Showing posts with label advertising industry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label advertising industry. Show all posts

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Awesome & winsome! M&C Saatchi's brilliant TV ad for NatWest featuring Johnny Cash singing "Thing Called Love" for NatWest's "e-ISA"; @MCSaatchiLondon @NatWest_Help

<iframe width="325" height="225" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-QNgXBgtkR4" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
M&C Saatchi's new TV ad for NatWest featuring Johnny Cash singing "Thing Called Love" for NatWest's ad called "Mustang" promoting their new "Easy ISA" feature. Uploaded March 3, 2013. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QNgXBgtkR4

See the spot-on post about it by Nick Gale in Oxfordshire at his "Read all Ad-bout it!" blog: http://readalladboutit.blogspot.com/2013/03/natwest-thing-called-love-tv-ad-my.html


Hippekuln YouTube Channel: Johnny Cash - A Thing Called Love. 
Uploaded July 20, 2009. http://youtu.be/-QLSwGvotas

Sunday, March 10, 2013

National two-hour party in U.S. is 4 weeks from tonight -and everyone's invited. Mad Men -Season Premiere Sunday April 7th; Buchan39's Rick Astley-inspired Mad Men Mashup of 'Never Gonna Give You Up' is what makes YouTube a national treasure


amc YouTube Channel video: On-Air Promo, Affair: Mad Men. Uploaded March 4, 2013
http://youtu.be/I03g36sbU8Y



Buchan39 YouTube Channel video: Mad Men Perform Rick Astley's Never Gonna Give You Up. Uploaded August 31, 2012. http://youtu.be/SaFLd-hVKFY




Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up, RickAstleyVEVO Channel video: Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up (1987). Uploaded October 24, 2009. http://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ

Talk about someone with a powerful voice that just pops out of a car speaker on its own - Rick Astley!

Only one of the greatest songs ever to sing alone in a car on a (semi) cross-country trip, especially in the middle of the night in Nowheresville U.S.A., with your window down and the wind-rushing past you. 
And being able to fully see the stars!

In 1988, for me, that was usually a Chicago-to-Miami roundtrip road trip, loaded with lots of cold Cherry Coke in an Igloo cooler, and would usually happen in either south-central Tennessee or in Georgia between Atlanta and Macon.
Around 3:20 a.m.

*Coming or going, the worst part of that drive was always between 3:45 and 5:00 a.m.

I last mentioned favorite songs of mine that I loved singing and listening to on road trips by myself on April 8, 2012, in my post titled, Bringing out the Cow Bells for Easter! Stevie Wonder's genius "Another Star" still sends me -and reminds me of cross-country drives at night with the windows down, his music filling every inch of the car  
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/bringing-out-cow-bells-for-easter.html

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My previous blog posts about Mad Men are here:
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/search/label/Mad%20Men

http://www.amctv.com/shows/mad-men

Saturday, December 8, 2012

Brilliant and charming beyond words! I love EVERYTHING about the best TV commercial of 2012, starring Paige Spara and her smile in the Forevermark 'Center of My Universe' TV advertising spot; @PaigeSpara, @Forevermark




forevermark YouTube Channel video: Forevermark - The Center of My Universe™ Advert 2012: 60 second. "She holds together and keeps in motion the many different aspects of the universe you share. She is your everything -- the center of your universe." Uploaded November 22, 2012. http://youtu.be/HSg9iatSvv0
Brilliant and charming beyond words! I love EVERYTHING about the best TV commercial of 2012, starring Paige Spara and her smile in the Forevermark 'Center of My Universe' TV advertising spot; @PaigeSpara, @Forevermark

This is precisely the sort of advertising I'd have recommended to give Jane Seymour a real run for her money in the holiday jewelry/diamond competition, since the only thing that can possibly make that ultra-popular English rose come up second-best, maybe, is an ad like this that focuses on wish fulfillment -a dream come true in the form of Paige Spara.
There's a reason that everyone who sees this ad for the first time comes away saying, "Wow!


Paige Spara's official website: 
http://www.paigespara.com/#!

