426,000 cell phones are "retired" in the U.S. every day The photo above (zoomed in version) from Chris Jordan's "Running the Numbers" exhibition is currently showing at Von Lintel Gallery in NYC. Here's the opening paragraph of his artist's statement: Exploring around our country’s shipping ports and industrial yards, where the accumulated detritus of our consumption is exposed to view like eroded layers in the Grand …
Red, White + Blue vs. Red, White + Blue
WakeUpWalMart.com has launched an advertising campaign aiming to dissuade what it calls Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s core customers -- Southerners and conservative Republicans -- from shopping at the retailer. WakeUpWalMart.com, which was formed two years ago by the United Food and Commercial Workers union. The UFCW's tagline is "A Voice for Working America." The first ad to air criticizes Wal-Mart's ties to China. The ad …
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Price Promotions And Point-Of-Sale Make An Impression
Illustration by David Pohl The New York Times has gleaned data from a scientific study published in the May issue of The Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine about advertising's role in motivating teens to smoke and drink. The scientists found that point-of-sale advertising is associated with getting children to try smoking, but has little effect in encouraging habitual tobacco use. However, cigarette …
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Brands Are Made of Ideas. Tires Are Made of Rubber.
L.A. Times has a story about a multinational brand caught in the middle of a larger story about crime, nature, globalization, history, imperialism and poverty. The setting is Liberia, the African nation emerging from 14 years of civil war. The brand is Japanese-owned Bridgestone. Bridgestone is in Liberia for its natural resources. Rubber is Liberia's biggest export and Bridgestone's Firestone plantation, which is …
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No Time To Hate (Unless The Emotion Is Directed At Rubber Shoes)
We know all about people who actively resist advertising. In fact, we actively resist advertising. But here's a group of people who take things a step further by resisting product. I Hate Crocs video care of Josh Spear …
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Fast Food Farce
Jeff Kay's West Virginia Surf Report is offering an interesting photo essay that depicts food marketers as fabricators. In his left column he shows the advertised image, in his right column he shows the real thing. …
Seen In Shoreditch
Photo courtesy of Flickr user, Szen Volta …
Twitter Resistance
View Sarah L's eight-panel cartoon in its entirety. [via Micropersuasion] …