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New Magazine to Ruin Reality TV-Loving Lifestyle

No More Lazy-Ass Lifestyle

In May, the solution to the bulging American waistline will arrive in the form of a new magazine called, "Healthy Family Magazine." OK, so it's only a magazine and not some new fangled diet that will, like all the others, guarantee weight loss with the vigor of penis enhancement products. All the same, Founder and Publisher Richard Bulman think he has identified a sweet spot, an untapped niche, not yet covered by a magazine - the health concerns of the family unit.

Bulman assures us it won't be filled with "Ten Days to a Slimmer Waistline" type headlines but take a more serious tone cutting through the inconsistencies of most dieting fads. The magazine will launch initially with 220,000 circulation which Bulman is confident will grow to 300,000 very soon after launch. He's got some big name advertisers signed up too. Kraft, Ford, Disney, Dove and Dannon are booked into the premiere issue. In all, Bulman says he has 25 national advertisers lined up.

I suppose this is all well and good but now we there's just one more nagging voice screaming at our reality tv-addled brains to get up off the couch and actually do something with our lives. Bummer. And I was looking forward to enjoying "The Apprentice 2" with a bag of Doritos and Cheese Wiz dip.

by Steve Hall    Mar-29-04    




'The Apprentice' Sign Gets Booted Off Trump Tower

Gothamist reports New York City officials have forced Donald Trump to remove his 'The Apprentice' sign that has been hanging from Trump Towers for a few weeks. Ever the Donald, Trump craps on the politicos of the very city he worships, "The fact that 'The Apprentice' is the hottest show on TV, they should be happy we're doing it in New York. The big complaint about the city is that it's an unfriendly place to do business. They should wise up."

Gothamist, of course, calls Trump's bluster writing, "...if a competitor put up a huge, ugly sign on their building, The Donald would be the first in line to bitch to the city."

Donald, we know you hate to lose but realize this nugget about reality TV: If it's not Survivor, it's gone in a year or two. Take your win now because, in the end, you will be the one who gets fired.

by Steve Hall    Mar-27-04    




Honest Advertising


by Steve Hall    Mar-26-04    




MediaBuys Expands With Consumer Offering

MediaBuys, a media buying discount club which offers discounts on advertising space has added to its B2B media sources, consumer media space on cable and spot TV, regional and national radio, consumer magazines, regional and national newspapers and out-of-home. The service bulk buys media and resells it to site members.

by Steve Hall    Mar-26-04    




Web Host Recommendations

I'll be moving Adrants to a new host soon and would love to hear people's recommendations and experiences with the hosts you have used. I'm looking for shared versus dedicated hosting at this point but need about 60-80GB transfer per month and the ability to host multiple domains. I've looked at ix Webhosting, Lunarpages and BlueDomino. All comments are welcome.

by Steve Hall    Mar-25-04    




Personal Ad Requires No Reading Between Lines Rather Skipping Lines

Read this ad from the start. When you finish, follow the insructions on how to read what this ad really has to say.

by Steve Hall    Mar-25-04    




Mercedes Launches 'Do-It-Yourself' Ad Campiagn

A recently launched ad campaign for Mercedes-Benz is employing the new trend of consumer created (or at least influenced by) ad campaigns. The campaign consists of "slice of life" pictures submitted by Mercedes owners which are then incorporated into commercials.

by Steve Hall    Mar-25-04    




Simultaneous Media Usage Becoming the Norm

There been several studies showing the increase in media multi-tasking. Now, there's another out from BIGresearch claiming 70 percent of media users consume more than one medium at a time. Of those who listen to radio, 53.7 percent are online, 46.9 percent are reading a newspaper and 17.7 percent are watching TV. Of those watching TV, 66.2 percent are online and 74.2 percent are reading a newspaper. Aside from the fascinating fact that anyone is still reading a newspaper, these finding point to the increasingly difficult job media planners have in delivering the message to the consumer.

While it may become more difficult claim consumer's split attention span, many cross media promotional tie-ins present themselves as a result of this shift in media consumption. This shift, properly acted upon, might finally force true cross media integration. By that, I don't mean placing the same brand message across multiple media but rather messages in one medium that require interaction with another. Obviously. That's already being done to some extent with the simplest example being "go visit our website."

That's only a baby step though. Mitsubishi's "SeeWhatHappens" Super Bowl spot went a bit further asking consumers to visit a website to see the end of the commercial. Still a small step. A bigger step might be what could be called "time-based addressable advertising" where, when technologically possible, a similar or complementary message is delivered to the consumer via multiple media at the same time. Messages could require interaction with one another or one could provide a "key" to opening another.

Taking an even bigger step, advertisements could be "transported" from one medium to another. For example, in a previous post, I wrote, "It's not out of the technological realm of possibility for a marketing program to tie the two media (and others for that matter) so closely together so that "transportability" of message is ubiquitous. By that, I mean that the message follows you yet you are the one that controls how and where that message follows you. It might start with something you hear in your car on the radio that sparks an interest that you want to respond to but can't at the moment so you press a little button that sends this item to a central location that allows it to be retrievable latter from another "connected" device such as a screen on your fridge, your computer, your phone, or your handheld. " Of course, the technology is playing catch up to consumer behavior but none of this is out of the realm of possibility or likelihood in the very near future.

by Steve Hall    Mar-25-04    




Trojan Condoms Launches 'Orgasm' Campaign

Trojan has launched a U.K website which, unless you are at home, you might consider turning down the volume down before visiting. The site is full of people, mostly women, at that certain point of pleasure where it can get quite audible. The site features a game called "Orgasm or Muscle Spasm" where you must choose the real deal of the fake. There's also a section called "The Sexual Organ" in which you can set to music, various orgasmic outbursts.

Along with the site is a country-wide 3,600 poster campaign showing a woman in "the height of sexual pleasure".

You can visit the site from work without risk. Just don't roll your mouse over anything until you have turned your volume down. Unless, of course, you want to get your co-workers wondering what you are doing in your office.

by Steve Hall    Mar-25-04    




Dustin Hoffman 'Retard' Ad For Mobile Phone Accessory Company Angers Autistics

Lately, Dustin Hoffman has been quite busy flashing his mug in ad campaigns. Following a recent television commercial for the Audi A6 in which Hoffman re-enacts the famous church scene from "The Graduate," Hoffman's 1988 "Rain Man" likeness is seen in an ad for OneToo, a mobile phone accessory company in the U.K. The ad, which ran in a football (soccer for us Americans) magazine called FourFourTwo, promotes OneToo's mobile phone logos and wallpapers.

All well and good except for one tiny detail. The ad contains the word "retard" emblazoned across Hoffman's image. The National Autistic Society didn't take too kindly to that and has complained the U.K.'s Advertising Standards Authority which agreed with the NSA saying the ad would, indeed, cause "serious and widespread offence amongst people with autism, their carers and their families".

OneToo has been in hot water before following an ad showing a gorilla's face on the body of a black woman in a bikini.

by Steve Hall    Mar-23-04    




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