We're about a week behind on this but, according to Google, it ain't news yet. So we're going to help make it news by telling you that the Writers Guild of America, West, some of whom work as reality TV writers, has launched Subservient Donald, part of Product Invasion and yet another take on the now famous Subservient Chicken. The Guild, which recently called for a code of conduct to govern product placement on television and require disclosure during credits, are behind Product Invasion which is an attack on the insanity of television product placement. Subservient Donald is a humorous take on the topic featuring a Donald Trump look-a-like who spouts product-laden snark in reaction to various commands. Let's see what kind of link-fest this thing cooks up.
Sling Media is promoting its Slingbox, a device that connects to cable, satellite and DVR devices and allows for watching TV on a remote, Internet-connected computer anywhere in the world or in the next room, with a humorous spot, created by Hub Strategy, set in a church. While watching a football game during a funeral, the comments made by the guy in the spot don't quite mix with the tone of the service until all the other church goers chime in thinking the guy is commenting on the deceased rather than the game he's watching on his laptop.
Commercial aside, this Slingbox is very, very cool. For $250 and no monthly fee, you can view and control your home TV from anywhere in the world.
There's never a lack of ad babes peering, longingly, out of magazine ad pages luring guys into buying things they really don't need so it's without surprise that we find both been-there-done-that Paris Hilton and IndyCar babe Danica Patrick meeting our eyeballs as we flip though the December issue of GQ, which, by the way was a multi cover issue on which Jennifer Anniston appeared semi-nude but we, unfortunately, ended up with the Vince Vaughn version. Come on, Jim. You read Adrants. You know what we like. Send a memo to the circulation department, stat!
 Paris, who, hands down, has the best "do me" look, is in GQ hawking her Paris Hilton For Men fragrance. Oddly, the container looks like a lipstick wand so we're doubtful too many men will actually be seen buying or using this stuff. Danica, who has the more girl-next-door, wholesome look, except here, is smirking for TISSOT Swiss Watches. The ad carries the headline, "A Woman's Touch...in a Man's World," which appropriately, references her place in the male dominated world of car racing.
So in terms of which ad does a better job selling its product, without doubt, the award goes to Danica Patrick's TISSOT ad. It's a product an actual man would actually buy and Patrick's demeanor, at least in this ad, is far more tangible and realistic that Paris Hilton's airy, empty, vacuous persona seen here.
This is just weird but it was intriguing enough to watch until the end which , given our ADD-addled brain, says a lot. There's really nothing that exciting about watching a guy boil hot dogs until you realize its not the hot dogs he really wants. Oh, and it's all to promote Steve's Word (no, not this Steve), a "prurient sophomoric gratuitously smut-ridden humor site."
OK, OK. You million dollar homepage freaks have finally forced us to take notice of your silly, ridiculous, money-making schemes. We held out as long as we could, ignoring your idiocy but you've hooked us this time, tapping our weakness. For those who have been living under the proverbial rock, million dollar homepages sell individual pixels on a webpage to advertisers stupid enough to believe anyone will actually see their ad. Well, Million Pixel Booty is taking a similar approach but is luring advertisers and viewers with the time-tested, sex sells strategy and have offered up a hottie's ass on which to place ads.
So you got us. You got your press. Happy? Now go away and go back to suckering stooges with your dopey schemes.
Back in August, it was noted satellite provider DISH, copying Half.com's renaming of Halfway, Oregon and fifties radio show Truth or Consequences' renaming of Hot Springs, New Mexico, was on the prowl for a town that would rename itself DISH. Yesterday, it was announced Dish had finally found a town desperate enough for the money to take the company up on its offer. The 373 residents of Clark, Texas have agreed to rename their town DISH, Texas in exchange for $440,477 and ten years worth of free basic satellite service. As Sploid notes, "In a few years, when DISH Network has been consumed by some other satellite/entertainment monster, the children of DISH may wonder why their town has such a stupid name."
Currently, these efforts are limited to stealth efforts with small towns simply for their press value. With the continued proliferation of advertising into every conceivable corner of life, it's not out of the realm of possibility that Microsoft, five years down the road facing defeat by Google, might approach a city the size of, say Boston, and offer up a few million or billion for naming rights.
Josh Mooney from Juxt tells us his agency recently launched a teen girl focused dynamic desktop application, called up2d8, for its client, Target. The application allows anyone to splash the Target brand all over their desktop along with photos, calendars, videos, contest, polls and Target products. Maybe it's just us but we can't remember the last time we saw our desktop what with all the open programs - which completely cover our desktop - required to actually do anything with a computer. but as we said, that's just us. Oh, and we're not teenagers anymore. Nice work, though.
In late September we began receiving links to a site called Great Pointed Archer which positioned itself as a save/rename the rat cause site. They even sent us T-shirts. Of course we immediately figured it was a front for something else but the folks behind the site held fast and insisted it was simply an effort to be nice to rats. Sure. Well, as expected, it was a ploy. Today, an Adrants reader went to a Great Pointed Archer rally in Manhattan and reports it is, in fact, just a stealth marketing effort by a PR firm who, he figured, wishes they were an advertising firm. At least that's what we've been told We're tracking down the details.
UPDATE: According to Alex from Museum of Hoaxes, this same claim that a rally occurred in Manhattan was received by him. Our sense is it really is just a stealth stunt by some entity who is playing all of us to some final purpose which, at some point, will be revealed making us all look foolish.
Created in June, this Axe news-report-mocking video about a fictitious Alaskan town that used Axe deodorant to attract women because the town had none, has finally found a home beyond the bits and bytes of the viral highway. The video will be central to an interactive television campaign running on Comcast ITV's Cartoon Network Swim Block and will consist of a news banner that runs along the bottom of programming which, if clicked, leads to the video.
Newly researched, MarketingSherpa's Email Marketing Benchmark Guide 2006 is out and includes 310 charts, tables, and heatmaps featuring data on open rates, clickthrough rates, email budgeting, typical conversion rates, business-to-business email marketing, and ecommerce email campaigns. Seven eyetracking heatmaps are also included which reveal the results of eyetracking lab tests conducted by MarketingSherpa to determine how the human eye interacts with email, including text versus HTML formats.
For you email marketers, this is the bomb. Oops, we can't say that because we're only , so we'll just say, "You gotta get this report, homies!" Oh wait, that's not right either. Let's try, "This report kicks ass!" Hmm...too blunt too eighties. How about, "Get this report and you'll be counting clicks all the way to the bank." Nope. Way too cheesy. Well, perhaps we'll just say, "If your marketing department sends out email newsletters and/or sales alerts, the new MarketingSherpa Email Marketing Benchmark Guide 2006 is a practical must-read." There. That's it. When in doubt, just copy what the press release says.
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