With its acquisition of DoubleClick finally secure, Google gets down to the more controversial part of not being evil: axing a shit-ton of jobs.
As of today Google started making with the mass lay-offs. The New York Times says it's possible 300 could go, but the GOOG ain't all bad; it's softening the blow by giving a few chumps "transitional" roles, which means you get to transition-the-hell-out after the two big ships become one.
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"Get a Happy Face," St. Ives' virgin foray in digital marketing, launched today. Each St. Ives Elements product page includes a cereal surprise: widgets that help improve your life!
These include a weather widget, which tells you what to wear and how much sunblock to smear on; a goal-setting widget; a workout widget; and cavity-sweet extras like Olive You e-cards, encouraging bedtime text messages and a (as in ONE) video of a laughing baby.
Random. But I did like the ghost bib.
The site was put together by EVB/SF and will be promoted via banner ads and in select print pubs. St. Ives is part of the Alberto Culver family, which includes other drug store staples like VO5 and Tresemme.
After a goof six years ago which kept the iconic red umbrella with Citigroup as it spun off the Travelers unit, Travelers has won it back and has gone BIG (literally) in a new commercial celebrating the umbrella's return. In the ad, a man carries the gigantic umbrella back home and on his way does what good insurance companies do, helps people when they need helping. OK, so most insurance companies don't a shit other than making money but it's a nice sentiment at least.
Fallon Minneapolis did a nice job with the spot. It's elegant, well-produced an fairy tale-like in that big adventure movie sort of way. It's one of those ads that really doesn't look like it's actually an ad but at the same time, delivers its brand message beautifully.
Anything launched on April Fool's Day is, by default, suspect which is why Brand-mates, a site on which people can share the brand they love with others, just doesn't seem quite right. A site where brand lovers can create relationships with the brands others love? Sounds like an MBA'd account planner got together with some Web 2.0 type to create this thing. Oh wait, that's exactly what happened!
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Just what is it about guys and bras? It's like the subject comes up and we're in high school all over again, snapping the bra of the cute girl sitting next to us in social studies. Oh yes, breasts make boys (and men) do very stupid things. Sadly (or maybe not), snapping the back of a girl's bra may be a thing of the past if this backless bra from Maidenform takes off.
Created by ABC American Inventor contestant Elaine Cato, the bra is getting a big creative and media push from VIA Group, which will launch campaign "This Feels Right" with the tag "Out with the old, in with the new." Media will consist of women's magazine's, outdoor and online.
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- The Economist takes No.1 in AdweekMedia's Annual Hot List, up from No. 10 last year -- the biggest jump on a list otherwise dominated by women's lifestyle titles.
- 33 percent of iPhone users are cheating on Steve Jobs with other handset makers.
- Advertising affects prescriptions more than science does. Hrm. *Checks medicine cabinet* Yeah.
- The Apple brand makes the biggest impact on global consumers. (Yawn.) Those most in need of brand refurbishing were Microsoft and the United States. Mommy, why does the world hate us?
- More than 90 percent of email is spam. By the way, the term "spam" was coined 15 years and 2 days ago.
- Kids love social networks. O RLY? Thanks for the insight, champs.
- Joffrey's, a coffee hub that launched a "beta" tasting program for bloggers, has released survey results on coffee trends in the blogosphere. More on that.
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Here's a taste of the stuff on The Blue Sky Project, a promotional CD created by DDB, SF for Clorox. Some of the tracks were in Clorox ads, then extended to beef up the album.
50 percent of the price goes to Music in Schools Today (MuST), which brings music programs to low-income neighborhoods.
I was gonna say it would be hard to associate Clorox with any kind of music, mostly because I can smell bleach wafting out of the kitchen and there is nothing musical about it.
But The Blue Sky Project is calm and unpretentious -- an okay fit for the (slowly evolving?) household brand. I'm happy the agency avoided the temptation of using electronica or hip-hop. Getting people to listen isn't hard, as long as you avoid being something you're not.
- Qualcomm announced the Handsolo today. It's waterproof, battery-free and has unlimited expandable memory. Also, you can wank off with it.
- Gmail Custom Time, which lets users send up to 10 emails to the past per year, debuted today. Wouldn't it be neat to get a drunken rant from Future You?
- Seriously, you should get paid to whore for friends on Facebook. Because come on. Two thousand friends? That's a few dozen impressions at least.
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If you watch any TV at all, you've probably seen that Saturn ad where a bunch of people go "That's a Saturn...?" and then "That's a Saturn?" and then (with contempt!) "That's not a Saturn!" followed by the admiring "That's a Saturn, all right!"
This campaign tack was taken to encourage new buyers to see Saturn with fresh eyes. But apparently the ad can also be used to reaffirm old beliefs.
Oops.
Meet Max, the classic '64 Volkswagen Beetle and star of VW's new campaign. In it, Max is a German talk show host who interviews people like Heidi Klum and David Hasselhoff of Baywatch.
He's not the tough-truths type. Check out the Heidi Klum interview. If Heidi and Max each had a phallus, they'd both be bent double.
Nice shoes though, Heidi. The soles matched Max's hood after that "German engineering is so sexy!" line you gave him.
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