Marketing

RealNetworks plans to spin its casual gaming division off as an independent entity. The division will better position the casual games unit more competitively against the market, said RealNetworks....

With the growth of broadband subscriptions, and an increasing number of online viewing options, online video use has expanded in the past year, according to consumer research from Leichtman Research...

Best Buy has purchased a 50 percent stake in The Carphone Warehouse, a European mobile phone vendor, for $2.1 billion. The deal includes The Carphone Warehouse's 2400 stores, which span nine European...

A quote from a photo retoucher for Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty has generated questions about how "real" any of the beauties actually were. In the May 12 issue of the New Yorker, Pascal Dangin —...

A growing number of global mobile phone users are accessing social networks over the mobile internet, according to research from Nielsen Mobile - via MarketingCharts. In the US, over 4 million do...

Today I'm trying an interesting experiment with another author, David Vinjamuri. We are doing mirror interviews and posting them at the same time - so he asked me 10 questions about PNI and I asked him 10 about his new book called Accidental Branding. Aside from both being in the midst of the same challenge of marketing our books, once I read his book I realized we approach marketing in very similar ways as well.  David is the founder of ThirdWay Brand Trainers and a Professor at NYU and has been kind enough to help sponsor a session on Personality Not Included that I will be speaking at…

There's a pretty simple idea that could transform the landscape of targeted online communications, but no one is doing it ... yet.  If you have ever done any online marketing that has been targeted by geography, you know that there are pretty much only two ways to do it currently online: 1. Based on IP address of where the user is accessing the Internet. Notoriously unreliable because of shared servers and inability to truly pinpoint a user's location.2. Based on a profile that the user has created indicating where they live. This is much better with two big assumptions ... that people…

Just over a week ago during lunch at the New Communication Forum, I had a great conversation with Tim Tozer from Radian6 (a social media monitoring service) about the real metrics that marketers are looking for and the increasingly common difficulty of finding metrics that are actually useful and offer actionable insights. Many people who have to contend with web analytics tools today will tell you that it is no longer an issue of having the technology available to measure things online, but rather the analytical ability to hone in on the metrics that really matter. Tradition, when it comes…

I've done a few book signings in the last few weeks and it has been an interesting experience. In the romantic view that many people might have about the life of an author, these book signings are mega affairs with lines around the block and a steady stream of people. In reality, they are usually poorly attended, pathetic microgatherings that can bruise the fragile egos of many authors (particularly those who have an inflated sense of their own importance because of how popular they are online - c'mon, you know who you are!) Despite this truth about book signings, however, the other truth you…

For anyone who uses a Blackberry religiously, or works with those who do - you also know that there is a new language that has emerged for that mode of communication. Similar to text messages, brevity is a growing necessity with Blackberry communications and it is leading to people doing things like including a disclaimer at the bottom of their emails apologizing for the short replies, and possible grammatical and spelling errors of their message. Apparently having small keys is enough of an excuse to spell poorly and forget about periods or commas.  I wish we had that excuse when were…

Going through driving permit fun recently reminded me of the classic Red Asphalt. Which led me to this Jimmy Stewart driver’s ed video. Yep. Remember when we got to ride around without seat belts or a care in the world? Do I! Be sure to check out 6:37 of the clip, where the troublemakers of tomorrow drive 2 fast and 2 furious.

Why, it’s so effective, couples won’t even be able to last :30 seconds.Perfect for today’s hectic lifestyles!Tags: KY Yours and Mine

Not exactly the typical director’s commentary you’d find on the DVD’s extras, Matrix Movie Mistakes is one fan’s look at the continuity issues in the film. (Most movies and shows have them but I never caught any of this stuff even after watching it a few times.) Listening to the ‘speech’ reminds me of Mystery Science Theatre and its spontaneous comments. Thinking too of all those paid review clips people do for products they don’t use and I can see a whole bunch of fan commentary films like this emerge. They’d sure be a whole lot more genuine because like Dinero now, paid…

Because a cowboy without a hat, a sunset and a typo is a cowboy without his manhood.

I like the idea of a Humanitarian Lion, and I know many ad people want to do meaningful work, if only to wipe away the stench away. What say you, would you, or the agency you work for, take part in something like this? Would your clients?

Marketing via cellphones is forecast to be one of the next hot trends, but many advertisers are still hesitant to empty their pockets on mobile-ad campaigns. One reason: There isn't yet a reliable source of data that show what Web sites and features consumers are accessing on their mobile devices. Measurement firms such as Nielsen and M:Metrics, which have relied mainly on monthly consumer surveys to gather such information, are developing electronic tracking methods that aim to provide more specific and accurate information. So far, M:Metric's software works only on high-end smart-phones,…

Myanmar, the nation formerly known as Burma, is in the news this week, as its military regime has seized United Nations food shipments in the wake of the devastating typhoon that has killed thousands of the nation's citizens. Fanista--a community for entertainment enthusiasts--is running a 30-day campaign, Burma: It Cant Wait, with the hope of "raising a million voices of support" for Burma. Their campaign is one part disaster relief and another part pro-democracy advocacy. The Kardashian sisters, Sarah Silverman, Eddie Izard, Julie Benz and others are appearing in the campaign. [via Make the…

MySpace said Thursday it will enable users to quickly share profile data with Web sites operated by Yahoo Inc., eBay Inc. and others. "There's this concept that social networks are walled gardens," said Amit Kapur, MySpace's chief operating officer. "We're taking those walls down." MySpace will roll out the new feature in the next several weeks. Among other things, MySpace users could have their default photo and music interests appear in Yahoo Instant Messenger or enrich their eBay profiles to improve exchanges between buyers and sellers. "By injecting MySpace data, you're able to get a…

Microsoft wasn't willing to pay a premium for Yahoo, a company that would have helped them compete against Google, but the Redmond software titan still intends to move aggressively into online advertising. BusinessWeek has the story : It may be impossible to catch Google in search advertising. The company dominates the market, taking in 77% of the revenues from those little text ads that show up alongside the results for Internet search queries. Microsoft, after years of trying, is at 5% of U.S. search revenue, according to search marketing firm Efficient Frontier. But Microsoft has a…

When friends send me emails requesting my presence at this website or that website, I am usually skeptical. No matter, it's natural for me to wonder if this thing is a scam or not. So, when Ann sent me an invitation to get $25 from Revolution Money Exchange, I didn't believe her at first.Why?Because Ann joins more social network group than anyone I know. And I thought this was just another one I didn't have time for.But, it wasn't.Revolution Money Exchange is in Beta and until May 15th they are giving away bundles of $25 just for opening up a free account. Actually I signed up for it 2 weeks…

