Adrants

March 23, 2005

Calvin Klein Brings Back CK One With New Ad Campaign

Ten tears after its grunge-like CK One campaign, Calvin Klein is relaunching the brand in April with a new television, outdoor and print ad campaign. The campaign will feature 40 mostly unknown models in a hip party scene in a building shaped like the CK One bottle. The campaign, designed by Fabien Baron and shot by David Sims, will continue with the "You're the One" tagline.

Posted by Steve Hall at 10:56 AM | Comments (0)

Amazon Lists Viewsonic Monitor As World's Fastest Computer

Either a joke or a simple error, Amazon has listed a Viewsonic monitor as a computer having a 10GB chip, 2,000 DIMM, a 30,000 GB hard drive and weighing 14 hundredths-pounds. All for $2,312.95. Certainly, there will be computers that powerful someday soon but not right now. One reviewer raved about the "product," writing, "This laptop is the bargain of the decade. 10.00GHZ of power.

I use one to currently calculate the meaning of life, the universe and everything. I even caught it calculating on how to make the perfect cup of tea. The speed that this laptop can move at is nothing short of outstanding. Shame it doesn't have legs though."

Sure to be removed from the site at some point, here's a screenshot for posterity's sake.

Posted by Steve Hall at 10:41 AM | Comments (0)

Dad Places Ad Claiming School Filled With Drugs

Park Ridge, Illinois resident and father to two grammer school children, Dominic Vecchio, placed an ad in last Thursday's Park Ridge Herald-Advocate claiming the his Maine Township High School District is a regular trading ground to heroin and crystal meth. Unsurprisingly, the ad has caused a stir and raised the ire of school district officials who deny Vecchio's claims.

"We've never had any incident that suggests that heroin or meth is being sold or distributed in our hallways," said Principal David Claypool. "It's just an unfair accusation." The kids thinks Vecchio is stretching it a bit too. Senior John Mallory said,"It was irresponsible. About 99 percent of the school doesn't do heroin or crystal meth; it's a tiny pocket, and the deans and administration are doing a good job trying to combat it."

Vecchio said he met with children in the town who told him drugs were on sale at school and, perhaps in reaction to a friend's 15 year old son dying of a heroin overdose last fall, Vecchio decided to spend $900 of his own money to place the ad and raise awareness of the issue.

Posted by Steve Hall at 09:51 AM | Comments (0)

Lost's Evangeline Lilly Fronts Online Dating Service

Not new, as AdJab points out but since we go weak in the knees for Lost's Evangeline Lilly, we just thought we'd dream a little dream for a minute or two as we write and tell you she's the face of telephone chat service LiveLinks.

Great score for LiveLinks. We do wonder though if, with her new found fame, she regrets associating herself with a service for shut ins with no social life. OK, that's harsh. Everyone lives a different lifestyle but still. Alright, we're done with our Evangeline Lilly moment.

Posted by Steve Hall at 09:09 AM | Comments (0)

Church Group Uses Halo 2 to Promote Religion

Acknowledging the forgone conclusion that, just like sexual abstinence, there's not much a parent or minister can do to stop kids from playing Halo 2, several churches are embracing the games as a channel through which to teach gospel. Director of Equipping of Dare 2 Share Ministries International Lane Palmer explains, "The point is that almost everyone already has run out and played it, so we think this is an awesome opportunity to take something hugely popular in our culture and turn it into a way to share the most important message. What we need are people who approach their Christianity with the same passion and concentration as they do with video games."

Palmer likens the story line of Halo 2 to that of the Bible, "Don't you just hate it when a bunch of outer space freaks get together and decide it's their mission to torch humanity? ...the Halo storyline is remarkably like a major theme of the Bible."

"God created people in a perfect world in a perfect relationship with Him, which made Satan and his angels very jealous. So since the beginning of time, they have been on a mission to destroy all humans.

Here's what Jesus said - 'A thief (Satan) is only there to steal and kill and destroy. I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of' (John 10:10). Jesus came to this planet to save the planet from a group much worse than the Covenant and from a fate much worse than physical death."

Halo 2, the new church. Hmm.

Posted by Steve Hall at 07:38 AM | Comments (0)

Greyhound Targets Urban And Hispanic Markets With Radio Campaign

Comedians Wanda Sykes and Adal Ramones are featured in a new, national radio campaign for Greyhound Lines, Inc. aimed at urban and Hispanic markets. Already running in the Pacific Northwest area, the campaign is slated to launch in the Southwest in April.

Posted by Steve Hall at 07:23 AM | Comments (0)

March 22, 2005

Website Ad Clutter Study Launched

Factor TG today announced the launch of an advertising clutter comparative study for online publishers which will measures the effect of advertising to editorial ratios and the effect they have on reader's perception of the site and the advertised brand. The study will be fielded over the next three months with results available in June.

Posted by Steve Hall at 04:07 PM | Comments (0)

Burger King Hootie Commercial Spawns Taco Bell Spoof

Adrants reader John Brock points us to a spoof Taco Bell commercial created in response to a Fark thread which comments Burger King (CP+B) has gone insane with its new Hootie commercial and asks Farkers to submit their own screwed up commercial for another fast food chain. Jason, from Monolithcreative took on the challenge and created this oddity for Taco Bell. Part Starship Troopers, part Saturday morning cartoon, the ad has a bunch of tacos marching toward their enemy ending Iwo Jima-style with the tacos holding the Taco Bell flag gloriously.

With its war-like overtones and copy that reads, "We fought to protect the value of freedom. And the right to be full," the spot seems to comment on the current state of affairs over fast food, its health issues, whether it needs regulation and perhaps why it might not be anybodies business if we are fat or not.

Jason explains his creation to us, writing, "The Taco Bell commercial was really just made for fun (and the Fark thread) but animation and video is something that I really enjoy doing. I saw an opportunity to create a video that would be viewed by a large audience so I took advantage of it." Add this one to the growing list of consumer created commercials.

Posted by Steve Hall at 10:48 AM | Comments (0)

Movie Critics Don't Lie. Movie Ads Do

Not that we ever really believed all those praise-worthy quotes heaped on top of all movie ads to make even the most pitiful movie seem like it will be great but we never really took the time to dissect the racket behind movie blurb abuse. Thankfully, someone has. Gelf Magazine has collected some favorable quotes for recent movies and put them back into the context of the original articles from which they were ripped. One great example is for 16 Years of Alcohol. A quote from the Daily Star in the movies ad says, Trainspotting meets A Clockwork Orange making the movie sound pretty good. The actual quote is not so positive. It reads, "This glum, violent drama about a Scottish thug ruined by drink is written and pretentiously directed by Richard Jobson whose approach—Trainspotting meets A Clockwork Orange—is bad enough to drive you to drink in no time."

That's why we like Ebert and Roper's Thumb method of recommending a movie. It's not so easy to take a thumb out of context.

Posted by Steve Hall at 09:41 AM | Comments (0)

TTR2 Launches Marketing and Tracking SMS Service

UK viral seeding service TTR2 has launched Sendus, an SMS service marketers can use to provide additional information via email to people who respond to their ads using an SMS code. The service, free to set up, enables marketers to track consumer response to promotions and to lengthen the period of contact between marketer and consumer.

Posted by Steve Hall at 08:03 AM | Comments (0)

March 21, 2005

Creativity, Mistakes And Low Cost Make Great Viral Ads

While we may, quite possibly, be the last human being in the world to see the viral clip of Gary Brolsma lip-synching to some Romanian bubble gum song, we can't help ourselves. We have to share. Watch. See? You did laugh. After mentioning the clip has received attention from the likes of VH1 and MSNBC, Tessa Wegert asks why more business aren't using viral marketing. Sadly, the answer is, bluntly, marketers can't help but fuck it up. Slapping a logo on a funny TV commercial does not pass as a viral ad. Sticking a "Send to a Friend" button on a website doesn't really cut it either.

Successful viral advertising falls squarely into the "I know it when I see it" category. Sort of like the definition of pornography. Which, of course, makes it highly difficult to create successful virals in the first place - unless you know how to time travel. There are many components of a successful viral campaign from seeding to tracking to product tie-in to GUI to file size to...the list goes on. However, nothing. We repeat, nothing, is more important than creativity. While distribution strategies can certainly aid the spread of a viral, unlike paid ad placements, nothing is guaranteed. The only thing that will compel further distribution of a viral ad is its entertainment value, hence, it's creativity. Nothing else really matters. This is the one medium in which creativity should be given full reign and full appreciation without boundaries.

There's not much a marketer can lose using the viral medium. The stakes are low. The potential return, very high. The worst thing that can happen is no one will see it. No problem. Try again. It's cheap. Sure, there are creative, hosting and distribution costs associated with virals but they pale in comparison to typical media budgets required to support most ad campaigns. For the most part, the viral distribution channel is free. With viral advertising, fucking it up just might be the safest fuck up a marketer could make.

Posted by Steve Hall at 03:03 PM | Comments (0)

ABC Sports, ESPN Debut Split Screen Commercial Non-Breaks

Perhaps permanently fending off TiVo's ad skipping abilities, ABC and ESPN debuted split screen commercial breaks during their coverage of the 2005 IndyCar Series races. During the telecast, commercial breaks (except for local breaks) did not interrupt race coverage. Using split screen technology, ESPN on March 6, and ABC on March 19, delivered ads in a larger screen while continuing to show race coverage in a smaller screen. The entire screen was branded by race sponsor Toyota. During the commercials, the audio feed from the race was silenced.

In truth, this commercial non-break approach would not work so well for episodic television but can work great for sports broadcasts as sound is not always needed to follow the game.

