Blogs aren't just for scaring politicians anymore. Several weblogs are becoming influential in music and entertainment. Savvy entertainment companies have taken advantage of music-focused blogs to promote their music, books and films as part of the ongoing conversation taking place in the "blogosphere."
To date, Eminem, Weezer, The Bravery, Touchstone Films, Random House Publishing, Sony Pictures, Lions' Gate Films and TBS have advertised on blogs to reach influential and networked audiences. Now, a group of leading music bloggers have formed the Music Blog Network to help entertainment marketers quickly target the blogs' influential music fans.
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Advertising Age announced three editorial additions "designed to strengthen its global leadership position in coverage of the advertising, marketing and media industries."
Effective June 15, Nat Ives will join Advertising Age as a media reporter covering the publishing industry and corporate media strategies. Ives has been at The New York Times since 2001, where he wrote hundreds of stories on advertising and media, many of them focused on the exploration of new forms of marketing.
I wonder what Stuart Elliott thinks of this.
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It's time to snoop into the financial status of your cubicle mate. For the sixth year, Aquent and the AIGA, along with Communication Arts magazine, have teamed to offer the AIGA|Aquent Survey of Design Salaries. This year marks the second consecutive year the report is available as a free, online, interactive database.
Based on a return of more than 3,600 respondents from eight geographic regions containing 15 major metropolitan markets, this year’s results indicate an improvement in salary gains for the first time in several years. This annual survey, according to the press release, is "considered a benchmark and valuable compensation gage across the industry and provides a current and specific reflection of what a significant share of those in the design profession are currently earning." Couldn't they have simply said, "the survey tells you what everyone else is making"?
Apparently, everyone's overloading it trying to find out what their boss makes. It refused to tell us what an art director in Boston working at an agency makes.
 Humor. Heard of It? Last Month a KFC ad, showing call center workers singing with their mouths full to promote KFC's Zinger Crunch Salad, which ran in England garnered a record 1,671 complaints to the country's Advertising Standards Authority because many felt it would cause bad manners among children. At the time we said that was ridiculous and wondered if the human race was losing its sense of humor. Today, the ASA has agreed with us stating it did not agree with those that lodged complaints and that the ad was unlikely to cause bad manners. Parents teach manners. Commercials don't. There's a difference.
 Hot But Off the Mark It's really quite amusing that GE can achieve top placement on IAG's Most-Liked TV Ad list for one of its Ecomagination spots yet be vilified for another - it's hotties in the coal mine spot. The first has an elephant gleefully dancing through a lush forest to the tune of "Singing in the Rain." The second, shows hottie hard bodies cavorting with mining tools in a coal mine to the tune of "Sixteen Tons." Two completely different approaches to achieving the same goal. One succeeds. One fails.
 Have Pity On My Ass Putting things in perspective and dramatically altering the meaning of the latest Carl's Jr. commercial featuring Paris Hilton, comes this altered voice over version of the spot with Richard Dreyfus reading Apple's "Here's to the Crazy Ones." While listening, the spot takes on an entirely different meaning. In some cases, it pegs Paris is a true idiot. In others, it creates a sense of pity for someone who has clearly lost their way. Originally, the intent of the Apple message was meant to be complimentary to those who think different and change the world in a positive manner. Yet, when voiced to Paris frolicking with a Bently and a Burger, it leaves one overcome with sadness and disgust with respect to the state of our culture.
Erwin Ephron takes a detailed look at the radio advertising medium and debunks the myth that radio is a frequency buy more so than a reach buy. Armed with the latest PPM figures from Arbitron, Ephron very clearly demonstrates buying radio based on reach trumps a radio buy bought based on frequency.
Dayton Ohio coated and carbonless paper maker NewPage, as part of it's name change promotion from MeadWestvaco to Newpage, has launched The True You, a portfolio collection site where designers can submit work, glean advice from other professionals and enter contests.
Professional advice comes from industry leaders as Linda Cooper Bowen, author of Marketing and the True You, Hank Richardson, who tackles The Ubiquitous Portfolio, and Olivia Fox Cabane, who discusses Networking Basics. Cooper Bowen also offers a Q&A session where graphic designers can ask a question on any marketing issue.
According to the press release, "Current contests include personal makeovers for five lucky designers who can shuck their scruffy wardrobes and plunge into the world of chic to match their snappy new portfolios, and an opportunity for one winner to promote themselves or their clients by designing a truck that will be featured at an upcoming race in the NASCAR truck series.
Who knew paper could be so exciting?
Boing Boing points to Laughing Squid who covered The Billboard Liberation Front's culture jam activities Memorial Day in San Francisco when the group changed a billboard to humorously illustrate what some think McDonald's has come to represent. The billboard, with the headline, "To Serve Man," had an animatronic Ronald McDonald force feeding a fat kid. Laughing Squid has the whole story and tons of pictures.
Either a bunch of pissed of bloggers really did create this "oh the horror of JibJab selling out" viral or Jib Jab created it itself to deflect criticism and reassert its wit. The clip is a spoof of the recent work Jib Jab did for Budweiser which some have called not great and an indication of sell out. We say shut up. Everyone sells out sooner of later. Sure Budweiser can be categorized as swill - as in the clip - but they have boat loads of promotional money.
Think for a minute. Do you want to see more lame beer babe ads or see something a bit more original from the likes of JibJab. Oh wait. Don't answer that. Of course you want more beer babes you hip, self important, Neanderthal advertising buffoon. Oh wait. We're all that too. We take that back. We want JibJab. Ditch the babes.
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