When I use Facebook, I use it for close friends.These are usually people I know personally or have met.The level of relationship is deeper than associations found online.So, they know what I do for a living and are oftentimes among my readers.Their support is priceless. While at Java Hut Café one Sunday, I met a friend who was using Facebook to make money. At first I thought he was going give me an urban legend.Something he heard through a MySpace friend of his that he was sharing with me deep down the communication pipeline.So I made sure I asked all possible questions.I wanted to truly…

We baffle them. There are so many of us, networking, twittering, blogging. It’s a way of life for us. With disposable income in the billions, Wall Street advertisers are willing to knock down the walls clamoring for our attention and wallets.What is it that they want?The last couple of years Web 2.0 has been invaded with advertising. Major corporate players began showing up on MySpace. Movie trailers are now commonplace for the over 100 million registered users of the social networking group.Corporate America is so fascinated with all our disposable income so that they’ve increased online…

I recently read “Breaking The Digg Code” by Khalid of Invesp Blog. And my eyes were opened to a social bookmarking technique that many of us are not using. If we used this technique, we would all have the traffic we desire. Here’s some info I picked up:(I’m applying this to Digg and StumbleUpon, although Khalid did not.)Reciprocal Diggs & Stumbles don’t carry much weight. It’s like your family giving you a good job recommendation, of course they’ll say good things about you. So they don’t count.That’s why when we request reciprocal Diggs & Stumbles they don’t get us very…

Drum Roll Please!!!Here are my top 10 EC Droppers for the month of April. These Entrecard users dropped their card on this site the most in the last 30 days. Entrecard accounts for a huge portion of my traffic as it shows relevant, like minded users stop by the most.Turnip Of PowerLee Doyle -- Contains NutsKarlonia.comWorth The PopcornTechnically EasyOrangeinksFoolsville 2.0John's Tech BlogBitter Sweet MusicBrain StimulantThese next four sites gave me the most clicks when my EC widget was shown on their sites. I'll definitely purchase advertising from them again!Fruit SpeciesPopular…

The sun had reason to shine on our faces today. Kurt Parker proposed to Rebecca Kading on top of Mt. Hood over the weekend. She said yes. The idea caught on like wildfire and before you knew it, everyone was hooking up. First it was Janine and Tram. Then is was Christin, Josh and Irish. Pets are for lovers. Aaron Lee and Jane Monaghan were all over each other. Rebecca caught the festive spirit and was hanging on Steve. Kurt knows the score so he found Erin over by the Guacamole. That left old Jesse with the booze. Sometimes just as well. The Sun makes people crazy in Oregon. Remember that at…

Former WK12 Year 1'r Rudy Adler recently launched a new website – How I Spent My Stimulus.com. In January, Congress approved $152 billion in economic stimulus checks for millions of American households, intended to boost the economy and avert a recession. Just how this money will be spent remains to be seen. Rudy hopes this website helps shed some light on where the stimulus money is going. Rudy created this as a collaborative project. All blog entries are submitted by visitors to the site. He'd love for you to contribute — just upload a photo and share your story. Lottery…

Almost a month ago we made a trade of one Katie for one Janine. Say hello, if you haven't already, to Janine Byrne. She comes to us from WK Amsterdam and has taken advantage of her time here. Have a look at her blog which she has started since coming over. http://noclogs.blogspot.com Here are five answers to some questions that we had for Janine. 1. What do you do at WK Amsterdam and how long have you worked there? I've been in Amsterdam for 8 years now. That's an awfully long time. In Amsterdam I work in the studio. I do all the usual things that involves. Same as you guys…

I saw a video and I liked all of it. It was made by Chris Lael Larson from Studio. The video, To Remember That Our Skies Are The Same Skies, just got the nod for the PDX Film festival this coming Saturday, May 3rd. If you can't make that, you can see Chris's short film at the NW Film Center as well as the work of several other talented artists through May. Click here to view the trailer for To Remember That Our Skies Are The Same Skies

Wieden+Kennedy Studio group photo 2008.

When marketers design a marketing campaign – we typically design them for “rational” buyers. But do buyers ever act rational?And what about us?When we make decisions we think we're in control and making rational choices. But are we?Dan Ariely a faculty member at MIT’s Sloan School of Management and member of the Media Lab has launched a book called Predictably Irrational and the blog by the same name dedicated the study of behaviors. His work is fascinating and enlightening for all marketers.Dan is going to be one of the Keynote speakers at MarketingProfs B2B Forum on June 9-10 in…

My wife loves to travel, and spring break for my kids is always the perfect excuse to get away. But this time was different; for over a year my wife had been planning a trip to Turkey with a family we tend to travel well with.Of course April is always a busy time in life as well as at work, and yeah, there’s never a good time to get away. But my wife assured me that every hotel we were staying in had Internet access. Now you know, it’s been a decade or more since the Internet became mainstream, and that seemed sensible to me. But what transpired I could never have expected.Internet access…

Over the past few years marketers have been working on tracking conversations about their brands on the Web (you are tracking and listening, aren’t you?). But once you have that in place, then what?Strategies for understanding and dealing with the flow of all these conversations are the natural next step. As more and more conversations are coming online, you need to respond quickly. So knowing things like “sentiment,” who in your organization is on point to respond, and whether they have been doing so are becoming more important. It’s like being at a party and having several…

Lots of brands are finding out the hard way that there are plenty of conversations taking place about them online. For good or bad.Many brands choose to ignore this. But hope is not a strategy.Since consumers rely heavily on the Web as an authoritative source of information, managing a brand's online reputation has become a top priority for companies. Here are 5 tips that could help you avoid a major disaster and reduce the risk of a flogging in the blogosphere.Tip 1: Monitor the New Conversational TerrainYou have to be listening. As Woody Allen said, "half of the battle is just showing up."…

Ok, here is something I’m wrestling with: Can a community be successful with low brand awareness?If you are a big tech brand like Dell or Microsoft, you have no problem launching a community. In fact, many of these organizations have several communities.But what if you are a small SaaS vendor? Forget costs for one moment, and resources for another (chuckling) – can you attract enough community members to make it go?Think about the last great party you went to (technically I have never been to a party – but if I had…) where there were a ton of interesting people, lots of great…