Posted by Steve Hall at 12:36 PM | Comments (0)

Hayden Panettiere New Face of Neutrogena

Actress Hayden Panettiere, 15, recently seen on an episode of NBC's Law & Order: SVU and starring in the upcoming Disney movie Ice Princess, will become the newest face for Neutrogena this Spring. The deal, signed last Fall, adds Panettiere to a long line of Neutrogena faces including Mischa Barton, Gabrielle Union, Hayden Panettiere, Kristin Kreuk, Jennifer Freeman, Julie Bowen, Paola Rey and Jason Taylor. They get younger every year. Check her out further in an interview on Dennis Miller's CNBC show. Predictably, she's also signed with a record label.

Posted by Steve Hall at 10:45 AM | Comments (0)

Website Publisher Scoffs At Adult Friend Finder Tactics

Not that we're really all that surprised about this but because the trashing is so well written, we're going to tell you about it. Ryan Perry, publisher of the esteemed GorillaMask, was considering accepting ads from Adult Friend Finder who had told Perry about their new geo-targeting capabilites which deliver up geographically specific ads displaying people desperate to hook up. As Perry got closer to deciding whether to accept the ads or not, he realized the same faces were being shown in the ads all across the country - hardly a truthful "girl next door" experience for his readers. So he dug deeper and had fun doing so.

Not a exactly a shocker a porn purveyor is being less than honest but Perry's unique verbal lashing of Adult Friend Finder is well worth a read. Sampling Perry's lashing, he writes, "Now, I don't consider myself a marketing expert (oh wait, yes I do), and AFF is obviously doing just fine without my advice, but sometimes "doing just fine" and "shooting yourself in the dickhole by inefficiently executing a brilliant concept" can have fun as running mates. For the life of me I can't understand why they're representing a region full of beautiful women with a bunch of chicks I wouldn't screw with my dead uncle's dick (although I'm not sure what I would screw with my dead uncle's dick).

If my region is repped by chicks with more clap than an auditorium, I don't even want to know what someone operating one of the eight computers in Arkansas sees when these ads come up. (Roadkill, maybe?)"

Posted by Steve Hall at 09:48 AM | Comments (0)

King Kong Beats Crap Out of Ford Ranger, Ranger Wins

In an engaging commercial, Ford in Thailand uses the King Kong motif to effectively convey the strength of its Ranger truck. Also making their debut in this week's Ad Age TV Spots of the Week, are commercials from DaimlerChrysler which is promoting its Jeep through a tie in with the Paramount Pictures movie Sahara; J.C. Penny which imitates Victoria's Secret to sell lingerie; McDonald's engages the Aztec game of Tlachtli in a Hispanic "I'm Lovin' it" spot; Community Choice Credit Union gets a bunch of Bills together to promote its debt consolidation; Coke dresses a guy up in a dog costume to sell Dasani water including the very cool copy, "it'll take the taste of tennis ball right out of your yap"; Sprint engages a Dad and his son in some sort of weird phone game to, well, sell its phone service; and Volkswagen gets inky in a Hispanic spot to promote the Toureg.

Posted by Steve Hall at 09:18 AM | Comments (0)

Virgin Mobile Promotes Text Messaging With Spring Break Thumb Wrestle

Capitalizing on the concentrated hoards of prime cut cell phone target audience, Virgin Mobile will host, as part of its month-long text messaging celebration Text Fest 2005, a Thumb Wrestling Championship in Miami March 22-25. At the beach near the Shelbourne Hotel, a regulation-sized boxing match will be set up where contextants will go at it. It's a great move on Virgin Mobile's part to both create an event so closely aligned with the service being sold and to do it in a place where likely 100 percent of the people are text massaging fanatics, not to mention drunk and up for any sort of foolish activity such as this. We, of course, wish we were there. Please send pictures.

Posted by Steve Hall at 04:01 AM | Comments (0)

March 18, 2005

Windowsdvantages to Serve Ads At Xtreme Cybermania 2005

Gamers who attend the Xtreme Cybermania games held May 27-29 at Chicago's Navy Pier will, while watching playing and watching video games, will be served ads on the sides of gaming video displays. The ads will be served by Windowsadvantages's ADSN Player & Scheduler Solution. Likely to be as effective as ads in chat rooms where chatters are far more interested in important info like asl rather than ads, the ADSN-served ads will appear in 15 second intervals.

UPDATE: Allan Olbur from Windowadvantages notes we neglected to realize it's not necessarily the gamers playing the games who will see tha ads but the thousands of speactators in the arena watching the games on the large monitors. We apologize for our temporary lapse in intelligence.

Posted by Steve Hall at 10:38 AM | Comments (0)

DJs to Become Pepsi Shills

Capitalizing on the hip hop lifestyle, now more popular in white suburbia than within urban settings (come on, let's be honest), former record executive Rene McLean, now CEO of marketing agency RPM, will, for Pepsi this Summer, recruit top urban DJs to serve as "soda Ambassadors" promoting Pepsi products with on air mentions, club mentions, block parties, photo shoots, specialty mix tapes and other intertwined co-branded cross promotions. Somehow, "Yo, mah twixter hommies, let's crunk out with Fiddy's off the hook Candy Shop brung on by da phat cracker Pepsi posse," just doesn't seem like it will go over very well. But we'll keep our fingers crossed for Rene.

Posted by Steve Hall at 10:11 AM | Comments (0)

Reebok Set to Launch 50 Cent Commercial Tonight in Europe

Controversy has been swirling about rapper 50 Cent's appearance in Reebok's mcgarrybowen-created global ad campaign. Some say it glorifies gun violence. Reebok says the spot, debuting tonight in European cities, is just "edgy." The purpose of the campaign is said to celebrate authenticity and individuality. While the spot might not glorify violence, it most certainly does nothing to suggest it's a bad thing.

View it here and decide for yourself.

Posted by Steve Hall at 09:25 AM | Comments (0)

'God Speaks' Ad Campaign Returns

The anonymous "messages from God' billboard campaign that appeared six years ago is making a return. This time, it's not anonymous.

The DeMoss Group and the Outdoor Advertising Association of America are behind a new outdoor campaign they call, "God Speak." The billboard campaign will include the headlines, "The real Supreme Court meets up here," "As my apprentice, you're never fired," and "It's a small world ... I know ... I made it." Even in this day of pop culture, celebu-insanity, God and religion seem to be making a comeback. Though it was banned by many stations for its reference to the church's acceptance of the gay lifestyle, The United Church of Christ has been running a television campaign. There's even Dan "Southpaw" Smith who's promoting his church with the wildly entertaining "Baby Got Book" video.

Posted by Steve Hall at 08:58 AM | Comments (0)

Gap Retires Sarah Jessica Parker, Joss Stone Debuts in Spring Campaign

Though it seems like it was just yesterday that Sex And The City star Sarah Jessica Parker joined the Gap ad campaign, she's now been cast aside in favor of the younger, supposedly closer-to-Gap-demo, singer Joss Stone.

We know everyone has a serious case of ADD these days but a little consistency in ad campaigns wouldn't be a bad thing. After all, it worked quite well for Frosted Flakes with Tony the Tiger and for Maytag with those Maytag guys. Oh but wait, we're talking about the psychotically multitasking, ferociously fickle, OMG GTG crowd. Expect Joanna Levesque to appear in the Gap's Fall campaign.

Posted by Steve Hall at 08:26 AM | Comments (0)

March 17, 2005

American Airline's Leg Room Promise Comes Back to Bite

Four years ago when American Airlines decided it would remove seats from all the planes in its fleet to make more legroom, it launched a big "More Room Throughout Couch" ad campaign touting it to the world.

Now, years later, the revenue strapped airline has been forced to put all the seats back in thus reducing legroom. Not a very smart decision once it made that initial promise. Competitor United Airlines is jumping on this opportunity launching a $20 million campaign poking fun at American Airline's reneging on its earlier promise of more legroom.

One of United Airlines ads says, "Fly American and you could kick yourself. Literally." United launched the campaign to make sure the public understands American no longer has more legroom than United.

Posted by Steve Hall at 01:13 PM | Comments (0)

American Apparel Ad Campaigns Dance With Porn

With its underaged, porn-like amateur models, America Apparel makes Abercrombie and Fitch seem like a G rated Disney movie. Since its inception, the "sweatshop-free" apparel designer has used nubile young girls with pouting faces, come-hither looks and "do me" spread legs in its ads and catalogs.

In a lengthy article sent to us by Adrants reader, Sanj, in Now Toronto by Adria Vasil, the pros and cons of this racy approach are examined. From those who feel the company degrades women to those who feel the presence of porn is simply part of every day life, Vasil speaks with American Apparel Founder and photographer Dov Charney who responds to his detractors, saying, "They're old-thinking conservatives who are repeating false arguments or arguments that may have been true 30 years ago based on a context of social, cultural and political dynamics of another era. But right now, the women in the photographs and young adult women today I think celebrate the aesthetic of our advertising." American Apparel seems to ask a big question. Is there anything really wrong with celebrating sex and the sex appeal of women? Opinions on sex range from it being purely for procreation to it being an enjoyable recreational activity. Advertisers have danced across that spectrum since the first ad was invented and there seems to be no firm answer. Society seems to accept violence as entertainment but shys away from sex as a form of entertainment. We don't think the question will ever be answered but we do know that sex is more about life and violence is more about death. You choose.

