Pam Smart, Elizabeth Smart, Smart TV?

We all knew that the networks would be drooling over the Elizabeth Smart story just as they did many years ago about the Pam Smart story.

So let the droolfest begin. We have ABC, CBS, NBC, USA, and Lifetime all vying for the next movie of the week. Anything to make money off someone's misfortune.

Is this entertainment or is this just disgusting? [via TV Guide]
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Advertising is About Positioning Not Communicating

Al Ries of Ad Age makes the point that most advertising is trying to be something different than what it should be. He claims advertising sole role is to position. Not to sell. It is to create an indelable and descriptive impression in the minds of the consumer. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Too many advertisers, he claims, attempt to cram too much information into advertising and to ask it to accomplish more than it is possible to accomplish.
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ATT Uses War and Other Current Topics in New Ad Campaign

From Ad Age's weekly "TV Commercials of Note", one spot from ATT uses current events such as war, cloning, censorship , and gun control to announce its new ATT One Rate calling plan.

This, along with a very strange ad for Absolut. [via Ad Age]
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New Ad Format: The Fast Forwarded :30

Advertisers might take note of a new study just released by P & G that showed similar ad recall rates for those fast-forwarding through ads using a PVR and those that don't.

So...now :30's can be compressed into :5's, get the same recall, and save a bundle of media dollars. Stranger things have happened. [via Ad Age]
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Advertisers Pass on Superbowl and Wait For Oscars to Launch New Campaigns

More and more advertisers have traded in the football for the sequined dress as the environment in which they choose to launch new advertising campaigns. It's the Oscars over the Superbowl for many advertisers this year.

Pepsi, J.C. Penny, Yahoo, AOL, and others will use the March 23 Academy Awards broadcast as the platform from which they will launch their new campaigns. [via Chicago Tribune]
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The PUMA Ad: Here We Go Again...With Nokia This Time

The uptight reactions to the latest round of spoofs ads just won't stop. Now Nokia is upset with a video clip, mentioned here earlier, that is circulating the Internet showing a cat getting stuck on a ceiling fan, spinning around, slamming against the wall, and concluding with a reveal that shows the whole stunt being recorded with a Nokia video phone.

Cease and Desists anyone? [via Courier Mail]
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More Miller Catfight Ads...with Guys

This could so easily have been predicted. You all remember the Miller Light Cat Fight Ads that aired earlier this year. Well, now there are more. And this time they will feature guys removing their tops and displaying the typical six pack (hey now there's a pun). View the spot here.

Apparently, Miller received 2,500 complaint from the original Cat Fight spot so what do they do? They come out with a "guy" version. Or, should I say, a version for the ladies. In the spot, two guys are about to start fighting but then they get all "sensitive". One of the guys says, "I'd really like to start communicating better."

Oh please...can't they just beat the shit out of each other like the girls did in the mud wrestling spot? Now that would, at least, be "equal" time.

Even as Miller gets all politically correct on us, they know what the guys want to see so there will also be a new Catfight spot featuring Kitana Baker, the Playboy centerfold who was one of the catfighters in the first ad. Get your TiVos ready.[via USA Today]
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Joe Millionaires's Paul Hogan Featured in Taco Bell Ads

Seems as thought the "stars" of Joe Millionaire are not really the stars. It's butler, Paul Hogan, who seems to be getting all the post-show play. First, he gets a gig on the Anna Nicole Smith Show. Now he has a deal with Taco Bell to appear in a spot promoting the chain's Steak Quesadilla. The began airing March 16.

More...
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Sharon Stone to Star in AOL Spot

AOL will feature Sharon Stone in an ad, created by BBDO, for its Broadband service. The spot will air beginning with a placement in the March 23 Academy Awards Show on ABC.
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