Putting aside the fact a publisher can accept or reject any ad they choose for any reason whether they agree with the ad's message or not, human rights activists are not pleased with The New York Times' decision to take $929,000 from Sudan for an eight page insert touting the country's "peaceful, prosperous and democratic future. On one hand you can say this is wrong because it attempts to glorify what many, including the Times itself, feel is a not so nice government. On the other hand, you can laud the move as a clear separation of church and state between the paper's editorial and its advertising, the kind of thing American's love to celebrate.
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To give its pre-Bratz Doll crowd something to do, MGA Entertainment has launch Yummi-Land, a cartoony site featuring the company's Soda Pop Girls Amanda Appletina, Belinda Banana Ana, Gaby Grapelina and Susie Strawbella. Are you overcome yet by the sicky sweetness of it all? Well, wait, there's more. Each girl has a little pet; Paris Peaches Pug, Kimi Kiwi Calico, Mimi Mango Calico and Cha-Cha Chocolate Chihuahua. Oh, and there's games and downloads and ecards and videos and shopping and contests and product and gumball machines and, OMG, secret messages! And, like, that music!! There's gotta be a Saturday morning cartoon hiding somewhere too.
There's nothing fun about temping and there's nothing fun about this little promotional thingy for Kelly Services called Virtual Break Room. Perhaps it's trying to be funny by portraying the break room, the decor, the technology and the pocket protector-wearing worker doofus in some sort of anachronistic, 1970's-style mashup but to us, that just says, "You're an idiot. You can't find a real job so you better give Kelly a call."
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It's the over sized furniture strategy again. this time Disney is trying to make parents feel like kids again so they'll buy the company's Classic DVD series.
We were having so much time playing games and fooling around on this Dannon Natural Spring Water site, we almost forgot the thing was created to get us to want to drink Dannon's water. The site is well crafted and, as Adverblog points out, has these mini-game you can play while the big game is loading since no one likes to wait for a site to load. Not that the site took all that long to load but it's nice to have something to do while waiting. The sites got videos (coming soon), games, stickers, product info and a section for Moms about why water is good and other info of interest to parents. Juxt Interactive created the site.
Right Here Now did a bit of digging through the trademark database (not exactly something we'd enjoy doing) and found a newly-filed trademark from Coke that involves the image of two leaves which form the shape of the Coke bottle and which will be used for what seems to be a public Coke branded entertainment, cultural and sporting destination featuring Coke memorabilia. Not that this is entirely surprising as brand are seeking new ways to associate their brands and create connections with consumers in a manner other than traditional advertising. The trademark application also makes mention of of use in a public aquarium indicating one possible site Coke may sponsor or create on its own.
UPDATE: Well call us stupid. A commenter tell us the trademark thing is old news, writing, "The new World of Coke Museum is being built next door to the Georgia Aquarium. The combined entertainment zone will be called Pemberton Place after the founder of Coca-Cola, John C. Pemberton. This logo, and the name Pemberton Place, are already in use around the construction site and the Aquarium."
Just as they did with teen buzz marketing entity Tremor, Procter & Gamble has opened up its 500,000-strong Vocalpoint, a buzz marketing program for moms. WD-40 in using Vocalpoint to create buzz about its new No-Mess Pen, a pen-sized lubricant that extends usage of the company's spray can version of the product. For now, Vocalpoint will be the only medium though which the product will be advertised.
Because the site is just really weird and the whole brown finger thing, along with all it connotes, sort of grossed us out, we were all set to dislike this Butterfinger Follow The Finger promotion a poster and Bucky Turco pointed us to until we saw jammin' geriatric Manny G. Who cares if the site's trying to sell Butterfinger candy bars, this shit is kickin'. Oops, sorry. Just trying to be down with it all here but as you all know we're only almost sorta hip, not genuinely hip so pardon that outburst. Anyway, the site's got a lot of funny stuff but we wonder why they do the "pick on the Indian call center" thing. It's still better than a boring TV spot though. Way better.
In another effort (Spanish effort here) to call attention to World Water Day, Duval Guillaume, working for Green Belgium, has created a campaign which, today, will affix stickers to the drains of bathroom sinks in Mexican and Belgian cinemas, pubs, restaurants, universities, transit stations and anywhere else there's a sink. The message say, "It takes you one second to get drinking water. He has to walk 20 miles."
Why are there no U.S.-based efforts for this cause? Do we even know it's World Water Day today?
UPDATE: In comments, Keith says Starbucks is doing something.
As part of a marketing agreement with Universal Studios, The VW Touareg is making an appearance at the Universal Orlando theme park. Volkswagen has tied itself to the "Revenge of the Mummy" ride at Universal Studios' Hollywood and Universal Orlando theme parks. A Volkswagen Touareg wrapped in mummy-like cloth greets visitors to the attraction which immerses riders in the world of Imhotep and his mummy companions.
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