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Tag: Advertising

bathroom scale
Flickr / Lee Carson

Spanish Gov’t to Set Limits on Diet-Related TV Ads

The Spanish government is cracking down on television advertising that promotes weight-loss products and other related goods and services, including plastic surgery, by creating legislation that would bar the ads from being shown until after 10 p.m.

Posted on Jan 21, 2010 READ MORE  |  2 COMMENTS


Consume Joe Biden Responsibly

The vice president’s “suave original personality” and “sly trademark grin” might make him an excellent pitchman. The Onion mocked up this joke ad campaign for Hennessy and it kind of works—almost too well to be funny.

Posted on Jan 12, 2010 READ MORE


Zuckerberg
flickr / deneyterrio

Facebook Tailors Privacy Settings to Suit ‘Social Norms’

Facebook has come under fire more than once for its execs’ creative interpretations of the term privacy, and now the megasite’s fresh-faced CEO Mark Zuckerberg has drummed up a very interesting line of argument to justify his stance on the issue. What you might see as violations of personal privacy, Zuckerberg and his team view as “reflect[ing] the current social norms.” Oh.

Posted on Jan 11, 2010 READ MORE  |  5 COMMENTS



Flickr / Adam Pieniazek

Frustrated Subscribers Target AT&T

Thanks to the runaway success of the iPhone, AT&T has the largest wireless network in the country—and the lousiest. Fed-up subscribers, who pay the telco about $30 a month just for data (and another $40 or so for voice), are planning an assault this Friday called Operation Chokehold. (continued)

Posted on Dec 14, 2009 READ MORE  |  5 COMMENTS


Congress Could Mute Loud Commercials

The Associated Press reports on one of Congress’ urgent priorities: “Television viewers jarred by abrupt spikes in volume during commercial breaks may someday be able to give their mute buttons a rest.”

Posted on Dec 14, 2009 READ MORE  |  1 COMMENT



youtube

Can Gadgets Save the Magazine?

What to do when your business and the medium it’s printed on are disintegrating into pulp? Form a consortium, of course. Condé Nast, Hearst, Time, News Corp. and something called Meredith have banded together to crack this nut with a common digital format, shared innovation and maybe even a new gadget or two. (continued)

Posted on Dec 8, 2009 READ MORE


Schmidt
Flickr/Gisela Giardino

Google Can Help Newspapers, Says Google CEO

Google Chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt has gazed into the future of the news business, and—surprise!—he sees Google playing a big, vital role. In his Wall Street Journal Op-Ed piece, Schmidt heralds the advent, in the not-so-distant future, of an era in which the Internet “will foster a new, digital business model.” Hmmm!

Posted on Dec 3, 2009 READ MORE  |  2 COMMENTS


empty podium
White House / Pete Souza

Where Was Obama When Maine Needed Him?

Why did voters in Maine reject a law that would have sanctioned same-sex marriage? Well, according to some marriage equality supporters, one big reason currently resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and another has to do with conservative scare tactics played out via television ad campaigns.

Posted on Nov 4, 2009 READ MORE  |  8 COMMENTS


Oligarh
youtube.com

Report: Glenn Beck’s Ad Dollars Take a Dive

He may be jacking up his ratings with all his, um, displays of distrust of the Obama administration and its policies, but it seems that Fox News pontificator Glenn Beck might well be feeling the burn in the advertising department for all his bloviating (not to mention his spelling issues).

Posted on Sep 14, 2009 READ MORE  |  12 COMMENTS


9/11 ad
adfreak.com

Yes, It’s Still Too Soon for 9/11-Themed Advertising

It may always be too soon to bring Sept. 11 disaster imagery into certain forms of media, especially advertising, but two different ad firms and their clients just learned the hard way that now is most definitely not the time for that sort of thing.

Posted on Sep 8, 2009 READ MORE  |  5 COMMENTS



Collage: Flickr / Qfamily and melloveschallah

We Are Watching You

Just about every Web site you visit, including this one, keeps track of details such as who you are, where you come from, and what you look at on the site and for how long. But some go even further to please advertisers, who may know what kind of books you read, what you search for, whom your friends are and more. Enter the House of Representatives.

Posted on Sep 7, 2009 READ MORE  |  14 COMMENTS


Hitler AIDS ad
aids-is-a-mass-murderer.com

Should Hitler Be the New Face of AIDS?

Invoking the notorious images of dictators like Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin and Saddam Hussein as part of an AIDS-awareness ad series constitutes a serious gamble at best—and a deeply misguided move at worst, according to critics of the new “AIDS Is a Mass-Murderer” European campaign conjured up by a Hamburg advertising firm.

