Continuing its streak of alternative advertising methods and to promote Virgin Atlantic's Upper Class Suite, Crispin Porter + Bogusky has created a ten minute video, called "Suite & Innocent," filled with every conceivable porn double entendre in existence from bad acting to character names like Miles High and Summer Turbulence to cheesy dialog like "seven more inches" of legroom and orgasmic "oh, oh, oh" pronunciations of the number of zeros on million dollar check.
The video is being distributed, appropriately, on the LodgeNet Entertainment Corporation Adult Desires pay-per-view hotel channel.
In January of 2006, Howard Stern will finally be able to legally tell the FCC to fuck off. That's when Stern will move to censor-free Sirius satellite radio taking a five year, $500 million deal.
With just 600,000 subscribers, Sirius has a fraction of Stern's current 12 million listener base but his move is sure to quickly and dramatically increase that figure. While this may be a welcome move for both Stern and Sirius, the censorship of commercial radio actually added to the allure of the show. Many times, it's what we can't say and can't see that makes those things all the more desirable. With everything hanging out on satellite, the desire may be less potent.
AOL, still, sadly, trying to convince consumers they are the best channel through which to experience the Internet, will debut a new campaign and new logo tomorrow in The New York Times, Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. MarketingVOX notes the tagline has not yet been finalized and is being bandied about like a hockey puck among senior execs.
Capitalizing on the explosion of weblogs and the rapid growth of RSS, SBC has launched Project D.U. (digital universe), a desktop RSS reader populated by feeds from weblogs in six categories. Believed to be the first branded RSS reader that comes complete with pre-loaded content, Project D.U. was developed to bring unique and different voices, along with SBC's brand of course, to a wider audience. With Yahoo's recent embrace of RSS in its new My Yahoo, RSS is fast becoming the preferred mode of information dissemination on the Internet.
Project D.U. was conceived by Dallas-based TracyLocke Director of Digital Initiatives Todd Copelvitz. Prominent bloggers in the six categories were approached and recruited by yours truly (to whom money was paid) along with others at TracyLocke. We tried to identify blogs with strong personal voice like Tony Pierce's Busblog and blogs with focused subject matter like David Hauslaib's Jossip or Jessi and Tom's Big Bad Boat Blog.
Project D.U. users can add their favorite rss feeds as well.
Obviously, SBC intends to garner broad brand recognition and sell some product from this effort and there's no shame in that. What's unique is the project's win-win position providing long term branding for SBC, unique and different information for consumers and increased notoriety for those bloggers participating in the project. Participating bloggers are paid a small fee in exchange for Project D.U. pulling their RSS feed and adhering to minor guidelines. TracyLocke expects about 500,000 downloads of the reader by early 2005.
Following its recent price hike and not to be outdone by Budweiser who just jumped in the Starbucks sandbox with its new caffeine-laden BB beer, Starbucks is now teaming with Jim Beam to create a line of Starbucks-branded liquor to be sold at retail and in bars. We're certainly intrigued by this trend of conflicting drugs ripping our insides apart as the urge to pass out battles the urge to jump up and down like a coke-addled teenager heading back to class after snorting line or two in the bathroom. And yes, this news was originally announced back in April but a trend really isn't a trend unless there's two so forgive us our desire to manufacture.
Back in the day before Red Bull and all of its imitators, we always wished there was a beer that would do more than put us to sleep. We even double fisted coffee and beer from time to time to combat the overwhelming urge to pass out. Now, a brewer has finally heeded our call and added drugs...uh...caffeine to beer. Budweiser is rolling out BE beer which contains caffeine, guarana and ginsing. Now, those who choose to get drunk on beer can now do it wide awake while experiencing caffeine-induced heart palpitations.
A series about four housewives in the suburbs didn't sound so exciting initially but after Sunday's series premiers of ABC's Desperate Housewives, it seems there's a lot of people who want a peek into America's Suburbia. The premiere, watched by 21.3 million, was ABC's best in eight years and the highest rated new series of the season.
Getting paid $12 million to star in a two hour Hollywood movie is common. Not so common is a $12 million pay check to appear in a two minute ad.
Chanel No. 5 is paying Nicole Kidman a rumored $12 million to appear in the company's Australian ad campaign wearing $42 million worth of jewelry all to promote a tiny little bottle of perfume. Baz Luhrmann, who directed Kidman in Moulin Rouge, directed the three day shoot. Two minutes - $12 million. Just let that sink in for a few.