@PaigeSparahttps://twitter.com/PaigeSpara

You can view all The Center of My Universe™ designs here: http://www.forevermarkdiamond.com/us/center-of-my-universe 

Fair warning: If I run into anyone like her while I'm in Sweden next month, I'm NOT coming back...

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Chic & sleek Sweden counts down the hours 'til "Mad Men" premieres Thursday at 21:00 on TNT-TV; “What you call love was invented by guys like me to sell nylons.” – Don Draper


TurnerNordic video: TNT-TV.se's Mad Men Competition Spot SWE. Uploaded August 22, 2012. http://youtu.be/DnhH5naTt34

Now my friends there who don't watch TV -yes, I really do have such friends, hard as that is to believe- will have a reason to watch TV again.
And soon, all will be right again with the world and Sverige as Matthew Weiner finds that Swedes love his insight into humanity, families, corporate life and 1960's consumerism.
It will be hugely popular in what is now home to one of the most consumer-driven countries in the world, which explains why it seems like every third 17-year old girl you see on the street there has a fashion blog that gets more eyeballs coming to it every day than almost all of the blogs in South Florida.


Tuesday, June 19, 2012

As U.S. newspapers continue their slide down the slippery-slope, Alan Mutter writes about creating some "change agents" who just might help some papers slow the descent into oblivion, and recapture reader's respect and support again. (And Silicon Valley is helping!) But as Tim Worstall at Forbes.com points out, that newspaper industry is actually smaller than Google now. And shrinking!


Inland-Who is Alan Mutter? from Scott Kingsley on Vimeo.
Scott Kingsley's Vimeo Channel: Inland Executive Program for Innovative Change - 

Who is Alan Mutter? May 2012. http://vimeo.com/42972547


As U.S. newspapers continue their slide down the slippery-slope, former newspaper executive, Cal-Berkeley journalism professor and former Silicon Valley CEO Alan Mutter writes about creating some "change agents" who just might help some papers slow the descent into oblivion, and recapture reader's respect and support again. (And Silicon Valley is helping!) But as Tim Worstall at Forbes.com points out, that newspaper industry is actually smaller than Google now. And shrinking!


Time to get ready for newspaper consolidation? You bet!


Forbes.com

Tim Worstall
The US Newspaper Industry is Now Smaller Than Google
June 18, 2012 @ 12:55 p.m.
Of course, many things are smaller than google. But these figures on advertising revenues show again something we mentioned a few months ago. The revenues of the US Newspaper industry, as a whole, as a total, are now smaller than those of Google alone.
Read the rest of the post at:


REFLECTIONS OF A NEWSOSAUR blog
A cadre of change agents for newspapers
By Alan Mutter
June 14, 2012
Instead of merely talking about how much the newspaper industry has to change, the Inland Press Association has decided to do something about it – in a big and bold way.
Read the rest of the post at:
http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2012/06/cadre-of-change-agents-for-newspapers.html


Be sure to read the reader comments, too! 


Inland-What will the program be like? from Scott Kingsley on Vimeo.
Scott Kingsley's Vimeo Channel: Inland Executive Program for Innovative Change - 

What will the program be like? May 2012. http://vimeo.com/42972895





Inland-Who should attend? from Scott Kingsley on Vimeo.
Scott Kingsley's Vimeo Channel: Inland Executive Program for Innovative Change - Who should attend? May 2012http://vimeo.com/42973247


http://inlandinnovates.org/

Monday, April 9, 2012

Poor Sally Draper! Years from now -in the past- 'Mad Men's' Sally is going to tell her own daughter a true story about getting a hit of Sec from Grandma, of crawling under the couch to avoid killers, and her daughter is NOT going to believe her!; Kiernan Shipka shines!



AMC-TV video: Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner on episode 504 and its themes of sexual violence and what it takes to be a man. April 8, 2012. http://youtu.be/oEbQyd78k50

Poor Sally Draper! 
Years from now -in the past- 'Mad Men's' Sally is going to tell her own daughter a true story about getting a hit of Sec from Grandma, of crawling under the couch to avoid killers, and her
daughter is NOT going to believe her!; Kiernan Shipka shines!


