Facebook Traffic Declines, Time Spent Increases

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Perhaps it's application fatigue. Perhaps it's incessant friend request. Perhaps it's social media overload but according to Hitwise, traffic to Facebook is down 27 percent for the week ending February 23 from a high during the holidays.

Hitwise acknowledges this could be a seasonal trend citing traffic increases during both the Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks due to a significant portion of Facebook's users (40 percent 18-24) being out of school and having more time to use the site.

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by Steve Hall    Feb-26-08    
Topic: Online, Opinion, Research, Social



Bennigan's Wants You to Release Your 'Inner Leprechaun

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Inner Leprechaun? Inner Leprechaun? WTF? Inner Leprechaun? Seriously. OK, it's a little funny but Inner Leprechaun? Well, apparently Bennigan's, a chain of Irish-themed restaurants living in the shadow of Friday's, think people need to get the inner leprechaun on, forget about those healthy blender drinks and rush out to one of the chain's establishment for a nice high calorie, fat-filled meal.

Anyway, the ad points to a site on which you can create Lepregrams (which AdFreak's David Gianatasio thinks sounds too much like the not so warm and cuddly word "lepergram"). little leprechaun-themed messages you can send to your friend. There's other goodies to play with too but Inner Leprechaun?

by Steve Hall    Feb-19-08    
Topic: Bad, Brands, Commercials, Social, Strange



Kim Kardasian Goes Bongo, Hotties Leave, India Comes, Gates Bails

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- Following Vanessa Minnello, bootylicious Kim Kardasian is the new spokesbabe for Bongo Jeans.

- If you're sad to see that really hot office mate leave for another agency, send his or her picture over to Office Hotties Who Leave, a site which features images of "men and women who make coming to work more bearable."

- American Express, Coke, JCPenney, L'Oreal, General Motors, Mars/Masterfoods, MasterCard, McDonald's, Procter & Gamble, Bertolli Frozen Dinners, and Dove Cream Oil Bodywash are a few of the confirmed advertisers for ABC's 80th Annual Academy Awards broadcast.

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by Steve Hall    Feb-15-08    
Topic: Agencies, Celebrity, Social, Television



Ripped Abs, Bikinied Bodies Celebrate Positives of Global Warming

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There's no reason the debate over global warming has to center on films created by former vice presidents when it can include guys with six packs and girls with impossibly hot bodies. That's the direction LAVA Communications' Steve Hirst took with a new Australia-based campiagn he's placed on the social campaign site GoShout.

The campaign's video depicts winter in the year 2079. While one might expect to see bleak, snow covered imagery, we, instead, are presented with what turns out to be a pool party complete with bikinied booty and bare chested six packs. Because, ya know, global warming has eliminated winter.

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by Steve Hall    Feb- 8-08    
Topic: Good, Racy, Social, Video, Viral



Google's Social Graph API Explained

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Social media junkie Alisa Leonard has a video of Google's Brad Fitzpatrick, guru behind LiveJournal, Memecast and OpenID, describing the company's Social Graph API which makes it easy to determine social connections on the web. It's quite fascinating. If you like to know where your friends are and what they're doing online, this API can help accomplish that.

by Steve Hall    Feb- 6-08    
Topic: Online, Social



'Anonymous' Launches Campaign Against Scientology

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In what Tom Hespos calls "modern cyberwarfare" and "a significant social event ... people are going to be studying it for years to come," a group called Anonymous has targeted the Church of Scientology with, apparently, denial of service attacks, the downloading and publicizing of internal Scientology documents and a creepy video accusing the church of spreading misinformation, suppressing dissent and suing all who say negative things about Scientology. And we thought that Tom Cruise video was freaky.

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by Steve Hall    Jan-25-08    
Topic: Celebrity, Social, Strange, Video



Cheetos Gets Really, Really Weird With Orange Underground

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After spending some time with Cheetos' new Orange Underground, a full blown movement "committed to transforming sterile order into messy mayhem," its primary purpose of urging people to do wacky Random Acts of Cheetos that don't involve eating makes perfect sense. After all, Cheetos aren't even food. They're just a bunch of man-made chemicals mixed together and placed in a bag. This campaign is much like the Mentos/Diet Coke thing whereby people were urged to perform all manner of chemical wizardry as opposed to actually consuming the products, both questionable, at best, as to whether or not they, too, are actual foods.

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by Steve Hall    Jan-18-08    
Topic: Good, Online, Poster, Social, Strange, Video, Weblogs



Second Life Shop 'Hang the DJ' Launches Poster Campiagn

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Yes, yes, Second Life is apparently alive. While haven't been there in months, commerce seems to be alive and well or at least the promotional aspects of commerce. Here's an ad campaign for Hang the DJ clothing shop. Just like in real life, Second Life virtual hotties model the shop's wares. While the men's t-shirts are likely to fit any average guy, it appears the women's t-shirts have to be specially sized to accommodate the huge breasts every female in SL seems to possess.

And you have to get a kick out of the odd juxtaposition of each male model's left hand appearing eerily between the crotch of the model to his left.

by Steve Hall    Jan-11-08    
Topic: Campaigns, Poster, Social



Facebook Slammed, George Lois Speaks

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- George Parker is sick of Facebook, it's plethora of stupid applications and the insanity of a "24 year old billionaire wanker" gets rich using people's information without asking their permission.

- Legendary ad man George Lois makes an appearance on this week's Studio 360, Public Radio International's syndicated weekly show about creativity.

- TNS Media Intelligence forecasts media spend to increase 4.2 percent in 2008 with growth slower in the first half than the second. The Olympics and political spending will contribute significantly to that figure. The biggest increase (14.4 percent) will be seen in internet display advertising.

- AdWeek has named Goodby U.S. agency of the year and Wieden + Kennedy global agency of the year.

by Steve Hall    Jan- 7-08    
Topic: Agencies, Podcast, Social



Advertisers Beware: The Decapitator is After Your Little Pretties

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On the streets of East London, plastic heads are rolling. Blame the Decapitator, who is mutating ads for his/her own statement-making ends.

That image at left? It once was a cavity-sweet spot for High School Musical 2. And we can't even talk about what happened to that little bee from Bee Movie.

Headless bloody variants of smiling ad protagonists are applied to public posters with wheat paste, wethinks. Wired compares the work to that of New York's Splasher, who was eventually suspected of working under contract for American Apparel.

There's something romantic about street appropriations of ad messages. But marketer-on-marketer violence? That's just bitchy.

by Angela Natividad    Jan- 4-08    
Topic: Guerilla, Outdoor, Poster, Social, Strange, Trends and Culture