Posted by Steve Hall at 12:45 PM | Comments (0)

'Life Aquatic' Director Directs Coke's Dasani Commercial

For those who loved the quirky Bill Murray film, The Life Aquatic, directed by Wes Anderson, they will be able to see the director's work again in a new commercial, directed by Anderson, for Coke's Dasani bottled water debuting next week.

The ad, budgeted at $1 million and created by New York agency Anomaly which won the $20 million account last August, will air in prime time and in CBS's NCAA basketball playoffs. Gabriel Sherman, writing in New York Observer has the whole story here.

Posted by Steve Hall at 11:25 AM | Comments (0)

BITE TV to Unleash Amateur Interactive TV On Canada

Launching April 1 (not a good day to be taken seriously guys) Canada's BITE TV promises something special in the realm in interactive television: to actually be interactive rather than the poor excuse for interactivity seen to date from other television and cable companies.

BITE will feature wireless downloading and PC or mobile chat-to-screen.

It offers viewers the opportunity to submit their own video content including make-your-own television ads. Advertisers can showcase their brands in formats from 5-second spots to, short form, branded blocks that enable the viewer to personalize the spots with their own content.

Short form content can also focus entirely on a brand.

BITE will also launch BITE ME, its live interactive program in coming weeks. At that time, viewers will be given the opportunity to interact live with the hosts and amongst themselves.

"BITE will discover, air and stream thousands of individual creative masterpieces that are currently being produced and those that have perhaps lacked visibility due to a shortage of distribution opportunities," Elliott says. "Thousands of producers, directors, actors, animators and college and university students aspiring to be filmmakers now have a short form channel in BITE."

In a way, it's taking the Citizen's Media/Blogging approach to television. Acknowledging that, there will be plenty of crap content but there will also be a few gems in the mix and, because of that, some bright, new talent may be discovered.

Posted by Steve Hall at 11:10 AM | Comments (0)

Mondavi To Sponsor 'Sideways' DVD

Fox Searchlight's Sideways may have intoxicated moviegoers and helped sales of pinot noir soar, but the Oscar-nominated film didn't do it with the help of any promotional partners. That's changing with the release of the DVD which will be sponsored by Mondavi. The tie in will promote ten different Mondavi wines.

Posted by Steve Hall at 10:05 AM | Comments (0)

DISH Network to Air Interactive Mercedes Benz Commercial

Mercedes Benz is promoting its new M-Class car to 10 million DISH Network satellite subscribers with an interactive ad unit that begins with a :30 which then links, using the remote control, to longer form videos, photo galleries are car specifications. The ad will air on the shopping channel, Catalog TV

Posted by Steve Hall at 09:49 AM | Comments (0)

March 16, 2005

Fan Blog Advances Career of Pepsi/iTunes Girl

This morning Mandy Fujiko Amano a.k.a., That Pepsi Girl was interviewed during the KROQ Kevin and Bean show. She's the half-Asian hottie who appeared in the Pepsi/iTunes Super Bowl commercial and is slated to appear in the May issue of Maxim. This sudden popularity is due, in no small part to a weblog launched by Michigan college student Justin who also runs the f.u.b.a.r. weblog The blog, That Pepsi Girl, was launched on the eve of the Super Bowl after Justin saw her in the commercial. We covered it here.

Since that time, he dug up her real name, set her up with Maxim for the interview and photo shoot and continues to report on her activities.

During the interview (listen here), Amano discusses her work leading up to the Super Bowl commercial, her experience seeing the spot air during a Super Bowl party at which she received all kinds of double takes from guys at the party and her discovery of the blog that helped shoot her to fame.

At the end of the interview, Kevin and Bean surprised her by getting Justin on the phone. She giggled and said, "I don't know whether to hug you or slap you." She thanked him for his help and joked she'd credit him if she ever received and Oscar. Never underestimate the power of the weblog.

Posted by Steve Hall at 05:24 PM | Comments (0)

Ashanti Cool With Herbal Essence Product Placement In Video

In her new video for the single, Only U, 24 year old Ashanti appears in a shower scene with Herbal Essence hair products in the background. It's a paid product placement and the Grammy-winning singer has no problem with the merging of art and commerce.

"It made sense. It was a shower scene. You know, you have shampoo and conditioner in the shower . . . It's the best of both worlds," she said during rounds of promotional interviews. Tying it together, she also appears is commercials for Herbal Essence which feature her Only U song. We, of course, have no problem appearing anywhere she likes.

Posted by Steve Hall at 12:07 PM | Comments (0)

Fifties Style Marmite Commercial Terrifies Kids, Gets Banned

There's an uproar in the U.K. today over a 50's style sci-fi style commercial for the deliciously gooey Marmite because the ad has apparently caused some over sensitive kids to have nightmares. Oh, the horror! It's been banned from children's television by the Advertising Standards Authority. It shows a large n lob-like creature oozing out of a grocery store and onto the street and people run from it, screaming, until they realize they'd rather jump into it because it tastes so good. And we thought America was the only over sensitive, coddling, self-esteem preserving nation in the world. View the nightmare here.

Posted by Steve Hall at 11:17 AM | Comments (0)

ABC Promotes 'Jake In Progress' With NYC Flower Handout

A reader reports having been randomly handed a flower on her way to work today in New York. For a minute, she thought she might just be the victim of yet another sidewalk kook, she was informed it's a promotion for ABC's new John Stamos show, Jake In Progress, which premieres tomorrow night at 8PM. By deploying the smart programming strategy of airing two episodes against FOX's The O.C. and two repeats of those episodes against NBC's The Apprentice, ABC just might stand a chance of garnering some viewers for the new show.

Posted by Steve Hall at 10:25 AM | Comments (0)

USB Thumb Drives New Advertising Delivery Device

Engadget reports it's seen a rise in use of USB thumb drives by marketers as delivery devises for promotional material. Smaller than a CD but not as easily inserted in magazines as promotional CDs are, the device is reusable and will sit there, plugged into a person's computer used over and over again while that branded log stares the user in the face. Hmm.

Marketers providing something useful. Now, that's refreshing.

Posted by Steve Hall at 09:58 AM | Comments (0)

Pespi Personifies Pepsi One With TV-Less 'Oneify' Campaign

An upcoming reintroduction campaign for Pepsi One will, intriguingly and smartly, not rely on television but rather on a website called Oneify; print ads in Blender, Details, Giant, Stuff and Sync; billboards, trading cards and promotional events. The website introduces a set of characters such as "The Loud One," "The Poetic One," "The Illest One," "The Weightless One," The Bleepy One" and more - all of whom include their own elements of "personification" in the form of wallpaper, IM icon and trading card downloads. Unfortunately for the ADD, quick cut target audience, the trading cards are big, fat PDF downloads rather than simple, faster image files.

Quoted in the New York Time, Pepsi agency TBWA Worldwide Chairman and CEO Lee Clow explains the campaign. "Kids are so smart, they'll call you out on overt marketing in a minute. So telling them a 'one-calorie, great taste' story is so ho-hum to them. If you engage them in unorthodox ways, with a bit of grace, charm, whimsy, fun and discovery you can actually ask them to buy something."

Posted by Steve Hall at 09:40 AM | Comments (0)

Bayer's Aleve Gets Movie (Mis) Quote Treatment In Ads

Freelance Wall Street Journal Online Columnist Carl Bialik, writing on his Gelf Magazine site, points out ads for Bayer's Aleve have gone a bit overboard taking supportive FDA quotes out of context to make Aleve sound better than it really is. Granted, the FDA has no problem with Aleve but Bialik examines how a current Aleve ad campaign has "massaged" and mis-attributed certain quotes, much like movie marketers do, to glean positive endorsement. While Bayer and Aleve are above board products, it's an interesting look at the length to which marketers go to insure their products are perceived in the most positive light.

UPDATE: Because of Bialik's article, Bayer, at the request of Dow Jones, has changed the wording in its ads to more accurately attribute the quote.

Posted by Steve Hall at 09:04 AM | Comments (0)

Rabble Enhances Mobile Blogging

Mobile device content enabler Intercasting Corporation has introduced Rabble, a mobile blogging application for Qualcomm's BREW handsets. Rabble will enable users to create and distribute content via mobile devices. It's all part of a newly created category called Location-aware Media Networking Operators.

The application bolsters web-based blogging by adding location awareness, proximity and camera phone integration to create a mobile-specific tool to help create user-generated content and community. With Rabble, mobile content is tagged with location information and other descriptive data that helps users find each other based on the media they create and where they create it. Users can create their own channels, where they collect and store content to inform, entertain, interact and connect with the surrounding environment.

Harnessed properly, marketers could piggyback on this tag based method of identifying relevant content and delivered finite, personalized messaging. Everyday, we get closer to Minority Report.

Posted by Steve Hall at 08:48 AM | Comments (0)

Denmark Recruits Spies With Ad Campaign

Not usually the sort of thing openly discussed in public media, Denmark's Danish Defense Intelligence Service has decided the best way to recruit spies is through advertising.

The 8 million dollar campaign, running nationally in newspapers, hopes to decrease Denmark's reliance on foreign intelligence regarding the situation in Iraq.

UPDATE: Åsk Wäppling of Adland reports: "Hey I found out where the ad ran by the way, I read in this afternoons tabloid that the ads ran on Sunday in "the morning papers", and the initial report about the ads (which Reuter then picked up) came from Berlinske Tiderna newspaper. Our morning paper is Politiken, one of the top three, and there is no ad from FE (the national defense information) in that paper."