The 1966 newspaper headline about serial rapist and killer Richard Speck that Sally had been forbidden from reading, which she later fished-out of the garbage can and read under the covers of her bed with her flashlight. Reading the accounts of how the women were tortured by Speck caused Sally to get anxious and made her unable to sleep. April 8, 2012 screenshot by Hallandale Beach Blog.


An antsy Sally under the covers, flash light still on. April 8, 2012 screenshot by Hallandale Beach Blog.


This angst eventually caused Sally to temporarily make peace with her disagreeable babysitting step-grandmother Pauline for a bit, and later, accept a hit of Seconal from her so she could sleep -under the couch, where nobody like a homicidal killer would find her, since she'd read that the only one of the nine kidnap victims to survive had hidden underneath a bed. Above, the scene greeting her mom and step-father returning home late from a trip the next morning: a sleeping Pauline, and a completely wide-awake Sally hiding under the couch. April 8, 2012 screenshot by Hallandale Beach Blog.

For someone like me who has had a well-worn paperback copy of Madison Avenue's iconic treatise "Ogilvy on Advertising" on my bookshelves since I was about eleven years-old, someone who still remembers what the old advertising agency acronyms used to stand for, and who, somewhat  mischievously, when conversations I had while working for influential D.C. law firms were getting stale, would drop those agency names into the conversation to see if people were actually paying attention, and thus knew that DDBO and Young & Rubicam (Y&R) were NOT the same as Piper Marbury or Williams & Connolly or Winston & Strawn, I thought that Sunday night's episode of "Mad Men"on AMC , "Mystery Date" was by far the best I'd ever seen.


Mid-1960's TV commercial for Milton Bradley's "Mystery Date" board game.
http://youtu.be/XHsQpTbQ9Uo


AMC-TV video: Talked About Scenes Episode 504 Mad Men: Don's Fever Dream. April 8, 2012. http://youtu.be/PYRdALzZgKI


Vanity Fair
Seconal Is the New Bugles! Mad Men Introduces Sally Draper’s Nascent Pill Addiction
by Juli Weiner 9:28 AM, APRIL 9 2012

http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2012/04/Seconal-Is-the-New-Bugles-emMad-Menem-Introduces-Sally-Drapers-Nascent-Pill-Addiction

I knew I was right today when I turned to Slate's Monday morning rehash of the show here, where lots of smart people paying attention share their hunches and interpretations: 
Don's Mystery Date Goes Bad
By Julia Turner, April 9, 2012
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/tv_club/features/2012/mad_men_season_5/week_3/mad_men_recap_don_and_the_body_under_the_bed_.html 

and lots of fans of say, a more typical Conventional Wisdom mindset, were thrown for a loop. Good!  

See the archives at http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/tv_club.html

Before the new season started a few weeks ago, I came across these pieces and videos on Mad Men's young star Kiernan Shipka and saved them for a rainy day:

Kiernan Shipka as the savvy go-to Child Star psychologist 
http://youtu.be/AjprZrWBh9w


New York Magazine
The Fug Girls Track the Fashion Evolution of Mad Men Daughter Kiernan Shipka 
By The Fug Girls
3/29/12 at 11:45 AM 



Those of you who are new to this blog should know that I have always been intensely interested in advertising and marketing and read everything about them, hence, the previously-referenced David Ogilvy book.

In the pre-Internet years of the early and mid-1980's, when I was home for the summer from IU, and living with my mother near The Falls, i,e. S. Dixie Highway & S.W. 136th Street, in what is now the Village of Pinecrest, I used to weekly drive about a half-hour away to get to the only new stand south of downtown or Brickell that sold Advertising Age, so I could read what was in the real world of marketing and persuasion.

With the newest issue in my hands, whether I read it poolside at the upscale apt. complex pool I lived at or over at the Godfather's Pizza in the retail complex next to the Pearl's crafts shop on S. Dixie Hwy. & 136th Street, taking full advantage of their delicious salad and individual pan pizza, when I read those articles and analysis about campaigns that soared or fizzled or about who was moving where to be the new Creative Director at some hotshot boutique ad shop, I was mentally far from the mortal coil of South Florida.

Here, unfortunately, the local advertising industry was very, very insular and almost seemed to be more in the client hand-holding business than anything else.
To an extent that would be hard for many of you readers to believe now, given how far it has fallen, the advertising world of that time was also very Miami Herald-dependent.

