San Francisco Chronicle: In most ads, a company is trying to sell you a product, or a brand, or some oxymoronic notion of corporate philosophy (as if the pursuit of profit wasn't credible self-justification in a capitalist marketplace). But flipping through a recent copy of the New Yorker -- the Sept. 5 issue, to be precise -- I came across several ads for leading companies that spoke to a relatively new trend in …
Where Brands Can Go With Their Blogs
Some smart people have recently asked me pertinent questions about the value of blogs for brands and branded communications. This is a rich topic--one we might spend days exploring at an expensive seminar on a tropical island. For our purposes here, I'll offer a couple of scenarios to consider. Before I do, I'd like to point out that blogs are narrative in structure. As a writer, I can't help but be excited by this …
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Enough With The Branding Already
Fast Company: Branding is the self-help industry of corporate America. Sure, it may be difficult to admit--perhaps even a bit embarrassing--but let's face it: Both branding and self-help have experienced booming growth over the past decade, seemingly in reaction to rising levels of personal and professional insecurity. Both fields are populated with self-anointed experts. And both seem to follow the same publishing …
Headhunters Take To The Blog
Our friends at Talent Zoo have launched a recruitment blog, Hiring Revolution, written by TZ Vice Presidents Amy Hoover and Ragan Jones. Andrea Rizk, the resident PR expert at Talent Zoo, has launched Chasing The Press, a PR industry blog. And word is, this new ad blog is a Talent Zoo property. …
Bell Helicopter Blames Someone Else For Its Tasteless Ad
Reuters: Boeing Co. apologised on Friday for a mistakenly published advertisement for its V-22 Osprey aircraft showing troops dropping onto the roof of a mosque in what appears to be a simulated battle scene. The ad, coming amid rising concern among Muslims over U.S. military action in Iraq and Afghanistan, prompted immediate complaints from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which demanded the …
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The Wiki Way To Search Engine Optimization
Steve Rubel points to an interesting post on the Socialtext blog. Google is becoming increasingly prone to Wikipedia. This is because Google's PageRank algorithm, the method by which it ranks search pages, inherently succumbs to the basic structure and social structure of wikis. The PageRank algorithm is most famously characterized as valuing links that are highly referred to by other people. It seems that is only …
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BBDO Chicago Fights Apathy With Energy
Lewis Lazare: The Chicago arm of BBDO got a new name Monday: Energy BBDO. The moniker stems from a two-year effort to develop a model in the Chicago shop, a model that agency executives are convinced has proved effective in winning new business, most recently Wm. Wrigley Jr. brands Life Savers and Creme Savers. Other new clients include Jim Beam, Dial and Starbucks liqueur. What is the brand "Energy" all about? …
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