 God OK With Booty Apparently, big booty babe Beyonce has permission from God to wear hot clothes however, she says God is not OK with girl on girl kisses like the Britney/Madonna MTV Awards spectacle.
"I have standards. There are things I will not do," says Beyonce. "I always carry myself like a lady. I don't feel like I ever do anything raunchy. It's entertainment and I believe God is OK with that."
Alrighty then. Bring on that big 'ol booty and shake that ass for us in more Pepsi commercials.
 Leave Kids Alone McDonald's is sponsoring "Sesame Street." Ralph Nader doesn't like it. This is a conundrum. On the one hand, kids are fat enough and don't need to be reminded of junk food like McDonald's. On the other hand, PBS needs money to fund worthy programming like "Sesame Street."
When I was a kid, I don't remember any sponsors on "Sesame Street" which isn't saying much other than my memory sucks but there's something that just doesn't feel right about McDonald's sponsoring "Sesame Street." Do kids really need to be exposed to McDonald's at age two? Do already time-starved parents need another excuse not to cook and order fast food instead? There's no real reason why McDonald's shouldn't be able to sponsor PBS programming and despite what that fat dude thought when he sued McDonald's for making him fat, it's people who make people fat, not McDonald's. Sure the marketing engine is huge and hard to ignore but does that mean McDonald's voice should be censored?
There's no right answer here other than what I stated previously: it just doesn't feel right for McDonald's to sponsor "Sesame Street." There has to be some point during their younger years where kids are insulated from the barrage of marketing. A period of peace and innocence should be enjoyed before the marketing engine takes hold and screams at you until you are dead.
A new study confirms the death of telemarketing and potential email as a viable means for marketers to communicate with consumers. The study, sponsored by Cable and Telecommunications Association for Marketing and conducted by Centris, found 51 percent prefer to receive marketing through traditional mail as compared to five percent via email and just one percent via telemarketing. Sounds like old habits will die hard.
Ignorant of the fact consumer's don't give a crap over a few drops of liquid, P&G's Bounty and Georgia-Pacific's Brawny have engaged in a bitch-fest over the absorbancy rates of their paper towels. Apparently P&G's claim that Bounty absorbs 30 ML in spills is not sitting well with G-P's Brawny. G-P complains, "What P&G does not reveal in its advertising is that with a slightly larger spill, more than 31 ML, Bounty may drip. Similarly, P&G does not reveal that with a slightly smaller spill, as much as 26 ML, the Brawny towel may not drip."
Over $50 million per year is spent bitching back and forth about absorbancy rates. I bet every single one of you could come up with a better, more productive cause on which to spend $50 million.
 Sonet's "new bouquet" cell plan Non-standard (not GSM) Russian cell phone company Sonet is promoting its services using a billboard campaign that prominently features marijuana. Intended as humor, the 50 board campaign asks consumers to sample Sonet's "new bouquet". Sonet Commercial Director Anastasia Markovich says the campaign does not promote drugs and is intended for those "who have a sense of humor, whose thinking doesn't fit the status quo and who have a vivid imagination."
The company has plans to extend the campaign to the Internet as well as weed-themed television programming. Thanks to Adrants reader Njee for the tip on this.
If you've ever been approached by a person or a family that seems to be extolling the virtues of the particular product you are considering buying, you are probably experiencing Whisper Marketing. Similar to the marketing practice of women who approach men in bars not for a date but to chat up a particular beverage, Whisper Marketing employs people to engage in real world product endorsements at the moment of purchase. It could be while you are browsing the racks in your favorite clothing store or it could be more clandestine such as a person who appears to have just received a funny message on his cell phone only to share it with you for the sole purpose of telling you about his cell phone provider.
Along with viral marketing, Whisper Marketing attempts to sidestep the clatter and clutter of traditional marketing which, for the most part, people have tuned out. A recent study by Cap Gemini Ernst & Young and reported in Ad Age "found only 17 percent of the 700 U.S. consumers it surveyed in the past six months said TV ads influenced car-buying decisions. Ads on Internet search engines influenced 26% of consumers. Nearly half, or 48%, of the consumers said a direct-mail offer from a car dealer would influence their vehicle purchases, but the most influential measure was word-of-mouth, cited by 71% of consumers." Yes, word of mouth. And word of mouth is exactly what Whisper Marketing puts to use.
 How Do I Look? This week's crop of ads from Ad Age's TV Spots of the Week brings another sex-laced ad from Uniliver for Axe. It's a humorous play on the typical guy-outside-the-woman's-dressing-room scenario. Nice visuals. Can't really remember what the product was though. Also this week are people walking on stilts to avoid fire ants in ad from Bayer Tru-Green; Halle Berry glams for Revlon Overtime Lip Color; a bull tramples a grocery store for T-Mobile; the egg holder in your refrigerator can now be used for holding liquor days Diago in a spot for their new Bailey' Minis; Walt Disney promotes itself in the typical emotional manner; scenes of everyday life are framed in a unique way in a pot for HP's Digital cameras; and Dunkin Donuts employees beat the shit out of an unsuspecting waiter to promote the new line of Expresso/Latte/Capuccino drinks.
Absolut has released a CD called "Absolut Threetracks" to 3,500 disc jockeys around the world and it has been posted for download on the vodka maker's web site. Songs included on the CD will be from artists such as Taxi, Rollercone and Aril Brikha.
Like most passnegers on a long car ride, this one is quite bored but has found an ingenious way to pass the time away. Not that we'd suggest you actually do this.
Here's a unique ad campaign/spoof that demonstrates the really, really, really powerful love one can have for a particular product. Sometimes that love, though, can be a nit over the top as well as creepy as you will see in this spot. Of course, over the top and creepy can be humorous too.
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