight Is …
Santa’s Come A Long Way, Baby
No wonder he likes chimneys. Courtesy of a bunch of auctions on eBay, you can see that Santa used to shill for all sorts of cigarette makers: …
Jiffy Lube Wants A Two-Way Customer Conversation. Maybe.
In Southern California, Jiffy Lube locations got busted for not doing work that customers paid for. The above follow-up report, taken from the local news in LA, shows clips of a Jiffy Lube "apology" commercial and the reactions of some of the customers who got screwed. It doesn't appear Jiffy Lube is all that interested in engaging its customers, as some who wrote to get refunds have not heard any response. So much …
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