Adpulp
Advertising News and Know-How
By David Burn
According to The Oregonian, Portland-based Umpqua Bank may return the $214 million in bailout money it didn't need in the first place. "We have been put in the same bucket with all the institutions that have failed, these companies that are being bailed out," said Ray Davis, Umpqua CEO and chairman. "I've gotten calls from shareholders and customers (who say) 'You dirty dog, you shouldn't have done this.'" Davis …
Continue Reading about Umpqua Bank Has Money Coming Out Of Its Ears →
By David Burn
"Seems so long I felt this way and time sure passin slow My time coming, anyday, don't worry about me, no " - John Perry Barlow Mark Morford is a columnist for The San Francisco Chronicle. In his latest piece, he imagines a glorious "green in every way" future for the Golden State. Pot is, by a huge margin, the single largest cash crop in the state unless you count porn stars and celebrity rehab. It rakes in upwards …
Continue Reading about California, Prophet On A Burning Shore →
By David Burn
Hey, I know. Let's get consumers to humiliate themselves on our behalf! According to The New York Times, that's what Air New Zealand marketing execs were thinking when they commissioned 30 "cranial billboards," made with henna on newly shaved heads. Maybe that's why it's called buzz marketing. For shaving their noggins and displaying the ad copy for two weeks in November, the hairless ones received either a …
By David Burn
Giving new life to the phrase "PR operative," the Pentagon is busy spending money to shape opinion at home and abroad. How busy? An Associated Press investigation found that over the past five years, the money the military spends on winning hearts and minds at home and abroad has grown by 63 percent, to at least $4.7 billion this year, according to Department of Defense budgets and other documents. That's almost as …
Continue Reading about Info Soldiers Battle For Our Hearts And Minds →
By David Burn
> The Wall Street Journal has the full story and multimedia treatment on ousted Illinois Governor, Rod Blagojevich. But this is the thing I find intriguing. He used his office improperly. But how common is this "crime" in corporate environments? That it's common doesn't make it right, but will you agree that it's all too common? What shocked me in Blagojevich's case was the outrage from pundits. Getting caught on …
Continue Reading about “Getting Robbed” Has Additional Meaning Today →
By David Burn
It's rare, but sometimes flies get caught in the social media honey. There are two such stories floating today. One involves a man who murdered his wife after she changed her status from "Married" to "Single" on Facebook. Marshall Kirkpatrick at ReadWriteWeb has the goods on that one. The other story is about a PR guy's unwise use of Twitter and how that came back to bite him and his agency on the ass. According to …
Continue Reading about Man’s Handheld Survives Memphis Meltdown →
By David Burn
I like to see a client-side press person bite back when their employer is accused of wrongdoing, and today's business news provides that ring-side opportunity. According to The Wall Street Journal, The Center for Science in the Public Interest is bringing a class action lawsuit to a California court, claiming that Coca-Cola makes deceptive claims about its VitaminWater brand. CSPI nutritionists believe the 33 grams …
By David Burn
Musicians Imogene Heap and Little Boots are active in social media. Their proficiency inspired Ian Tait to write about them, which in turn led Ed Cotton to ponder why brands and the agencies that assist them can't come up with something authentic to say. Somehow we've gotten into our heads that business should only talk when it has something to sell and beyond that there's nothing really that they can or want to talk …
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