Sony Turns to Public For Campaign Advice

As marketers increasingly realize the importance of people's input when it comes to the creation of marketing campaigns, Sony U.K., which turned to Neil McFarland and Jon Burgerman to create art for the Sony PSP Wipeout Pure game, is asking people to vote of which design will be used in the launch campaign.

Ashlee Simpson Boots Madonna Off 'Blender' Cover

Madonna's done her fair share of lip syncing for sure but she must have truly broken an actual vocal chord when she heard Blender Magazine decided to feature famed lip-syncer Ashlee Simpson instead of her on magazine's December cover. Apparently, Madonna was supposed to appear on the cover but the publisher dropped her in favor of Simpson. Blender won't comment but we're pretty sure the magazine is simply adhering to the "young trumps old" publishing maxim.

Madonna's handler downplayed the situation saying, "She's too busy healing from her horse-riding accident. I was talking to several publications, including Blender. Trust me, you'll see plenty of Madonna in the weeks to come." As for Simpson, we bet she's jumping for joy. She needs all the positive exposure she can get after that SNL incident.

Penthouse to Launch Cable, Wireless Properties

Giving Playboy some competition, Penthouse has secured $48 million in private funding to pursue an on-demand, subscription cable channel and wireless offering. After going bankrupt two years ago and morphing into a privately held company run by Marc Bell, Penthouse has toned down its raunchy image and plans to introduce more general, non-sexual content.

Magazine Editors Unhappy With 'The New Yorker'

It seems the American Society of Magazine Editors - which, oddly, sounds like a bunch of old men sitting around in a smoke-filled country club lounge - didn't take too kindly to the recent stunt The New Yorker pulled with Target - selling all ad pages, exclusively, to the discount giant. The Society requires magazine's with one sponsor to include an editorial statement stating the advertiser had no influence over editorial content. The New Yorker did not include such a note. Whether or not lines were crossed here, Target, as always, accomplished a masterstroke of publicity with this move and is likely sitting back laughing at all of those who have raised issue with the stunt.

Rush Limbaugh Ad Gets Spoof Treatment

With Rush Limbaugh, you either love him or hate him. Those that hate him have created a parody of a recent ad changing the headline from "America's Anchorman" to "UnAmerican Ranchorman the the tagline from "The Nation Trusts Rush" to "The Nation Trusts Rush to Make Shit Up." Here's the spoof. Here's the original.

Katrina Yields Untimely Ad Placement

Adrants reader Ted Karlen thought we'd be interested in an example of yet another unfortunate ad/context placement. And he was right. He tells us, "Starting on page 72 of the October issue of Stuff magazine, there's an ad for Southern Comfort liquor. The first part offers a chance to win a free trip to the company's "Voodoo Music Fest," in, um, New Orleans on October 29-30. Worse, the next page introduces Southern Comfort's now-incredibly inappropriate slogan: "Born in New Orleans (where anything can happen)." Oops.

Google Sells Magazine Ads

In a move that seems counter to the online advertising giant's genesis, Google has purchased print ads in technology magazines including PC Magazine and Maximum PC and has resold portions of full page ads to online AdWord advertisers. The ads, which contain five to six advertisers contains a URL which points to an online version of the ad page. The ads do not contain a Google logo but only the descriptive copy on the top of the ad, "Ads by Google" and "Google advertisers offer these products and services" at the bottom.

'Country Home' Celebrates City-Style

Country Home magazine will promote its upcoming October 2005 "Creativity Issue" with its first annual Be Creative! New York, a day-long, outdoor festival combining live performances and interactive seminars to "inspire creativity, passion and self expression." Country Home Editor-in-Chief Carol Sheehan and Creative Director Mary Emmerling will host the event, and Grammy award-winning singer-songwriter Mary Chapin Carpenter will perform songs from her acclaimed latest album, Between Here and Gone, as well as classics spanning her career. We can't think of a better place to celebrate Country than in the middle of the world's biggest City.

The event is open to the public and will be held in Central Park's Rumsey Playfield on Saturday, October 1st from 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. More info here.

Time Inc. Tightens T&E Expenses

The clearing house for internal media conglomerate memos, otherwise known as Gawker, reports Time Inc is tightening the old Travel & Entertainment budget across all properties. This intercepted memo to Sports Illustrated employees urges them to "adopt a heightened awareness with regard to spending and be as frugal with the company's money as you would with your own." Staffers are urged to take Yellow cabs versus, we assume, limos; to fly only in cattle-class; to limit submitted entertainment expenses to story subjects and source - as opposed to, oh, friends, aunts, girlfriends; and staff meeting may not be catered. Oh, the horror of it all!

Playboy to Go Digital

Placing jokes about digits aside for a moment, lad-mag granddaddy Playboy will launch a digital addition of the magazine with its October issue on September 13th. The digital addition will be powered by Zinio Systems. As with the print edition, the digital version will be available for subscription and single copy sale. While Playboy does have a website with some of the magazine's content, Zinio systems will reproduce the magazine online exactly as it appears in print. Playboy's Lingerie is already produced digitally by Zinio.

Hoping for further worldwide reach, the move is more likely in reaction to the publication's declining numbers. Year-to-date ad pages are down 15 percent, the magazine missed its 3.15 million rate base by 35,002 and newsstand sales are down 23.2 percent. Zino says circulation of digital editions, on average, amount to five percent of print circulation. All other variable being equal, that brings an additional 157,500 readers though, likely, a considerable percentage of digital subscribers will come from canceled print subscriptions lessening the increase.