Capitalizing of the return of Jarod Fogle as spokesman and his appearance in the film, "Supersize Me" which criticizes McDonald's, sandwich chain Subway has run a placemat campaign in its German franchises which shows an image of a fat Statue of Liberty accompanied by the headline, "Why Are Americans So Fat?" Aside from the fact that we are fat because we can't get off our asses long enough to make it even to the mailbox, U.S. House of Representatives Republican Leader Tom Delay said, "I guess for some companies' corporate patriotism is as flexible as Jared's waistline."
Reacting, Subway rolled over the giant American fat roll of overly conservative political correctness and caved in to complaints. "The staff over in Germany has been contacting us daily because they feel bad," said Subway Spokesman Kevin Kane. "They may have said 'OK let's wrap this up." From Adranter Steve Portigal.
While the title of this linked article is "Music Marketer's Top Mistakes," turned on its head, it offers some tips on how to use the Internet effectively to promote an artist. Briefly, develop a navigation-friendly website that offers full streams of a few of the artists songs for sampling with a link to buy the latest CD on every page. Offer fans a way to interact by providing forums. Join and use off-site forums and social networks such as MySpace.com to gut check consumer perception and to enter the conversation about that perception. Create a weblog that covers the artists activity from appearances to concerts to studio time. Use this weblog as a launching pad to get artist coverage from other weblogs that might find the artist's weblog of interest to their own readers.
 Last Year's Hottie As pleasing as it is to see breasts, and the models attached to them, in print, it's a whole lot more fun to see them in motion. Sports Illustrated knows this and so does NBC. The two have teamed to produce a six episode reality series for its "Sports Illustrated's Fresh Faces Competition." To wet appetite for newsstand sales, the series will air just prior to the February 15, 2005 release of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. Sounds like a good plan.
Following it s Subservient Chicken and Ugoff sites, Miami-based Crispin Porter + Bogusky is now promoting Burger King's new Angus Steak Burger with a site featuring a guy called Dr. Angus. Positioned as an inspirational speaker and personal interventionist, Dr. Angus espouses the many benefits of eating beef. The simple mantra of the diet is, "If it feels good, do it." Unfortunately (but necessary in our lawsuit-driven world), the site is peppered with all kinds of "this site is just a joke" statements taking away some of the site's punch. No fault of Crispin's though. Blame those lawyers.
Burger King had its Subservient Chicken. Now some pro-Kerry people who may or may not be involved with MoveOn.org have created Subservient President. Just like Subservient Chicken, you can tell the president to do things like, oh, find Osama Bin Laden. it's funny...for a few minutes. Via Rick Bruner.
UPDATE: Tig Tillinghast over at MarketingVOX interviewed the site's creator and has the backstory.
Urinal advertising has been around for some time but now it's taking a step in a new direction from a company called AllOver Media which has placed 65 video monitors above urinals in the Twin Cities area.
Today, the IAB and MediaPost Communications announced a call for entries for their first-ever interactive advertising awards program, honoring excellence in interactive marketing and advertising. Titled the "Online Media, Marketing and Advertising Awards" or "OMMAs" the program will celebrate the creative teams and agencies that continue to push the creative potential of Interactive advertising. The gala awards ceremony will be held on September 21, 2004, the second night of Interactive Advertising World (IAW) and Advertising Week in New York City at the IAW event site - the Hudson Theatre at the Millennium Hotel in New York. A special website for the awards is live at www.omma-awards.com.
At a recent Jupiter Media Advertising Forum, agency and search engine marketer types traded barbs regarding whether agencies know enough about search engine marketing to properly serve their clients. According to one SEM executive, they do not. Wahlstrom Interactive Director of Market Development and Worldwide Agency Relations (how big is your firm, Kevin?) Kevin Ryan quoted one as saying, "Agencies don't get it. They just don't get it, and they never will." Aside from some interactive agencies, most don't know or don't care to know about search engine marketing. Why? Because it's a hell of a lot harder to do than old school advertising. And like anything, change comes slowly.
This is exacerbated by the standard agency practice of pretending to know how to do everything rather than acknowledging limitations and outsourcing what they can't do. Why? Because an agency can make more money if you claim to be able to do it yourself. It's a short sighted solution though. Just as media is fragmenting, so are the multitude of skillsets required to manage an effective marketing campaign.
Like a "blankie" being pulled away from a baby, Russians have had the guilty pleasure of beer advertising removed from their lives - at least from 6AM to 10PM. That's the gist of a new law due to be signed by Vladimir Putin sometime next week. In Russia, beer ads account for ten percent of television ad revenues amounting to potential loss of $1.4 billion.
"Attractive, obsessive and aggressive beer advertising makes it extremely attractive for consumption," Duma's Security Committee head Vladimir Vasilyev told parliament on Saturday. Well, yes, Vladimir. That's sort of the main idea about advertising - to make people want to buy stuff.
The law will prohibit images of people or animals in ads and requires 10 percent of ad space to be devoted to health warnings. Additionally, beer ads may not appear on the front or back covers of magazines and may not appear inside sports arenas and cultural institutions. Looks like we'll be seeing a lot of boring, all text ads buried in newspapers or perhaps Google will see a spike in its Russian AdWords business.
Needless to say, beer advertisers are pissed. Association of Communication Agencies President Vladimir (is everyone in Russia named Vladimir?) Yevstafyev reacted to the law saying, "This is barbarity, wild and irresponsible petty tyranny. This is nothing but cheap populism."
Following the fragrance industry's tactic of attacking olfactory senses with magazine "Smell-O-Rama" ads, Volvo is placing a spread ad in Car and Driver, Road and Track and Motor Trend which will include a smell strip with the scent of burnt rubber. The headline of the ad will read, "The invigorating new fragrance from Volvo." Please don't let Septic Tank companies in on this one.
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