'Smug Little Twit' Mac Guy Gets Heaved From Apple Campaign

In reaction to an apparent country-wide disdain for Apple's Mac Guy in its current campaign, the company will not ask Mac Guy Justin Long back for the next iteration of the campaign. Calling the Mac Guy a "smug little twit," Slate ad critic Seth Stevenson think Apple is "parodying its own image while also cementing it." This is what passes for big news in our industry. Next

Tuesday ad:tech Parties Smaller

As it turned out, there were quite a few parties Monday night at ad:tech. Most were small affairs or private company company cocktail/dinner parties. iMediaconnection's Masha Gellar and I seemed to be on the same path visiting a party for German ad serving/email marketing company ADTECH who recently opened a U.S. office, a party celebrating the tenth anniversary of Internet marketing and training company Laredo Group and the Adotas ad:tech VIP dinner.

The ADTECH party was held on the 43rd floor of the Hilton hotel and while I don't know much about this company, I can say the representatives from the company were some of the nicest people I've met in the business. The Laredo Group party was held at old school Friar's Club where very old men passed food and reacted appropriately when one person said he didn't want one of those penis in a blanket things. You had to be there.

more »

No, Even Second Lifers Aren't Safe from Reality TV

If for some odd reason you can't get enough of reality TV with actual human beings, get your fill in cyber-world. Now you can join Big Brother Second Life.

We were trying to decide whether it would be as funny to watch little digital people act like total morons in real-time and we concluded that, based on how much excitement there was when people found out Sims could have sex, yes, this concept will probably do just fine. - Contributed by Angela Natividad

Egypt Joins List of 'Internet Enemies,' US Isn't Too Great Either

Reporters without Borders released its 2006 list of "internet enemies," comprised of countries that stifle free speech. Placeholders include China, which reigns supreme in 'net surveillance and censorship and blocks "subversive word strings."

Cuba was also a mainstay. Private internet connections are banned. To get online Cubans visit public cafes, universities and computer clubs. These networks trigger the police when subversive keywords are spidered.

Egypt was a new inclusion for 2006. While they don't do much censoring, several bloggers were recently arrested for rallying for democratic reform. Other bloggers are regularly harassed and websites can be closed if they're suspected of threatening national security.

And apparently the US ranks 53rd in terms of press liberty in general. Finland is #1. But do the Finns actually have anything interesting to report? They're not really big "conflict" people. - Contributed by Angela Natividad

Jeep Compass Promotes with Bobble Heads, Bad Singing

Apparently a major incentive to owning a Compass is creative license to sing real badly. Make your own musical avatars and wreak havoc everywhere you go with such cult classics as "Borderline" and "Hey Mickey" while your moody-looking Compass bobble-head nods cheerfully to something people wouldn't even cry to.

Yeah. We know. You're dying for a Compass now. - Contributed by Angela Natividad

Tiny Technologies Aim Big at ad:tech

ad:tech's Now and Next Technology Showcase was filled with a collection of small, upstart companies that are providing niche and new products catering to the drastically changing media landscape. One company, adhoc mobile, works with content publishers, brands and mobile service providers to bring marketer's messaging to multiple mobile applications, text and games. Snapse has launched a video creation platform that provides people tools to draw from multiple online video sources in a streaming fashion to create real-time, custom videos. Marketers can create custom video vignettes which users of the service can integrate into their personally created videos. Believe me, it's way cooler than I'm describing it.

Another very cool offering launching today, called MiNGGL, provides a browser toolbar that allows people to bring together their multiple social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook, edit them, share them and basically take the headache out of dealing with more than one social media site. It's ad supported and therefore may not be welcomed with open arms by the MySpaces of the world since the service's ads appear in the same browser window as the social media site's ads do but it's a killer app for anyone who has more than one networking site.

Study In: Donkey Ads Are Long, Bitchy & Excitable

Rimm-Kaufman Group released a study about the difference between pay-per-click ads proffered by both sides of the election. Some findings are below. Oh, and we're going to call the Republicans and Democrats Elephants and Donkeys because the animal names are funnier than the euphemisms:

- Political advertisers prefer Google to Yahoo. (We always thought that was just a universal preference)

- Elephant and anti-Donkey ads outnumber pro-Donkey and anti-Elephant two-to-one

- Donkey ads are three times more likely to be negative than red ads

- No campaigns reference Bush

- Donkey ads are longer than Elephant ads

- Donkey ads are more likely to include exclamations; Elephants favour provocative questions

We'd conclude this political digression with something trite but meaningful like, "God, can't wait until this day is over," except we'll probably just drink ourselves to oblivion like any other night. Cheers and may the best heels win. - Contributed by Angela Natividad

"Dancing with the Stars" Demo Consists Mostly of Women, Old People

Yeah, what a shocker.

Some suspect this demographic skew may be partly because attending a live taping means getting dressed up - not, like, $200 jeans and flip-flops dressed up but, like, sequins and silk shirts dressed up. But hey, any show that can get 200 grandmothers and Ron Jeremy in the same room has got to be doing something right. - Contributed by Angela Natividad

Viral Video Captures Battle Between Creator and Creative

Here's an interesting little piece about the meteoric struggle between the animator and the animated. Apparently it's #4 among the most viral videos du jour so there must be a lot of creative tension in the air.

Aw, hurting for inspiration that doesn't put up a fight? That's what conferences like ad:tech are for. You can't very well hallucinate alone. - Contributed by Angela Natividad

Scott Shoots for Funny - and Succeeds, but Not In the Way They Hope

A PR guy asked us to say something about Scott's Clog Clinic/Halftime Flush campaign but we had some trouble taking the e-mail seriously. And upon visiting the site we were disappointed to find it wasn't as funny as the e-mail. So we're going to not talk about it at all and post our favourite parts of the e-mail instead. Enjoy.

more »