Follow Ad Age's Digital Conference With Twitter

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If you're a Twitter user, you work in advertising and you really wanted to go to Advertising Age's Digital Marketing Conference today and tomorrow in New York but couldn't, you can follow the Tweets of those who are there. While there are likely many Twitterati there, the ones I know about are http://twitter.com/THespos1, http://twitter.com/steverubel and http://twitter.com/Armano.

by Steve Hall    Mar-18-08    
Topic: Industry Events, Social



Spitzer Slapped, Long Gone, Social Influence Measured, Mini-Skirts Mobilize

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- Do we really need more Elliot Spitzer jokes? Apparently so and this time it comes courtesy of New York magazine which commissioned three artists to take their shots. Three entries come from Ogilvy & Mather.

- If you want to step inside the offices of Wieden + Kennedy, you can (well, virtually) courtesy of this Flickr photo set.

- The Experience Economist argues advertising will kill social media.

- Apparently the Mac Guy, aka Justin Long, will not be returning for future Mac ads. We've heard this before but Slate thinks it should stick this time calling Long a "smug little stwit."

- Social media lover Alisa Leonard takes a detailed look at how the influence of social media can be measured.

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by Steve Hall    Mar-18-08    
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Social



Paris Hilton Wants A New BFF, Ziff Davis Bankrupt, Ad Age Socializes

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- On the outs with Nicole Richie for some time, Pars Hilton wants a new BFF and MTV has launched a new reality show to help her find one.

- DDB Barcelona brings out hand string games to somehow illustrate how its cars are built. We sure hope they're made of something stringer than string.

- Ziff Davis Media, publisher of PC Magazine among others, filed for bankruptcy citing falling print ad revenue and subscriptions as the reason.

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by Steve Hall    Mar-17-08    
Topic: Celebrity, Magazine, Social



Young Guns Calls, Facebook Beds, Typeface Yourself, Halle Berry Smells

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- The Art Director's Club is holding its 6th annual Young Guns Awards. Call for entries opens April 3 and the judges consist of previous Young Guns winners.

- The Facebook application My Perfect Bedroom, created by TAMBA, lets you sex up your virtual bedroom...for you graduates of Disney's Webkinz.

- Have a little fun with the Extensis Typematching game where you can determine which typeface you are and match yourself to other typefaced (damn, there's a creative social network in that name somewhere!) people.

- Today, everyone's talking about Christvertising. We mentioned it back in December. Come on people!

- Now this billboard promoting New Zealand's premiere of American Psycho with an image of George Bush is just funny.

- HP? Goodby, Silverstein & Partners? McGarryBowen? A new CMO? Now that's a recipe for some gossip.

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by Steve Hall    Mar-14-08    
Topic: Celebrity, Games, Social



SXSW Interactive Summed Up Sketch Note-Style

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If you missed SXSW Interactive in Austin earlier this week (don't miss it next year), you can capture some of the magic Cliff Notes-style with Mike Rohde's Sketchnotes. While sitting in sessions and in between sessions, Mike created 34 artistic sketches he made in his Moleskin while at the conference. You can see all the sketches on Mike's blog here or on Flickr.

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by Steve Hall    Mar-14-08    
Topic: Industry Events, Social



Argentina Goes Big, Obama Girl Hottest, Bebo Sells

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- Those Argentinians sure know how to orchestrate a big ass car commercial. apparently it took a crew of 170. Hmm. CGI sounds cheaper.

- Our favorite political pundit, Obama Girl, has been named by E! as the "#1 Hottest Woman on the Internet."

- Advertising Anarchy didn't like the "Bud Light" hottie on the poster in the Dell Lounge at SXSW.

- Don't miss the world's worst small business ad. Or is it the world's greatest viral for YouTube...or somebody.

- AOL is buying social networking site Bebo for $850 million. Damn! That's a steal compared to overly bloated Facebook :-)

by Steve Hall    Mar-13-08    
Topic: Celebrity, Commercials, Social



SocialThing! the New Social Thing

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At SXSW, SocialThing! is making its debut. SocialThing! is a social media aggregator of sorts which allows those who use social media sites such as Flickr, Twitter, Facebook and others to pull together all the individual information from those various sites into one site that presents the user with a merged stream. Changes and additions to the user's individual sites can be made directly from SocialThing! which, ultimately, will work with the soon to be adopted OLAP protocol which allows a person to have one identity that can be used across multiple sites.

Of course, it's mobile enabled and will soon have browser plug in capabilities as well as it's own set of RSS feeds for users to do with what they please.

by Steve Hall    Mar-11-08    
Topic: Industry Events, Social



MySpace Launches Safety PSA

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You can debut all the privacy controls you want, but there's nothing like a generic safety PSA to show the feds you mean business.

See "Don't Stop the Dialogue," produced by Big Fuel for MySpace. It will run on iKeepSafe.org and MySpace Safety along with featured safety tips and a soothing message from CSO Hemanshu Nigam.

Chill effect much?

by Angela Natividad    Mar- 6-08    
Topic: Cause, Online, Social, Video



Domino's Pizza Gets All CGM/Web 2.0/Social Media-ish

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Havas' BLM Quantum has unleashed a make-your-own-video (remember when we had simpler names for things?) contest on MySpace in the United Kingdom called Think Outside the Box which urges people to "get green" and recycle their pizza boxes into ingenious new uses.

Have at it CGM (oops, we mean make-your-own-video) fans.

by Steve Hall    Mar- 5-08    
Topic: Consumer Created, Online, Social



Toyota Highlights, ACDelco Moves, Airborne Pays, Facebook Poked

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- This Canadian spot for Toyota's Matrix has fun envisioning a day full of potential as highlighted by the vehicle's headlights.

- While this happened back in late January, we thought we'd share the news that as part of an agency consolidation, GM has opted to move its ACDelco account, with Campbell-Ewald since 1917, to Publicis Groupe on May 1.

- Facebook gets poked! Right. Facebook backlash YouTube-style.

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by Steve Hall    Mar- 5-08    
Topic: Agencies, Brands, Commercials, Policy, Social, Spoofs, Video