Nothing respects the colours of your clothes and preserves their brightness from the flow of time like Ace Gentile does. The idea starts from that statement to tell that Ace Gentile gives a new life to colours at every wash. We tried to give it back throughout a synthetic key-visual that uses the metaphor of blood-flowing under the “skin” of the clothes. The concept is that colours are alive when you wash your clothes with Ace Gentile: a shirt sleeve is outlined by human veins and the headline completes the ad talking of “Lively Colours”. Advertising Agency: Grey Milano, Milan, Italy…

ZeroTAG (Zero Tolerance Against Graffiti) strikes again, this time banning the posters for the graffiti inspired Adidas Cope collection. Citizens were warned to ‘distinguish themselves during this enforcement by wearing plain attire’. www.zero-tag.org Advertising Agency: Lifelounge, Melbourne, Australia Creative Director: Daniel Pollock Senior Art Director: David Ponce de Leon Art Director: Dimitri Kalagas Copywriter: Chris Cork Outdoor Media: Adshell

“Blocked nose? Otrivin.” Advertising Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi, Milan, Italy Company Name: Saatchi & Saatchi Simko, Geneve Executive Creative Directors: John Pallant, Roger Kennedy, Olivier Girard, Jean-François Fournon Creative Directors: Guido Cornara, Agostino Toscana Art Director: Luca Pannese Copywriter: Luca Lorenzini Illustrator: Rob Perry Photographer: Davide Bodini

Advertising Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi, Milan, Italy Company Name: Saatchi & Saatchi Simko, Geneve Executive Creative Directors: John Pallant, Roger Kennedy, Olivier Girard, Jean-François Fournon Creative Directors: Guido Cornara, Agostino Toscana Art Director: Luca Pannese Copywriter: Luca Lorenzini Production Company: The Family Director: Stefano Quaglia Post Production Company: X-changes VFX Sound design: Greenmovie

Advertising Agency: JWT, Milan, Italy Executive Creative Director: Pietro Maestri Creative Directors: Bruno Bertelli, Cristiana Boccassini Art Director: Massimiliano Traschitti Copywriter: Salvatore Li Vecchi Photographer: Fulvio Bonavia

I love the premise from Steve Yastrow’s recently-published book, WE: The Ideal Customer Relationship. In the opening chapter, Yastrow writes …Relationships have become powerful differentiators. Customers can’t tell is your product is better than your competitor’s product, but they can tell if they have a better relationship with you than with your competitor. If relationships are such powerful differentiators, what is the most productive, profitable, and sustainable relationship? The We relationship. In a We relationship, you think less about what separates you and more about what…

Four years ago I linked to an article titled, GURU NATION. The article shed light on the Business Guru Scene from the egos to the economics of it all. Interesting read. The Wall Street Journal has revisited the Guru Scene for 2008. This updated look reflects a change where more non-traditional business experts are in greater demand. Journalists like Thomas Friedman (#2) and Malcolm Gladwell (#4) rank high as does education professor, Howard Gardner (#5). According to the article, the most popular topics for these business gurus include: globalization, motivation ,and innovation. Here's…

From AdFreak, by way of Nerve.com ... a collection of 50 top-notch commercial parodies from Saturday Night Live, SCTV, In Living Color, Chappelle's Show, and MADtv. Good stuff. Click below: ** "Click me," said the jpeg. **

The Wall Street Journal recently ran an interview with Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo EVP of Sales & Marketing. The interview focused on the marketing strategies behind the U.S. introduction of Wii Fit, a gaming system designed to get people in game shape. Cammie Dunaway explains there will be TV, Radio, and OOH advertising to support the launch but ... Nintendo is focusing much of its marketing attention on “public relations” efforts to get regular people to do the marketing for Wii Fit. Cammie is a firm believer in the power of Word-of-Mouth (WOM) as a credible and effective marketing…

WHAT Net income for Q2 2008 at Starbucks fell by $42-million compared to the same quarter last year. (Ouch.) Additionally, Starbucks is drastically reducing the number of new store openings in the U.S. Starbucks opened nearly 1,800 locations in 2007. For 2008 the company will open only 1,175 new locations — that’s a 35% reduction in new store openings from the prior year. And, beginning in 2009 through 2011, Starbucks will limit new store openings to only 400 per year. SO WHAT Clearly the company is experiencing growth troubles in the U.S. However, Starbucks is hoping to offset the slower…

There's an inverse relationship between a company's ability to communicate well and its public use of jargon. Facebook is a good example. Smart people run the company, but their communication with the world is usually pretty awful. From my vantage point at a packed coffee shop in Austin this weekend, Facebook's familiar interface illuminated laptop screens on multiple tables. The scene was a typical cross-section of the site's users. But very few, if any, of the people behind those laptops would describe Facebook to their friends as a "social utility," as Facebook describes itself on its home…

Does this dress make my hips look big? It was a question for which I needed an honest answer this weekend as I shopped at J. Crew. My salesperson complied. "Yes, it does," she said. She smartly suggested another, more flattering dress instead. Thank you. I appreciated the honest advice. Long-time readers of the Church probably know I love J. Crew, which continues to impress me with its turnaround from an average retailer into a dynamic store. CEO Mickey Drexler is clearly driven by a fanatical mission to understand what his customers want. He spends part of almost every day visiting stores.

If you've been reading us for a while, you may know about our work with Erebelle, an Austin-based women's clothing brand that we've invested in. Here's an update. Website. An updated website that positions the brand ("active wear for women") and showcases all of its pieces is nearly finished. To date, Erebelle has been sold only in boutiques and fitness centers around the country; a later update will add ecommerce to the site using GoodBarry, a SAS-based ecommerce suite with many appealing, if not overwhelming, features. The good: Creating a new website is relatively easy, especially when…

Is it possible to build a very successful company and know zilch about marketing, branding or maybe even business? Yes, according to David Vinjamuri. He's an adjunct instructor of marketing at NYU, a brand consultant and author of the new book, "Accidental Branding." It tells the stories of eight entrepreneurs who built brands such as J. Peterman, Columbia Sportswear and Clif Bar (one of my faves) without any experience in marketing or branding. David answered our 10 questions on how a marketing n00b can still become a successful entrepreneur.1: In a nutshell, what are you trying to…

Michele Miller posted this on SWOM. It's so good I wanted to repost it here: One of the hottest videos on YouTube today is the Free Hug Campaign - one man giving away free hugs and the effect it has on the people around him. It's a perfect parallel to building a viral campaign for your business. Watch the video and observe: People's resistance to anything free... even if it's a hug The breakthrough that happens when one random individual decides to try one A tsunami of response once people watch the experience of others The fight to defend their right to hug when barriers are erected by…

Agency: Smith Roberts Creative Communications, Toronto Creative Director: Tony Miller Art Director: Greg Kouts Copywriter: Matt Hubbard Photographer: Daniel Ehrenworth Found at: adsoftheworld Sponsored By: Make some Cash from Your Site!Text-Link-Ads have been working great for adgoodness, so why not try them out!

