The Wall Street Journal summarizes technological advances occuring in the outdoor advertising industry. From boards that change message based on the radio station playing in passing cars to techniques that manage entire billboard inventories wirelessly, the medium is going through dramatic changes that will potentially catapault it upward in popularity among advertisisers.
As more and more people ignore spam, block pop up ads and go to the bathroon during commercials, outdoor is poised to make a strong resurgence.
 Richard Dreyfuss In their usual leftist manner, Hollywood celebrity are lining up against President Bush in an ad campaign accusing Bush of skirting the Bill of Rights. With the headline, 'I am Not an American', Richard Dreyfuss, Michael Stip, Kurt Vonnegut, Samuel L Jackson, Al Pacino, Martin Sheen and Kristin Davis appear in black and white print ads as part of the $3 million campaign which claims Bush has toyed with the Bill of Rights to suit his needs in response to terrorism.
As further evidence of internet culture merging with the mainstream, the Sci-Fi Channel is tonight launching a 12 episode series, called Headf**ck, that is based around the most entertaining and extreme viral films and animations. They are still looking for submissions to include in the series, so if anyone has any suggestions please send them to tanya@maverickmedia.co.uk. More info here.
Emmy Award-winning actor John Ritter, who gained fame playing bumbling and lovable characters in two television comedies decades apart, has died, a representative said early Friday morning.
Ritter collapsed on Thursday evening while filming '8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter,' the ABC television comedy which had reinvigorated his career and was a centerpiece of the network's upcoming fall season.
And 8 Simple Rules was just beginning to show promise. Very sad to see this man go.
Filtered Pall Mall, one of the fastest growing cigarette brands in the last decade, is enhancing its advertising with a new design, font and brand identifier.
According to Bruce Coley, brand director for Pall Mall at Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation, research shows that the new look conveys an upscale image for the brand, aligning the brand's advertising with the premium tobacco product.
"The improved advertising is an evolutionary step for Filtered PALL MALL," he said. "The new brand identifier and advertising complements the high- quality product and premium perception the brand has among consumers."
Launched in 2001, Filtered PALL MALL quickly grew to be one of the most successful brand launches by any of the major U.S. tobacco manufacturers in the last 10 years. Filtered PALL MALL provides adult smokers with the premium attributes of a smoother, slower burning cigarette that lasts longer than other major cigarette brands without the premium price.
Smokers can now feel even better about dying from cancer.
 "Please Mister Airbrusher, It HurtsWhen You Bend My Back That Way" Now we have to hear about that Kiss all over again. The latest issue of Rolling Stone features Britney Spears on the cover in fully air-brushed form and in what has to be a wig. Who really cares though. She's hot and that's all that seems to matter these days.
Nice ass. Nice boobs. Cute face. Sure, we'll put you on the cover of our magazine. No problem. Got a new album? Oh, that's good too. In the article Britney reacts to those who think she's going down Christina's road saying, "I'm not gonna come out on this record and show my crotch or anything. That's not me. I would never do anything like that. It's all in the way you do stuff, all in the way you carry things. The music is most important to me."
Recently, she headlined the NFL Kick Off Show singing one of the songs from her new album. Fans were less than thrilled. Again, who cares. Nice ass. Nice boobs. Cute face.
According to the last paragraph of a Women's Wear Daily article about Gawker Editor Elizabeth Spiers who "appears to have turned her ability to spout bitchy, witty takedowns of trucker hats and Soho House into a plum job", publisher Nick Denton has plans to launch a Los Angeles version of Gawker. Spiers, who launched Gawker with Denton late last year, has taken a gig at New York magazine cowriting the Intelligencer column.
Spiers says she will continue to write for Gawker but Denton has placed Choire Sicha in place as new editor for the time being. Sicha was originally slated to edit Denton's yet-to-be launched porn weblog, Fleshbot.
So Elizabeth's off on a potentially succesful jouranlism carreer. Usually that's all good. But when people make it, someone always has to shit all over them. Depressing
 Rethink The Cool Social activist, Adbusters, has launched a viral campaign to introduce a new sneaker called blackSpot and to "uncool" Nike in the process.
With the tagline, "Rethink the Cool", Adbusters plans to use billboards , TV ads and a viral blackSpot campaign calling for millions of black spot stickers to be placed all over the country.
Adbusters has even put out a "marketing plan" and sales projections comparing blackSpot to Reebok, Adidas, Nike and New Balance over the next three years. According to their website, they already have 499 pre-orders for the shoes. This just stinks of a joke but if it is real and it works, it will be quite cool.
 Not Now Honey, I'm Readingthe Paper This week from Amy Corr's MediaPost Out to Launch column, The Orange County Register is begging and pleading with 25-35 year old to read its newspaper. In the face of declining readership, particularly among younger people, newspapers are facing an uphill battle. This campaign hopes to illustrate to this group the benefits of taking a few minutes out of their crazy schedule to enjoy the newspaper.
Other new campaigns this week include a spot for FedEx that broke during Monday Night Football, Justin Timberlake's McDonald's spot, a Freedom campaign from the Advertising Council, an Amica salesman who meets a drifting castaway in the middle of the ocean to sell him insurance, another insurance campaign from Wausau, and Kraft and Nabisco get together with a 'Win a Sports Star' promotion.
 I Need A Break The 'Tired' is the new Yuppie. Tired stands for Thirtysomething Independent Radical Educated Drop-out. Aside from being a mouthful, the term attempts to describe a segment that is bored with modern life and thinks marketing is a bunch of crap.
The term comes from London public relations firm The Fish Can Sing. Managing Partner Howard Beale says tireds seek to a life with less demand and deeper reward with a certain avoidance of mainstream commercialism. In short, they have pulled the plug and "turned off" the daily marketing scream.
While this has been researched as a phenomenon in India and South Asia, its relevance to America can been seen as well. Many thirtysomethings just don't want to have anything to do with the marketing blather that accost them on a daily basis.
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