Posted by Steve Hall at 08:02 AM | Comments (0)

March 15, 2005

AdWeek to Launch Non-Traditional Advertising Focused Magazine

Debuting Monday, March 21, AdWeek will introduce a new magazine called Other Advertising which will cover non-traditionl advertising categories it defines as mass transit, sports stadiums, in-store, product placement, cinemas, elevators, cell phones, guerrilla marketing. Content will include business news, case studies, profiles and guest editorials.

Editorial Director Adam Remsen said, "Other Advertising's purpose is to help media buyers make the best decisions by bringing new advertising media to their attention, highlight the companies doing the best work and act as a central hub where ideas and pertinent issues are discussed and investigated."

Other Advertising will be packaged with 30,000 hand-delivered copies of Adweek, Mediaweek and Brandweek reaching media buyers, corporate brand marketers and advertising agency executives.

Posted by Steve Hall at 03:35 PM | Comments (0)

Heineken Europe Launches H.E.L.L.O. Launch Mission

Perhaps the strangest beer promotions to date, Heineken Europe has launched the Heineken European Life Long Observatory or H.E.L.L.O. The site consists of an interplanetary mission complete with launch sequences, confusing geek speak and videos of futuristic brewing methods. The site, launched sometime in February, is counting down to arrival - currently 16 days away. Take a look.

Posted by Steve Hall at 03:33 PM | Comments (0)

Report: Starcom Predicts Future of Consumer Contact

In a new report called NEXT, Starcom Mediavest has put forth 11 prognostications regarding the future of consumer contact. In the report, Starcom highlights the following:

• Clients will produce more customized TV creative specifically for the broadband space.
• Blogs will become more mainstream and citizen-generated.
• Agencies will push programming development.
• The number of networks that target Hispanics on digital cable will grow five-fold over the next 10 years.
• Gaming will move into "connected space" and make digitally distributed gaming content more mainstream.
• The next hot category will be shopping magazines-for women, men, the home and babies.
• Advertising overload threatens radio
• Mobile marketing will push to create a dialogue with self-selected hand raisers, as opposed to recreating online ad serving models.

Here is a PDF overview of the findings.

Posted by Steve Hall at 10:29 AM | Comments (0)

MTV Promotes Spring Break With Hot Eskimos

If life as an Eskimo causes a woman to fantasize she's tongue kissing a hunk - but in reality is tongue kissing her dog - while watching MTV in her igloo all in the name of promoting MTV's Spring Break 2005 in Cancun, well, we guess we'll go along with it.

Posted by Steve Hall at 10:27 AM | Comments (0)

Match.com Launches Online Magazine

Perhaps to offer its female member more than simply pictures and vitals of men on the prowl, Match.com has launched the online magazine Happen Magazine, an advice filled excuse to grow its membership base and "extend its brand." As proof this is a site most women might want to steer clear of, one of the featured articles is entitled "Dating Tips From reality TV."

Posted by Steve Hall at 10:18 AM | Comments (0)

Mazda Traps Brats With Mazda 6 Commercial

Rick Bruner sent us a link to a British commercial for the Mazda 6 station wagon. For parents, it's an all too familiar situation. A delightful ride in the country in ruined by the incessant bickering between the kids in the back seat. In this commercial, Mazda has the solution in the form of a spring loaded, fold down rear seat.

Posted by Steve Hall at 10:04 AM | Comments (0)

March 14, 2005

Louisville Launches Grass Roots 'Weird' Campaign

A grass roots campaign that grew out of discussions amongst small retailers facing larger chains such as WalMart yielded an advertising campaign to support local businesses. The campaign, developed by Boulder Colorado based Boulder Book Store owner David Bolduc and others, is funded by an alliance of local businesses who have an interest in co-existing with larger chain stores. The campaign has appeared in Boulder, Raleigh and now Louisville. Beginning late last year, the Loiusville campaign carries the headline, "Keep Louisville Weird."

The ad appears on billboards and on busses.

The campaign hopes to stave off community homogenization. Whether campaigns such as this will win out over consumer's desire for the lowest possible price is unclear. Quite clear, though, is the dehumanization of local culture and the increasing inability to think in un-homogenize ways.

Posted by Steve Hall at 08:31 PM | Comments (0)

Dogvertising Makes eBay Debut

While the idea is over two years old, all those eBay ads selling forehead space, pregnant belly space and cleavage have motivated "hipchewy" to sell his/her dog as ad space. The dog, Peanut, is a Wiener dog and the ad claims Peanut will wear branded clothing anywhere its owner takes her. Starting bid is $1,500. Hello, GoldenPalace?

Posted by Steve Hall at 03:25 PM | Comments (0)

Viral Advertising Association Launched

On the heels of the recent launch of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association and the recent shutdown of the Viral and Buzz Marketing Association's Soflow Network, Asa Bailey, UK-based viral advertising practitioner, has launched the Viral Advertising Association.

The Association's mission is "to promote viral advertising to the wider marketing industry. Through working with other individuals and organisations to provide a better understanding of how viral advertising works, and to demonstrate why it should be a part of every modern media plan."

The association hopes to provide support and research to marketers and advertisers interesting in viral advertising. The Association's founder, Asa Bailey, is also founder of the Viral Awards and was behind the Ogilvy & Mather domain name highjacking.

Posted by Steve Hall at 01:26 PM | Comments (0)

DJ Offers Sneak Peek At Range Rover Photo Shoot

Writing on his weblog (see, everyone has one now), KFOG DJ Big Rick Stuart explains how he peered out his window Saturday morning and got a peek at a photo shoot in progress for the 2006 Range Rover Sport. Check out his observations and see a bigger picture of the shoot here.

Posted by Steve Hall at 12:43 PM | Comments (0)

Kid-Focused Channel One Business Model Questioned

In an apparent state of dis-repair, failing equipment, heightened criticism and exiting advertisers, Chris Whittle's Channel One, the in school network that turns kids in 12,000 schools into advertiser controlled consumer zombies, is suffering badly. Consumer advocate Gary Ruskin holds nothing back in his contempt for the business model.

"Channel One’s repugnant business model of forcing children to watch ads in school is failing." said Gary Ruskin, executive director of Commercial Alert, a nonprofit organization that opposes the commercialization of education. "This is just the latest instance of the rejection of the commercial culture and its spread into the schools."

"Parents are fed up with corporations interfering with their relationship with their own children,” Ruskin said. "Across the country, people are finally coming to realize that pushing advertising at school children is intolerable, outrageous and wrong." A press release from Ruskin's group sites some examples hinting towards a rebellion against kid targeted advertising. The disintegration of the ZapMe! Corp, the defeat of Time-Warner’s plans to put ads on CNN Student News, and the removal of soda pop or other junk food marketers in California, Texas, Maine, Arkansas, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Nashville, New York, Oakland, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Seattle, among other places are reasons the group thinks Channel One is headed for trouble.

Oddly, Channel One was founded in 1990, long before the current advertising landscape become so overwhelming that, short of sitting in a prison's solitary confinement cell, avoiding advertising is now near impossible. Perhaps properly crafted and vetted commercials aimed at kids were, at one time, acceptable. Today, that seems to be an impossibility as marketers fight for a slot in the increasing tidal wave of messaging crashing down on people. That fight has caused the inevitable backlash against all kinds of advertising amplifying the focus on the low hanging fruit of kid-focused advertising. When a six year old daughter says she doesn't want to eat a piece of bacon because it will make her fat, there's concern. Even responsible parents have difficulty contending with the onslaught of messaging that really has no place finding its way to children's ears.

Posted by Steve Hall at 11:52 AM | Comments (0)

Weblogs Are The New Spam

In a horrifically depressing statement, blog monitoring firm Technorati CEO David Sifry points to the growing number of fake blogs launched simply to take advantage of a weblog's ability to trick search engines into ranking web pages higher than they normally would be in search results. Steve Rubel points out it's simple human nature. Once some idiot realizes he can hack something to his benefit, he will do so. Rubel suggests it will mostly be up to search engines themselves to find a way to eradicate this problem.

Posted by Steve Hall at 10:58 AM | Comments (0)

For Those Who Haven't Heard, Blogging Is Good For Marketing

iMediaConnection contributor Robert Moskowitz offers up the standard reasons why marketers should consider adding a weblog to their marketing plans. Pardon us for yawning as we've heard it all before but with respect to those who still haven't, Moskowitz says blogs put a human face on a company, can be useful in obtaining free research, can tie people closer to a company by involving them with the comment section of the blog, provide a platform to leverage industry opinion leaders and can increase the awareness of a company through weblog's ability to climb high on Google's search results for the company.

Posted by Steve Hall at 10:24 AM | Comments (0)

YSL Fragrance Ad Gets Parody Treatment

A recent ad for the YvesSaintLaurent women's fragrance Cinema which features a woman surrounded by a bunch of tuxedo-clad men ogling her has received the parody treatment. b3ta member "JimVin" has altered the ad a bit to perhaps point out the less than intentional notion brought to mind by this ad. See a larger version here and the original ad here. As an added bit of humor, note the fragrance's name change on the bottle.

Posted by Steve Hall at 10:13 AM | Comments (0)

Adidas Launches Transfixing Intelligent Shoe Spot

Rick Bruner points out a new ad for Adidas. With music composed by Squeak E. Clean featuring Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and directed by Spike Jones, TBWA/Chiat/Day San Francisco has come up with an entrancing new spot for Adidas's new intelligent shoe.

Posted by Steve Hall at 09:36 AM | Comments (0)

Ad Age Columnists Debate Methods of Advertising

Ad Age Editor Scott Donaton and Ad Age Editor in Chief, this week, write dueling columns on where advertising is headed. Crain claims the expansion of advertising into channels beyond the traditional and the expected is a dangerous path for marketers to take. Following that is Donaton's excited embrace of new marketing platforms such as VOD, Podcasting (that's one word, Scott), video games and IM and acknowledged decline of mass media.