Agency: Ogilvy & Mather, Singapore Executive Creative Director: Todd McCracken Creative Group Head / Art Director: Ashidiq Ghazali Photographer: Groovy Studio Retoucher: Procolor Creative Group Head / Copywriter: Troy Lim Found at: adsoftheworld

A website for the hip-hop group Atmosphere, where you can tag (graffiti) any site on the web. PaintThatShitGold.com arms fans with spray cans and stencils allowing them to “tag” any site on the Web—all while listening to tracks from the new album. From whitehouse.gov to myspace.com, no site is safe. Agency: Colle+McVoy, Minneapolis Executive Creative Director: Mike Fetrow Group Creative Director: Eric Husband Copywriter: Tim Blevins Art Director/Designer: Barrett Haroldson Art Director: Mike Caguin Technical Lead: Jason Striegel Developer: Brian Litzinger Front-end Flash Developer:…

Agency: Shalmor Avnon Amichay / Young & Rubicam, Tel Aviv Chief Creative officer: Gideon Amichay Creative director: Yoram Levi Head Creative group: Nadav Pressman Copywriter: Shushu Spanier Art Director: Tal Ben-Ari

Agency: TBWA, Istanbul Creative Director: İlkay Gürpınar Creative Head: Gokhan Yucel Copywriter: Cem Ozturk Art Director: Banu Ustundag Found at: adsoftheworld

Lists don't do it Not really - even the ones created with the best of intentions can have unintended consequences. Lists don't tell a story, they are merely a compilation of different things grouped with the specific intent of cataloging. When the list is hierarchical, it highlights at best one characteristic of the items in question thus potentially reducing the intrinsic value or worth (to you) of each to that item's relationship to the others. What happens when there is really no equivalence? You get lost in compilation. Statistics don't do it Even though there are more women than men…

You're looking at the inscription from Trajan's Column, circa 113 A.D.. The person who engraved these letters, the Senate and the People of Rome who dedicated them, and Trajan himself are long since dust. But the words remain. This particular set of characters happens to be the basis of modern typography: an unintended consequence, but true. Typesetters have long considered Trajan's column to be the gold standard of Roman capital letters. Every printed word in a Western language owes a little something to this bit of Second Century political adulation. Which goes to show the persistence and…

I've attended my share of conferences and events over the years. Whether local professional association gatherings, or one-week long affairs in a remote locale, I found that the best way to get the most out of your money - energy and time - is to prepare in advance. As I wrote in 5 tips to maximize event attendance, you start with why you are going, do your homework, stay in the present at the actual conference as you meet people, are specific about what you seek, and follow through once you get back home. Preparation allows you to have the desired experience. It also lets others experience…

Heath Row joined the Fast Company team in July 1997 as an associate editor (more on his profile on LinkedIn). The Company of Friends, Fast Company's readers network, launched in October 15, 1997. ... after I realized that the connection people felt to the periodical was similar to the connection folks feel with other people -- and readers started approaching us asking to be introduced to other readers (I didn't know about the latter at the time). The basic idea behind the readers network was that people who resonated with the key themes of the magazine -- innovation and change -- should know…

I just bought tickets to go see KOOZA. In researching what the story is about, I discovered that in KOOZA, Cirque du Soleil tells the story of The Innocent, a melancholy loner in search of his place in the world. From the site: KOOZA is a return to the origins of Cirque du Soleil: It combines two circus traditions – acrobatic performance and the art of clowning. The show highlights the physical demands of human performance in all its splendor and fragility, presented in a colorful mélange that emphasizes bold slapstick humor. Many of the Cirque shows remind me of journeys. The Innocent's…

We design our marketing campaigns for "rational" buyers. But do buyers ever act rationally? In a preview of his keynote at the MarketingProfs event next month, NY Times bestselling author and MIT Prof Dan Ariely talks about the irrational factors that influence buying decisions.

If you've heard it once, you've heard it a thousand times: subject lines matter when it comes to email marketing. Think of subject lines like the headline of a newspaper article. If it grabs you, you start to read. Over the past few months, the author collected subject lines from all sorts of senders, all based on how they grabbed him the second he saw them. What you'll see here is quick analysis of what he liked or despised. The hope is that after perusing this piece, you get a sense of what other marketers are doing and how you can be better, resulting in more opens, more views, and more…

Viral marketing has been all the rage in recent years: Companies are intoxicated with the idea of creating the next video that spreads across the Internet and becomes a viral sensation. But for every successful viral effort there are countless attempts that totally miss the mark. Here's where David Meerman Scott comes in. Scott understands why ideas spread in a Web 2.0 world, and he educates his clients on why the "old school" rules of PR and marketing are totally irrelevant in a time of content-sharing on YouTube and Twitter.

As a result of its online customer community, a company can get much more than basic product feedback. It gains deep insight into the needs of customers, and creates ever-greater customer loyalty by embracing customers as co-designers. Most importantly, the company goes directly to the source for product enhancements, pulling new innovations and ideas directly from the minds of the customers who use, buy, and recommend its products. This is the holy grail of customer-centered product design. Online customer communities can enable the connections, host the conversations, and facilitate the…

An engagement between a buyer and a seller begins with a single point of contact. It could be as a sale or an inquiry that, with the appropriate follow-up, can be converted into an ongoing experience for both the seller and the buyer. It is such an experience or set of experiences that create what we define as an engagement—or at least the potential of creating one.