Up until I want to say the mid-to-late 1980's, everything else being equal, working in the Herald's Advertising Dept. was perceived as a pretty cool job where you could make good money and meet a lot of the genuinely clever 'creative' people throughout the region, given that there were no meaningful alternative serious news newspapers, or, alas, a real regional interest magazine that went hard after upscale readers, like The Washingtonian or Chicago Magazine did,once "MIAMI" magazine bit the dust more than a decade before.

Oh yes, I remember "MIAMI" magazine of the late '60's and early '70's!
My mom's office downtown had a subscription to it and New York magazine and always brought home the old copies after everyone had already read them because she knew that I would devour them.
And I did.

The latter was where I first read Nik Cohn's 1976 cover story, "The New Rites of Saturday Night," the story that was later was adapted by Lesley Stahl's screenwriter husband, Aaraon Latham -and James Bridges- into the blockbuster film, "Saturday Night Fever." 
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http://www.amctv.com/

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

ProPublica's Lois Beckett on how politicians are presenting themselves to different audiences and whether they have a responsibility to tell people about the personal information they collect about them on Facebook, Google and other social media

http://www.propublica.org/article/how-to-win-facebook-friends-and-influence-people
ProPublica

How to Win Facebook Friends and Influence People

by Lois Beckett, ProPublica,  
March 13, 2012, 1:31 p.m.

Instead of picketing outside company headquarters, an advocacy group is using Facebook ads to try to influence people whose profiles identify them as employees of Freddie Mac or JPMorgan Chase.

The anti-foreclosure ad campaign, which launches today, asks Freddie and Chase employees to talk to their CEOs about a veteran -- a former Marine -- who's facing eviction in California.

"This is not any sort of attack on the employees there," said Jim Pugh of Rebuild the Dream, which is running the ad campaign. "We're trying to let them know what's happening."

The ad that targets Freddie Mac employees features a small picture of CEO Charles Haldeman's face, and the message, "Freddie Mac did what???? Freddie Mac is evicting a former Marine who's been trying to pay his mortgage. Tell CEO Haldeman to work out a fair deal with him!" according to a copy of the ad provided by Pugh.

The JPMorgan Chase ad is similar, but with a Chase logo instead of an executive's face.  

We've contacted Freddie Mac and JP Morgan Chase spokespeople for comment, and also reached out to Freddie Mac and JPMorgan Chase employees on Facebook. If you've seen one of these ads, please let us know.

 Targeted online advertising is nothing new. (As anyone who has changed their Facebook status to "engaged" can tell you, a simple update can bring a deluge of new ads.) But political campaigns and advocacy groups are increasingly adopting the same microtargeting tactics that companies use.  

Rick Perry's campaign, for instance, targeted faith-focused ads to people in Iowa who listed themselves as Christians on Facebook, and ads featuring his wife to the state's female conservatives, Politico reported.  

According to FEC data, Endorse Liberty, a super PAC that supports Ron Paul, has led the way on Facebook expenditures, spending a total of $241,508 through January 2012.

And it's not just Facebook and Google where campaigns and activists are doing microtargeting. The music site Pandora announced last year that it would be selling political ad space targeted to the zip codes of particular listeners, the Wall Street Journal reported.

There's nothing inherently problematic about targeted ads. Campaigns have been using direct mail to target particular voters for decades. Digital targeting can be a cost-effective way of spending advertising dollars, especially for smaller groups, like Rebuild the Dream, which sees the ads as a great way to get more bang for their buck in terms of reaching their intended audience. (The group also launched a special donation drive specifically for the Facebook ad buy.) ProPublica even used Facebook ads to try to find sources for our 2009 series, When Caregivers Harm.

But as the ability to use data to reach particular people grows more sophisticated, targeting risks crossing privacy lines, as demonstrated by a recent New York Times article on how Target knew a teenage customer was pregnant before her father did.

What's clear is that if all this microtargeting translates into electoral gains, the scale and sophistication of these efforts will continue to grow, and the data science that gained traction in 2008 will become a regular part of campaigning. In the meantime, the Obama campaign's already substantial data team continues to hire statistical modeling analysts and analytics engineers.

