Lewis Lazare: In the increasingly suffocating world of corporate sponsorship, it's been a dangerous and dirty little secret for sometime now: Just about anything can be had for a few lousy dollars. On Wednesday, that truism was reaffirmed in a heart-rending way in what may well be the most repellent sponsorship deal so far in marketing history. Desperate for funds to prop up a sagging horse racing industry, …
Yo Piers, Take A Chill
Piers Fawkes got his panties all up in a wad last night. Check this out: What the heck? Steve Hall and gang spend Wednesday posting about a "new advertising" opportunity: advertising on eggs. Woo hoo, let's write that into the media plan shall we? Or maybe not. I really belive that the 'Ads On Eggs' articles that have run on AdPulp, MIT, AdRants reflect the misservice that the ad blogs are providing the advertising …
Rushkoff On Roberts
Marc Babej asked Douglass Rushkoff about Saatchi & Saatchi CEO, Kevin Roberts, a.k.a. "Mr. Lovemarks." Rushkoff interviewed Roberts for his PBS/Frontline documentary "The Persuaders," so it was a question, he was prepared to handle. Kevin seems like a smart and sweet guy to me, for sure. I’ve got no problem with him. I just think his company - what’s left of the ad agency that used to be Saatchi and Saatchi - really …
Some Newspapers Can’t See The Forest For The Trees
You'd think newspapers would jump for joy when Google picks up their content and links back their original article, thereby driving mass traffic to their sites. Yet, this Reuters article shows that's not always the case. The Paris-based World Association of Newspapers, whose members include dozens of national newspaper trade bodies, said it is exploring ways to "challenge the exploitation of content by search engines …
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The End
Live Science: After 145 years, Western Union has quietly stopped sending telegrams. On the company's web site, if you click on "Telegrams" in the left-side navigation bar, you're taken to a page that ends a technological era with about as little fanfare as possible: "Effective January 27, 2006, Western Union will discontinue all Telegram and Commercial Messaging services. We regret any inconvenience this may cause …
How To Crack Consumers Up
Advertising for Peanuts brings our attention to yet another medium for advertising—eggs. EggFusion of Boulder, CO seeks to "promote freshness with every impression." With most marketing communications, consumers may briefly see or hear a message, but rarely do they tangibly engage with it. Yet with eggs, consumers hand-select, feel, break and interact with the message several times. This engagement becomes …
Your Country Needs You
I was surprised last night to hear President Bush freely admit that our nation is addicted to oil and that we need to correct that problem in a hurry. He aslo admitted that we're falling behind in math and science, and that we need to address this problem to remain competitive in the global marketplace. Naturally, these issues are plain as day to anyone paying attention, but to hear the President admit to our …
Hollywood’s Re-org
William C. Taylor and Polly LaBarre for The New York Times: Sure, Disney's deal last week to acquire Pixar is about big money — how Steven P. Jobs turned a fledgling outfit that he had bought for $10 million into a juggernaut valued at $7.4 billion. And, yes, it is about a big strategic shift at the Walt Disney Company, as Robert A. Iger, the chief executive, exorcises the ghost of his predecessor, Michael D. Eisner. …