Fred Wilson, a venture capitalist in the tech sector with a popular following thanks to his A VC blog, thinks Apple brand is bruised and on the road to worm-ridden. I am afraid to upgrade to a new version of iTunes because it might make my music and video unusable or it might brick my iPhone. I am afraid to upgrade to Leopard because it might brick my MacBook. I have a brand new iPhone sitting right next to me on my …
Why So Ugly?
Rob Walker discusses the absense of a design imperative in MySpace's offering. When I first looked at MySpace, my reaction was: “What a mess. It’s just (visual) noise.” In fact I think I reacted to it much like parents reacted to some of the music I listened to when I was a kid: That it wasn’t music at all, just noise. Now what’s interesting about that to me is that, from my point of view, it most certainly was …
Booze Barriers Fall
According to Stuart Elliott, WNBC-TV in New York is daring to run spirits ads. The decision is a small but significant sign of changing attitudes toward advertising of products that many consider contentious. From 1948 until 1996, no TV station or network accepted liquor ads although distilled spirits were advertised in newspapers, magazines and billboards. Today, hundreds of television stations and networks carry …
Give Caribou A Coffee
BarbaraLippert of Adweek likes the new Starbucks spots from Wieden + Kennedy. "Ski Lift" is abstract, but still warm. It features cool, switched-on music ("I Love NYE," by Badly Drawn Boy) and even offers a little breather when it comes on, like staring inside a snow globe, or, um, taking a coffee break in a cozy, welcoming café. Given that Caribou Coffee is a Starbucks competitor in several states, I find this …
Good Google
Google is an exciting company. Every week the geeks are up to something something new and good. This week in Google, the search and advertising giant announced it will enter the sustainable energy market and make a bid for wireless spectrum, opening a path to the gPhone and a new, more open (and internet-like) consumer option in mobile. Ad Age has the mobile story: Google will enter an upcoming auction for a wireless …
Ad Creep Reaches PDFs
Yahoo and Adobe are combining forces to monetize content published in Adobe's PDF format. For advertisers, Ads for Adobe PDF Powered by Yahoo! extends reach by delivering advertising across a new channel of content, while also providing the ability to track advertising performance, just as they can today with ads placed on Web sites. Todd Teresi, senior vice president, Yahoo! Publisher Network said the move "is a …
The Man Who Repurposes Media For His Own Purposes
Ad Age sent a writer to Vancouver, BC to meet Kalle Lasn, "advertising's angriest and most prolific heretic." I always imagined the Adbuster as a young turk, but I was wrong. Born in Tallinn, Estonia, in 1942, in the middle of World War II, Mr. Lasn spent his early childhood in a German "displaced-persons camp" before emigrating to Australia and earning a degree in applied mathematics. He spent five years running …
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Publishing Obscene Odes On the Windows of the Skull
Just about any agency can make great ads for the right client. And the right client often comes in the door as a pro-bono opportunity. I don't know if The Beat Museum is pro-bono or not, but I can't imagine they had much money to spend. Grey's San Francisco office created the campaign, which can be seen in full at Adrants. …
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