There are so few perks in the advertising business. R/GA has a coffee bar and lounge of their very own where they play a mixture of bad music and have a fabulous affable lead barista named Jacqueline. Other than the fact that it may be nice that you don't have to trot down to Starbucks to grab a cup of joe, wondering if there are any other perks to their office? Great health care program? Structured bonus system? Something... The agency got a B+ this year from Adweek and had me wishing that the report cards would also rate employee compensation, satisfaction and benefits. Aren't those things…

"Phone calls are the new page views," said J. Scott Hamilton, President and CEO of VoodooVox, during his opening remarks as he kicked off his company's first annual In-Call Media Summit. Uh-huh. One panel, which included an ex-Virgin Mobile exec, editors from the blog TechCrunch and someone from Adweek describe the service as a method through which "consumers gain value by agreeing to listen to advertising, and in return, advertisers are able to target highly defined direct markets." First of all, we talked about start up service (with the worst name ever), Xipto, a a year ago , where we…

Dove is in the midst of a reoutching crisis. Seems those busty, "real women" were touched up. You are so not surprised. Don't pretend. A retoucher who worked on the campaign, Pascal Dangin, was quoted in this week's New Yorker saying the images were heavily [no pun intended] altered. Dangin, who is trying to keep his career in tact, has recanted. Call me a cynic, but I'm yawning my way through this "crisis." Dove has released this statement: "Dove's mission is to make more women feel beautiful every day by widening the definition of beauty and inspiring them to take great care of themselves.

Clustarack? I'll never forget the name now. Have some patience and enjoy what is sure to be a huge viral hit among the web, tech, science, art farty kids who could actually use a Clustarack. Comments (View) New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media

It is quite likely that you've never heard of Cholie's. I hadn't. It's not a national pizza franchise. Nor regional. It's not a famous local joint that people travel to. It's not even its hometown's most famous pie. Cholie's is a small chain in Chicago, with three locations, aptly named Cholie's, Cholie's #2 and Cholie's #3. Its logo is not even a logo per se, it's whatever the sign painter can muster using the name, and a pizza with a slice coming off. So why in the world would we be reviewing it? Item 146 in the 2008 University of Chicago Scavenger Hunt list. Since 1987, the University of…

Animated-GIF-Master, Von Glitschka, takes on the challenge of designing a logo for the devil:— "666" has to be in the logo.— A brand name has to be developed. (Think "Zoloft", "Viagra" or "Crestor.")— Must use "Red". (Satan owns this color. Sorry "Target" and "Coke.")— Spend no more than 30 minutes on it. (Have work to do.)— Approach it like a corporate client.— No cliches. (Think "Devil Horns" and "Trident.")So, Von, you would show the devil just two options?

Guest Editorial by Kosal Sen The Franklin Institute Science Museum in Philadelphia is a popular tourist attraction that's within walking distance from the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It's a funhouse of exploratory hands-on science. Kids can chase each other inside a giant walk-in human heart, gaze in awe at the IMAX screen, or sit and enjoy the planetarium sky. Though the permanent exhibits are meant for kids on field trips, adults are no less fascinated by the traveling exhibits that take place there, such as The Titanic, Gunther von Hagens' Body Worlds, and King Tut. Through the years The…

These are simply adorable. Advertising agency Dentsu in Brazil created baby logos for a series of print ads for Minichamps, a line of miniature replica cars.

MeadWestvaco, a global supplier of paper products, packaging and chemicals (and subsequently a resource used by many designers… for the paper, not the chemicals) on March 24th unveiled a new brand that shortens the company moniker to “MWV,” introduces a new ribbon element that is animated in a cheesy Flash presentation on the corporate website (more on this later), and incorporates the presumptuous tagline “How brands take shape.” According to chairman and CEO John Luke, Jr., “the new MWV brand identity… clearly states to customers that MWV……

I know that marketing doesn’t come naturally to most business owners. Not many people say to themselves - “I am such a good marketer I think I’ll start a business selling something.” No, unfortunately the conversation probably goes like this - “I sure love to work with spreadsheets and do people’s taxes, holy crap, I’ve got to learn how to market.” When the realization that you are in the marketing business hits, too many people want to grab onto the latest and greatest marketing idea and ramp up the selling machine overnight. When it comes to…

Many small business owners still think they can take a pass on the power of online social media tools, particularly if they reside in seemingly low-tech industries like plumbing, fishing, or lawyering. I want to share a quick interview I did with Jason Brown, 23 year old co-founder of Brown Lures. That’s right, they sell fishing lures to guys and gals that probably don’t call hanging out at Web2.0 conferences a good time. (I’m just guessing on that though.) Brown credits his blog with changing the way people find him, he created a podcast that gives him great “fishing…

My monthly live interview series featuring well-known authors and business leaders continues in May with Tim Berry, founder of Palo Alto software. April’s call with David Allen is archived on the series page along with calls with John Battelle, Guy Kawasaki, Michael Gerber, Tim Ferris, and Ivan Misner. The impressive line-up also features Michael Port in June. Check out the archives and enroll to be notified for each call.

Content is the commerce of social media. But, relevant content, the stuff your customers and prospects actually want to know is the gold. Constantly cranking out this gold can sometimes present creative challenges. So how do you know what to write about, how do you keep the ideas flowing, how do you keep the content relevant and popular. There a number of ways to address these important questions, not the least of which is simply paying attention to what your prospects and customers ask on the daily basis. There’s another tool that not many small business know much about, but is a…

I’m guilty of some of the infractions on this list. Some are so common, it’s hard to remember the right way to handle these misused words and phrases. Great resource list and a pretty good weekend read!

A few months ago, I wrote a tutorial for Computer Arts Magazine about how I put together the CD Package for the band Hollywood Ave. I wanted to share you the link, since it’s now available for free online in PDF form. Which by the way, we’re currently looking to do more CD packaging for bands or DVD packaging for filmmakers. Hit us up! Let’s work together. Follow a brief to produce complete CD artwork from concept to final product, using Photoshop and Illustrator The CD package I’m going to show you how to create over the following pages was a real commission I undertook…

Hey friends! We’ve posted another design on Design by Humans. You readers did a great job of supporting Jeff’s first submission so we figured that we should keep you all updated on more DBH postings. This is our second submission and it is the apparel version of one my “Concentric Series” prints. This particular design has been stolen by a couple of bands and used as cover art. There has also been a clothing line or two that has produced something similar to this design, and they are trying to cramp my style MAAAAN!!! I figured Design by Humans would be able to do this…

Free vector art! Everyone loves it. So to celebrate the release of Set 10 last month, I wanted to give you all a sampler of the set. It’s got 7 of my favorite pieces. The set includes Tattoos, Lightning, Blood Drips, Cute Stuff, Anatomy 2, Nautical, and Hooved. Create something cool with these, you can post to the User Showcase. Go ahead and download the sampler and get a taste of what Set X has to offer after the jump. Make sure to say thanks. Download Vector Pack 10 Sampler

