Verizon Says Jobs Suck, Offers Cheap Messaging

Highlighting certain jobs such as portable toilet cleaner, nursing home nurse and nanny, Verizon sympathizes in this viral video saying you won't need a job to afford its $5 per month unlimited text and picture messaging plan.

ABM Says No to Marketer Editorial Policies

In a welcome sign of common sense and support for unbiased journalism, American Business Media and with clear reference to the recent negative editorial policies issued by Morgan Stanley and BP, issued a press release Wednesday urging member companies and 4,500 business to business publishers to reject any attempts by marketers to influence journalism with threatening policies. In the release, ABM President and CEO Gordon T. Hughes said, "Overtures or threats made by advertisers to pull ads with intent to steer content, or advertiser requests to review content prior to publication, undermine universal journalistic ethical standards."

Kudos. Bravo. Thank you, Gordon.

Chicago AD:TECH Conference Approaches

With record attendance, the San Francisco show, held this past April, was a hit and received many positive comments from attendees. Now, it's time to gear up for the Chicago Show July 11 and 12. Keynotes for the Chicago show include Garage Technology Ventures Managing Director Guy Kawasaki, P & G Manager of Innovation, Consumption Control Ted McConnell, Chrysler VP Jeff Bell, E-Loan CMO Catherine Muriel and Kimpton Hotels Sale & Marketing SVP Steve Pinetti. Get all the details and register at the AD:TECH website.

Revenue.net will, again, sponsor WiFi access providing attendees with free Internet access at the show. Visit their booth to get access codes.

We've also been told Tribal Fusion will host the "big" party Monday night.

Greece Gloriously Greases

OK, there's something just a bit too sexual about this billboard/ad headline which, we assume, is a promotional campaign for Greece. Oh never mind. It's just our sick mind at work. You may now return to your pre-Memorial day weekend Friday slack off.

Paris Hilton Crashes MediaPost Server

It seems server-crashing Paris Hilton isn't limiting herself to the site that carries her racy Carl's Jr. ad. During our normal news trawl today, we found the headline in our email, "Paris Hilton Ad Boost Carl's Jr. Traffic," and though hmm, either this ad really is working or it's yet another attempt at milking Paris for all she's got to get press. So we click. And we click. And we wait. And we wait. And, finally, we get this: "Server Error. The server encountered an internal error and was unable to complete your request. JRun closed connection." No doubt the link will work by the time you click but, you have to admit, this is kind of funny, especially when the first sentence of the MediaPost article (as sent in the email) was "Server crashes generally are considered bad for business."

NBA Player Uniforms Could Carry Advertising

Not that there'd ever be a semi-nude Paris Hilton Carl's Jr. ad affixed to their shirts but the NBA has not ruled out selling ad space on player's uniforms. NBA Commissioner David Stern says it's inevitable and Dallas Mavericks Owner Mark Cuban said if it was up to him, ads would already be on uniforms. Readers, is this a good thing or are we racing towards the day when holographic ads are projected in front of our faces 24/7?

Gawker Covers 'Hamptons Magazine' Party

I'm Hamptons Material

Kicking off its 16 week summer run for the rich and wish-they-were-rich, Hamptons Magazine held its annual "we're hipper and richer than you" party, at BLVD where guests mugged for photographer Nikola Tamindzic. Gawker reports guests were mostly wannabes, Eurotrash and publicists gushing about how they going to the Hamptons "with friends," "renting" or "sharing." Few owned up to, well, actually owning any property in the Hamptons.

Gawker, curious as to who reads Hampton Magazine, took a look at the magazine's demographics which revealed readers to be an average age of 33, have home worth $2.6 million, spend $25,000 annually on clothes and drive Aston Martins, Bentleys, Ferraris, Hummers, Jaguars and Maseratis. Clearly, guests were not readers.

Agency Uses Guerrilla Tactics At Guerrilla Seminar

Dayton, Ohio ad agency The Next Wave launched a guerrilla marketing campaign targeting attendees of a Dayton Ad Club seminar at which the author of Guerrilla Marketing, Al Lautenslager spoke. With sidewalk chalk slogans such as "You can read a book about 'Guerrilla Marketers' or you can hire one- www.thenextwave.biz," Big ideas, so little sidewalk" and "it's only chalk-not like we spent thousands to get your attention. You probably can’t imagine what we'd do with real money," The Next Wave attempted to persuade attendees books and seminars are not the answer to successful guerrilla marketing. While their messages were ultimately hosed off, they did receive a new business call during the event.

by Steve Hall    May-26-05    
Topic: Guerilla

Austrian Wants Credit For VW Logo Development

Nikolai Borg, born in 1919, claims he developed of the Volkswagen logo in June 1939 under the direction of Nazi engineer Fritz Todt. Borg does not want money but simply acknowledgment from VW. VW is denying Borg's involvement and claims the logo was submitted to the Third Reich patent office for copyright in 1938. VW also denied Todt ran the "Volswagen" project which was part of a larger Nazi "Kraft durch Freude" project which was a propaganda recruitment campaign. One of the primary aspects of the KdF program is said to have been the encouragement of people to buy the "people's car" or "Volkswagen."

The outer ring of the VW logo was a cog, not the current circle. That was later change by the British after WWII. The logo for the DAF, parent to KdF and a Nazi trade union, was a swastika surrounded by a cog. Whether Borg's claim is true or not, Volkswagen, though it needed really worry at this point, is distancing itself from the situation. Borg will present his case July 6.

MarketingSherpa Survey Considers Adrants Best Individual Ad Weblog

While this could be considered tipping the scales a bit, we'd at least like to let you know Adrants has been considered, once again, by MarketingSherpa to be of the best individual weblogs on general marketing and advertising. If you are so inclined and would like to vote for us, as well as for the many other fine weblogs listed, feel free to visit the survey here and cast your vote. Voting ends Wednesday, June 8th, 2005.