Posted on Sep 7, 2009 READ MORE  |  6 COMMENTS



The Science Fiction of Military Marketing

The military’s fantastical advertisements promote a somewhat comforting, if disturbingly misleading, message—and it is aimed not just at potential soldiers, but also at the public at large.

Posted on Aug 28, 2009 READ MORE  |  77 COMMENTS


television sunset
femexvoleibol.com

The End of Network TV as We Know It

The American television industry is in crisis, according to Advertising Age critic Bob Garfield, who figures prominently in The Wrap’s two-part look into the future of the industry. In fact, says Garfield, we’re seeing early signs of “the total collapse of the network television model.”

Posted on Aug 18, 2009 READ MORE  |  18 COMMENTS


M
ppcforhire.com

Micro-hoo Deal Announced

A long-rumored partnership between software giant Microsoft and Internet giant Yahoo has come to pass. In an effort to tag-team Google, Microsoft will combine its new Bing search engine with Yahoo’s vast advertising empire.

Posted on Jul 29, 2009 READ MORE  |  2 COMMENTS


Obama
AP photo / Charles Dharapak

Buying Brand Obama

The Obama brand is about being happy consumers. We are entertained. We feel hopeful. We like our president. We believe he is like us. But like all branded products spun out from the manipulative world of corporate advertising, we are being duped into doing and supporting a lot of things that are not in our interest.

Posted on May 3, 2009 READ MORE  |  179 COMMENTS


NY Post
imageshack.us

Big U.S. Papers Take a Big Hit

We’ve all been hearing this refrain for some time, but this is getting even more serious, people: According to Business Week, circulation numbers for 11 of the 25 biggest newspapers in America have taken a nosedive—the worst drop yet since the mediapocalypse in the print world commenced.

Posted on Apr 27, 2009 READ MORE  |  10 COMMENTS



AP photo / M. Spencer Green

America Is in Need of a Moral Bailout

The methods used to attain what we want, we are told by reality television programs, business schools and self-help gurus, are irrelevant. Success, always defined in terms of money and power, is its own justification. Our moral collapse is as terrifying, and as dangerous, as our economic collapse.

Posted on Mar 23, 2009 READ MORE  |  142 COMMENTS



Flickr / AtomicPope

What Price Hollywood?

I visited the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles a few days ago. It is advertised as “the final resting place to more of Hollywood’s founders and stars than anywhere else on Earth.” We all have gods, Martin Luther said, it is just a question of which ones. And in American society, our gods are often celebrities.

Posted on Feb 9, 2009 READ MORE  |  48 COMMENTS



USAF / Tech. Sgt. Charlein Sheets

Pentagon Propaganda Is Booming

The military’s spin budget—covering recruitment, advertising and public relations—has jumped 63 percent over the last five years, to $4.7 billion, according to a yearlong investigation by the Associated Press. The Pentagon pays nearly as many people to influence public opinion as the State Department has in its entire work force.

Posted on Feb 5, 2009 READ MORE  |  8 COMMENTS


LA Times
AP photo / Kevork Djansezian

What Future for the Ink-Stained Wretch?

I’m concerned about the uncertain future for journalists. Without them, who will “watchdog” politicians and bureaucrats, charity officials, cops, educators and the many others who help make our society run?

Posted on Dec 16, 2008 READ MORE  |  97 COMMENTS


Say Hello to the Thrift Zeitgeist

Now, competitive consumption has been replaced by contagious anxiety. Buying hit the wall with the housing collapse, the stock market plunge, the credit card crunch and the surge in unemployment figures.

Posted on Dec 11, 2008 READ MORE  |  6 COMMENTS


Aldous Huxley

Aldous Huxley, 1958: ‘Brave New World’ Just Around the Corner

It’s always a little spooky and a little funny to listen to a person from the past predict a future that may have already come to pass. In this clip from 50 years ago, Mike Wallace interviews “Brave New World” author Aldous Huxley, and while some of what Huxley says sounds goofy, some sounds uncomfortably familiar.

Posted on Dec 9, 2008 READ MORE  |  16 COMMENTS



AP photo / Tina Fineberg

America the Illiterate

The change from a print-based to an image-based society has transformed our nation. All the traditional tools of democracies, including dispassionate scientific and historical truth, facts, news and rational debate, are useless instruments in a world that lacks the capacity to use them.

Posted on Nov 10, 2008 READ MORE  |  671 COMMENTS



AP photo / LM Otero

The Obama Standard

A good politician triumphs by adapting to the times and taking advantage of opportunities as they come. A great politician anticipates openings others don’t see and creates possibilities that were not there before.

