American consumers spend 42 minutes, on average, talking to machines and pushing buttons to nowheresville on customer service calls. Actually, I just made that up. In all likelihood, the number is much higher. Now, thanks to the kindness of one netizen, Paul English, you can get right through to that call center on the outskirts of Bombay. Happy dialing! [via Micropersuasion] …
Radical Catholics And Progressives Have Something In Common
Life Site: A Catholic civil rights group is calling for a boycott of Wal-Mart stores after learning the retailer has replaced all reference to “Merry Christmas” with “Happy Holidays” in its advertising and in-store greetings. The Catholic League has historically highlighted incidents of anti-Christmas shenanigans at businesses throughout the nation. Commenting on the hostility to the celebration of the birth of the …
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Teens Flee From High Culture
The Guardian: Mozart, Brahms and Bach have been enlisted to discourage youths from hanging around shops at seaside towns. Classical music has been piped into Co-op stores at Seaton and Teignmouth in Devon for just over a week, and already youngsters who used to congregate near the doors have gone elsewhere. The supermarket plans to experiment with different types of classical music to see if particular styles are …
Anti-Wal-Mart Sentiments Take On Religious Fervor
USA Today: Wal-Mart's critics, opening a new front in their war on the retail goliath, are borrowing from actor-director Mel Gibson's promotional playbook. Producers of a new documentary, Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, will show it at about 1,000 churches, synagogues and religious sites nationwide on Nov. 13 in a bid to force changes in Wal-Mart's employment and other practices. The film, by the director of …
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Put The Gun Down
CNN: Activists want Paramount Pictures to take down billboards promoting the upcoming film "Get Rich or Die Tryin'," claiming the advertisements promote gun violence. The billboards depict Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson holding a gun in his left hand and a microphone in his right. One of the advertisements is next to a preschool. Najee Ali, who organized a rally Tuesday, accused Paramount, which is owned by Viacom Inc., …
Is Creativity Just Another Commodity?
Marc Babej, president of Reason inc., is tired of all the creative window dressing. He skewers Wieden, Crispin, FCB and Publicis for blathering on about "creativity". He also brings to light this classic Ogilvyism: “If you spend your advertising budget entertaining the consumer, you’re a bloody fool. Housewives don’t buy a new detergent because the manufacturer told a joke on television last night. They buy the new …
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Topical Humor Causes Major League Consternation
USA Today: The latest "Got Milk?" commercial hit a little too close to home for Major League Baseball. Poking fun at the league's steroid scandal, the television ad for the California Milk Processor Board talks about a player getting pulled from a game "after testing positive for a performance-enhancing substance." In the next scene, a coach pulls a carton of milk from the slugger's locker. "There is nothing …
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Not The Official Version
Shaghaiist: Online do-it-yourself encyclopedia Wikipedia, every lazy blogger’s best friend, will not load in Shanghai without the aid of a proxy server. The site worked yesterday. Most assume the free information source has been blocked by the Chinese government. We can’t imagine why. …