MySpace will host its own presidential primary on January 1-2, 2008. Advance polls will be conducted as well. If the number of friends is any indication of who will win, Barack Obama, by far, will crush the competition. He's got over 90,000 friends. The next closest is John Edwards with 17,070. Separately, the thought of MySpace actually influencing a Presidential election is, well, odd to say the least. Or not. Depending upon how you view social media and its impact.
One could argue MySpace is just a collection of teens uploading risque photos of themselves for middle aged horny men to slather over. Conversely, one could argue that's just a bad generalization and MySpace members are socially connected people and representative of society in general. If you ask us, we'd like nothing more than the convenience of voting for President from the comfort of home without having to deal with crowds and grumpy local officials.
Boston Legal has always been a particularly good show, even if it has become so by positively highlighting some characters while treating others as lame ass idiots. One has to feel for the plight of Mark Valley's Brad Chase on the series who's gone from formidable fixture of strength of bumbling buffoon spending no time in the courtroom and the entire last episode stuck in an air vent. And for Julie Bowen's Denise Bauer who's gone from ass-kicking, intern-belittling powerhouse to sappy second string softie. Even Rene Auberjonis has taken a back seat at crane Poole $ Schmidt.
more »
We really dig Rethink, Canada's clever means of paper-passing for the 2006 BC Fencing Championships. Instead of boring us all with ads of padded men parrying in masks, the go-getters slid discs onto car antennas to make them look like fencing swords.
That makes us ALL fencers! Now excuse us while we tear our own antennae off and play Inigo-and-six-fingered-man with them.
The raucous George Parker points us to news about Keith Richards, who told British magazine NME that he mixed the ashes of his father in blow and snorted it.
There's this South Park episode where Cartman mistakes Kenny's ashes for chocolate milk mix and drinks him. For the rest of the episode he spiritually channels him and suffers flashbacks of Kenny's last memories.
We doubt Keith Richards is channeling his pops, but he might be manifesting his would-be age. We feel an almost mythological fear of him.
UPDATE: a reader does some homework and learns Richards was jesting. Small relief.
- Maytag gets new repairman.
- Spin Thicket points out some "truly horrific" CGI in this Sleep Center of the Southwest commercial. Quite horrid, indeed.
- kirshenbaum bond + partners announced today that Creative Director Joseph Mazzaferro has been named Partner.
- Cynopsis reports, "Showtime's premiere of The Tudors drew a 869,000 total viewers on Sunday night at 10p, and another 404,000 for its 11pm airing, marking the pay-TV network's biggest premiere night in the past three years. Showtime currently has 14.5 million subscribed nationwide."
- Google has launched Website Optimizer, a tool website publishers can use to determine which combination of page elements perform best. As will all Google products, it's free.
- On the heels of Google launching its TV buy bid system, DoubleClick - which may end up being bought by Google - announce it will develop a digital marketing exchange for buying and selling online inventory.
Freakazoid filmmaker David Lynch minces no words when asked his opinion on product placement in movies. Just watch. There's nothing else to say. Classic. Simply classic.
Well here it is. The result of the internal Publicis New York memo warning employees not to act like pompous ad dudes but rather like adults since New York Magazine would be snooping about the office for an "Office Life" photo essay. So, enjoy. Bathe in importance of information such as who plays video games with whom, who drinks together and who likes smoothies. Oh come on. Seriously. Don't make fun of it. This is really important news. After all, no one cares what's going on in Iraq these days.[Ed. Oh shut up you idiot. Stop making fun. Can't an industry based on creating pretty pictures to sell stuff get equal time?] OK, sorry. Besides, some of these Publicis people are cute!
We like KFC decently enough but, post in-house rat-race, we just can't swallow the idea that KFC Bowls take the top spot in product awareness and most memorable launch, according to Schneider. Well, maybe we can. We're aware of lots of things that appall or just plain rub us wrong.
Following the launch of its toilet bowl-based free wireless broadband internet access offering, TiSP, Google just struck a deal with Echostar's Dish network to provide an auction-based ad sales system. The system will allow for placement on 120 cable nets and offer second by second commercial ratings. Advertisers will make CPM bid buys through existing AdWords account across the 120 networks by daypart or have the system spit out an automated recommendation based on provided demos.
Tying into Echostar's set top box and using commercial ratings, Google will provide bid details, placed ads, ad viewership and performance by network all withing 24 hours. Bypassing all the ratings foolery in which the industry is enmeshed, Google hopes to bring true value to inventory by supporting it with tangible numbers. Big names such as Intel, E-Trade and 188Flowers have bought in for early tests.
Google has made and will continue to make mistakes as it follows its path towards world domination but we have to give it to them for cutting through all the crap and, as Nike has always said, just doing it.
- The Seventh Chamber, Kontraband's Viral seeding agency, is launching a new Xbox viral to mark the release of Guitar Hero 2.
- Manhattan based Submedia is unveiling a new technology for use with industry-standard 6 by 4 light boxes with a new campaign for Land Rover's LR2. A total of 15 displays, which contain no moving parts and become four-second movies as viewers walk past, will be rolled out in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Miami this week.
- Cynopsis reports, "Tribune Company, with its strategic review process concluded, announced a transaction which will take the company private, with shareholders receiving $34 per share in a two-stage plan."
- Omnicom's Chuck McBride-created Cutwater just snagged the $360 million Jeep creative account.
- Writing ever so eloquently, "You'll very probably get laid off, what with the fucking deluge of account losses and reviews this sad excuse for an agency is currently looking at," the always opinionated George Park sounds off Draft/FCB's claim everything is just fine.
- Here's an inventive use of an elevator to promote a forklift.
|