The increasing ease and flexibility of online targeting also raises new questions about how politicians are presenting themselves to different audiences, how much campaigns need to tell their supporters about the personal information they collect -- and what will happen to the massive databases of voter information collected during the 2012 presidential campaign. Will they be sold? Passed on to other politicians?

Rebuild the Dream, which focuses on economic issues, was launched by MoveOn.org in 2011, but has been independent since January, Pugh said. The group's president is former Obama green jobs adviser Van Jones.

Pugh worked on the Obama campaign's digital analytics team in 2008 while also trying to finish a Ph.D. dissertation in robotics, and later did similar work for the Democratic National Committee. He said he was not sure what kind of reaction the ads would receive.

"I would imagine that people are fairly used to targeted ads at this point," he said. But while people who work in politics and advocacy may be used to receiving Facebook ads targeting specific causes, "It's hard to know in advance how unusual it will seem to the employees of Freddie Mac and JP Morgan Chase."
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Reader comments at: http://www.propublica.org/article/how-to-win-facebook-friends-and-influence-people/single#comments

Friday, March 9, 2012

During current Rush Limbaugh-Sandra Fluke controversy, is the U.S. Mainstream Media using old photos of Limbaugh -instead of recent ones- to editorialize? It seems so to me


During current Rush Limbaugh-Sandra Fluke controversy, is the U.S. Mainstream Media using old photos of Limbaugh -instead of recent ones- to editorialize? It seems so to me
Just wanted to mention this subject this afternoon before I moved on to some other matters, but I honestly can't be the only person in America who has noticed (and is now wondering) WHY the U.S. Mainstream Media -the same one that called the GOP nomination for Mitt Romney before the actual campaign ever started in earnest- keeps using old photos, and in some cases, very old photos, of Rush Limbaugh in their articles the past few weeks.

Somehow, the same folks who wouldn't think to use an old photo of Justin Bieber, Tiger Woods or Donald
Trump to illustrate something any they're saying or doing now, seem completely unable to find a new one
that conforms to what Limbaugh looks like now?

Really?
He's not exactly a hermit, you know.

He is who he is, but he is also, arguably, trimmer than many if not most of those old photos from 15-20 years ago that I keep seeing, so why is the U.S. news media seemingly going out of its way to not only use those old photos, esp. of his face, which they then greatly magnify, but then use them to editorialize on the subject of the story before any of the text is read?
That's a good question.

It's also noteworthy that compared to almost anyone else I can think of: politician, athlete, entertainment celebrity, or even John Doe or Jane Q. Public, there is rarely, if ever, a date for the photos of him.
Or even a photographer/agency credit.
It's like the photo of Limbaugh just took itself and magically appeared in the news room for them to use.

The LA Times' Company Town blog post of today, the first in the list below from today's Google Alert,
is perhaps the most obvious example I can name.
As you can see when you go to the story, it does all three of the above.

I'm specifically using the photo they use, on purpose, to prove that very point: no date, no photo credit.

Rush

And for those of you who either live far from LA or who don't read the LA Times regularly, the link within the above photo on the LA Times website, curiously, takes you to an LA Times story by Scott Collins on their very popular Company Town blog -which I subscribe to- about actress Patricia Heaton, titled, 
Patricia Heaton: Twitter woes recall past Rush Limbaugh firestorm

March 7, 2012 |  2:46 pm
not a link to a timeline of the current controversy involving him and Sandra Fluke.

Nor is it even a link to an article or essay about the longstanding and well-known hypocrisy in both the news media and in Hollywood, which itself at least partly explains why it also doesn't link to anything involving any of the numerous past slights and slurs tossed-out by any of a number of liberal celebs, inc. everyone's favorite target of hypocrisy, comedian/TV host Bill Maher.

Seriously, are well-informed readers who actually can appreciate nuance and context, and who have some genuine notions of basic journalistic fairness, like me, just supposed to believe that all these things randomly happen by accident?
That photos from years ago find themselves placed into stories despite an abundance of more recent photos?
I have to tell you, THAT'S a very tough sell right now.