While it might be fun to tear each of these viewpoints apart, it's not warranted because they are both right. Traditional media isn't going away, it's just changing. New media isn't the answer to everything, it's just mirroring people's changing media consumption habits. They are both right because they acknowledge that great creative (the art part and the thinking part) is the glue that holds together successful advertising. Without it, no delivery channel, old or new, matters.

Posted by Steve Hall at 09:02 AM | Comments (0)

Marketers Take Notice: Forbes Ranks Top Corporate Hate Sites

Rick Bruner tipped us to this story about corporate hate sites. Forbes has published an article on the top corporate hate sites - those sites published by, in some cases, raving lunatics, who have a serious axe to grind with a particular company. While it's easy to brush off these sites assuming few will see, with the advent of weblogs, combined with the already ubiquitous power of forums, chat and email, it would behoove any marketer who appears on this list to give serious consideration toward remedying the reasons behind the launch of the site.

Forbes ranked the sites on "ease of use, frequency of updates, number of posts, hostility level (angrier is better), relevance, and entertainment value." Tops on the list are KB Homes for KBhomesucks, PayPal for Paypalsucks, Allstate Insurance for Allstateinsurancesucks, Microsoft for MS-Eradication, American Express for Amexsux, Wal-Mart for Walmart-Blows, Verizon for Verizonpathetic, United Airlines for Untied and UPS for UnitedPackageSmashers.

Of great importance to marketers, Forbes asked the creators of each of these site what each marketer would have to do to get the creator to take down the site. Predictably, the requirements are stiffer than most marketers would be willing to adhere to. As people are empowered with increasingly more wide reaching platforms on which to air their gripes, marketers should actively join these conversations rather than react to them with standard measures such as simply ignoring the complaints or engaging in tired, lame law suits. If a site like Subservient Chicken can become as popular as it did, there's no reason a hate site like McDonaldsMakesYouMassive couldn't become equally popular.

Posted by Steve Hall at 08:26 AM | Comments (0)

Weblogs Inc. Launches 'Focus Ads'

On its Engadget gadget weblog, Weblogs Inc. has launched "focus-ads," which, in a nutshell, add the blogging Comment feature to the bottom of a display ad allowing readers to comment on and discuss the advertiser.

It's a welcome move toward establishing more of a conversational relationship between advertiser and consumer as long as both parties participate. The weblog platform enables this beautifully. The advertiser can glean insight into people's reaction and perception of their offering as well as offer feedback to people's queries.

Posted by Steve Hall at 06:41 AM | Comments (0)

March 11, 2005

Saatchi Goes On Legal Rampage Following 'Saatchi 17' Exodus

The big kahunas at Saatchi & Saatchi have decided to go on the legal warpath following the exodus of Vice Chairman Creative Director Mike Burns along with 16 others and their subsequent hire by Interpublic. The group worked on the General Mills account while at Saatchi.

In a statement, Saatchi said, "Saatchi & Saatchi has today commenced a lawsuit against Michael Burns in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of New York. The lawsuit seeks damages and other relief against Mr. Burns. Upon advice of counsel, we will have no further comment."

It's unclear what sort of damages Saatchi expects to recoup. So far, General Mills is still on the agency's client roster. Granted, the account is a bit understaffed right now but with 17 fewer people to pay, it sure seems like Saatchi is temporarily ahead of the game, at least financially.

Posted by Steve Hall at 05:03 PM | Comments (0)

Internet A Treasure Trove Of Information For Marketers

Because of the pervasiveness of the Internet, the use of chat rooms, IM, forums, email and weblogs, the level of "consumer conversation" has risen dramatically. The beauty of this, for marketers, is that it's all digitized, right there on servers across the globe, to be examined and analyzed for future product development and marketing. Research firm BuzzMetrics has taken advantage of these vast resources and made a business out of culling data and analyzing it for marketers. It's most recent report takes a look at artificial sweeteners.

If something doesn't change soon, it seems all food is going to come out of a machine and contain nothing but hard to categorize, unpronounceable. man-made ingredients. It's already happening, and has been for some time now, with artificial sweeteners. A recent study by BuzzMetrics indicates people are wising up to all this fakery and marketers may need to take note. According to BuzzMetrics, 45 percent of all artificial-sweetener discussions among over 200,000 monitored trend-setting consumers in online health and nutrition forums were negative in the fourth quarter of 2004. Specifically, 14 percent of discussions recommended using natural sweeteners instead; 13 percent warned of side effects; 11 percent advocated for limited intake; and seven percent complained of unpleasant taste.

Conversely, 42 percent of artificial-sweetener discussions were in favor of them in some way. Specifically, 19 percent discussed regular usage; 17 percent advocated their use in cooking; and six percent recommended them over natural sweeteners.

This is just a tiny snapshot of the "conversations" that are out there for companies to look at when they consider the development of a product or the marketing of an existing product. It's not an easy task but there's never before been a time when so much information has been available about people preferences, opinions and habits.

Posted by Steve Hall at 03:23 PM | Comments (0)

Google's AdSense Makes Money For Publishers

A lengthy article in today's USA Today discusses Google's AdSense program, an automated advertising system that matches advertiser's text ads with website content, and how it is making money for publisher with little effort by publisher. Some publishers are content to bring in $300-$500 per month.

Chris Pirillo, publisher of gadget site Lockernome and former TechTV host, says he makes $10,000 per month. We can say from experience, as a small publisher, it's the easiest, most painless way to make money.

Posted by Steve Hall at 12:03 PM | Comments (0)

Tara Reid's Boob Verbally Exposed In Ad

Tara Reid can't seem to keep her boobs out of the press. First, they're protruding ponderously following a dramatic breast enlargement. Second, the boob job is displayed for all to see as the strap of her dress falls off at a press conference revealing one of her now mammoth, yet freakish looking breasts. And third, that event spawned a reference in an ad for the luxury high rise Sky Las Vegas. Copy in the ad reads, "Dear Tara Reid. Come let it all hang out."

Unsurprisingly, she has filed a lawsuit. Perhaps a bit of advice is needed here: Tara, if you're gonna increase the size of your breasts three to four cup sizes, people are gonna notice. I know it doesn't make sense. After all, they are just bags of flesh. Well, in your case, saline or something. But anyway, people like to look at big breasts and talk about them. And take pictures of them. Sure, you didn't know you bared your boob for all to see while looking like a mindless bimbo and I suppose we can forgive you for that. Afterall, fake boobs don't move much, do they? How could you have known one of them had fallen out? Tara, If you didn't want all the attention, you shouldn't have strapped on fake fun bags. Oh wait. I'm sorry. You do want the attention! After all, your acting isn't getting you any.

Posted by Steve Hall at 10:49 AM | Comments (0)

Study: Blogs Reach High Income, Educated Audience

BlogAds Founder Henry Copeland has published the firm's second blog readership study. The results align closely with last years. Highlights include:

• 75% are over 30
• 75% are men
• 43% have HHI over $90K
• Most, 14%, are employed in education
• 71% have signed a petition
• 66% have contacted a politician
• 50% (highest of any media) rank blogs tops in usefulness for news and opinion

It's an actively involved, upscale, intelligent audience. Readers of blogs also read Atlantic Monthly, The Economist, The New Yorker, National Geographic, The Nation and The Wall Street journal. Clearly, not the People magazine audience. The entire study results are here.

Posted by Steve Hall at 10:26 AM | Comments (0)

Copywriter Publishes Nigerian Email Scam Novel

Former copywriter and creative director Rich Siegel has written a book, Tuesdays with Mantu: My Adventures with a Nigerian Con Artist, recounting his 7 week "experience" with a Nigerian email scam operation. It's a mix of fiction and non-fiction with the "experience" part being fiction and the scam background and scam emails being the non-fiction part. We haven't read it but it does sound interesting.

Oddly, it has Hollywood movie written all over it in our opinion.

Posted by Steve Hall at 09:15 AM | Comments (0)

WeatherBug Blogger Calls For Adware/Spyware Standards

Writing on the WeatherBug weblog, Chief Privacy Officer Dan O'Connell discusses the varying definitions of adware, spyware and ad supported software and calls for clearer definitions. O'Connell points out the terms are thrown about almost interchangeably which, he claims, can be hurtful to legitimate companies.

Hoping to clarify the confusion, O'Connell writes, "A year ago, I said in a Comment to the FTC, 'An important distinction should be drawn, however, between Adware ("any software that serves or facilitates advertising.") and 'advertising-supported software.' Unlike Adware, whose sole functionality is to display advertisements, advertising-supported software presents a core value proposition and functionality that is of benefit to the consumer, and separate and apart from its ability to serve advertisements. The CDT, in its Comment of March 4, 2004, highlighted the Eudora email application as a 'successful and user-friendly example of ad-supported software.' Advertising support is a legitimate revenue model that allows software developers a means to offer beneficial software at little or no cost to consumers. Other examples of successful ad-supported software products include AOL Instant Messenger, eFax, The Weather Channel’s Desktop Weather, and WeatherBug."

It's clear that concise definitions are needed. It's also clear the definitions will continue to be twisted to the benefit of the less than reputable companies doing business in this area. But the effort must be made in spite of continued abuse by scumware purveyors.

Posted by Steve Hall at 08:53 AM | Comments (0)

Service Provides Marketers PDF Distribution Tracking

Harkening back to the glory days of document management, Remote Approach has launched a new service that enables companies to track and manage Adobe Acrobat (PDF) documents through multiple distribution channels.