WILLIAM A. BEACHY OF GO MEDIA INC., WON THE BEST MIDWEST FEATURE DESIGN AWARD IN CREATE MAGAZINE’S EDITOR’S CHOICE AWARDS Orlando, FL, April 16, 2008 – Go Media Inc., won the Best Midwest Feature Design crown in Create Magazine’s Editor’s Choice Awards. Go Media conquered tens of other candidates to earn the title and was selected based on their innovative design and eye for detail. The award-winning work, a regional feature design titled “Webtechnologic,” dazzled the world in the Jan+Feb 2007 Midwest issue. “Go Media was a true pleasure to collaborate with on this project,”…

So we have finally decided to do something about our long list of purely digital mockups that make up a large part of our portfolio. We’re finally getting them printed. But we need your help. We have decided to use Design by Humans to print our tees. DBH is a contest site much like Threadless, but a lot of my peers over at Emptees have had some great success with the site and their printing quality and capabilities. The only catch is we need to get a lot of votes in order to be printed. But I am pretty confident that with all of our fans and loyal readers of this blog we can pull it…

I read Jacob Nielsen's AlertBox today titled "How Little Do Users Read?". He showed an interesting study and analysis of time spent on page vs. that showed users spend only 4.4 seconds on a page for each additional 100 words added to the page. If we assume people can read at 200 WPM, the big finding is that for every 100 words you add to a page, you can assume that customers will read 18% of it. Choose words well, be concise...and I better stop writing to make the point! Or use this blog entry to make the point.

Oh, I have another one for you. This is a quick scan if you're a startup, boostrapper, small business, or a college student business...which is what I was when I wrote and used many of these ideas! These one liners may just be useful to throw around in your head and see if something better comes out. 81 One Line Marketing Ideas - Upload a doc Read this doc on Scribd: 81 One Line Marketing Ideas

A few weeks ago I added a small link in one of my posts to my unpublished beginning of a book of 193 Clever Marketing Ideas. John Moore linked to it and it got some interest, so I thought I'd give a more formal promotion here. Plus I want to see how Scribd works in my blog! BTW, Scribd and Slideshare are very cool! 193 Creative Marketing Ideas - Upload a doc Read this doc on Scribd: 193 Creative Marketing Ideas

A good friend and ex-Dell colleague passed away on Friday, April 25, 2008, after a courageous and inspiring battle with brain cancer. I want to celebrate and share the piece of his life I knew, and the words of wisdom he left for all of us.  Two months after I joined Dell in March 1999, a curly-haired Harvard grad moved into the cube next door. Over the next seven years Rich and I worked together to help build Dell’s consumer eBusiness to a $3.5B business, and then on Dell’s CRM and segmentation strategy (he worked on corporate strategy while I worked in Consumer division). But what…

Late post from the Forrester Marketing Forum Conference I attended a couple weeks ago. The topic was “Customer Engagement”, which is heralded by many publications as the new marketing buzzword. I love buzzwords…they get buzz! Which gets people talking, which gets people trying things, which causes failures, which creates learning, which (hopefully) creates better companies. I digress. The primary research and paper behind customer engagement was conducted by Brian Haven, who’s a great Forrester Analyst. I’ve known him for years and spoken in his workshops on Social networking and…

I spoke about Word of Mouth Marketing at this year's Verge Toronto - Ogilvy's digital confab for clients (thanks to Guy!). Paul Beck, Digital Strategist at Ogilvy and all around smart evangelist, delivered a great snapshot of innovative digital programs - many of them anchored in social media - in the B2B and B2C space. He has been a tremendous ally within Ogilvy from the advertising side and is pushing some terrific "social" programs with clients like American Express. I shared about choosing a new coffee making solution (thanks Gerry!). Paul shared about his "Cell Phone…

The Media Development Authority in Singapore is soliciting bids from hungry software development shops to build their own version of Second Life. MDA department chief executive Michael Yap calls it "Google Earth meets Second Life." Can't you just hear the concept meeting now? The development seems to be tied to the launch of the 2010 Youth Olympics. The budget is not clear. The MDA will fund 50% of the development costs which suggests that they are also seeding a business. I have to admit that when I first read about this in the newspaper upon touching down, I had immediate visions…

I like nice hotels. Hotels with something special. And like almost everyone, I appreciate remarkeable experiences. I would rather talk about an interesting experience with someone than who is leading on American Idol or the books I am reading. That's probably why I keep trying boutique hotels. I just stayed at the Park Hyatt in Sydney which sits right on the Harbor in the shadow of the Harbor Bridge. The famed Opera House sweeps up from the opposite pier. All in all a remarkeable setting. The hotel is one of the best I have stayed in. (No, I do not stay in super luxury hotels) The service was…

I have been very open about my love for BlogHer, the collective of women bloggers centered in North America. I love how blogging and social networks have amplified women's voices by offering a digital publishing and "distribution" platform and leads to natural networks as people's social graphs start to intersect. I am not describing anything more than social media 101 but it's great to se ethat dynamic alive and growing in Australia (I am here working with my team this week). All for Women reminds me a bit of BlogHer. Leigh, the founder,  is a young woman - mother, entrepeneur…

I guest-lectured at a colleague's graduate class at Johns Hopkins where I also teach a class. One of her students - a young man in his twenties studying to enter marketing and/or communications - asked seriously, "Can I just wait out the whole blog-thing, wait till it fades away or do I have to pay attention to what's happening?" Didn't expect that question from him, a digital native. But I do hear it a lot from business "gray-hairs"  - the digital immigrants. The short answer is that blogging will not fade away like a fad. I certainly believe there will be a…

New from the guys at Barely Political, just over 112K views since it was added yesterday. The haters will hate, but BP and OG still do appear to be drawing at least a few eyeballs for their efforts.Some of this one in particular is just painful to watch (like hearing Gravel stumble his way through an already lame rhyme) or the attempt at some sort of Soulja Boy steps near the end.But whatev- its a Thursday afternoon and around that time when people start to hit the wall. It's good for a few laughs.

