USA TODAY: Toyota Motor said Monday it will join NASCAR's Nextel Series racing circuit, marking another market long dominated by U.S. automakers where the Japanese manufacturer plans to compete. Toyota, which has raced in the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing's Craftsman Truck Series since 2004, will join the Nextel and Busch Series beginning in 2007, the automaker and racing association said. Toyota's …
Revenge Of The Nerds (Flash Version)
High tech job board, Dice, wants unappreciated IT Managers to "get in there and get even." …
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Hope For Hometown Hardware
Fast Company: Every year, thousands of executives venture to Bentonville, Arkansas, hoping to get their products onto the shelves of the world's biggest retailer. But Jim Wier wanted Wal-Mart to stop selling his Snapper mowers. Tens of thousands of executives make the pilgrimage to northwest Arkansas every year to woo Wal-Mart, marshaling whatever arguments, data, samples, and pure persuasive power they have in the …
Corporate Comics
NYT: The sportswear company Perry Ellis has long employed the traditional formula for men's fashion advertising: take one handsome man, photograph him posing in an exquisite setting, and repeat. The campaign features a male character in a series of settings that emulate real life. But now Perry Ellis has decided to replace its leading man with something less predictable: a comic strip. Using comics in advertising is …
Lameness Abounds
I don't read Slovakian*, so it's hard to determine precisely what's going on with the ads above, but it looks like Heinz and KFC have the exact same visual cliches running for different spicy products. I know there are no new ideas, but on the heels of the One Show call-for-entries debacle, thievery is beginning to look like a trend. [*via Ad Arena] …
Will The MBA Babble Never Cease?
Ad Age is running a piece on Speedo's new campaign. Stephanie Thompson, the Ad Age writer uses the term "banana hammock" to describe Speedo's product. And while there is humor in that, how do you explain the following client gibberish about the brand's line extension? “We want to layer the cool factor over [Speedo’s] more rational equities,” said Craig Brommers, VP-marketing for Speedo. The reasoning is clear: While …
AT&T’s Outdoor Smarter Than Web Site
AT&T says it brings its customers "Blogging" in a current outdoor execution. But this Flickr user says otherwise, and here's his proof: [via Adrants] …
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New Rule: Agencies Should Only Be Allowed One Talking Cow Campaign At A Time
In the spirit of Bill Maher, that's the first thing I thought when I read this Adweek article about The Richards Group's first ad campaign for its Shamrock Farms dairy client, which features "Roxie, Shamrock Farms' beloved spokescow who appears on all the packaging." As all good Southerners know, Chick-Fil-A has quite a lot of brand equity in talking (or at least, expressive) cows. Which is also a creation of the …
