from Brandweek: PepsiCo revealed today that the company has enacted self-imposed advertising restrictions "in response to rising levels of obesity in the U.S. and Europe." Among other moves, PepsiCo will no longer place advertising for its flagship cola brand in outlets that directly reach children under 12. The Purchase, N.Y.-based company has also placed limits on the portion sizes of products such as Doritos sold …
Free Don’t Come For Free
from Promo Magazine: Direct mail promising "free" products could be outlawed under radical new European Union legislation, according to wire service reports. The move, which follows intense lobbying by consumers' groups, is set to be confirmed by the European Parliament (EP) next month, after months of deliberation by Brussels officials. Most likely, the EP would establish a general prohibition within its Unfair …
Letting The Actors Act
from Lewis Lazare: A new campaign for Sierra Mist from BBDO/New York that broke Sunday night on the Academy Awards telecast is refreshingly different for several reasons. For one thing, the campaign employs a different approach, using an ensemble of sketch comedians in a series of improvised commercials that are positioned as "sitcommercials." And it's great to note the work is -- for the most part -- intelligent in …
Will Blog For Tips
Jason Kottke is an A-list blogger who recently quit his day job to pursue blogging full time. His revenue model of choice is the Pay Pal tip jar. Given the enormous traffic to his site, it may work. According to Wired, Kottke is avoiding the ad-based revenue model because, as a one-man operation, there's no easy way to neatly separate editorial and advertising. "Advertising introduces a third party into the …
Black Is The New Black
from The Telegraph: If there is one woman in the world who can state with conviction that "black IS the new black" it is Miuccia Prada. She made that pronouncement after her stark and simple autumn/winter 2005/2006 collection at Milan Fashion week last night. No matter that she was wearing a white cotton shirt-dress with red high-heeled shoes at the time; perversity is part of Prada's charm. "Black is a very …
WSJ.com Is Nowheresville
Adam L. Penenberg an assistant professor at New York University, writing in Wired says, "It might be hard to believe that The Wall Street Journal is in danger of becoming irrelevant, but it is. Because you have to subscribe to access both current news articles and the archive, the Journal is leaving only a faint footprint in cyberspace. I googled "Enron" -- an issue the Journal covered exhaustively, and which two of …
Phishing Nets Cast Far And Wide
I woke this morning to an email from fbi.gov claiming I had visited 40+ illegal web sites. It went on to demand that I open a zip file and answer questions therein. Of course, I junked it at once. Just the same, it's nice to confirm it's all a phishing scam. from CNET: The FBI is warning the public about malicious e-mails designed to appear as if they were generated by the law enforcement agency. In a statement …
Because It Takes A Free Hand To Dial
Thanks to Jack Cheng for pointing us to this innovative product placement idea from Pizza Hut and Sony, where gamers can simply type "/pizza" and seamlessly send for a hot pie. I don't know much about gamers and gaming, but I do know it's an obsessive habit. Therefore, building an order mechanism into the game itself is brilliant. …
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