Dallas/Fort Worth talk radio station KLIF is manufacturing its own controversy having created a low-budget, terrorism-focused, self-promotional TV spot that area broadcasters then declined to accept. The station is promoting the spot on its website. Tom at The Media Drop suggest KLIF, knowing the spot would likely be banned, should have released the ad through viral channels rather than attempt to place it traditionally. Oddly, KLIF will achieve it's goals anyway as the banning receives media coverage.
Amid visuals of happy family life which quickly shift to images of explosions, a suicide bomber and Osama Bin Laden, the spot's voiceover says, "There are people in this world who want you dead. We need to talk." While being promoted as "banned," The Dallas Morning Herald is reporting Comcast cable will accept an edited version of the spot that removes a baby targeted by a gun sight. Drama in Dallas. More at 11.
Looking more like some kind of elaborate mobile bedpan for geriatrics, and perhaps the reason behind its strange name, IKEA has introduced a new work bench for kids called FartFull. It's either ingenious marketing to bathroom humor-fixated kids or some form of odd Swedish language barrier.
Either masochistically begging for torture or playing a sick joke on the public for its SNL lip synch debacle bashing, Ashlee Simpson, again, proved she's destined for a career that doesn't involve opening her mouth. During last night's Orange Bowl half time show, Simpson did, unfortunately, open her mouth, without the help of backing vocals, to a stunned Miami Pro Player Stadium audience and was handed a very loud chorus of boos as she painfully finished singing.
One viewer writes, "No lip-synching. This time she decided to sing. The performance was horrendous and the tens of thousands of people at the Orange Bowl in Florida consequently booed as loud as they could afterwards. I certainly hope this is the end of this no-talent fraud!" If Simpson isn't smart enough to realize it's time to give it up, perhaps her manager father might now have the balls or, at least, the sympathy to remove her from further public humiliation. Of course, we're sure to hear an endless litany of excuses as to why she couldn't sing properly or perhaps the Simpson clan will come clean and admit sister Jessica's been doing backing vocals for Ashlee all along. Either way, it's time for Joe Simpson to stop pimping Ashlee and go back to being her Dad.
View the painfully horrifying clip here here.
The Delmarva Group has launched CIO Podcast, a daily audio "broadcast" targeted to chief information officers and other information technology professionals. It's what CIO Magazine should have launched but with Podcasting still in nascent development, it's not surprising larger publishers haven't jumped aboard. Podcasts are mp3 audio files delivered via rss which makes it very easy for both publishers to offer content and for people to consume content. Setting up a podcast is very easy and similar to recording a radio program.
Most companies could benefit from having their content available in additional formats and we all know many people find it easier to listen to content as opposed to reading it. Advertisers can sponsor podcasts in a fashion similar to radio sponsorship and advertising. With increased reliance on digital devices such as cell phones, MP3 players and PDAs for content, people will rely less on traditional content channels such as television and radio. Podcasting is a method to stay with these people as they move from the old to the new.
BURST! Media, an ad network, has launched an weblog sub-channel which includes Gawker Media sites Gawker, Wonkette and Defamer as well as the blogs BlueLemur, CelebCourthouse and 2WallsWebzine. Kyocera Wireless is the first advertiser to to use the channel.
Drunken Stepfather points us to a new site from Bacardi called BacardiLive.
In a video, the characters "Bacardi" and "Cola," introduce "Diet Coke," a little guy who pumps up the benefits of Diet Coke to two sultry ladies at a party. The skit is just a small part of the site which let's you step inside the world of Bacardi with music pumped in while games, sweepstakes, Bacardi-gras, gorgeous Bacardi gallery girls and a bit of Fat Joe are enjoyed. Recently, Bacardi also launched PlanetParty - a virtual nightclub and human party behavior information site for aliens.
The site is engaging enough to warrant some time spent fooling around which, in the long run, is all good. As you radio buyers know, high TSL is a very good thing.
While stage moms don't need any more ammunition to make them even more overbearing and freakishly obsessive about their children, Fairchild Publications is going to make that possible with the launch of its new Cookie magazine. Cookie, billed as "The Magazine for Sophisticated Parents," is a style and shopping magazine filled with all sorts of fashionable items no kid actually needs but will help parents play Barbie using their kids.
The magazine hopes to offer parents information to dress their children in classic style, help them eat exotic foods and surround them with great design. Well, at least it might keep the kids out of McDonald's.
Bunny McIntosh of Melting Dolls has the solution for preventing teen sex and all the dangers that come with it. She's created an ad telling teens to turn to cyber sex rather than flesh and bone to release their sexual urges. Since AOL brought chat to the masses, unleashing the over-sexed freaks of the world upon unsuspecting teens, cyber sex has become a mainstay. Until now, it's been a scary prospect for parents. Now, it has a purpose. Perhaps now, parents will even encourage their teen children to experience a little extra bliss locked in their rooms behind their computer screen, one hand on the keyboard, the other somewhere else.
Promoting safe and healthy masturbatorial pleasure, the ad mirrors the preachy, anti-drug campaign tone with a visual of a smiling teen who says, in body copy, "I'm choosing cyber sex. Cyber sex is a safe alternative to intercourse. No STD's, no babies, no pressure. Just a 40 year old man in is grandma's basement who likes to tell me I'm pretty."
Sure it's a joke but it's also true. A little regular masturbation never hurt anybody. Full sized ad is here.
As a result of the "clueless Dad" backlash, we predict the next trend in advertising to be the "smart Dad" whose stunning wit and intelligence will out maneuver even the smartest, hippest, home/career juggling Mom. Currently, Verizon holds the "clueless Dad" award but the trend is years old and ripe for change. We eagerly await the advertiser who can make Dad look smart, Mom look "un-smart" and do it without returning women to their place next to the Refrigerator as they were often shown.
While we're sure we won't be seeing a spot called, "Get Me A Beer, Bitch" from Budweiser, perhaps we'll see a new form of advertising emerge which goes for something other than the lowest common denominator and portrays people as real human beings with intelligence rather than the buffoons they, more often than not, appear to be in many ads. Making someone look dumb is the simplest way to get a laugh and the fastest way to make the viewer feel superior to the poor loser in the ad. Verizon and others who employ the "clueless Dad" and the general "people are idiots" creative strategy should be ashamed of themselves. Of course, tomorrow, we'll probably have a story poking fun at some cause group who can't see the humor in Hardee's surely-to-be-seen-soon busty babe on a pogo stick forcing men to drop to their knees and drool ad for their new five pound Mondo Chicken Breast Burger.
In a nod to the ever dwindling ability of people to pay attention to anything longer than the time it takes a teenage boy to...oh, we've used that one before, Cadillac, on January 15, will launch a series of five second commercials to illustrate the speed of its cars which can accelerate from zero to 60 in that short time. The ads include a voiceover which says, "How fast? That Fast."
Cadillac Marketing Director Jay Spenchian explains saying, "The whole idea is to attract the attention of those who hadn't considered Cadillac until this point. This is a dramatic way of getting their attention." As usual, Joan Claybrook, president of joy-killing Public Citizen has complained the ads glorify speed and are off target saying, "Middle-aged people don't need it, and younger people can't afford these cars." Well, at least she's not being politically correct.
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