Posted on Nov 3, 2008 READ MORE  |  10 COMMENTS



An ‘Emergency Effort to Stop Barack Obama’

Every election season, some independent groups sizzle with controversy and impact, and others fizzle. We couldn’t tell at first, but the National Republican Trust PAC appears to be of the sizzling variety.

Posted on Oct 28, 2008 READ MORE  |  22 COMMENTS


Change Big Donors Can Believe In

The candidates’ coffers are swelling with larger and larger bundles of cash, but don’t hold your breath waiting for the extended television discussions of this, because it’s the broadcasters who profit the most.

Posted on Oct 22, 2008 READ MORE  |  4 COMMENTS


Obama
AP photo / Madalyn Ruggiero

Obama Leads by 11

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has pulled significantly ahead of Republican rival John McCain, taking an 11-point lead after Tuesday night’s presidential debate, according to the latest Gallup Poll.

Posted on Oct 8, 2008 READ MORE  |  11 COMMENTS


Biden in Michigan
AP photo / Paul Sancya

Biden Strikes Back at McCain Campaign

Well, there you are, Joe Biden! After what seemed like ages out of the spotlight, the Democratic vice presidential nominee came out swinging at a campaign stop Monday in Michigan, casting Republican presidential hopeful John McCain as a Bush wannabe and part of “a culture in Washington where the very few wealthy and powerful have a seat at the table and the rest of us are on the menu.”

Posted on Sep 15, 2008 READ MORE  |  5 COMMENTS



Flickr / Mykl Roventine

Is Google the New Microsoft?

The Justice Department could be gearing up for an antitrust case against the world’s leading search and online advertising provider because of a deal with Yahoo that puts Google in control of the vast majority of online ads. Despite a pledge to not do evil, Google’s image has been tarnished in recent years, mainly over privacy concerns.

Posted on Sep 9, 2008 READ MORE  |  3 COMMENTS


Turning Gold Into Green

Michael Phelps’ million-dollar bonus for making Olympic history is chump change compared with the hundreds of millions he is expected to rake in over the course of his career. What does swimming have to do with credit cards? Visa is prepared to spend millions to convince you the answer is “a lot.”

Posted on Aug 18, 2008 READ MORE  |  2 COMMENTS



Flickr / specialklikethecereal

More Tumult in the Newspaper Business

Los Angeles Times Publisher David Hiller is best known for firing people. Now Hiller himself is out of a job. The ousting was announced as the Times braced for another devastating round of staff cuts. Meantime, the editor of another Sam Zell-owned newspaper, the Chicago Tribune, announced her resignation as that paper continues its own gutting.

Posted on Jul 15, 2008 READ MORE  |  2 COMMENTS


Googlehand
businessweek.com

Inquiry on Search Partnership

A recent advertising partnership between search giant Google and competitor Yahoo has antitrust authorities worried. Not only does a Google-Yahoo deal look ridiculous in name, but critics (such as Microsoft) say the partnership would consolidate Google’s control of Internet search ad revenue to a whopping 90 percent of U.S. market share.

Posted on Jul 2, 2008 READ MORE  |  1 COMMENT


cash
Flickr / Tracy O

$1 Billion and Counting

We’re barely into the general election campaign and already more than $1 billion has been raised by the various candidates. That tally includes now-defunct campaigns and personal loans. Still, that’s more money than has ever been raised for an election, and we’ve got about five months to go.

Posted on Jun 24, 2008 READ MORE  |  4 COMMENTS


LA Times building
Flickr / jimw

Newspaper Tycoon to Slash and Burn

Sam Zell seems to get a kick out of antagonizing his critics, some of his own reporters among them, but this time the Tribune Co. boss has really outdone himself. Zell has announced a new model for his newspapers: 50 percent news and 50 percent ads. At the Los Angeles Times, that will mean 82 fewer pages of news every week.

Posted on Jun 9, 2008 READ MORE  |  6 COMMENTS


Egg and Chicken
vox.com

Chicken or the Egg?

Tyson Foods was ordered by a judge Thursday to cease a false multimillion-dollar ad campaign promoting its claim that its chickens are “raised without antibiotics.” The key question centers on the word raised and whether the egg stage can be considered to be outside the process of raising chickens.

Posted on May 2, 2008 READ MORE  |  8 COMMENTS


I Know You Are but What Am I?

Share
Posted on Apr 15, 2008 READ MORE  |  4 COMMENTS        


Obama Poster
Flickr / Steve Rhodes

Hope Fatigue in Pennsylvania?

