After having dissed the whole Diet Coke Mentos geyser thing saying the "craziness with Mentos doesn't fit with the brand personality" then giving in and quickly implementing a lame contest, Coke is now back in full force with Poetry in Motion, a video contest fronted by the very people Coke dissed in the first place, Fritz Grobe and Stephen Voltz, creators of one of the craziest Diet Coke/Mentos geyser videos. The two now appear in a video urging people to submit videos and teasing us with the fact the pair will release their latest video October 30, sure to be even more massive than their original geyser work
- Brandweek interviewed Toyota Group VP Jim Farley, named the publication's Grand Marketer of the Year, who shared his ideas on what Toyota is dealing with from a marketing perspective and how he plans to move the car maker's marketing forward.
- Moe's Southwest Grill has hooked up with ViTrue for a make your own commercial contest which will be hosted on Sharkel and on the restaurant's site.
- "I am not satisfied with our current financial performance, and we intend to improve it," Yahoo's Terry Semel said. "We are not exploiting our considerable strengths as well as we should be, and we are committed to doing better."
- With interstitial comes ons and embedded text ads, job sites such as Monster and others are implementing ever more intrusive forms of advertising to keep their business model afloat.
- Running for governor in Texas is a kinky business.
While the entire world is busy talking about GooTube, social networking site Friendster and video sharing community Sharkle have teamed to create a political video contest in which Friendster members and the general public are encouraged to upload videos which express their political viewpoints for all to see. The contest will run through November 6 and producers of the top six video submissions will win a variety of prizes including $2,500 in cash, a $1,000 Sony video camera and four $300 video iPods. If there are any Bill Maher wannabes out there, now's your chance.
Get of your couch and onto the set. That's what the NFL is telling people to do. The NFL wants people to create a commercial for them that will air during Super Bowl XLI. The winning idea - partially determined by fan vote - will be professionally produced with the winner invited to the shoot and handed a VIP package to Super Bowl XLI. Private parties, gifts and more will ensue. It seems we'll have wuite a collection of CGM type ads in this year's Super Bowl.
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If you work in advertising, love cheerleaders and think the Super Bowl rocks, what's not to like about CMT's Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders make your own commercial promotion for the network's Dallas Cowboys Cheeleaders Making the Team reality show? Right. Nothing. So have fun crafting your creation by dragging a droping cheerleaders arond the page until you have your masterpiece.
- It seems Pepsi can't quite come to terms with the fact Zero is a nonentity and, in fact, would like us to refer to its product as a nonenitity.
- Yea, yea, yea. Pamela Anderson is in a Virgin Mobile commercial with veiled references to what...penis size? Yawn.
- Nissan's 7 Days in A Sentra bombs according to some.
- Western Wind Energy, which we earlier mentioned was hosting a viral video contest, is nearing completion. As expected, all the submisions suck as much as the original video did. But, hey, at least people are participating, right?
- While we're sure this new Candystand game called Life Savers Splosions Skyburts is a whole lot of fun, the need to install a plugin and confusing directions out us off. Then again, we never play online games so don't listen to us. Check it out for yourselves.
- Liquor advertisers don't like under aged girls as much as FHM readers do.
The discourse about ethics in advertising is getting picked up by people who'd like to help draw out that imaginary red line in a way that doesn't sound so whiny. Under the premise that society (and not just irate marketing bloggers) can now contribute to media messages, After These Messages does for the opinionated audience what Yelp did for hipsters who get their kicks bitching out posh restaurants. You log in, post an ad and then - get this - scale its ethical weight and relevance. The gauge includes questions like the following: If you created it, would you sleep well at night? Does it contribute to society? Will it bring good karma? Is it an effective piece of communication?
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Not that this particular movie needs any promotion since everyone's already sen it or they're already lined up for the DVD but Disney felt it necessary to put together, Dead Man's Mail, a "create a customized pirate and make it speak whatever you tell it to" promotion just in case the two people who haven't seen Pirates of the Caribbean 2 are aware of the DVD's release.
"No! No! No! No, it's not a clandestine promotion for the band Sick Puppies, " our intern yelled at us. "But, come one, a guy in a video with a sign that says Free Hugs roaming around in Sydney, Australia just hoping to brighten the world with nothing to gain from it?" we shouted back. "Yes you jaded idiot," screamed the intern, "Not everything on YouTube is trying to sell you something."
Not convinced, we stood up and asked, "What about this little gem on the Free Hugs website that says 'With grass root marketing tactics we promote products and ideas that are in line with our core values and the FREE HUGS message.'? I suppose that just means the products and ideas they claim to promote are love and goodwill?"
"Damn," the intern who was now jumping out of her seat bellowed. "You pompous, unfeeling know-it-all! Do you think the only thing every human being thinks about is getting the newest version of the iPod?" "Um, yes," we answered.
"Fuck you," she screamed as she turned and left, likely to go give someone a free hug.
Greenpeace has created a website that looks very similar to the Apple website expect for the fact this Greenpeace website wishes Macs were greener, The site claims Apple products contain hazardous substances other companies have abandoned. The site explains the hazards of toxic waste and its effect on recycling in a section called iTox + iWaste. There's also t-shirts and a tool to mess with a Steve Jobs speech. Nice work, actually.
UPDATE: It seems Greenpeace didn't have all its facts straight.
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