Just saying...
(I've deleted all the other Google Alert citations below to save space, since, fortunately for me, the very first one makes the point so well, the other 28 pale in comparison.)
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From: Google Alerts <googlealerts-noreply@google.com>
Date: Fri, Mar 9, 2012 at 3:46 AM
Subject: Google Alert - "Rush Limbaugh"



News29 new results for "Rush Limbaugh"
Rush Limbaugh to advertiser: I don't want you back
Los Angeles Times
The intense campaign to cut advertising to “The Rush Limbaugh Show” took another turn Thursday when one of the first companies to pull its ads reportedly asked to return to the radio show -- only to be told by Team Limbaugh that the conservative host ...
See all stories on this topic »

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Coming this Fall: A 24/7 News Channel from Univision & ABC News -in English! Marriage of news & advertising convenience, necessity or desperation? And will it be hard news or soft?; Brazil abtains


Wall Street Journal: Disney's ABC, Univision May Launch News-Channel. February 7, 2012. 
http://youtu.be/pfOnlXlV8lA
Coming this Fall: A 24/7 News Channel from Univision & ABC News -in English! Marriage of news & advertising convenience, necessity or desperation? And will it be hard news or soft?; Brazil abstains
Naturally, as has been described here on the blog many times previously, given the rapturous and over-the-top way the Miami Herald has traditionally chosen to greet almost any quasi-news story that involved either Spanish-language marketing, advertising or television, always emphasizing the froth with lots of positive quotes from the people who stand to profit the most, in what is, essentially, a consumer transaction that involves selling soap to someone, possibly with a tilde, but never really looking hard at whether or not what is being offered is actually quality or not, I can hardly wait for the coming Herald article on this new way of trying to sell more advertising. 


I hereby predict that the Herald reporter, whomever it is, will say that that this move may well be "Revolutionary."
Or genius. Or overdue.
Or a guaranteed hit even before it hits the air.


We all know how the Herald gets when they have a brand-new shiny toy to talk about that has something to do with Latin America and marketing, witness their recent spate of pro-Brazil articles and editorials the past year.


Who can count the number of pieces they've done on the theme of visiting Brazilians make-the-world-go-around in Miami, which, given where we are and the current sad state of serious news coverage in local Miami TV stations, quite naturally copied the theme like nobody's business.


But when President Obama was leaving for Brazil last year, despite all the news coverage nationally in print and on TV about what the U.S. and the West wanted to do at the U.N. with regard to sanctions or counter-moves to the killings and repression in Syria, the Miami Herald NEVER wrote a single thing in the newspaper or online about Brazil abstaining from voting on the matter, did they?
Nope, and I was looking, too.


I checked not only the online archives but scrupulously checked the newspaper -everyday.
Before, during and after his trip.


The Herald said nothing even while writing about how important Brazil was asserting itself... blah, blah.
But when push came to shove, Brazil ducked.
That's many things, but what it's NOT is leadership.
Or positive.


For a country like Brazil that's forever talking so much about wanting to be taken seriously on the international scene, it hardly gets more transparent about what you really want to do than abstaining from an important vote at the U.N, does it?
Of perhaps having to vote against China and Russia.
So they did nothing.

Today's New York Times tells the tale of what that indifference has wrought months later:
In Turkey, once a strong supporter of Mr. Assad and now one of his most vocal critics, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Parliament that the veto of the United Nations resolution on Syria by Russia and China had given Mr. Assad a “license to kill,” 
The only thing missing in this and so many other news articles the past about all the people who have been maimed or killed is a note that reads "Thanks Brazil" from President Assad.


And lest you forget, last year, on March 21st, I wrote about Brazil abstaining on a vote on sanctions against Libya.
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/rejecting-pixie-lotts-boys-and-girls.html


So why the South Florida news media refusal to report the facts about the Brazil abstentions on Libya and Syria, and their logical consequences?
Good question.


But not for me, for the Herald and the rest of the South Florida news media that far too often seems content to lets its own advertising bottom line dictate what actually gets covered or mentioned on-air on in print.