A new poll shows Hillary Clinton way out ahead in Pennsylvania, thanks in part to the 23 percent of respondents who said Barack Obama’s saturation advertising is turning them off. The Obama campaign is currently spending more per week on ads in Pennsylvania than any other candidate ever has spent.

Posted on Apr 14, 2008 READ MORE  |  16 COMMENTS



Democrats Wage Air War in Pennsylvania

A few months ago columnist Amy Goodman argued that the principal beneficiaries of our current campaign finance system are the media conglomerates that rake in all those advertising dollars. That’s especially true this week as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama bombard Pennsylvania with commercials.

Posted on Apr 8, 2008 READ MORE  |  7 COMMENTS



latimes.com

An Absolut Controversy

The Swedish vodka company known for its memorable advertising has stirred a bit of controversy in the United States with an ad running in Mexico that shows what the two countries would look like “in an Absolut world.” Updated

Posted on Apr 4, 2008 READ MORE  |  17 COMMENTS


It’s an Air War

There’s a reason campaigns are more expensive than ever: commercials. Although they try, the candidates can’t be in every Super Tuesday state at the same time, and the most effective way of reaching millions of people in one state is the same for politicians as it is for Tylenol. Even Barack Obama, who has bet big on his grass-roots organization, spent around $4 million on ads in the last week of January.

Posted on Feb 4, 2008 READ MORE  |  10 COMMENTS


Bush Planted Canned ‘News’ Spots on U.S. Stations

For years, we’ve been hearing about big companies increasingly taking over the American news business, as well as media execs jumping into bed with government higher-ups, but this report about the federal government and major corporations actually producing and planting prepackaged “news” stories in outlets around the country raises the Big Brother threat level to at least Orange.

Posted on Oct 15, 2007 READ MORE  |  15 COMMENTS


girl on a dock

Your Tax Dollars at Work: Abstinence Ads

The Department of Health and Human Services’ latest abstinence ad commands the viewer to “tell your kids you want them to wait till they’re married to have sex.” That’s the Bush administration for you: Forget about the heaps of data that show a strategy doesn’t work and just keep throwing money at it.

Posted on Oct 8, 2007 READ MORE  |  42 COMMENTS


Giuliani
informedvoters.wordpress.com

Giuliani’s Three-Pronged Ad Assault

Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani tried to diss The New York Times, Sen. Hillary Clinton and MoveOn.org all at once by placing his own advertisement in the paper to counter MoveOn.org’s critique of Gen. David Petraeus, claiming The Times had played favorites with their ad sales policy.

Posted on Sep 14, 2007 READ MORE  |  20 COMMENTS


Al Gore
businessinnovationinsider.com

Ad Agencies Vie for Gore’s Green Campaign

Signaling a sea change in the advertising business, four top-tier ad agencies are lining up to pitch to former Vice President Al Gore in hopes of landing the account for his Alliance for Climate Protection and helping Gore design a multimedia global warming campaign with a whopping $100-million annual budget.  The takeaway, according to AdAge:  Global warming is hot on Madison Avenue.

Posted on Aug 27, 2007 READ MORE  |  4 COMMENTS


Progressive Coalition Targets Fox Advertisers

A group of progressive organizations and blogs is planning to hit Fox News where it hurts: the bank account. MoveOn.org, Brave New Films, DailyKos and others are working to compile a list of local advertisers as part of a larger pressure campaign. Fox News may have brought this on itself by successfully pressuring JetBlue to pull out as a major sponsor of the YearlyKos convention.

Posted on Jul 27, 2007 READ MORE  |  9 COMMENTS


The Pop-Tart Chronicles

Food companies that market obesity-inducing products to young children are taking a lesson from big tobacco and getting ahead of the lawsuit curve.

Posted on Jun 19, 2007 READ MORE  |  9 COMMENTS


Tobacco Marketing Leaves Women Seeing Red

We’ve come a long way from seeing ourselves as oh-so-sexy holding a slim cigarette—all the way to seeing red. Red, the color of angry outrage, could be just the thing to blot out Big Tobacco’s latest campaign to hook young women on cigarettes by dressing up death in fuchsia and teal.

Posted on Apr 17, 2007 READ MORE  |  3 COMMENTS


Obama on Letterman

Obama Laughs It Up With Letterman

Barack Obama recently sat down with David Letterman and managed to hold his own with the humor. When asked why his campaign needed so much money, the candidate said evenly: “We’ve got to advertise on the Letterman show.” According to Amy Goodman, that’s no joke.

Posted on Apr 11, 2007 READ MORE


Forget Big Tobacco—Big Food Kills

If we are what we eat and we eat what is advertised, then American children are facing death by junk food.

Posted on Mar 29, 2007 READ MORE  |  27 COMMENTS


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