Dude, you cannot ignore this anymore.* We are screwed. Oh my god, really really screwed. China is screwed. For Chrissakes, Russia is screwed. Investors are so panicked they are paying the government interest for the privilege of buying their T-bills just to get the hell out of the market. Wait, really? Yeah really.…
Did the internet just cause Sarah Palin to destroy evidence? The potential Veep is in a bit of trouble for conducting state business using her personal, unarchived email address (gov.sarah@yahoo.com) instead of her official account (which is, of course, subject to laws requiring the retention of government records).…
In December, Fortune magazine admitted it had been remiss naming insurance giant AIG one of its "10 Stocks To Buy Now" before a yearlong 18 percent decline. "We... didn't expect [the] mortgage unit to be such an albatross," editors wrote. To correct the error, the magazine had a fresh list of "The Best Stocks For 2008…
It's about time the magazine world jacked Netflix's business plan. Maghound is Time Inc's new service that lets you, the consumer, choose which magazines you want to receive every month—with no hassles, and one low price! (Runs hand, model-like, over selection of 240 glossy magazines). Seriously, this may not save the…
Money is burning in New York! The economy is crumbling in the heartland! It's not just the poor bankers who are going broke now; it's the cities where they live. And the cities where they don't live, which were broke to begin with. Michigan towns are already reduced to selling ads on their school buses. Could any…
A tipster writes us to complain about eBay subsidiaries Skype and PayPal's response to identity theft. Reading his letter, which we've copied below, you'll see the problem is not so much that Skype and PayPal wouldn't refund the money the thief spent using our tipster's account. Rather, it's how inefficiently the…
A select group of New York's "most discerning readers" have been invited to receive a free, one-year, no strings attached subscription to the failing, soon-to-be-nonexistent New York Sun! Their marketing department's belief that a taste of the Sun will cause you to "spread the word about our rare journalistic and…
Running a free monthly magazine about outdoor sports in the New York area is probably not the most lucrative niche in the media, so it's perfectly understandable that a publisher would want to look for some creative ways to sell ad space. But selling the entire front cover for a product placement? That may be the…
You think you're clever with your Tivo, skipping over all the ads so you can greedily drink in the networks' hard work for free? You selfish, selfish person. Now that you freeloaders have succeeded in avoiding ads coming into your home, the marketing industry has pledged to bomb you with commercial messages every time…
Wacky Packages were the Consumerist.com of the 1970s (minus the journalism). They were sold in packs like baseball cards, but each card was some spoof of a consumer product, with Mad Magazine-style humor. Crest Toothpaste? Make that Creep Toothpaste, ha. They are simply mesmerizing. Every product imaginable, from…
Silicon Valley's press corps is wringing its collective hands over the botched launch of Cuil, a Web search engine. Instead of complaining about Cuil's piss-poor search results, why is no one asking who paid for this debacle? The surprising answer: Wal-Mart.More precisely, Wal-Mart family money. Madrone Capital…
To pimp its sugary, 200-calorie iced coffees, fast food giant McDonald's offered to pay some local TV newscasts for product placement. And of course the newscasts went for it, since local TV journalism is where ethical standards go to die. Meredith Corporation is putting the drinks in front of anchors at the Fox…
In theory, Microsoft's license agreement for Vista says you can get a refund from your PC's manufacturer if you buy a model with Vista preinstalled, but replace it with Windows XP, Linux or another operating system. In practice, Equlibriate blogger Kim Kido, a k a uncle_benji, spent two months calling and emailing…
The business of selling magazine subscriptions door-to-door is surprisingly shady. It consists largely of crews of young people-some under 18-recruited by (often) criminal characters who haul them around the country in vans, releasing them only to make their way through neighborhoods, using any lies necessary to tug…
Remember Julie Roehm, the fabulous woman that Wal-Mart hired to be its head of marketing, then fired because she was fucking around with her married subordinate and hitting WM ad agencies up for jobs and being unwilling to become a part of the "Wal-Mart culture" by painting her office grey or whatever? Then she sued…
Press releases: everybody hates them. Reporters hate them because they are trite, condescending, unreadable, superfluous, or some combination thereof. The flacks who write press releases hate them because they know that their intended recipients have nothing but scorn for their hard work. And the public hates press…
Activists in Philadelphia are upset about an ad campaign for Colt 45 malt liquor—specifically, its cartoonish wall murals in poor neighborhoods showing party people living it up while swilling 40s, with the slogan "Works Every Time." One woman tells the AP she wouldn't want her daughter looking at it because "She…
Celebrities: they're in ads! That's because celebrities tend to sell stuff to people, according to the New York Times, which broke this story wide open with an epic piece in yesterday's paper. There are three clear points that you, the educated consumer, must understand: Companies are run by starry-eyed celebrity…
When the movie Super Size Me came out, showing the ravaging effects of a monthlong fast food diet, it was terrible PR for McDonald's. The company spent tons of money combating the perceptions from that one overwrought documentary, seriously! And now, in what can only be described as a gift from the marketing gods,…
Anti-American socialists like the watchdogs at the Anti-Advertising Agency often point out that the advertising industry is—without exaggeration—one of the biggest vandals in New York City. Illegal advertising includes everything from entire sides of buildings and scaffoldings covered in banner ads without permits,…