No, unfortunately, as I've said here before many times, the South Florida news media, and the Herald in particular, simply can't say enough good things about Latin America, whether its countries, its consumers or its markets, when there's money to be made, but rather curiously, they and their reporters only seem to seek out people for the article who will say good things.
Or who will directly or indirectly profit from it.


Where's the objective balance to the stories?
Where's the follow-up and perspective?


No, THAT won't come until months later.
Then, they may run an AP story that they post online, but which you never see in the newspaper itself.


Sort of like the one they used here to share the news:
Univision, Disney look at English news channel
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/06/2628257/univision-disney-look-at-english.html


No doubt we'll see that over-the-top story in the Herald soon, and I can already guess whom they will interview from their small list of Usual Suspects to say how great this is for everyone.
No, not really, mostly just some of the advertising folks who want to sell air time for Barack Obama political commercials.
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See more news video from The Wall Street Journal LIVE's News Hub at:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL40ABBAC77E4BF616&feature=plcp


Wall Street Journal YouTube Channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/WSJDigitalNetwork

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Giving credit where credit is due: diabolical genius! Deadspin asks, "What Time Does The Super Bowl Start, He Wrote As A Headline To Game The Google Results"

NY Giants defensive players have to resort to faking injuries in order to keep St. Louis Rams no-huddle offense from steamrolling them. Sept. 20, 2011. http://youtu.be/eY26rgd4aps



It's not officially a Super Bowl until Alyssa Milano comes to Indy. 
NOW it's on!


Above, Alyssa wearing her signature Touch by Alyssa Milano New England Patriots Sweater Mix Jacket, the sort of thing you may've seen at the NFL Experience if you were in Indy while she was there schmoozing with fans and doing some promotional work for her popular line of NFL-themed women's clothing.
(I went to the one in D.C. held on the National Mall when the NFL started doing that to start off the season and held it in the NFL city hosting the first Monday Night Football game; if I remember correctly, they later had a mini-concert there by Journey, which I missed, since I rushed home to watch the game on TV.) 
But while I have chosen to show Alyssa wearing Patriots gear above because I'm picking them to beat the Giants by at least ten points tonight, as you can see from the photos of her at her always amusing posterous photo blog, which as I've mentioned here previously, I've subscribed to for a while now, she's actually pulling for the NY Football Giants. 
http://alyssamilano.posterous.com/date-night-in-indy


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Giving credit where credit is due: diabolical genius! 
Deadspin: "What Time Does The Super Bowl Start, He Wrote As A Headline To Game The Google Results"
The post was sinister and dumb and ruthless and brilliant, and a good indicator of why the HuffPo's traffic numbers are so insane.
http://deadspin.com/5881720/what-time-does-the-super-bowl-start-he-wrote-as-a-headline-to-game-the-google-results


http://www.nfl.com/superbowl/46/what-time-is-the-superbowl

Or, if you are not near any of the tens of millions of Americans TVs that have the game on,  watch it online at: http://www.nfl.com/superbowl/46/live/sunday



Beet TV video:  NFL, NBC Sports and Verizon Wireless Ready the First Mobile Super Bowl
By Andy Plesser
February 3, 2012
http://www.beet.tv/2012/02/superbowl.html  



Rasmussen Reports
Super Bowl Viewers Don’t Think Madonna’s Good Choice For Halftime Show
February 3, 2012 http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/lifestyle/sports/january_2012/super_bowl_viewers_don_t_think_madonna_s_good_choice_for_halftime_show

Yes, 57% of likely Super Bowl viewers say no to Madonna as halftime entertainment, and I'm with them. For about the 20th year in a row I won't watch the halftime, but instead mute the TV and listen to what they're saying on the radio broadcast, in case someone stumbles accidentally into telling the the truth.


By the way, the 57% opposed to Madonna is a higher percentage of American than have voted for any winning presidential candidate since November of 1984.
(President Reagan was re-elected with 58.8% of the vote to former Vice President Walter Mondale's 40.6%.)


Two months after that election was the last Super Bowl the Dolphins played in, a 38-16 loss to the 49ers.
To give you some perspective, no woman now or recently appearing in Playboy was alive when the Dolphins last played in the Super Bowl. 
Just saying... epic mediocrity spans decades.


