Can't say I can recall seeing a banner ad like this before. Partners+Simons in Boston is looking for a copywriter. And on some parts of Adweek.com, they've got a banner ad on the site just to advertise the one job opening. Wow. Back in 2002, they'd have had a million folks applying right away. What's going on in the job market in this industry these days? …
Ball Sacks Needed (Metaphorically Speaking, Of Course)
Random Culture is providing a recap of the Future of Online Advertising conference held in NYC last week. Here's my favorite bit: I think one of the biggest lessons from the conference is that advertisers need to have more guts. Wired magazine VP Drew Schutte talked about this very topic. Why is it important for advertisers to have guts? Because consumers do. Without guts, agencies and advertisers will always be …
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A Random Social Networking Observation
Consider this bit from blogger Seth Goldstein: It is as if in a matter of months, both the high end of LinkedIn and the high-end of MySpace had been absorbed into the Facebook social graph. LinkedIn is suddenly no longer the social network of choice for us chic geeks. Yes, we learned how to tell our professional stories these past few years in the LinkedIn profile fields, but- as in summer of our 8th grade- we are …
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Stream On You Crazy Diamonds
The New York Times investigates increased online activity at many of the nation's mainstream radio stations. These moves to stay relevant and reach listeners where they live come at a tough time for all who would dare to stream audio, as the federal Copyright Royalty Board is intent on levying monolithic fees for such use. After ceding ground (and potential advertising dollars) for years to an army of autonomous …
A Diverse Set Of Problems
Seems that nearly everything I've read lately has focused on the need to communicate one-on-one with consumers, engage them, have a conversation with them. Is that at all possible with mass marketing? Let’s try an experiment. I want you to form a mental image of “Joe Sixpack.” Advertising people talk about “Joe Sixpack” all the time. But what does he look like? Picture him in your mind. Look away from the screen …
AMC Plays The Nostalgia Card
We might all thank (or blame) Soprano's writer and executive producer, Matthew Weiner, for injecting some Hollywood-style glam into our industry's sagging self-image. I mean just look what he did for New Jersey and gangsters. His new series "Mad Men" will premiere on AMC in July. The show takes place in 1960 at Sterling Cooper, a fictional Madison Avenue ad agency. Marc E. Babej and Tim Pollak, writing for Forbes say …
Was It A ‘Bold Move’ To Crush Phil Leotardo’s Skull?
According to The Detroit News, the Ford Expedition's starring role in the finale of "The Sopranos" was not an official product placement: The scene in question begins with a lingering close-up of the Blue Oval badge on the grille of an Expedition that carries Phil Leotardo, a New York mob boss locked in a deadly feud with series star Tony Soprano. Leotardo gets out of the passenger side and is promptly shot in the …
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West Wayne Shape Shifts
In a bold move, Atlanta- and Tampa-based ad agency West Wayne, (you know, the place where Luke Sullivan once worked) has left the making of mere adverts to a lesser class of communications professionals. No longer ad men and women, West Wayners are now "friendship experts." [via Everything's Better With Brentter] …
