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The Truth About Starbucks

Ever wonder why the "f**k" Starbucks calls a small coffee a Tall? Some little midget-toon does and dishes it out in this video to a Starbucks (or Star-Schmucks as it's called here) barista and customer calling the whole experience "physiological marketing trickery." Claiming "Venti" isn't even a word, little midget-toon says it just an underhanded strategy to make you feel all sophisticated so you don't feel like an idiot when you part with the five dollars to buy one. After even more verbal abuse, he tells the dude to go choke on a biscotti.

by Steve Hall    Apr-20-04    




McDonald's Names New CEO

Following the sudden death of McDonald's CEO Jim Cantalupo on the eve of the fast food company's annual franchisee meeting in Orlando, Florida, McDonald's Board Members moved quickly and named former President and COO Charlie Bell the new CEO. Bell, 43, was being groomed for the position and has held McDonalds president positions for McDonald's Europe, Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa.

by Steve Hall    Apr-20-04    




Fosters 'Foreplay' Isn't What It Seems

In this viral video for Fosters, things are not always what the seem - to the dismay of this woman.

by Steve Hall    Apr-20-04    




Agency Creatives Speak Out On IAmJack

There's a new rant in town. This time, it's from the creative side of the business. It's always been known that agency creatives are sometimes pegged as egotistical and snobby. Usually, this is not true. They are perceived that way because many people do not understand the creative process that goes into the development of an effective ad campaign.

Rather than attempt to explain the process, I'll let the creatives speak for themselves. This website, IAmJack, has been registered since January 16, 2003 but this is the first I've heard of it. While it has every bit of attitude you might expect from the typical creative, it also gets it's point across quite strongly,
"Humans are exposed to thousands of impressions every day. So your little ad with the 20% bigger logo and the headline that could have--but didn't--risk offending three people out of a thousand sits there like the useless waste of ink or airspace it truly is. Right next to hundreds of other wasted ad dollars."

The site lets creatives write a message to anyone who ever killed one of their creative ideas. IAmJack will pass the message along anonymously and direct the recipient to IAmJack. There's a video clip that gets the point across quite well. The simple tagline says it all, "You Make The Widgets. We'll Make The Ads."

Take that you suits.

thanks to Alec Long for sending this along.

by Steve Hall    Apr-20-04    




Johnny Walker Graces World's Widest Billboard

Airport Media has unveiled the world's largest billboard spanning across four lanes at the entrance to the Johannesburg International Airport. The charter advertiser is Johnny Walker. This board boots Coca Cola's London Piccadilly Circus billboard out of the top spot. The Guinness Book of World Records is on the scene. Via Cherryflava.

by Steve Hall    Apr-20-04    




Jeff Jarvis Proposes The Citizen's Media Association

I sat in a session at BloggerCon led by Advance.net President Jeff Jarvis. During the session. we discussed ways in which weblogs, or more broadly, media created by individual citizens, could advance their cause. Many needs were discussed but they all boiled down for the need for an association to tie it all together. Called "The Citizen's Media Association," Jarvis puts forth the tenets of such an associtation which you can read about here. Briefly, they include the need for concrete statistics on the size of the industry segment, standards, legal protection and promotion.

by Steve Hall    Apr-20-04    




Coors Sued For Glamorizing Alcohol, Killing Teen

Coors Twins Kill Teens?

Jodie Pisco of Reno Nevada filed a lawsuit last Wednesday accusing Coors of "glorifying a culture of youth, sex and glamour while hiding the dangers of alcohol abuse and addiction" which led to the death of her son. Heavy stuff for Coors founder Peter Coors to deal with as he makes a bid for congress.

Pisco's son, Ryan, was killed in 2002 after drinking Coors beer at a party and driving his girlfriend's car into a light post at 90 MPH. It's not all about Coors though. The suit also names Ryan Pisco's girlfriend and her mother. Apparently, Pisco's girlfriend let him drive her car that her mother gave to her even though he did not have a driver's license.

The lawsuit looks at Coors highly successful ad campaign featuring the "Coors Twins" which began airing during the 2002-2003 NFL season and has been credited with increased product sales. As the nation experiences a backlash ignited by Janet Jackson's boob baring incident at this tear's Super Bowl, beer advertising will continue to come under the gun for its envelope pushing stunts. That said, there has been a noticeable "toning down" of beer commercial content lately that started with the demise of Miller Brewing Cat Fight campaign.

by Steve Hall    Apr-19-04    




Political Ad Campaigns Tested With Brain Sensors

The Drudge Report has a scoop on a page one story the New Times plans to run on Tuesday. Written by reporter John Tierney, the story will, reportedly, explore the future of political ad campaign development as illustrated by a UCLA study that shoved subjects inside an MRI machine to measure blood flow to the brain as they watch commercials. According to the study, Republican ads create a different blood flow than Democratic ads.

The study found Democrats showed more blood flow to the fear sensing portion of the brain than Republicans when shown images of 9/11. One researcher stretched claiming this to indicate Democrats see 9/11 as a plus for Bush and that scares them. One could also assume that Democrats are just wimps and are easily scared by anything.

As Drudge says, developing...

by Steve Hall    Apr-19-04    




Sam's 'The Apprentice' Finale Suitcase Stunt A Product Placement for Samsonite

As if to prove his business acumen, Sam Solovey's offer to Donald Trump of $250,000 in a Samsonite suitcase during the final episode was, not unsurprisingly, a planned (by Samsonite, not NBC) product placement. Sam explains, "I gave them about a half-a-million-dollar ad spot on national TV. They won't let me say a darn thing, but I will say that the briefcase was promptly shipped in from the lovely Samsonite corporation." NBC is a bit upset they didn't get their cut from the deal.

by Steve Hall    Apr-19-04    




Christina Aguilera Gets Naked For Virgin Mobile

Britney strips during her concerts and Christina Aguilera strips for advertising photo shoots. And so it goes, the pushing of the advertising envelope. Aguilera will reportedly appear nude in an upcoming ad for Virgin Mobile. Aside from the oddity of having a nude model in an ad for a company with the word virgin in it, the hottie has requested that the ad shoot be a closed set so she can reveal herself to as few people as possible. Perhaps Aguilera hasn't realized that ads appear in magazines and millions of people see them.

by Steve Hall    Apr-19-04    




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