Bloggers Forever Change Coverage of Conventions

With theit insightful commentary, desire to cover alternative news angles and tell-it-like-it-is attitude, a horde of bloggers are covering the Democratic National Convention this week. Too numerous to mention or even give a snapshot example of the coverage, it can all be read on the Convention Bloggers website, an aggregation of every bloggers postings.

It's politics like you've never seen it before.

Double A Paper Rips Off Japanese Commercial

Either this guy just caught his parents having sex or he just saw that horrible hair cut in the mirror. Or maybe he just walked in on an office co-worker who seems to be using the copy machine to copy something other than the department's weekly status report. Or maybe he's just an actor in a commercial for Double A paper "emoting" in reaction to his commercial co-star trying to reach some "double quality paper" on the shelf.

There's more info here including a link to the original Japanese commercial from which this version was blatantly ripped.

Young Men Watch TV, Don't, Do, Don't, Do, Don't, Do

Are we sick of hearing research about whether young men still watch TV or not? Well, today, according to yet another recent study - this time from Peter D. Hart Research Associates for Carat and Maxim - they do. In fact, they'd give up their videos games before they gave up TV. Eight out of ten men 18-34 said they would give up their game console for a month rather than give up TV for the same period of time. Nuggets:

• Pop-up tolerance. Young men don't object to Web pop-up ads as long as there's a payoff. About 61% said they'd prefer a free Web site with pop-ups, vs. 33% who prefer a pay site with no ads.
• TV-informed. Some 69% said TV ads are their first choice for getting information on a new gadget, and 56% consider network TV ads a major source of "staying informed," followed by cable and radio ads at 43%, newspaper ads at 38% and magazine ads at 34%.
• Generational split. The study found a split between men ages 18 to 24 and those 25 to 34 in media use. For example, 68% of the younger group play video games, and 54% use instant messaging, vs. 51% and 31% in the older group.

NBC Takes Fun Out of Media Buying

Anyone who has bought media knows there's always a bunch of "extras" that go along with the buy. They range from cheap pens with cheesy logos to all expenses paid, exotic travel. Those who have made media buys on NBC's Olympic broadcast are being handed $7,000 and $12,000 "thank you for over-spending millions with us" thank you packages. All well and good as these things are usually "under the table" thank yous but NBC has decided to spoil the fun and has assigned the above mentioned values to these packages thereby creating tax ramifications that could forever shut down these fringe benefits which have become a mainstay in the industry. Pretty soon a sales rep won't even be able to say thank you to the buyer for fear of passing on some taxable intellectual "property."

New Gay Cable Channel Launches

Charley Brough points to a Yahoo story about the launch of Logo, a gay themed cable channel set to launch in February. Cher, Kathy Griffin and Alan Cumming are involved in produces shows for the channel. We wonder, though, if a better headline could have been chosen - "Gay Channel Coming Out with Cher, Cumming Projects" leaves us feeling like we need to go take a shower.

Viral Video Promotes Some Kind of Beer

Offered to help jolt us into a Monday morning or perhaps allow you to "relax" a bit if you live near Boston and have had to stay home because your city has been highjacked by the DNC, this little viral video montage purportedly promotes a beer brand but is really promoting viral agency ASABAILEY and production company LPC24.

The page can be forwarded to a friend with any of four "really, I'm not spam" subject lines from "I see your sister found a new job!" to "So I ran into your girl at the weekend" to "Let's have a party" to "Let's go for a beer."