Headline, No Story, Contextual Ad Placement, Oops

While we like articles that quickly come to the point, one letter Page Six stories, well, even Page Six needs at least a couple sentences to maintain interest. Take a look at this Page Sixe page Bucky Turcosent us. Relieve us from what book? Oh, and that contextual ad placement? Priceless.

Got Milk Campaign Travels to Brittelactica

Adding a change up to the American Dairy Association's Got Milk? campaign, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners has created a new campaign focusing on a race of aliens from Brittlelactica who suffer from a "series of horrible health ailments" until they visit earth and discover a special elixer called Da Iry. A TV ad points to a content-rich website that riffs on the supposed problems a diet without milk can cause. Brittelactica is broken into four regions, Insomniastan, PMStonia, Papua Hairthinny and Cavitopi, each suffering from ailments caused from the lack of milk. Each region contains a history and a message from the region's chancellor. each of whom suffers from his region's ailment.

more »

CBS's NCAA March Madness On Demand A Success

CBS SportsLine and the NCAA yesterday announced that NCAA March Madness on Demand, the online video player that provided streaming live video of the first 56 games of the 2006 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship set a record, according to what, we don't know, for scheduled live entertainment or sports event with over 268,000 simultaneous streams. In total, NCAA March Madness on Demand has already surpassed 1.2 million video streams served. I guess we were wrong thinking people would prefer the couch potato method of viewing.

Xtra-Pine Cures Women's Sexual Fantasies

You'd have to agree the whole sex-in-advertising thing leans heavily in favor of men with most sex-based ads containing hot, untouchable women conjured from the fantasies of male art directors. It's very rare, in fact, to find an ad that turns the drool-inducing strategy on its head and caters to women. Perhaps it's because the industry adheres to the stereotype that only men are the horny ones, easily swayed by the lure of sex. Maybe it's because women are superior to men and don't let their lives revolve around the need for sex. Or maybe it's some weird Darwinian thing where, due to the forces of human procreation, men just have to have it more than woman.

more »

Radio Station Promotes Morning Show With DIY Photoshoot

Boston radio station WAAF, to promote it's Hillman Morning Show, has launched Man Town Money Shot, a game in which the player pretends to be the station's photographer for its Ms. Mantown Calender. There's the usual collection of hotties prancing about in lingerie and offering bubbleheaded answers to stupid interview questions. There's even an appearance by - this is advertising after all - local billionaire car dealer Ernie Boch Junior, son of the famed "Come On Down!" Ernie Boch Senior. Give it a watch and revel in its cheesiness. Oh, and a bit of nudity too. The work was done by Pod Design.

Boston Marathon Runner Auctions Self For Children's Hospital Charity

Bob Cargill tells us Boston Marathon runner Dr. Paterson, Ph.D, in order to raise money for the Boston Children's Hospital has placed an auction on eBay asking for $8,000. In addition to asking for the charity money, he's offering himself as well to the highest bidder in the form of a dinner date

AOL Debuts Crappy Video Service With Old Content

AOL' s new free video service, In2TV will launch Wednesday with premiere advertisers Intel, Kia, Kraft and Hershey. In2TV will host thousands of old Warner Brothers shows hoping to become the first stop on the web for video content. We wish them luck. We have no idea who would want to watch all those old shows and, maddeningly, they had to go and use some video technology that requires Active X rather than a more graceful solution like YouTube or Quicktime. There's also this thing called Hi-Q which, of course, doesn't work with Firefox.

So basically, the service is perfect for all those middle America, late adopter, IE-Suffering couch potatoes who somehow find pleasure in watching reruns of Wonder Woman, Head of the Class and Welcome Back Kotter.

Gaming Sites On Top, PR Sites On Bottom of Website Effectiveness Study

The Web Marketing Association, sponsor of the annual international WebAward competition, today announced the findings of a decade-long study of Web development trends across more than 80 industries. The resulting Internet Standards Assessment Report provides industry benchmarks for Web site development and is based on data collected from nearly 10,000 Web site evaluations.

The report reveals that gaming Web sites dominate the top scores in every category, followed by music, which placed second overall, and automobile and sports Web sites, which tied for third place. The industries with the lowest average Web site scores included radio, public relations and search engines.

more »

Radio Station Launches T & A College Ball Tournament

Indianapolis radio station WFBQ has launched its own version of the NCAA tournament. Sponsored by Hardee's, Finlandia Vodka, Southern Comfort and Jack Daniels, WFBQ's version of the tournament throws basketball teams out and replaces them with hot models. Now, rather than tracking your team, you can track hotties.

Each division gets it's own set of models to select from. For someone who really doesn't give a crap about college basketball, this contest is way more fun.

USA Creates MySpace-Like Site For Viewers

If something can attract 60 million to it, there must be something goo about it. We;re thinking that's the thinking behind the USA Network's launch of ShowUsYourCharacter, a site that features character from USA shows but also mimics the social community aspects of MySpace and other similar operations. On ShowUsYourCharacter, visitors can dig deep into the profiles of their favorite characters and then set up a profile of their own to highlight their uniqueness.

While the site is about creating a community, the network is also hoping to collect and identify profiles of unique individuals who, upon submitting a video and statement, will be selected as winners with the Grand Prize winner appearing in an on-air USA campaign. With Tagworld, Facebook, MySpace, Orkut, LinkedIn, Friendster and others, there seems to be no end to people's willingness to place themselves in front of the world for all to see. No doubt, USA will see return on this effort.