I generally like the no-frills, mostly business approach of LinkedIn. But today's New York Times reports that the site is struggling, and may find a bit of a boost in with the Hollywood crowd: The company bills itself as “the world’s largest and most powerful business network” but is known to most people as the Web site they begrudgingly visit every few months to approve be-my-contact invitations. Could Hollywood’s …
We Sell Guns
Talking about gun control in a commercial context is tough. Like abortion, it's a polarizing topic. Yet, it's one that can't be brushed under the rug--not in a nation of shooters. According to Adfreak, Modernista has erected the nation's largest outdoor board on the Mass Pike near Fenway Park on behalf of its client, Stop Handgun Violence. Since 1995, Stop Handgun Violence has increased public awareness about the …
Now In Pacifica
AdPulp started in our NW Chicago apartment nearly four years ago. Soon thereafter, BFG Communications invited me to move to Hilton Head Island to work on Diageo's liquor brands and Camel. I'm still with BFG, but Darby and I have relocated to Portland, Oregon. I snapped the above photo of Crater Lake with my iPhone on Thursday. If there are any Portland area writers, designers or ad people reading this, I'd love to …
Advertisers Try To Get Some Face Time
New facial-recognition marketing efforts are cropping up. What might make for a good plot twist in a Sci-fi novel is actually detailed in The Wall Street Journal. Dunkin' Donuts is among the first marketers in the U.S. to begin testing the technologies, at two locations in Buffalo, N.Y. People ordering a coffee in the morning can see ads at the cash register promoting the chain's hash browns or breakfast sandwiches. …
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“Get Off Of My Cloud” Turned On Its Head
John Battelle, CEO of Battelle Media, a company that sells advertising for a group of high profile blogs, is now venturing into experiential marketing. According to Ad Age, Battelle organized what he's calling CrowdFire at this weekend's Outside Lands music festival in San Francisco. CrowdFire is an attempt to bring a mash-up of the thousands of camera-phone pictures, hand-held digital-video recordings, blog posts …
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Not Gonna Let Them Catch the Midnight Rida
According to Adweek, Unilever's Axe brand is the title sponsor of Midnight Rida, a spoof of the 1980s kitschy television classic Knight Rider, which NBC is resurrecting in prime time this year. Created by maniaTV, the Axe brand often appears at the center of the story line. The series demonstrates a growing trend of having the advertiser in place from inception, rather than creating the show and then searching for …
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I Hope You Have A Bigger Toolbox
On c|net, Tim Leberecht describes the need for convergence of marketing disciplines and the opportunity it creates for the people and agencies capable of making this ideal a reality. Brand, user experience design, product design, marketing communications, PR, online advertising, etc.--what we're seeing is an increased convergence of all these creative disciplines. It is not a matter of strategic choice, more a …
Who Saw This Coming?
It appears Alex Bogusky and Chuck Porter have written a diet book that argues for the use of a 9-inch plate at every meal, which can decrease one's caloric intake by 30 to 35 percent. Sounds like a good idea, but what if one stacks said 9-inch plate a mile high with starches and other fattening foods? …
