 Referring to the Miller Lite Cat fight ad, Laura Ries, a brand consultant, told USA TODAY, "Every time I see (the beer ad), I cringe. It's degrading. And, the dancing "Joe Boxer" ad has offended some African-Americans. William Jelani Cobb, an assistant professor of history at Spelman College, told The Washington Post: "To depict a black man this way, it's just 'coonery'."
Degrading? Coonery? Please? Get the hell over it. They are just ads. They are just fun. They are supposed to be funny. Why is there so much over reaction? Can't people take a joke? Can't anyone have any fun any more?
View the Miller Lite ad here. (right click and save, then open)
USA Today: Lighten up: It's just a TV ad
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Here's another one of those ridiculous lawsuits over a company using regular English words that just so happen to be the name of some guys book.
Kembrew McLeod, assistant professor of communications studies at the University of Iowa, believes that "freedom of expression" � or at least the phrase � belongs to him, because he registered it as a trademark in 1998. And now that AT&T is using the phrase in some print ads, he wants the company to stop.
Yesterday, Mr. McLeod sent AT&T a "cease and desist" letter, asserting that consumers might infer a link between the company and his anti-corporate publication, "Freedom of Expression." The bigger idea behind his legal action, he said, is to object to corporate power over words, speech and even ideas.
"I do want to register my genuine protest that a big company that really doesn't represent freedom of expression is trying to appropriate this phrase," he said.
When will this madness stop?
NYT: AT&T Ad Trips Over a Trademark
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"We do not yet see signs of meaningful business-to-business advertising recovery in the near term," Chairman and Chief Executive Peter Kann said.
There you have it from the big guys.
Dow Jones profit falls, no ad recovery seen
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"I think I'm going to have to invent a term bigger than 'beyond my wildest expectations,' " said Gail Berman, the president of Fox Entertainment. "The fact that we did 16 percent better than the finale last season is absolutely mind-boggling."
There you have it. Another reality TV success.
NYT: Season Debut of 'American Idol' Is a Triumph for Fox
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Young, Young, Young. That seems to be the mantra of too many marketers who adhere to the old rule of marketing: that it is useless to bother advertising to the older generation because they are already brand loyal and it is a waste of money to try to sway them from their loyalties.
Oddly, they have more discretionary income than any other demographic group.
�You have the whole baby boomer generation, the oldest of which are now 57 years old,� says Brad Adgate, senior vice president and corporate research director at Horizon Media.
�The irony is that nobody targets them. You�re starting to see that change, but a lot of advertisers overlook the fact that they have a lot of leisure time and have more discretionary income.�
Hmm...time to adjust those media plans?
Medialife: Debunking myths
about older viewers
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So after a not so smart launch mentioned here, the Gen-Y focused Chicago tabloids are now switching from a free to a paid circulation model. The Tribune publishes 'Red Eye' and the Sun-Times publishes Red Streak. Given that the audience was less than lukewarm to the launch, one would hope they have improved the product to more closely match market needs.
MediaPost: Red Dailies To End Sampling
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Commute time has increased by 13.8% from 1990 to 2000 according to the U.S. 2000 Census. Arbitron says this is good news for the outdoor medium and I think so too.
"The experts tell us that new homes are being built further and further away from the central city, and that increasingly, people are commuting from one suburb to another suburb and having to take slower secondary roads," said Dan Estersohn, senior demographer for Arbitron. "All of these trends increase commuting times."
"The increase in commute times is good news for outdoor advertising, too," said Jacqueline Noel, director of sales and marketing for Arbitron Outdoor. "The recently released Arbitron Outdoor Study revealed that the heaviest commuters-so-called Super-Commuters-average nearly two hours per day commuting, and they represent an exceptionally upscale and attractive consumer segment for advertisers."
Outdoor just might be the last remaining medium that you can't "Tivo" away. Sure, you can just not look at the billboard but along the way, you have to notice at least a few along the way. Here's the facts:
- The average one-way drive time to work in the U.S. was 25.5 minutes in 2000 vs. 22.4 minutes in 1990, an increase of 13.8 percent.
- Drive times increased in each of the 286 Metros over the 10-year period.
- Merced, CA, experienced the largest percentage increase, up 51.7 percent to 26.5 minutes in 2000 from 17.5 minutes in 1990. In theory, a commuter could be exposed to nearly triple the number of billboards he or she saw in Merced a decade ago.
- The longest average commute was in Sussex, NJ, where, on average, a worker spent 38.3 minutes in transit in 2000. An advertiser can make multiple impressions upon a target consumer during that period.
- The shortest average commute was in Grand Forks, ND, where it took 15.1 minutes for the average drive-time in 2000.
You can view market by market data here.
Arbitron: Census 2000 Data Show 13.8% Increase In Average U.S. Commute Time Since 1990
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There once was a show that was a land based version of The Love Boat. Remember it? It was called Hotel and it was actually quite popular. Well, it's returning to to televison and this time it will be on UPN which can use all the help it can get these days.
But why is it that there are so many re-makes on TV and in the movies? Is there no original thought anymore? Oh, I forgot, it's all about money now anyway. Screw creativity. The thinking goes like this, "It was a hit before, it will be a hit again and we don't have to come up with anything new."
Well, remember when they remade The Love Boat a few years back? It sucked didn't it? Don't expect much better from the new Hotel.
Zap2it: Zap2it | TV: NEWS: NEWS DAILY
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Many of us, myself included, have blamed television executives for this onslaught of reality television programming. While those executives do greenlight the shows they only do so because research points to the fact that the shows will be hits. We keep watching and they will keep producing. It's a vicious circle.
So, it is our own damn fault for watching this crap that keeps it on the air. One good thing is that we get real tired real fast when it comes to anything trendy and this whole reality thing is definitely just a trend. Remember 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire" and all the crap that followed? It's all gone now and that was only three years ago. So, for those of you that hate reality TV, there is hope. You just have to wait a couple years. That is until lemming-like TV executives latch onto the next ridiculous trend.
Boston Globe: No shame
Boston Globe: Blame viewers for this picture
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Not surprisingly, everyone is searching for that Miller Lite Mud Wrestling Commercial this week. There is a post on this site about it here Check out these statistics:
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Oh, and Hilary Duff Nude...I get that every week. Weird, although I did post something about her leaving her pre-teen TV show because she has become too "grown up".
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