Tag Archives: marketing

What’s a Like worth?

Dippin’ Dots, a quirky ice cream product, is one of the world’s top 50 product brands on Facebook. Ranked at #40, with over 4.5 million fans, it ranks higher than mega-brands like Gatorade, Domino’s Pizza, Nike Basketball, Snickers and Barbie. … Continue reading

“On Campus, It’s One Big Commercial” by Natasha Singer

Natasha Singer writes for the New York Times about the pervasiveness of marketing and brand ambassadors on college campuses. One student working for HP on a college campus and promoting HP products to her friends: “I can tell they believe … Continue reading

“Tribute” Ads

Breaking Copy on Budweiser’s 9/11 tribute advertisement: I’m not alone in finding this ad distasteful. Like other 9/11 anniversary spots, this one was harshly panned by commenters on Ad Age on Adweek. (“Budweiser should be ashamed,” was a typical response.) … Continue reading

“Clicking Toward Oblivion”

Online advertising is almost worthless. Just when you thought banner ads couldn’t get any less effective, oops, click-through rates dropped another 10% last year. Clicking toward oblivion

Literary Speed Dating

Speed dating for book worms and a way for libraries to bring in young people. One logistical snag is the preponderance of women. Libraries reported difficulties attracting men in sufficient numbers. In downtown Fort Collins, an event had to be … Continue reading

Steve Reich’s WTC 9/11 Album Art

The album art is a modification of the Masatomo Kuriya photo of the second plane heading into the towers. One commenter on Nonesuch’s site calls it “the first truly despicable classical album cover that I have ever seen.” The album … Continue reading

Single Ply or Double Ply?

via Dumb Tweets at Brands

Discovering Goose Island

A lot of times when I go grocery shopping I like to look at product packaging. Cereal boxes are the most lively product packaging: they’re bright and colorful, and long ago each major brand came out with a cartoon character … Continue reading

Your mom hates this, I hate the commercial

This Dead Space 2 spot is getting some criticism over its use of unsuspecting mothers in a focus group. The whole campaign is built around the theme “your mom’s going to hate it.” William Van Hecke writes: How can a … Continue reading

Apple thinks iPods are people!

Sometimes you have to sacrifice grammar for marketing purposes. If Steve Jobs is talking about an iPod, an iPhone or an iPad, he will say “iPhone does this” or “iPad does that”, instead of “the iPhone does this” and “the … Continue reading