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 …
Anomaly Loses A Client, But What About The Products?
Although I'm very fuzzy on how the compensation models are set up, I've been intrigued by agencies like Anomaly that have pursued other means of revenue than writing ads. This story in Adweek mentions that Anomaly has lost Virgin America, but because of the unusual business arrangement, things sound complicated: Virgin America's split with the incumbent will take effect in January, said Jason DeLand, a partner at …
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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 …
Facebook Does An About Face On Social Ads
Well, that was fast. Just three weeks in to the glorious future of advertsing as reinvented by Facebook, the soc net is stepping off. Adweek frames the situation. Under mounting pressure from consumer privacy groups and its own community, Facebook has moved to scale back its plans to publish accounts of its users' purchases and other commercial activity. As of late Thursday, Facebook users must now proactively …
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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 …
Army Strong, Offer Stronger
If you think your client's product is a tough sell, try selling the Army in the fifth year of a war. Today's Wall Street Journal looks at the new approaches the Army is taking--appealing to Mom and Dad in order to sign up Junior: The Army has been enlisting youths for decades by promising them money for college. Starting in January, it will try out a different sort of pitch in selected cities: offering up to $40,000 …