Just because it wasn’t a high school student council conference, doesn’t mean it didn’t feel like one. For serious. I used to attend those. The “it” I am referring to was the ROFLCon conference in Cambridge, MA. The energy was palpable. I hit up the conference and have a few take-aways to impart.It should be duly noted that this conference has already been documented within an inch of its life. Between Twitter and blogs and video and and and…. The focus on the immediate can hardly be overstated. The play by play of what happened has certainly been delivered, but there were also…

via CNNQuite a story. A graduate student at Berkeley- James Buck- was in Eygpt covering some anti-government protests. He and his translator were nabbed and tossed in jail, and with a one word tweet ("arrested") his network lit up and started taking action to get him out. This may be one of the more powerful examples I've ever seen of how the networks we establish for ourselves online can benefit our lives.Some excerpts from the story (but check the whole story for all the deets):"Buck, a graduate student from the University of California-Berkeley, was in Mahalla, Egypt, covering an…

The IPA (the UK's AAAA's) are conducting a conference on Fast Strategy this Monday 28 April. Mark Earls, one of the brains behind Planning for Good is taking part in a live contest against some of the sharpest minds in the London Planning scene and needs to build an army to tackle a brief from the Central Office of Information (the UK Government's communications 'client'). Mark has assembled a crack group of planners - Jon Leach (of HHCL fame), Chris Forrest (ex DFGW and now of the research company The Nursery) and Ian Tait (of Poke to work on the brief as the P4G Allstars. BUT THEY WANT YOUR…

Looks like Axe Brazil is using Yahoo! Live to good effect.I guess it beats lookin' at my channel*Unfortunately, the dudes here seem creepy. Put a shirt on!

Client: BBC HD Agency: Fallon London

\\\ Submit your work ///

Justice | "Stress" It's incredible to see how violence can be "sexy" and still attract the human being, even when he denies so.

Millward Brown's "Top 100 Most Powerful Brands 08" In the "first" places you'll find the usual suspects: - Google - GE - Microsoft - Coca-Cola - China Mobile (is it because of the number of consumers!?) - IBM - Apple - McDonald’s - Nokia - Marlboro And the “Top Ten Risers”: - Blackberry - Apple - Amazon

A Japanese car, a pilot-dog and some stunts. -- check the rest here -- Client: Nissan Agency: TBWA\London

You just can’t keep a good jingle down. This fairly recent spot for Band-Aid® flexible bandages takes the venerable “I am stuck on Band-Aid” song and, well, doesn’t really twist it much at all. Nope. They just took the song, changed the end ever so slightly, and got a kid-savvy director to deliver a really effective spot. This is how you cast and shoot kids, people. The boy is a hoot and little Oprah has something her older counterpart now lacks – sincerity. This is my wife’s current favorite ad. And not just because she’s a new mom. And, being the wise…

Go ahead, I dare you. Thanks, I think, to my buddy Rob for sending this to me. Later, Fox Copyright © 2008 The AdHole. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact legal@adhole.com so we can take legal action immediately.Plugin by Taragana

Will someone close to the Hanes marketing department or their ad agency please tell them to stop making spots like these? Seriously. The products have merit (those wedgie-free panties really work, by gum), but the spots do their best to drive me into the arms of Fruit of the Loom. The Cuba Gooding, Jr. spot – which has been airing ad nauseam for months – is just creepy. We’re supposed to believe His Airness, Michael Jordan, includes underwear in his welcome baskets? Creepy. Or that Cuba puts on new drawers before washing them? Ew. Ew. Ew. The only saving grace to this ad is the…

Charlton Heston died yesterday at the age of 84. Whether you agreed with his politics or not, how could you not love the man who gave us the most Gentile Moses ever, a sentient ape-pummeling human, and so many years of NRA fun? So long, Chuck. Fox Copyright © 2008 The AdHole. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact legal@adhole.com so we can take legal action immediately.Plugin by Taragana

“Legend” in the bigfoot, Atlantis or spooklight sense. WhoIsJasonFox.com has been updated to March ‘08. New hilarity starts in August ‘07. So get reading. Later, Fox Copyright © 2008 The AdHole. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact legal@adhole.com so we can take legal action immediately.Plugin by Taragana

6 Career Tips from Jeremiah Owyang. - Great advice for anyone, even those who find themselves in that grey area of not knowing what career path to take. New Ways To Find Business Mentors from GeekPreneur. Some tips on how to find successful entrepreneurs who are willing to lend a helping hand/give advice. Pixar’s Brad Bird on Fostering Innovation - A great article on how Pixar tries to keep their employees in a constant state of collaboration, including having the bathrooms centralized to help avoid the emergence of workplace segmentation. Zivity hires Napster Co-founder Jordan Ritter…

I’ve posted about Guy Kawasaki’s latest venture before, Alltop.com, however yesterday was a big day for the site in that they finally added a marketing/advertising section and Everything’s Better With Brentter is amongst the chosen few listed there. So head on over to http://marketing.alltop.com and you’ll find my RSS feed listed alongside a lot of other great marketing/advertising sites. Thanks for the add Guy, alltop’s a great website that keeps getting better each week! -Brent Post originally from from: Brentter.com - Everything's Better With Brentter Related…

BBDOATL partnered with 1st Avenue Machine to create a flowery spot for AT&T’s “Celebrate Spring” campaign, which recently has been re-edited to incorporate the song DayDreamin’ by Lupe Fiasco (also featuring Jill Scott) in a push for their upcoming Mother’s Day specials. There hasn’t been much said about the above spot, nor the original version that can be seen at the bottom of this post, on youtube here: AT&T - Celebrate Spring (original version) or by visiting 1st Avenue Machine’s website other than the recent incorporation of the popular…

Co-founder and web-usability expert Erika Hall from San Francisco’s Mule Design Studio gave a pretty interesting presentation/speech on how copy has almost become the interface in a lot of cases on the web. She aptly entitled the presentation - Copy As Interface. Her view, which I share, is that people don’t read long copy on the web, that’s why the best sites always tend to be the ones that are short on copy and sweet on design. A simple “click here” instead of a long explanation of what they’ll get by clicking, etc.. Watch it for yourself below. Lots and…

I just came across this over at www.themoth.org/listen/ It’s a collection of some of the most odd as well as some of the most hilarious stories as told by the person who lived through the event. From Dr. Ari Handel (Ph. D in Neuroscience in 2000) talking about the problems that arise when you fall in love with your monkey to an EMT talking about the time that he was shot, there are some crazy stories to be heard there. Another good one is from Richie DiSalvo talking about “Anthony The Hat.” Richie’s claim to fame is that he is credited as being the inventor of the Baby…