The online service allows users to easily tag their PDF documents so that when distributed, perhaps as part of a viral campaign, the PDF automatically interacts with a reporting system. The company says this allows companies to see whether their documents are being read, not just downloaded, and if they are being forwarded and distributed through channels like email and peer to peer.

"A lot of clients don't measure their full audience, relying only on their web site statistics," said John Bielby, President of Remote Approach. "Using this service will allow them to realize how widespread their PDF documents are being distributed. From a dollars and sense perspective, it's particularly important to companies trying to establish return on investment metrics for their online distribution channels."

Using a graphical reporting interface, Remote Approach clients can view and analyze reports in real time. Several pre-built reports provide access to high level analysis and functionality to export raw logs into the reporting or analysis tool of a company's choice.

Posted by Steve Hall at 08:31 AM | Comments (0)

WhizSpark Launches Local Advertising Events

Event planning company WhizSpark, located in Massachusetts is launching a series of social networking events for those in the advertising, entertainment and media industries. Called, appropriately, the Entertainment, Advertising and Media Industry Mixer, the events bring together entertainers, advertisers, radio station personalities, ad agency people, photographers, designers and brand managers for business networking. Out of these networking events, WhizSpark hopes to initiate collaboration on existing and new projects among industry practioners. The next event is March 29.

Posted by Steve Hall at 08:13 AM | Comments (0)

March 10, 2005

Automotive Web Promotion Brings Customers to Dealerships

Pontiac has launched "Catch A G6," a website where visitors can submit pictures of Pontiac G6's they have taken, get a free ringtone and be entered into a drawing to win a million dollars.

Smartly, the site provides dealer listing info so those in search of the million dollar prize will, if that can't find a G6 on the road, walk into dealerships to take the picture. You can be sure the sales force will be ready to pounce. Simple but smart promo.

Posted by Steve Hall at 02:42 PM | Comments (0)

ADBUMb Newsletter Bans Spam, Choose Your Headline

When we received this press release, we responded to the sender there'd be two ways to go with this story. Neither complimentary to the company in question. Still, we were urged to provide coverage. Obligingly, we are happy to do so. Here's the two headlines we came up with. You can choose which one suits your take on the story.

AdBumb to Ban Spam, Spyware, Adware Ads From Newsletter, Lays Off Staff As Ad Revenue Plummets. [Ed. Well, not yet, at least]

And now , the release:

ADBUMb, Inc., (http://www.adbumb.com) the #1 Online Advertising newsletter, today announces its decision to ban from its pages advertisements that promote spam, spyware or adware installed without user permission. In so doing, ADBUMb, the industry leader, becomes the first publication in online advertising to adopt a formal policy prohibiting such advertisements.

"The editorial team at ADBUMb came out long ago as being strongly opposed to the prevalence of spam and spyware in this industry," explained Elizabeth Hines, the Editor-in-Chief of ADBUMb. "We consider ourselves a watchdog publication, protecting the community from precisely these kinds of bad faith initiatives. Formally adjusting our advertising policy to reflect our beliefs is simply a natural progression, and we hope to see other publications take a similar stance in their own policies."

According to Arthur Barbato, Director of Advertising at ADBUMb, "It’s important to remember that the vast majority of online advertisers do not support the use of this kind of technology. Our advertisers are professional businesspeople who do not care to be associated with unsolicited email and other illegal operations, and this move will go a long way in helping advertisers feel comfortable with the company they are keeping when they advertise in ADBUMb."

The proliferation of spam, spyware and non-permission based adware has of late become a central challenge to the integrity of online advertising. To assist in cultivating a law abiding industry that refuses to condone non-consensual actions taken against consumers, ADBUMb has made the choice to take a firm stand on what kind of products it will promote in its ad space.

In adopting this new policy, ADBUMb hopes to encourage fellow industry members to move toward a prosperous future in legal, permission based usages.

Well, which headline is better?

Posted by Steve Hall at 09:03 AM | Comments (0)

March 09, 2005

McDonald's Campaign Translated: Don't Eat Our Food

While it would be so much fun to jab McDonald's for its recently launched, duplicitous eat healthy ad campaign, we're going to restrain ourselves.

We're not going to call it a veiled effort at heading off lawsuits or a double-talk marketing strategy similar to tobacco company funded anti-smoking campaigns. We're not going to call attention to the fact that maybe, just maybe, the millions spent on this campaign are simply being spent to further increase McDonald's market share. We're not going to point out the ludicrous analogy of showing animated fast food paraphernalia demonstrate proper exercise in the ads. We're not going to suggest a great headline for this campaign would be, "Don't Eat At McDonald's." And, we're not going to point out that it's parents, not McDonald's, that need to be hit over the head with a nutritionally balanced 2 X 4. No, we're just going to sit back, smile, and enjoy one of the most expensive, grasp at survival, PR campaigns launched in recent history.

Posted by Steve Hall at 12:57 PM | Comments (0)

Ad Campaign: Don't Tell Your Kid About Your Big Butt

As we go through our day wondering aloud if we should lose some wait and exercise or whether or butt or boobs are too big, we often forget what sort of messages that sends to kids, or so goes the thinking behind a new ad campaign from Toronto Public Health. The currently running campaign, called "Your Kids Are Listening," shows pictures of kids beneath commonly utter adult phrases such as, I never seem to find time to exercise," Does my butt look too fat in these jeans," and I could stand to lose a few pounds."

While well intended, it's unlikely parents are going to start saying, "Damn, baby. I love your fat, floppy ass!" or "Honey, don't go workout today, I love that your beer gut crushes me when you're on top of me."

or "Babe, you don't need a reduction. I love that your boobs hang to your waist." The campaign includes brochures that explain how to live a healthy lifestyle by example so parents don't have to worry about comenting on their thunder thighs within earshot along with some beneficially squishy copy on self esteem.

Posted by Steve Hall at 12:14 PM | Comments (0)

Wrigley's Brings Back the Doublemint Twins

In what could be a turning point for marketers yearning to re-connect with jaded consumers, Wrigley's has brought back the Doublemint Twins of yester-year when all that mattered was whether or not you went to the prom or if you had The Preppy Handbook. Rather than take the lowbrow Coor's hottie twins approach, Wringley's and its agency, BBDO Chicago, chose, smartly, to go with nostalgic kitsch factor. The television commercial shows two impossibly innocent looking - by today's standards - twins dressed in cutsey 60's dresses anachronistically riding their bicycle through vignettes of today singing, "You didn't double your pleasure, you just doubled your pain" and, in a nod to today's oddities, "Deodorant's extreme, water's got caffeine, even the news is mean."

As part of the campaign, Wrigley's is holding an online and physical casting call in search of other pairs of twins for future campaigns.

UPDATE: Footage from the old campaign.

Posted by Steve Hall at 11:13 AM | Comments (0)

Wrigley's Brings Back the Doublemint Twins

In what could be a turning point for marketers yearning to re-connect with jaded consumers, Wrigley's has brought back the Doublemint Twins of yester-year when all that mattered was whether or not you went to the prom or if you had The Preppy Handbook. Rather than take the lowbrow Coor's hottie twins approach, Wringley's and its agency, BBDO Chicago, chose, smartly, to go with nostalgic kitsch factor. The television commercial shows two impossibly innocent looking - by today's standards - twins dressed in cutsey 60's dresses anachronistically riding their bicycle through vignettes of today singing, "You didn't double your pleasure, you just doubled your pain" and, in a nod to today's oddities, "Deodorant's extreme, water's got caffeine, even the news is mean."

As part of the campaign, Wrigley's is holding an online and physical casting call in search of other pairs of twins for future campaigns.

UPDATE: Footage from the old campaign.

Posted by Steve Hall at 11:12 AM | Comments (0)

March 08, 2005

Family Group Warns Parents And Marketers About Marketing to Children

Insuring it is part of the growing conversation on viral and buzz marketing, particularly as it applies to children, the National Institute on Media and Family has launched an offline and online ad campaign targeting marketing and parent-related websites. The campaign appears on ClickZ, Ad Age.com, AdWeek.com, MediaWeek.com, Child.com and Parents.com and directs people to a recently launched weblog calling attention to a viral and buzz marketing code of ethics just launched by the Word of Mouth Marketing Association.

A full page print ad appeared in the print version of Ad Age as an open letter to execs at agencies that have been involved with viral marketing.

As we've said before, we don't think viral and buzz marketers are shoving dangerous messages down kids throats anymore than other marketers have done for years. Kids are smart. They are not duped easily. Viral and buzz marketers are not pedophiles. NIMF isn't John Hathorne during the Salem Witch Trials. All parties just need to go have a drink together and get over this overblown animosity.

In fact, WOMMA should, if it hasn't already, extend an invitation to members of NIMF to attend its upcoming Word of Mouth Marketing Summit in Chicago March 29-30.

Posted by Steve Hall at 04:55 PM | Comments (0)

Style Network Launches 'Craft Corner Deathmatch'

The knitting needles and glue guns come out tonight for the debut of the Style Network's Craft Corner Deathmatch, a show in which dueling crafters are pit againts each other in a battle of stitch and bitch. What's next? "Bolt Tightening Brawl?"

