While Abercrombie & Fitch will explain it away as some sort of reverse psychology, others think the new alcohol themed t-shirts promote underage drinking. With slogans like "Sotally Tober," "If you can read this, you need another cocktail" and "Bad girls chug. Good girls drink quickly," there's no hiding the message. However, no kid is going to wear a shirt that says, "Gee, drinking is really bad. You shouldn't do it." At least these shirts might spark discussion about drinking and older folks ought to realize most kids aren't stupid enough to think A & F would promote drinking any more than they would promote Nazism.
While we passed this off as just another method to promote his book, Life After the 30-Second Spot, we have to admit this video, created by Joe Jaffe, about the television upfront is insightful and humorous pointing out the absurdity of the entire sell/buy dance agency buyers and networks sales rep perform each year. Give it a look. Have a laugh. Then get back to all those upfront meetings and parties you have scheduled this week.
HP has capitalized on the popularity of Gwen Stefani's fixation with Japanese Harajuku culture (fad?) and the Harajuku-styled girls that follow her around everywhere she goes by offering the special edition Photosmart R607 Harajuku Lovers Digital Camera by Gwen Stefani. It's the usual Americanization of a micro-culture that some say isn't even a culture at all. Tian has more on the whole Harajuku thing here.
This visually interesting ad, which mixes live action with animation, for the Peugeot 1007 follows a guy through his day as he bypasses life's obstacles such as an over crowded elevator, a long newsstand line, a rain storm, and a traffic jam. All to show how powerfully enabling a little car like the Peugeot 1007 can be.
A hilarious site containing a Ronco-style TV commercial in the vein of all those other agency spoofs, called, "Ad Guy Starter Kit," provides those wishing to become super cool ad guys a kit which includes a dickie, soul patch (chin hair), certificate of creativity, eight piece tchotchke desk set, coffee shop card, bagel with cream cheese and, yes, a Creanus Award. The site was created by Young Isaac, a Columbus, Ohio-based ad agency. Of course, it's all virally and you're supposed to send it off to all your ad buddies.
New York Times television critic Virginia Heffernan is on the scene this week live-blogging the upfronts. Tune in for her witty takes on Jeff Zucker. Imagine her rolling her eyes as Zucker's presentation pokes fun at last years flops, Hawaii, LAX and Father of the Pride. Read how she likens it to a parent slapping a kid. And wallow in the appearances of Tina Fey and Ming-Na, both pregnant, both promoting a new show called Inconceivable, in which a woman gets implanted with the wrong eggs. Wait. Pregnancy take nine months, right? How's that show going to get dragged out for five years?
Yesterday, Mario Marsicano stumbled upon a street promotion at Park and 53rd in New York City, part of a larger Degree In-Action Heroes promotion which involves the use of action heroes who do good because they, well, use Degree deodorant. The street promotion was a "live" version of the "Suck Up" In-Action Hero who, as the name implies, sucks up to his boss.
Because the man in the In-Action Hero booth is an actual human being, Marsicano wondered what would drive a person to sign up for this thankless job. Well, there's money, of course. But, maybe he just needed a lifetime supply of deodorant. He'll certainly need it standing in that box.
The New York Times has made the speculation official announcing it will charge for some of its online content. A new product, called TimesSelect, will place many of the paper's columnist behind a $49.95 per year wall yet subscribers to the physical paper will be able to access all online content for free. Reportedly, general news will continue to remain free for all. The fee also grants access to the paper's archives which currently date back to 1980 and will ultimately offer content back to 1851. New York Times SVP of Digital Operations Martin Nisenholtz hopes the move will add an additional revenue stream for the company without cannibalizing current levels of ad revenue.
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For five months, Jeff Tweiten has been waiting in line in front of the Pacific Science Center IMAX theater waiting to see the new Star Wars movie. And everyone has been talking about it. Is anyone this freakish? Brenner Thomas doesn't think so. In fact, he thinks Tweiten's presence in front of the theater, along with couch, Internet connection and weblog is all a marketing ploy to build buzz for the movie. After all, it's not like it's gong to be difficult to see this movies since theaters will have it running on half their screens. So Thomas's theory could very well be correct.
While we don't pretend to be a medical expert, we've certainly heard sugar has a little something to do with a disease called Diabetes. Well, after sugary soft drink marketer Cadbury Schweppes entered into a three-year, multi-million dollar alliance, American Diabetes Association Chief Scientific and Medical Officer Richard Kahn seems to think otherwise and told Corporate Crime Reporter, in an interview, "What is the evidence that sugar itself has anything to do with diabetes? There is no evidence."
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