Six Apart, the company that makes Moveable Type, has been making news of late. They purchased Live Journal for an undisclosed sum. Then I noticed Rick Bruner's pointer to this valuable treatise, available from Six Apart. Six Apart Guide to Comment Spam This document describes how malicious or unwanted comments ('comment spam') affect weblogs, the techniques spammers use to abuse weblogs, and the tactics that can be …
Industry Analyst Pooh Poohs Beer
USA TODAY reports that beer, the most popular alcoholic beverage in the United States, has an image crisis. While it is still the nation's favorite alcoholic beverage, it continues to lose ground to wine and spirits. Beer Marketer's Insights, a trade publication, estimates beer accounted for 59.5% of the alcohol market in its peak year, 1995. That had fallen to 56.7% in 2003. "We believe there is an overall image …
Kraft Readily Complies With Do Gooders Requests
Just days after the Center for Science in the Public Interest called for a voluntary ban on non-nourishing food advertising, Kraft Foods has announced its readiness to comply. According to the Chicago Tribune, the nation's biggest food manufacturer, said it plans to curb its advertising of Oreo cookies, regular Kool-Aid and other popular snack foods to children under 12 as part of an effort to encourage better eating …
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Chief Marketing Officers Can’t Sell Schlock
Marketing guru, prolific author and blogger, Seth Godin, says, "If I were the CMO of Verizon, I'd fix the call centers. I'd fire people with a lousy attitude who aren't afraid to share it with a customer. I'd reward the great ones (like the installer who came to my new office last week) and figure out how to get every one of their thousands of people to understand that THEY are the marketing department. And I'd shut …
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Product Love Takes Dangerous Turn
By Bryn Mickle and Kim Crawford of Flint Journal: FLINT - Tony J. Young wasn't about to lose his car again. His 2003 Ford Mustang Coupe had been stolen before, so when it happened again Thursday morning, Young grabbed the rear spoiler and held on as the thief hit the gas. Clutching the back of his dark gray Mustang, Young managed to call 911 on his cellphone as the car raced down snowy Flint streets. "I wasn't …
Lay’s Legal Team Turns To P.R. Campaign (They Can Afford It)
from Houston Chronicle: Ken Lay is a 21st century defendant, and he's willing to pay up to 12 cents every time somebody figures that out. Not only is he telling his side of things on his own Web site, but he's paying to make sure major search engines such as Google, Yahoo and AOL list his site first when you search for his name, Enron and related terms. The former chairman's computer-literate litigation team is …
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Careful What You Say
from The New York Times: Against the backdrop of the Macworld Exposition in San Francisco this week, a series of legal actions filed by Apple Computer over the last month highlights the difficulties of defining who is a journalist in the age of the Web log. As part of a lawsuit filed by Apple in Santa Clara County Superior Court on Dec. 13, the company obtained a court order allowing it to issue subpoenas to …
Stars Adding “Brand Ambassador” To Already Weighty Resumes
According to Brandweek, New York-Swiss luxury watch brand TAG Heuer has named Uma Thurman, tennis champ Maria Sharapova and Nascar star Jeff Gordon "brand ambassadors" in the next evolution of the "What are you made of?" campaign. The three join Tiger Woods in representing the brand. In addition to being featured in print and outdoor ads, the ambassadors will participate in new product development and public …
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