Here's some more perspective on those 27 years:

1985: The last time the Dolphins made it to the Super Bowl.
Story: Jake Cline, Sun Sentinel, Photo gallery: Melina I. De Rose, Sun Sentinel

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/features/pictures/sfl-super-bowl-1985-lifestyle,0,1759537.photogallery

Below, an excellent historical analysis of Super Sunday from John Maxham, an advertising executive at Seattle's Cole & Weber United.
He "gets it."
Apart from being an effective and fun marketing gimmick, the use of Roman numerals in the Super Bowl may offer a deeper insight into our national psyche


mediabistro's AgencySpy blog
Op-Ed: ‘Svper Bowl Svnday’ – Our Invented Ancient Tradition
By Kiran Aditham on February 3, 2012 11:03 AM
http://www.mediabistro.com/agencyspy/op-ed-svper-bowl-svnday-our-invented-ancient-tradition_b29030


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Two last things: If Tom Coughlan and Eli Manning were with the Seattle Seahawks, and had the same back story and stats, and were now in the Super Bowl, nobody-but-nobody would be talking the nonsense I've heard so much of this past week, on ESPN and elsewhere, about how IF they win against the Patriots, they're locks to get into Canton.
Who decided that?


It's because they're with the New York Giants. 
Period.


Again, I like the Patriots by at least ten points.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Google does it again! Now mapping the great Indoors!; LA Weekly's Informer blog: "Google Maps to go Indoors, Cover Macy's in L.A. And Other Malls"

Google video: Take Google Maps Indoors. November 28, 2011

Just when you might've thought that Google has no new worlds to conquer, no new source of hand-over-fist advertising revenue from something that's standing right in front of us that we all take for granted, they show their business savvy and smarts.

Yesterday I got word from them that "Google Maps is entering a new frontier: mapping the indoors."

They've even chosen to make a humorous example of their new feature, writ large, using our old friends at Ikea...

Google video: Take Google Maps inside Ikea

As usual, Google will have the last laugh as they will now get ad dollars from other retailers, esp. smaller shops, who previously didn't cough up money for their Google Ads or sidebar ads, targeting consumers who will be more likely to be visiting the mall.

It's equally true that restaurants, bars, night clubs, book stores or other smaller owner-managed retail outlets near popular destination malls would now consider using Google Ads targeting those same consumers heading to the mall, paying to have their ads come up when someone goes to Google Maps to use this new feature to check out a specific mall's particulars.

And who might now consider using their ads as well, who wouldn't normally be thought of as a likely client for Google Ads?
Popular fashion, home decor and lifestyle bloggers who want to increase the eyeballs coming over to their sites.

Yes, that's why they're Google -they're always looking at the big picture.


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LA Weekly
Informer blog
Google Maps to go Indoors, Cover Macy's in L.A. And Other Malls
posted by Dennis Romero at The Informer
November 29, 2011

If you're a thoroughly modern 'tard who can't take two steps without consulting your smartphone for directions (guilty), then Google has a new update that should help you with the finest detail...
Read the rest of the post at:
http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/2011/11/google_maps_malls_shopping_retail_angeles.php

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Peter Coffin video: The Lost Civilization of IKEA


My last post on Ikea was from earlier this year, January 24th, titled, Daily Mail succeeds in solving riddle as old as time: "Ikea design stores 'as mazes' to stop shoppers leaving so you end up buying more..."


2012 Ikea catalog, USA: http://info.ikea-usa.com/Catalog/

2012 Ikea catalog,
Sweden:

Ikea - Bättre skilsmässa åt alla -Better divorce for everyone.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isjrGmFapS4

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Occupy Wall Street? No thanks! Ringo believes in free markets! Yale professor Ian Shapiro on Distributive Justice and the Welfare State


Ringo Starr TV commercial, BBDO for Charles Schwab, 2000, Director: David Cornell.
These are a few of my favorite things... market capitalization, assets allocation...

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Yale professor Ian Shapiro
Chapter 17: Distributive Justice and the Welfare State

The Moral Foundations of Politics

Ian Shapiro is William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor and chairman of the department of political science at Yale University

The Yale Courses YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/YaleCourses
Culture Pub YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/CulturePub