A new web campaign by pro same-sex marriage group DontAmend targeting Vice President Dick Cheney's gay daughter, Mary, chides her for taking such a leading role in supporting Bush and Cheney during their 2000 bid for the presidency and her sudden lack of visibility when the same people she once vigorously supported are now trying to push through a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.
The web campaign, viewable on the website DearMary, is part of a larger campaign launched in February and consists of stick figures of Mary Cheney with taglines such as, "Dick's daughter sold out to help Dick run again."
While trying to actually accomplish something online, we've all seen those idiotic flashing banner ads or those shaking ads or those ads that simply don't make any sense. Now, courtesy of Scary-Crayon, we can see them all in one place. So if you've got a client who really, really wants to do one of those stupid shaking flashers, send them to Scary-Crayon to set them straight - or at least introduce them to the website that will, one day, ridicule that stupid ad they just had to create.
Defamer reports the rumored $5 billion purchase of MGM by Sony is completed and will be officially announced next week. And for consumers who have already lost hope of ever seeing anything original again, this merger insures the blanding of creativity will continue at an unbridled pace yielding, yet again, more mindless, watered down Hollywood product.
Kelly Ripa has signed on for five more years of Live with Regis and Kelly. Ripa will be paid $8 million a year for the five year period. Beginning its 17 year this fall, Live will continue to maintain that odd but successful combination of old dude (Philbin is 72) and young attractive woman (she's 33) for at least another two years which is when Philbin's current contract ends.
Nike continues its expansion of alternative marketing methods, this times, teaming with MTV2 to produce Battlegrounds, a series examining international street basketball. Beginning on July 11, with repeats on MTV, each episode will pit two players against each other and profile them vignette style. Each episode will build to semi-finals and to a final in which each winner will receive $50,000 and a bunch of Nike product.
Nike Director of Content and Partnerships Adam Roth gives the PR spin saying, "Since the history of street ball is intimately intertwined with the growth and influence of hip hop on American culture, the partnership between Nike and MTV2 creates the perfect platform to tell the authentic 'Battlegrounds' story."
And showing the love for Nike's marketing dollars, MTV and MTV2 SVP of Programming Paul DeBenedittis added, "Street ball and music are inseparable, and it is our goal with Battlegrounds to explore these two massive cultural phenomena. Nike is the unquestioned leader in basketball and MTV2 is the fans' choice for music and youth culture, so this partnership will take the best of both worlds to reach and serve our audience."
Missouri, not a state one would associate with rampant sexual imagery, has banned billboards for companies whose business model is based on nudity or pornography. The law is aimed at reducing prostitution, crime and juvenile delinquency. Seems there's a proliferation of nudie billboards in the state.
"We have the right to drive the highways of this state without children being assaulted by these images," said Governor Bob Holden who signed the bill into law Thursday morning.
Under the law, the only kind of billboard these types of business can now put up is one that lists basic business info in text and one warning minors to keep out. It's likely this billboard wouldn't make the cut. Thanks to Adrants reader Charley Brough for the tip.
.  If you can't get enough of Ryan Seacrest, don't worry because soon his mug will grace a fourth, yes, fourth television show. This time it will be tentatively titled American Top 40 Awards, a TV version of his radio show. It's planned to air on FOX in 2005 with Seacrest as host and executive producer along with Tony Eaton and Dave Broome. Seacrest can also be seen on American Idol, On-Air with Ryan Seacrest and was seen last year on the Radio Music Awards.
Of course, if you're sick of the dude, you're out of luck
Today, we found a nifty t-shirt in our corporate mailbox. Who, really, can have too many t-shirts? We were pleased but wondered who had sent this wonderful gift. We looked more closely. This particular t-shirt had a little saying on it that resonated quite nicely with our mindset here at Adrants. It said, "I'm being exploited by an ad agency." Upon reading that, there was no argument from the rampant cynicism that oozes from the walls of Adrants central.
A letter was enclosed with the t-shirt which read, in part, "After it was printed (the t-shirt), we quickly realized that this shirt didn't merely convey the whining of a spoiled creative class drunk on carb-free champagne paid for by ripping off old Motown tunes. No, this was bigger than that. We found that we had hit a universal truth, a moment of cultural clarity. Aren't we all being exploited by advertising agencies? We think so. And we're not saying it's a bad thing - it's actually better than being exploited by cult leaders or record executives or something - just that it's a true thing."
It's not news that ad agencies play their part in the exploitation of consumers. What's news is that an agency is saying it. In this case, URBANadvertising of New York. Their tagline? "Honest."
Citing Wired's transformation from geeky computer magazine to "a slick, smart and playful cultural journal," Chicago Tribune's Tempo awarded its top spot on its "Top 50 Magazines" list. Rounding out the top ten were Real Simple, The Economist, Cook's Illustrated, Esquire, The New Yorker, American Demographics, Men's Health, Jane and Consumer Reports.
While jaded viewers have called it lame, the country seems to be smitten with rich bitch hotties Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie and they continue their fish out of water adventures in "The Simple Life 2: Road Trip." This time it's in a mobile home terrorizing only one town at a time as opposed to last time when they terrorized one family and one town for an entire month.
"The Simple Life 2: Road Trip" premiere won its time slot with 8.11 million viewers and the second episode brought in 9.84 millions viewers. Go figure.
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