from Lewis Lazare: In another hard blow to the Chicago advertising industry, Grant/Jacoby, one of the city's oldest ad agencies, is believed to be on the verge of closing its doors for good, another apparent victim of the plague of bad management that has cast a pall over more than one shop in this city in recent years. News of the agency's likely demise saddened those familiar with its long history. Over the …
Hot New Geekwear From NeoNerd
from Tim Nudd of Adweek: After getting canned on The Apprentice, Danny Kastner wrote a song called "15 Minutes of Fame." "Who is that knockin' at your door?/Oh my lord, it must be them, the paparazzi/Who else could it possibly be?" he sings. It's pure Kastner: a clueless yet charming mix of self-love and self-promotion, tempered by hippyish earnestness. It's almost worth visiting Kastner.com just to hear it. This …
There’s News, And Then There’s Yesterday’s News.
In the beginning, there was Sega …
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Deep Discounts Create Mayhem Outside London
from The Telegraph: Britain's biggest Ikea store opened at midnight yesterday - but closed just 40 minutes later as 6,000 frenzied shoppers stampeded for bargains, leaving 20 in need of hospital treatment. One woman was said to have been threatened by a man with a mallet, and another waiting in the checkout queue was "mugged" for her cut-price sofa. Security guards were reported to have fled the scene. Police were …
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Is That A Cucumber In Donny Deutsch’s Pants Or Is He Just Happy To See Us?
Much as I hate to give Donny Deutsch and Donald Trump more publicity, last night's episode of "The Apprentice" was the advertising agency episode, in which the two teams, Magna and Net Worth, produced spec commercials for Dove body wash. See the results here. One looks like a badly edited iMovie, and the other looks like a porno minus the "bow-chikka-bow-bow" music. "They both sucked," Deutsch tells Trump. And in …
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Product Placement Gives Small Player Big Time Exposure
Boulder-based sparking juice company, Izze, somehow got its product into Brad Pitt's fridge. During Heineken's 60-second Super Bowl spot starring the 41-year old actor, Pitt opens his fridge to find an empty sixer of Heineken, which leads him to head to the store for more. But he could have chosen another beverage--namely a pear-flavored Izze. Reports indicate the spot, created by Wieden + Kennedy's Amersterdam …
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Another Coup for the Blogosphere
If you haven't heard of Talon News' White House Correspondent Jeff Gannon, it's OK. There is no Jeff Gannon. White House correspondents and bloggers did a little digging on Gannon after he tossed softball questions to President Bush and White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan at news conferences. Turns out Talon News is closely connected with the GOP, Jeff Gannon isn't his real name and his company also …
Even Better Than Concierge Service
from Business 2.0: A few lucky people actually look forward to the daily commute. Just ask one of about 300 Google employees who regularly go to and from the Googleplex in Mountain View, Calif., on the company's free Wi-Fi-equipped shuttles. Google project manager Cari Spivack conceived of the Bay Area-wide busing program. "People have moved up to San Francisco because they know they can take the shuttle to work," …