Ernie Schenck asked why Hispanics need their own advertising awards show. There have been 39 responses to his question thus far. Here's a segment of one response, from High Jive: I think we need Hispanic shows for many reasons. The first is to generate positive pr for Hispanic agencies. The work being produced in these shops doesn’t get the respect and coverage it deserves. Publications like Advertising Age and …
Fair Trade Adopted By Big Beverage
Common Dreams: Britain's most boycotted company, NestlĂ©, will attempt to claim the moral high ground today in the battle for "ethical shopping" by becoming the first multi-national to launch a Fair-Trade coffee. In a link with the Fair Trade Foundation, the Swiss food firm announced it will become the first of the big four coffee roasters to agree a "fair price" for farmers who are put into poverty by a glut of …
Power To The Pedal
USA Today: A spike in gasoline prices is fueling what could be the biggest year for U.S. bicycle sales since the Arab oil embargoes more than 30 years ago. "It should be close to 20 million units. If you look back historically, the three best years for bike sales were 1972, 1973, and 1974," Tim Blumenthal, executive director of Bikes Belong, a national coalition of bicycle suppliers and retailers said. Last year's …
Little League Scores Big League Sponsors
Boston Globe: When parents and baseball fans arrived at the state's Little League championship in Beverly on Sunday, they were met at the gate with a friendly welcome: Members of two Beverly baseball teams, ages 10 to 12, handed out baseballs imprinted with the Bank of America logo, packaged with peanuts and Cracker Jacks. ''Switch to Bank of America," one of the boys yelled. ''It's a better bank for better people," …
Continue Reading about Little League Scores Big League Sponsors →
American Dream Carries Stiff Price Tag In Silicon Valley
According to USA Today, Bimba Rao and Abhijit Kakhandiki paid $880,000 3 months ago for a 1,150 square foot, three-bedroom, two-bathroom house on a shaded corner in Friendly Woods, a block over the Cupertino border. The house was old and small and needed work. But they liked the neighborhood and the home's potential. The listed price was $750,000, so they offered $880,000 and wrote a personal letter to the owners …
Continue Reading about American Dream Carries Stiff Price Tag In Silicon Valley →
The Tramps “Disco Inferno” Threatened By Poachers
Smoking Gun: Former Black Panther associates of Huey P. Newton, the late co-founder of the militant organization, are seeking to trademark the phrase "Burn Baby Burn" so they can slap the words--long associated with conflagrations that left cities like Watts and Newark in cinders--on hot sauce. According to pending filings with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the Huey P. Newton Foundation also wants to …
Continue Reading about The Tramps “Disco Inferno” Threatened By Poachers →
Screw The Lowest Common Denominator
Anthropologist, Grant McCracken, considers the Hegarty trade off. At some point, almost all the important players in the world of marketing embraced the Hegarty trade off*. They stopped trying to appeal to everyone all the time. They gave up climbing to ever cheerier, cheesier heights of good humor. They surrendered the …
Continue Reading about Screw The Lowest Common Denominator →
Brands Get Back To Basics
New York Times: Charmin has a new low-rent cousin, Charmin Basic. It's slightly less "squeezably soft" - but it's a lot less pricey than Procter & Gamble's other toilet paper. "The premium that consumers were traditionally willing to pay for a brand name is under attack," said Sridhar Balasubramanian, an associate professor of marketing at the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina. Of …
The Indispensable Disposable
from USA Today: The first one-time-use video camera goes on sale this week at CVS drugstores in the Northeast. The makers of the $29.95 camera and CVS hope the device will do for video what one-time-use cameras did for film sales: dramatically increase the market. Sales of one-time-use cameras …
Off The Shelf Off The Table
from Reuters: Nike has a message for shoppers looking for the hottest shoe design: Just do it -- yourself. The world's largest athletic shoemaker has relaunched a web site where shoppers design their own shoes, choosing everything from the color of the famous Nike swoosh to personalizing the tongue with a word or phrase. The bid to target shoppers who want to stand out marks part of a growing trend toward …