Urban Outfitters Highjacks Brand...Again

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Back in May 2005, we reported on an incident in which clothing company Crown Farmer claimed Urban Outfitter had stolen its designs and sold them without proper license. It appears the retailer is, again, up to no good, this time, with Johnny Cupcakes which claims the retailer has produced designs very similar to Johnny Cupcakes' which Urban Outfitters had previously seen but declined to license. It appears Urban Outfitters has borrowed heavily from a Johnny Cupcake bomb-dropping design. One time is, perhaps, a coincidence. Two times and it's time for Urban Outfitters to come clean.

UPDATE: Someone's started a blog called Urban Counterfitters taking Urban Outfitters and other retailers to task for their "borrowing" of other's designs.

by Steve Hall    Jan-18-06    
Topic: Bad, Brands



Jerry Gets Laid Off, Drives Mobile Billboard

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In the new It's Jerry Time video, sad sack Jerry tells the tale of his trials and tribulations as a print production employee at an ad agency who gets laid off because work dries up and he ends up driving a mobile billboard around which doesn't seem to go so well.

by Steve Hall    Jan-18-06    
Topic: Online, Strange



Top Heavy Hooters Billboard Falls Over

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For those that think Adrants is all about the T&A of advertising, we promise, with help from Hooters and Mother Nature, never to let you down. Hooters, on the other hand, always tend to weigh things down. A bit of wind and a bit too much Hooters pulchritude proved too much for this Delaware billboard to withstand. We're sure it attempted, valiantly, to withstand gravity as it bulged forth from its inadequate support structure and came wobbling downward as if begging for a reduction prior to the next time it was asked to hoist its wobbling heftiness into the air.

by Steve Hall    Jan-18-06    
Topic: Outdoor



AT&T Delivers Blogging, Has No Idea What A Blog Is

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This at&t billboard from their new campaign has been floating around Flickr for some time now. It, of course, alludes to the SBC acquisition of at&t (guess their doing the lower case thing now) and how that somehow delivers blogging. We suppose it just means they own more of the world's bandwidth so they have the right to say they deliver whatever they want.

Humorously, as is usually the case with large corporation sticking their feet into niche spaces, a Flickr user points out at&t, apparently, has no idea what a blog is according to a screen shot of a search on their website. One would assume these not so trivial oversights would be handled prior to the launch of a multi-million dollar campaign. Oh sorry. We forgot that thing they say about assuming things.

by Steve Hall    Jan-18-06    
Topic: Bad, Brands, Outdoor, Strange



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Waterfront Media Aggregates Self-Help Category For Marketers

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As the publisher for the online presence of the South Beach Diet, the Zone Diet and the expectant parent What to Expect among others, Waterfront Media helps self-help experts and their publishers publish their content online and aggregates self-help content for advertisers interested in reaching self-help seekers, a $10 billion market according to Marketdata Enterprises. While some doubt the whole notion of self-help, for marketers and and publishers in this space, Waterfront Media has created a self-help marketplace that appears to make it a whole lot easier for marketer and publisher to connect with the self-help seeker.

Waterfront launched in early 2003 and has 700,000 subscribers to its various sites along with site management/distribution deals with publishers Rodale, Harper Collins, Meredith and Hyperion among others. Waterfront Media's revenue model is shifting from 25/75 ad/paid subscription to 50/50 ad/paid subscription and advertisers from P&G, Kraft, Diet Coke and Equal have jumped on board.

by Steve Hall    Jan-18-06    
Topic: Online, Publishing