Posted by Steve Hall at 01:12 PM | Comments (0)

NBC's 'The Contender' Pulls Strings, Not Ratings

We're a sucker for repetitive Jerry Bruckheimer theme music and the blatant use of kids for manipulative emotional appeal. We admit we're a fan of all things Mark Burnett and Sylvester Stallone. And we can appreciate a good, kick ass face pounding from time to time. NBC's The Contender, the latest Mark Burnett reality show, delivered all that last night leading us to believe another hit may be in the making. Unfortunately, according to overnight ratings as published in Marc Berman's MediaWeek Programming Insider, that's unlikely to happen."The Contender debuted with a disappointing 5.3/ 8 in households (#2), 8.40 million viewers (#2) and a 4.1/10 among adults 18-49 (#2) from 9:30-11 p.m."

So much for Bruckheimer's swelling French horns.

Posted by Steve Hall at 01:02 PM | Comments (0)

Volunteer Organization Promotes With Job Rejection Viral Site

To promote itself, do-it, a UK-based volunteer organization created a website called the National Job rejection Database, a site where those who recently interviewed for work but were not hired can search for reasons why they weren't hired. Of course, it's all a joke and after you've entered your name, job applied for, company and date, you are taken to a page with a humorous description as to why you were not hired. That is, until the page automatically progresses to another with the gigantic headline, "Just Kidding!" and the sub-head, "We made up the NJRD. But volunteer work really is a great way to improve your CV."

This is an intriguing viral. (There's a send-to-a-friend form) It's engaging enough but doesn't keep you guessing too long before it reveals its true self and takes you to a site where you can sign up for volunteer work. While funny, it might not be all that funny to someone who has been unsuccessful at finding a job only to be presented with an unpaid opportunity but we think everyone will see the humor.

Posted by Steve Hall at 10:05 AM | Comments (0)

Race Horse Center of Drunk Driving Ad Campaign

It's not that the name of this particular race horse sounds odd - they all do. It's that the name of this horse is central to a New Zealand-based, anti drunk driving campaign. The Land Transport Safety Authority plans to use the name, Dontdrinkanddrive, for a race horse bred by Sir Patrick Hogan. No, not that one. That was Paul Hogan.

The apparent strategy of race fans hearing the name, Dontdrinkanddrive, over and over and over again before, during and after horse races, might cause that sixth beer not to be consumed before heading home.

Clemenger BBDO is behind the naming strategy.

Not everyone thinks it's a good move. National MP (some sort of high ranking government official, we guess) said, "I haven't come across anyone who has heard this story and hasn't fallen about laughing. I'm not sure that's how they want road safety messages taken." What do you think?

Posted by Steve Hall at 09:08 AM | Comments (0)

RV Ad Targets Gays

In creating a commercial for Go RVing, The Richards Group of Dallas has tossed stereotypes to the wind.

Instead of featuring the usual grey haired, twilight of life retired couple enjoying some god forsaken nightmare of a trailer park in Florida, the agency created an ad targeting young, hot gays. At least according to CG, an openly gay man writing on Appreciate the Cheese. We tend to trust the gaydar of those living the lifestyle rather than our limited, married with two kids lifestyle.

Recent research by Harris Interactive pointed to three new prospects for RV marketing: families with children, weekend recreation and sports buffs and outdoor escapists. Though there seemed to be nary a mention of gay men who have female friends and like to look longingly at each other.

Intriguingly, the spot is done well. It's not one of those spots that screams, "Look! See! we're targeting some different people here! We're trying real hard to be cool about it! Bear with us until we return to the usual bland, boring, watered down, please all demographic, ethnic and psychographic group commercials." It's subtle - sure to fly high over the head of those who might take issue with this sort of thing.

It's a fairly dramatic shift in traditional RV marketing. There's no reason only retired folk should enjoy the open road from a box on wheels. Read CG's commentary here. See the spot here.

Posted by Steve Hall at 07:39 AM | Comments (0)

March 07, 2005

Product Placement Firm Sued By Mark Burnett Productions

Purveyor of reality TV series and product placements galore, Mark Burnett Productions has sued product placement firm Madison Road claiming it charged its clients, Crest, Levi's and Mars 2.5 times Burnett's normal product placement asking price. Even in an industry where everything is marked up, 250 percent oversteps things just a bit. No one's commenting, of course, beyond bland, say nothing statements.

Posted by Steve Hall at 03:44 PM | Comments (0)

Hot Girl On Car Action! Some Beer Ads Never Change

While we're sure there's plenty of other eye popping television commercials in this week's Ad Age TV Spots of the Week, we never quite got past the first one for James Boag, an Australian brewer. Shot in black and white, the commercial is yet another depiction of the typical male fantasy in which all women are hot and all they want to do is have sex - especially on top of a car. Visually, the spot is beautiful. Whether it sells beer really doesn't matter because, after all, beer ads are selling a lifestyle, not beer, right? Oh, and the other spots? Quickly. Nascar, Pepsi Sierra Mist, Embassy Suites, GM, UPS, EA Sports and Gatorade.

Posted by Steve Hall at 11:22 AM | Comments (0)

Columnist Slams PR Management of ANA President's TV Slam

Oh, the feathers have been ruffled in media land today. Last week, ANA President Bob Liodice wrote a post in his blog, ANA Marketing Musings. It was an insightful look at some of the elements hurting the television medium such as ad clutter, high cost and lack of measurement. Reacting to that, MediaPost satirist George Simpson wrote a fake letter to Bob as if written by Meredith Topalanchik, who works for PR firm CooperKatz - the PR firm for the ANA - poking fun at Bob for not running his post by his PR folks before dumping on a medium of which the ANA has many members.

Still with us? We didn't think so. Anyway, in response to all of that, Steve Rubel, also with CooperKatz, bit back on his weblog Micro Persuasion in defense of his co-worker and in support of the open and free voice central to the characteristics of weblogs.

We don't know if George was having a bit of fun by lighting a snarky fire under the ANA and the plight of old fashioned public relations in the face of weblog proliferation or whether he truly believes blog posts should be edited by PR folks. We hope it's the former. We also hope he doesn't think an association should never say anything bad about itself or its members. We also hope he thinks insightful conversation about the issues facing the advertising industry are also a good thing. In fact, we know he does. George love to stir things up like this.

Posted by Steve Hall at 10:15 AM | Comments (0)

Star Wars III Trailer to Debut on FOX's 'The O.C.'

Smack in the middle of teen angst and Mischa Barton's horrific acting, viewers will be treated to the world premiere of the Star Wars III trailer during this week's episode of FOX's shark-jumping 'The O.C.' The trailer will then be widely released to, assuredly, a point of saturation at which actually going to see the movie will become unnecessary.

Oh, and for those fans of Beck - five songs from his upcoming album, Guero, will premiere as will. Set your TiVo now!

Posted by Steve Hall at 09:37 AM | Comments (0)

FCC Tech Chief To Advertisers: Stop Annoying Or Face Regulation

Aligning nicely with an earlier nod we made regarding advertising industry regulation, FCC Chief of Technology Edmund J, Thomas, speaking last Friday at the AAAA's Conference said advertisers need to stop being so annoying and which he sees as a plea for regulation. He challenged the industry to find methods, and fast, of becoming less annoying especially in the face of new "smart" technology which has the potential to eradicate most forms of current advertising.

Posted by Steve Hall at 09:14 AM | Comments (0)

AOL's Advertising.com Dumps Adware

MediaPost reports it has learned AOL's Advertising.com, last fall, stopped doing business with Claria, WhenU and 180Solutions citing a statement from AOL spokesman Andrew Weinstein, who said, "From that review [conducted in Fall 2004], we decided to make clear that we would not do business with companies that distribute adware or spyware that intereferes with or damages our members' online experience."

Posted by Steve Hall at 08:57 AM | Comments (0)

March 06, 2005

Viral Marketing Discussed on American Public Media's Weekend America

Rex Sorgatz, who publishes Fimoculous, appeared this weekend on American Public Media's Weekend America and discussed viral marketing and its increasing use as a marketing tactic. From Burger King's Subservient Chicken to Raging Cow and other's Sorgatz discusses the pros, cons and considerations of viral marketing. The mp3 file is here. He's also compiled a detailed list of recent viral campaigns on his blog here.

Posted by Steve Hall at 01:58 PM | Comments (0)

March 05, 2005

KFC And JC Penny Commercial Music Choices Baffling

Tian aims our sights to The Indepundit, where some logic-challenged commercial song choices are discussed.

Kentucky Fried Chicken...sorry...KFC makes the geographically-challenged decision to uses part of Lynard Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama" - a fairly angry song - in their television spots.

JC Penny used the 80's tune "99 Red Balloons" - a song about nuclear war - for a Valentine's promotion. While both marketers use just pieces of each song in their commercials, one must wonder what sort of "strategic thinking" led to choices like these. Perhaps no one reads or even hears song lyrics anymore. Perhaps no one wants to bother with the real meaning of the song as long as it has a catchy riff. Perhaps it's all irrelevant.

Posted by Steve Hall at 05:20 PM | Comments (0)

March 04, 2005

Court TV Promotes Series With Bawdy Campaign

Court TV ups the anti in its efforts to shed its prior, staid image with a double-entendre filled ad campaign for the new crime reality show Impossible Heist.

The series pits two teams of ripped six packs and big boobs against each other re-enacting famous crimes for real while attempting to elude capture.

The ad campaign features Catherine Zeta Jones Entrapment cat suit style imagery with the tagline, "Likes to work on all fours;" a woman scaling a building below the headline, "She'd Rather Be Tied Up Than Down" and others with equally sex-laden tags like "It's not the size of the tool, It's how you use it" and "Well hung." The creative will appear on buses, posters, boards, kiosks and other outdoor media.

Posted by Steve Hall at 03:10 PM | Comments (0)

Starbucks Murders Starship With Promotional Song

Gawker reports a Starbucks Licensed Store Awards event in Seattle featured a bastardized version of Jefferon Starship's "We Built This City" created, apparently, to celebrate, with employees, the chain's success.

