- Wal-Mart CEO: I'm not a big fan of marketing. Oops, I meant advertising.
- It seems Microsoft might scoop up DoubleClick for a questionable $2 billion.
- More contextual foolishness. In a Herald Sun article about two Sudanese women getting stoned to death, an ad with a man and his son throwing stones appears. Don't you love the intelligence of computers?
- Michael Eisner has hooked up with MySpace which will broadcast his online series Prom Queen beginning April 2. Eighty ninety-second episodes will be released. Check out the teaser here.
- Musician Nathan Bennett has, in one day, written a song and created a video called On MySpace which thanks listeners for finding him on MySpace. He hopes to use it to promote himself.
- Even prostitutes advertise.
For all you lovers of Second Life, this Netherlands Kit Kat spot, created by UbachsWisbrun/JWT is just for you. So get off your ass. Turn off the laptop and get a Third Life...or at take a break with a Kit Kat bar.
Sears wants better "efficiency and effectiveness" in its media buying and, apparently, incumbent MindShare and MEC Interaction aren't delivering. A review for the $780 million piece of business will be opened. Aiming to complete the review by second quarter, the retail giant has not named the consultant that will handle the review nor the names of any considered agencies. At this point, Sears' creative agency Y&R Chicago seems to be on safe ground.
Continuing our support of the diversity in advertising cause, on May 16th, Business Development Institute in partnership with Boston University, The Ad Club, and Adrants will host the first annual Boston Advertising, Marketing and PR Industry Diversity Job Fair and Leadership Conference. The two-day event will be hosted by Boston University on May 15th and May 16th and will provide advertising, marketing and PR companies an opportunity to connect with today's up and coming minority job candidates in New England. A Networking Reception will take place the evening of May 15th and the morning of May 16th will consist of a Leadership Conference followed by the Job Fair.
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The International Fund for Animal Welfare launches a campaign under the banner "Will only words remain?" The idea is that if we don't start taking care of our furry little friends, we'll lose all but the memory. To correspond with this they're spreading actual words spelling out endangered animals. Here's a video of them creating a zebra-shaped zebra crossing in Amsterdam.
Unless they're also leaving educational brochures or at least a sad but eloquent zebra mascot nearby, we're not sure it quite gets the message across. And we feel a little guilty about thinking it would be kind of fun to walk across the word "zebra" - you know, it would be like playing hopscotch or walking down a warped crosswalk. There's something so Through the Looking Glass about that.
While trolling our usual palette of sites we were unpleasantly distracted by a Hellraiser-esque video of a girl affixing clothespins to her face. The ad gave us an unpleasant start and after clicking onward we found ourselves at Boredom Hurts, allegedly founded by Colin Padden, first to pin and air the latest (and perhaps most common) reason to pop pills: boredom.
Clicking on a beaker marked "Cure" (very "Eat me" a la Alice in Wonderland) reveals a timer counting down four more days until the latest alternative to Xanax is revealed. Can't wait to see what genius is behind this campaign. We hope it's not Vista again.
Adworld: the next Big Pharma? Everybody from Earthlink to P&G is trying to push a diagnosis for a product cocktail.
Update: an Adrants reader reports a "view source" check on the site reveals Ford URLs. Bleh. The boredom connection is apt.
Multicultural firm Burrell Communications Group conducted a study on current perceptions of Black History Month (February). At least 79 percent of those researched agree future generations should understand African-Americans' historical struggles, though the message of honouring these struggles doesn't resound as strongly for younger generations as in previous ones.
Black youth also have a different picture of black challenges, believing issues of racism and oppression are more covert today. They focus more on financial empowerment, battling crime, and educational advancement, and prefer for Black History Month to highlight current African-American accomplishments and issues.
63 percent of respondents also think companies' participation in Black History month helps enhance their image and are more likely to buy products and spread hype for those that tote black achievements.
So maybe Nissan's onto something. But we doubt it.
Three years ago, we said it might not be so surprising for an advertiser to place their logo on the side of a house. Now, a company called Riley, with help from new Durham-based agency The Republik, plans to "turn upscale homes into a media vehicle" by allowing manufacturers to purchase space for product placement within newly built homes. Eesh. And we thought E's 'The Simple Life' pink house promotion was bad.
If you're interested in hearing some of the most twisted, blubber-filled blather explaining and defending PayPerPost, the service that pays bloggers to write positive posts for advertisers with questionable disclosure, you'll love this interview Jason Calacanis did with PayPerPost CEO Ted Murphy. To hear Murphy say he has no problem reading a blog that contains paid posts that aren't disclosed as such and try to attach some kind of logic to it is one of the saddest moments in marketing history. PayPerPost has been a laughable business model from its start and to hear Murphy try to justify it is just painful and offensive. It's an affront to what limited credibility marketing still has in the eyes of people. Lines are already blurred enough and Murphy, it seems, wants lines to disappear completely.
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Who knew random laughter could be randomly mixed into a beatbox-style commercial? Well, the folks behind the Melbourne International Comedy Festival which will be held April 4-29, that's who. They even tied it together nicely with the tagline, "With comedy, timing is everything."
The commercial was created by Grey along with DJ Nick Thayer who mixed together the laughter of 50 people to create this beauty.
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