You have been reading my bitching and moaning about anything... well, almost everything. But there is one thing I have kept to myself, which has been bugging me in all the wrong places - until today. Yes my friends, it's the ugly life of routers. You see, I had the worst, and I mean the worst router brand, ever. Netgear. It sucks. I paid a shitload of cash for a router back in the day, thinking

While some top bands struggle to have 5 decent songs on one album Elbow is one of those bands that I've come across as randomly as I think it can get. Here's the story, I worked at a Broadcast Music Production department for a few months and part of my job was pretty much cleaning house because they had a wicked mess to put in in fun terms. It was really a disaster area. So I took about 3,000

Dare to dream Dare to fly Dare to live Just dare If not... don't cry. - Joker

On being responsible There are no medals for never taking a sick day. On chemistry If at first you don't succeed, try, try another creative partner. On anger If I didn't believe in karma, you'd be dead and I'd be someone's girlfriend. On racist comments I'm not going to vote for Pedro, please desist from trying to be funny. On cigarette breaks Idiocy is often masked by the thick veil

Yesterday we got the news that our blog is now included in Guy Kawasaki’s new adventure on the internet called Alltop. And now you’re asking yourself, what is Alltop? We help you explore your passions by collecting stories from “all the top” sites on the web. We’ve grouped these collections — ”aggregations” — into individual Alltop sites based on topics such as environment, photography, science, celebrity gossip, fashion, gaming, sports, politics, automobiles, and Macintosh. At each Alltop site, we display the latest five stories from thirty or more sites on a single…

Geno and I are in Miami through the end of the week or WOMMA’s WOMM-U. I’ll do my best to update the blog and report in on the presentations I hear. Geno is teaching 6 “classes” in the next two days so I’m sure his time will be a little more limited. You can also follow our updates on Twitter - @spike_jones and @genochurch. Also, I set up a hashtag for the event. More to come! PS - WOMMA has a live video and live blog you can follow, too.

Examples of this come to us today via Taylor Vandiver via Team Forty: Create. Organize. Share. Connect. (blist) Experience. Share. Connect. (geotract) Connect. Share. Live. (KIJIG) Create. Share. Connect. (Factory Joe) Discover. Share. Connect. Discuss. (InfoAddict) Play. Share. Connect. (PSC Site) Express. Share. Connect. Enjoy. (Gapuchi) Share. Connect. Grow. Act. (Get Real) Remember. Share. Connect. (Memoloop) Watch. Listen. Share. Connect. (Ruckus Network) Create. Share. Discover. Connect. (Fraxi) Create. Connect. Share. (MateCube) Share. Learn. Connect. Make a Difference. (Care2)…

Well folks, time just keeps rolling by.  You know how I know that?  It’s that time again. That time when we take Fred Reichheld’s advice to engage the people we touch to help us grow and continually improve. We are asking you (yes, YOU!) “The Ultimate Question.” We do this annually, in an ongoing effort to put our best foot forward. So please take a moment to click on this link and take our very brief, anonymous survey. If you received this link in the email, then you won’t need to take the survey via the blog… it’s all the same survey! Thanks again…

I’m a dog person. And one of my dogs is an 8-year old, 100-pound Chocolate Lab very appropriately named Mud. He didn’t exactly get the brains of the litter, but I love him nonetheless. In fact, I think I’ve learned some things from ol’ Mud that I can apply to the marketing world: Always be happy to see your customers. Whenever I come home, there he is – tail wagging, tongue hanging out, tap-dancing with excitement. He doesn’t know what kind of day I’ve had or if I’m in a good mood or bad. But there’s no hidden agenda. He’s ready to hang out. To listen. To just let me…

One of the writers for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart has a book coming out that should be good for a laugh. At least this promo for it is.The author of this blog was not paid for this advertisement, but he is not rejecting the possibility of promoting stuff for cash.#######

Guess what today is? It's the first ever National Train Day! How will you celebrate? Amtrak went to the trouble to create a micosite for us. I do like the Amtrak art. Bold and retro. Makes train travel seem exciting. I do hate the tag. Get your choo-choo on? Makes train travel seem gay.They even have a poll you can participate in! Edgy. So 2.0. Hey, "Wheel of Fortune" got involved! That gives it an instant hip factor. Apparently Pat and Vanna talked about National Train Day on May 5th! Damnit! I missed it. Fix the system, Amtrak! Quit with the gimmicks.Previously in Amtrak HatredAmtrak…

Part XII in a sporadic Thursday seriesIt’s not like the old days, when you could say, “Hey! Let’s call ourselves The Vandals or The Wallflowers or The Cure or The Clash.” You can’t be “The” anything and expect a second look, unless it’s really outstanding like “The Fall of Man,” “The Icelandic Hookers” or “The Syringes.”Better to call yourself something strange and curious, the better to draw the masses to your logo and merch marketing plan, which is what you’re after anyway, as your music is crap. (I’m talking to you Panic! At The Disco.)So, young dreamers,…

I tend to think of this blog as an online magazine of stupid and sometimes interesting stuff. That's one of the reasons I never do a post without an image in it. (This ain't The New Yorker. It's more like Highlights for Children or Mad.) That's also the reason I will go back and edit a post if I later find misspellings or half-baked thoughts not fully fleshed out. Or if I find some twisted language that makes no sense, such as using "half-baked" and "fleshed out" in a sentence together. Baked flesh.Traffic to this little corner of the World Wide Waste of Time has crept up slowly, but there is…

I called the garage where my car is being worked on today. It's been two days. They’re usually pretty prompt. Al answered the phone. He’s a nice guy with a thick accent that I can’t place, though it's somewhere in America’s Northeast. Al explained that it’d been a hectic day and they were “working on it.” Having a hectic day myself, I understood. In fact, I’ll bet our jobs aren’t much different, Al’s and mine. (And agencies love to call themselves "shops.")When I think about it, my job now isn’t much different from many jobs. When I was a room service waiter at a resort…

For the most part, I've been a big fan of the Sony Bravia series. Not so much with Bunnies which, due to some allegations of...

I really like Senator McCain. But his fans, well, some of them anyway, they aren't exactly doing the man any favors with stuff like this....

Pretty cool ad from Boone Oakley. Click to enlarge. The copy is still kinda small but risk the eye strain. It's worth it.

Sony is petty gung ho on making its films available on mobile, I guess. Not sure I get this. True, I've downloaded a bunch from...