#advertising

"The billboards here are actually something that makes me feel really pessimistic about the city," said Allie, a San Francisco resident who was among the dozen or so people to comment on current billboard trends on NPR member station KQED's Forum talk show last summer. (Forum typically doesn't give the full names of callers.) "They kind of give this feeling that like the rumors are true and tech has overrun the city, and that's the whole culture here now."

As I understand, a hugely divisive internal debate occurred among Twitter employees around this time. One camp wanted to build the entire business around their realtime API. In this scenario, Twitter would have turned into something like a realtime cloud API company. The other camp looked at Google’s advertising model for inspiration, and decided that building their own version of AdWords would be the right way to go.

the IAB is back with a new assault in the form of a full-page ad placed in Advertising Age (and also available online for your delectation [.pdf]) that is bigger, better - and barmier.

My bet is that the joke is on us, that there is no great reveal. Bob Benson is a way for the writers to show us how, in the world of Mad Men, the very qualities that define a real go-getting American businessman, here, in this office, with these people, look like vile perversion. To propose that Bob Benson is a spy is, frankly, to dance on Dutch Reagan’s grave. If you suspect Bob, you suspect the backbone of American commerce. If you suspect Bob, you suspect opportunity itself.

"Did you see those great ads pushed out the other day from Palm? It looks like Microsoft, who forgot to borrow copy & paste or multi-tasking, has the same ad team or at least the same great idea. Now it’s time for Palm to creatively borrow a few elements from the Microsoft ad. How about adding a few different demographics and have the people in the ads carrying webOS phones."

"Envious of the Gecko's boss? You've seen the commercial, now you can have his "worst" ringtone, a snappy sounding ringity-ding-ding-dingy-dong, on your phone. Download the ringtone below. "

"The product is, simply put, a magical screen that can do anything you ever want it to, no matter what that is. Here you go. It’s five hundred dollars. If you pay me that, I will give you this magical thing that can do anything. You don’t have to read a manual. It will do anything, and it will do it right now, out of the box. Other companies are selling computers. Apple’s selling magic. Which one would you rather have?"

Wow. I totally missed this. "About 485 employees of BBDO Detroit have been given notice the office will close Jan. 26 because Chrysler Group LLC has not negotiated continued contracts with the longtime advertising agency."

"This Dos Equis campaign features wonderful visual details. The production team clearly took glee in meshing vintage film stocks with unexpected locations and absurd endeavors. My favorite moment is the sight of our tuxedoed hero leading a moonlight expedition through a rocky canyon—flanked by elegant women in evening gowns, a military officer in full dress regalia, and a slightly befuddled fellow wearing a fez. We're left to guess at the precise combination of events that led to this scenario. I like to imagine it's an impromptu escape from a hijacked ocean liner."

"It appears that in the last few days, there are a handful of bloggers who, by finding wallets on the ground, have unwittingly stumbled across the latest under-the-radar Burger King promotion. The fast food chain has dispensed agents across major U.S. cities (indications are it’s just been Chicago and Orlando so far ) to “lose” wallets. However, when unsuspecting passersby find these wallets and open them, they discover an interesting message"

"What the heck is electronic mail?!"

"How soon will it be until in addition to the do-not-call list, we'll have a 'do not beam commercial messages into my head' list?"

"This post is going to dig deep in Beacon and see what makes it tick from a purely technical perspective"

"They'll have a real tough time serving ads to me when I pull the network cable."

"The Mozilla Foundation and its Commercial arm, the Mozilla Corporation, has allowed and endorsed Ad Block Plus, a plug-in that blocks advertisement on web sites and also prevents site owners from blocking people using it."

"If you've got a site/service that is ad-supported but also has some membership, do your best users a favor and think about turning off ads (I'm looking at you Facebook and LinkedIn). It's likely to make a small dent in your bottom line but will pay off w

"'Human directionals' -- those guys spinning advertising arrows -- can cost $60 an hour. Some of their best moves are filed in the patent office."

"Digital recreation of Popcorn founder who passed away in 1995. Orville Redenbacher now once again can pitch the most perfect popping corn!"

"Printable cold sores allow us to take action! Bring these people back down to our level, and tell advertisers that you don't agree with their message."

"Advertising is the mindless vandalism of the Fortune 500."

"Think the kid got paid? Or did they just rip it off youtube and use it?"

"In a risky experiment, Chevrolet asked Web users to make their own video spots for the Tahoe. A case study in customer generated advertising."

"I admit that, even as I write, a select group of you is no doubt waking (or is it wanking?) to the charms of Erin Esurance."

"The new case against pot? It makes you lazy."

Remember kids: Viral doesn't mean good. Mocking and derision are viral vectors. And sometimes, there is a such thing as bad publicity.

"Steve Ayson's latest for Folgers. We're as speechless as you are."

"there are rumours that the whole thing is a viral marketing campaign for the upcoming Philip K. Dick movie A Scanner Darkly "

"The thing people have been trying to beat into my head lately is that some users don't mind ads."

"MacGyver is back and armed with an air freshener, a tube sock, paper clips, rubber bands and a few other odds and ends." Pretty nifty, this.

"There was a MacGyver MasterCard commercial on the Super Bowl right now."

"Advertisers and media and technology companies, mindful that young consumers have migrated away from the traditional carriers of their messages, have begun to find new ways to reach them."

"Ban the advertising industry. Ban it now, before it's too late."

"To create snowballs, we need to unbundle our mass media products and send the pieces on their merry way."

SPECIAL ADVERTISING DIRECT CRANIAL INSERT

"I am your most difficult target audience to reach. I not only proactively chose my content, I actively avoid your advertising and have the technology and mind-set to do so."

"Encourage your partners to make the ads destructable." Although, I'd really rather have the option to pay a little more to get rid of the ads. That, or play for free.

"Take our Doritos-brand Nacho Cheesier chips, for example. They are ghetto fabulous."

"The Ford Fusion Web site is also building buzz with a collaborative photo-sharing page and a viral e-mail marketing campaign."

"Integrated into site navigation and/or editorial content, these programs enable vendors to showcase products, services or brands in easy-to-manage vehicles reaching a highly desirable IT-focused audience." Hurr.. bye bye, Slashdot.

"What happens if the old advertising model collapses before the brave new world is fully prepared? Bob Garfield's answer: Chaos."

"Alright, Janice!" Old SmartBeep blind date commercial.

"Nanotechnology, genetically-modified food, and unscrupulous marketers create a proliferation of disgusting 'poop-out' ads." I absolutely love Dr. Fun. This seems like Dr. Fun dipped into Transmetropolitan for a bit, though

"...all four of the suspect comments had been posted from the same [IP] address... also the source of two e-mail messages that Ms. Bechtel sent to ... bloggers." Ouch. And yeah, I bet they were all from fan-employees of Warner...

"Feedster Inc. is embracing RSS advertising with plans to add sponsored links into its feeds of search results."

"I feel like I can never trust Fark again." On one hand, er, you trusted them in the first place? On the other hand, this seems pretty scummy even for Fark.

"Who buys hot dogs because they're "girthy"?' Girrrrrthy. Girrrrrrrrrrrthy. Excuse me, I think I've got some vomiting to do.

"The device, which is shaped like a soda can, includes a specialized GSM cellular phone and a GPS location-tracking device."

"Human Billboards Prowl Times Square for Toyota"

Guh. This does not make me happy.

The age of neuromarketing has dawned.

I FEEL GREAT! GRRRRRRRRRRRR