Listen at your peril.

Posted by Steve Hall at 02:42 PM | Comments (0)

Talent Zoo Launches 'After Hours' Networking Events

Talent Zoo has announced After Hours, a series of offline networking events for advertising industry folks to gather socially. Talent Zoo says these events are not typical networking parties, but simply a reason to go out, have fun, meet friends and make new ones.

The After Hours events are free but an RSVP is required. In the coming months, After Hours will be in New York, Miami, D.C., Detroit, San Fran, Vegas, Boston, and Chicago, among others. The next event is in New York at the Pink Elephant March 9 at 6:30PM.

Posted by Steve Hall at 02:03 PM | Comments (0)

Conference to Illustrate Benefits of Video Game Advertising

The Advertising in Games Forum, April 14, 2005 at the Metropolitan Pavilion, in New York City, plans to explore the creative and audience targeting potential of video games as an advertising medium. The Forum will feature a keynote presentation by Mitch Davis, CEO of Massive Inc, the creator of one of the first video game advertising networks, as well as executives at industry leading game companies, technology companies and agencies.

Attendees will hear how brands can make use of the rapid expansion in new video game formats and technology platforms to reach target demographics and achieve ROI and tracking objectives. Attendees will learn how to address the increasingly fragmented gaming audience through a variety of alternate creative treatments; how the unique format of on-line ads affects creative and overall campaign costs; how to manage long development cycles for games; how ads can add realism to games, and how the relationship between the ad agency and the developer/publisher can be managed to mutual advantage.

Posted by Steve Hall at 01:25 PM | Comments (0)

Gillette Campaign Bathes Singapore Subway Station in Matrix Green

To promote its M3Power razor, Gillette and its media agency MindShare, cast a green glow on one of Singapore's busiest subway stops, City Hall MRT, by placing green transparency over most of the station's lighting. The station domination campaign also included the placement of station poster featuring spokesman David Beckham. If anyone from Gillette or MindShare have images, please share.

Posted by Steve Hall at 12:09 PM | Comments (0)

Martha Stewart to Benefit From Jail Time

Writing in Business Week, Diane Brady examines the market's reaction to Martha Stewart's time in jail and her release today. Brady says Stewart's company stock is up, Stewart stand to collect a big paycheck upon release, TV appearances and series abound (The Apprentice: Martha Stewart) and book deals are in the making.

Posted by Steve Hall at 11:11 AM | Comments (0)

Video On Demand Boggles Some, Not Adrants

At the AAAA's Conference in New Orleans this week, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts discussed his company's adoption and rollout of video on demand and how that will enable both Comcast and advertisers to serve the specific needs of individuals. During his speech, Roberts announced a partnership with Rentrak Corp. which will yeild monthly VOD metrics including counts for VOD-enabled boxes per market, views per month, unique box views per month and total monthly minutes viewed.

Discussion from the panel netted little additional insight into the understanding of VOD's potential for sustaining an advertising model.

To us, it's simple. VOD will simply be a video version of the Internet's point and click navigation scheme. Watch a program, see something of interest, click on it, show pauses, shifts to video of item of interest and so on. Product placement won't have to be so blatant. If a viewer likes what an actor is wearing, driving, eating, touching, etc., click on it and get more info about it. In fact, marketers won't pay for the actual product placement but, rather, pay for the link to the screen/video that contains more info on the item.

Of course, marketers will still engage in product placement efforts so that their product appears and can be clicked on. It's not a perfect model and we know you'll shoot holes right through it but we think it has potential.

Posted by Steve Hall at 11:00 AM | Comments (0)

Man Stands Out With Pot Noodle Horn

Assuredly among many, one of the advantages women have over men is their ability to become "interested" in someone without visibly "announcing" it for all to see. In this video for Pot Noodles, this poor chap, walking into a bar, has a very large public "announcement" in the form of The Pot Noodle Horn. At first, he denies to his friends he has The Pot Noodle Horn but then proudly displays it for all to see, embraces it and blows it loudly. He then scurries off, returns, disheveled but relieved, though with a bit of Pot Noodle "evidence" spilt on his clothes. Despite the description, this is perfectly safe to view at work.

Posted by Steve Hall at 10:34 AM | Comments (0)

March 03, 2005

Pop Up Purveyors Disrespectful of People's Preferences

One of the major reasons people use pop up blockers or switch to browsers like Firefox which have built in pop up blockers is to, no doubt, block pop ups. Serving pop ups is one thing. Ignoring people's preference to avoid them as a whole different animal. Companies that circumvent a consumer's choice to block pops by deploying anti-pop up/under blocking software are scum in our book. We use Firefox. Until recently, the past year and a half or so have been blissfully pop-free. A month or so ago, we have seen the resurgence of the pop while using Firefox. We don't like it.

Today, while visiting Dictionary.com, we were presented with a pop under. We forget the advertiser but we do know Advertising.com serves on-page banners to Dictionary.com. It's known that pop ups and unders do not always emanate from specific sites but from behavioral profiles built up over time so we aren't sure Dictionary.com or Advertising.com had anything to do with the pop.

Later today, while loathe to do so, we found it necessary to visit DrudgeReport. Sure enough, two pop unders appeared. This time, we paid more attention and saw that Tribal Fusion served the pop for Emode's Tickle. The other pop was one of those obnoxious flashing banners, this time, for travel site Travasaurus. We can't confirm who served that one but we sure like Drudge a lot less now that we did before.

Respect for peoples choice to opt out of seeing pop ads seems like a no brainer. It's sort of like answering "yes" to a waiter after he's asked if you're finished with your meal only to have him scrape what food might be left on the plate and jam it down your throat. It's just not a nice thing to do. Why is it so difficult for companies to grasp that concept? And we're not buying that whole argument that pops, like telemarketing work so they must be a OK. Times are changing. People aren't going to stand for this shit. Advertisers and sites should not stand for it either.

Posted by Steve Hall at 04:19 PM | Comments (0)

Virgin Mobile Launches 'Pee Strip' Insert

one of our Canadian readers sent us this magazine insert for Virgin mobile which asks readers to cut out a strip of paper from the insert and pee on in like a pregnancy test. As if anyone would actually do this is of no matter to Virgin Mobile. On the back of the insert, Virgin Mobile assumes the test was taken and asks, "Did you test positive for the Catch?" The "Catch," apparently, refers to competing cell phone provider's practice of tying discounts and promotions to loopholes or catches. The back of the insert lists symptoms of the "Catch" as "monthly billing discomfort, "unsightly hidden fees," irregular growth in rates" and "paralyzing contractual obligations." Of course, the offer close with Virgin Mobile's catch-free cell phone plan. We'll give it notice for being different. Larger images are here and here.

Posted by Steve Hall at 12:17 PM | Comments (0)

WeatherBug Launches Weblog

Leading the next great corporate marketing trend, desktop weather company WeatherBug has launched a weblog.

The goal of the weblog, it seems, is to address customer concerns and to offer insight into the weather gathering and weather reporting process. Since weather is high on everyone's daily news troll, a blog about the process might make sense.

Posted by Steve Hall at 11:43 AM | Comments (0)

Vegas Red Casino Launches Second Viral

Yesterday, we pointed to a video for Vegas Red Casino which showed a guy going to the doctor's office for his oversized right arm due to playing too many slots. Today, the second video, created by Keta Keta, illustrates playing the odds at Vegas Red Casino is much safer than playing the odds with a fan

Posted by Steve Hall at 10:53 AM | Comments (0)

Saatchi Picks Ups Pieces After Mass Exodus

Following the exit of General Mills Account Director Mike Burns and the 16 others who followed, Saatchi Worldwide has begun to rebuild naming Pete Johnson senior VP and creative director. In an unlikely scenario, General Mills is encouraging the group that left to at least speak with Saatchi about returning.

Obviously, there's deep secrets afoot here. Seventeen people don't up and leave without good reason. Not that anyone will do so, but we'd sure appreciate hearing little truth from anyone of those 17 former Saatchi staffers or others who have real facts surrounding the event.

If you are so inclined, we're happy to grant anonimity. Find us here.

Posted by Steve Hall at 09:54 AM | Comments (0)

CMP Announces Dogear Peelback Ad Unit

In a move that might actually make rich media acceptable, CMP Media's TechWeb Network, yesterday, announced the launch of a new ad unit - the Dogear Peelback. The Dogear Peelback is an animated graphic that resembles a folded over page corner, or dogear. The ad unit, which sits quietly in the corner of the page until activated by mouseover, can be customized to include the client's logo or other creative. When a user 'mouses' over the dogear, the entire page peels back to reveal the advertiser's landing page behind the TechWeb Network news page. The effect gives advertisers a about half of the page real estate. View the demo here.

Once opened, the unit has the obligatory "Close" button on the outer most flap of the unit. Clicking "Close" or simply mousing off that area of the page, closed the unit. Making the unit more dynamic might call for the addition of an "Open" button which would continue to peel back that page until it opens entirely to the advertisers page. Currently, it seems, clicking on the uncovered page is the only method of navigating to the advertiser's page. Minor picks aside, the ad unit makes great use of rich media while maintaining sensibility to flashy, rich media crazy overload like those ads that crawl across the page while you fight to fund their "close" button. So far, it seems, this unit has great promise.

Posted by Steve Hall at 09:37 AM | Comments (0)

Atlanta Subways to Get TV And Radio

In a move likely to be sold as beneficial to commuters but, in reality, made to increase transit revenue, the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority will