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Ideas
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marketing
Things we actually like
Steal Ideas From A Lazy Genius
Hey, here's an idea: If you're a would-be inventor with more ideas than time or engineering skill or business sense, why not just start a blog with all your wacky ideas? Then if somebody actually takes one and invents it, they can give you a cut of the profits. Why, that's just clever enough to be an entry on "Ideas By Chuck," a blog which has much better ideas than many places that are actually paid to come up with things! Chuck admits "I don't have the resources or passion to make these ideas reality," but he does "hope this blog makes the world a better place." And how could it not? Three of our favorite of ideas from Chuck, below. Office supplies, porn, and fried foods all play a role! More »
marketing
New York Life has a foolproof plan for its new online promotion: they let any member of the internet riff-raff go on their website and submit three-word slogans, which are displayed in the company's trademark blue box. Looks just like the real thing. I can see why they want some new ideas, considering what they have now. Jeez. [via Afreak]
Public Slogan-Writing Promo: What Could Go Wrong?
New York Life has a foolproof plan for its new online promotion: they let any member of the internet riff-raff go on their website and submit three-word slogans, which are displayed in the company's trademark blue box. Looks just like the real thing. I can see why they want some new ideas, considering what they have now. Jeez. [via Afreak]
reality tv
Jingles To Scare Children
The predicted awfulness of CBS' upcoming American Idol-style ad jingle show Jingles has been confirmed, months before it actually debuts. It seems that—incredibly—hundreds of people have already auditioned for the show, and many of the audition tapes are available on YouTube. Ad Age has viewed them, and predicts a "trainwreck." We only have the stomach to bring you one of the auditions; below, a sample jingle for "Fruit It Up" candy, from a bizarre pink-clad singing duo. What would Gene Simmons have to say about this? More »
julie roehm
Scandal-Plagued Former Wal-Mart Exec Headed For Reality TV Infamy
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 them in a huge, public, scandalous lawsuit. Emily Gould dubbed her the "Wal-Mart Ho," which I am too classy to endorse but not too classy to repeat. Anyhow, Roehm is about to become a reality show star! Is she the "next Paula Abdul"? Or just the Julia Allison of advertising? More »
print is dead
This Idea Will Save the Newspaper Industry
Weekly Standard blogger Michael Goldfarb is making good use of his leave from the magazine! Well, besides writing John McCain's official blog. [Update: This is a different Michael Goldfarb. Who knew?] He also wrote a letter to Romenesko, as all concerned journos must at some point, with a suggestion about saving the very institution of journalism. It involves capitalism! More »
advertising
South Carolina Clarifies Gayness
The South Carolina state tourism agency has canceled an overseas ad campaign targeting the gays, which used the slogan "South Carolina is so gay." The state will save itself five thousand bucks by not paying for the previously approved posters, which, as we mentioned, read "South Carolina is so gay." This is a true story. [The State via Adfreak]
art
Balloon Graffiti Can End Vandalism Forever
There's a street artist in NYC by the name of D. Billy, and I sincerely hope he is being subsidized by the NYPD, because he has come up with a way to rid our streets of "unsightly" graffiti. By doing it with balloons! Just imagine how much time the sanitation department could save—just send out one guy with a needle, and he could take down an entire city's worth of balloon tags in a day. Truly a win-win solution. Plus, it's a good way to communicate Batman-like sound effects. Two more pictures of D. Billy's environmental revolution: More »
advertising
Don't Just Stand There; Be Bombarded With Crap
Are you fond of air travel, but loathe to be out of sight of advertising messages for a single moment of your trip? Sure, they put ads on the airplane tray tables and all through the airport and on the cabs and on the outside of the planes themselves. But are you expected to stand there at the luggage carousel for up to five minutes without seeing an ad pass in front of your face repeatedly? Not any more, damn it! A marketing company is now selling ads on the luggage carousel itself. So it goes by you again and again until you just can't stand it. A good media buy for the Suicide Hotline. [The god damn press release, via Adfreak]
slate
'Slate' Has a New O-book-a!! (LOL)
Oh, honestly. Slate and editor Jacob Weisberg stumbled onto a great thing back in 2000 when they began collecting George W. Bush's various verbal slip-ups and mistakes. The complete "Bushisms" was not only a great writes-itself regular feature for the site, it also made a nice book. But now, the Bush era is drawing to a close. How shall they replace their beloved Bushisms? With some bullshit that still makes no sense to us at all, months after they introduced it. Obamaisms. Which are not actually things Barack Obama has said (or even things that anyone, anywhere has said), but... words and phrases that Slate writers have clumsily wedged the candidate's oh-so-funny name into. For no reason. It upset us when it launched in February, and now they are pimping the book. Lord save us, this is the first time we've prayed for a McCain presidency. We're going to re-embed the "widget" below so you can see how mind-bogglingly pointless it is for yourself! More »
bad ideas
CBS Exec Brags About Fiddling as Network Burns
In an odd bit of television, charming-but-unwatched late night host Craig Ferguson invited a fictional author onto his show Wednesday. The fictional author, Stanley Bing, wrote a book about slacking off on the job called Executricks: Or How to Retire While You're Still Working. But Stanley Bing's real name is Gil Schwartz. And Schwartz is actually CBS's head of corporate communications. Meanwhile, CBS's stock is tanking. So this is maybe bad PR, to admit to not really giving a shit about your job? Asked for comment, Schwartz said "go stuff it." After the jump, Ferguson interviews "Bing" about his earlier book on "Bullshit Jobs"—ones that pay more than they're worth. Heh. More »
Vice President Bobby Digital!
Rocker/blogger Carrie Brownstein on the Vice Presidential selection process: "And once we determine the results, that McCain is, um, Liz Phair and therefore his running mate should be.....RZA, then all we have to do is decide what politician out there is most like RZA. After that we let John McCain's people know." Go vote in the poll! [NPR]
big ideas
Where Did All The News Go?
As we told you Monday, one sad editrix of celebrity gossip sheet thinks her profession is living on borrowed time. It's one big void out there, the canvas is blank, there is no news. And it's not just low culture. The zeitgeist at large seems to be suffering from tired blood (maybe too much vital energy spent looking at mobile porn?). Nicholson Baker's Human Smoke was the most noteworthy book to be published so far this year, and it argued that World War II wasn't worth fighting. World War II. That's not even counterintuitive in a fun Slate-y kind of way. As for the election, we're in a massive lull until at least Labor Day, barring Israel's surgical strike on Natanz, which happened yesterday while you were updating your Tumblr page. The arts? The worst film of the year, M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening, is (tellingly) about about an epidemic that causes inanition followed by suicide. The Jewish Museum's exhibiting action painting at a time of supreme lassitude. Elsewhere the herd of independent minds has taken a collective nap: the red siren that blares in Matt Drudge's head has been as silent as the one in James Wolcott's. So what's going on? More »
Television
MTV: A Safe Space For Meandering Opinions
MTV has decided to try the novel strategy of actually running some music videos on their network, something that hasn't been seen there since the inception of The Real World. But they've added an annoying, faux-modern twist in their new show FNMTV (ha): not only will they show music videos, they'll provide a place for homemade insta-response videos made by you, the viewer. Sound asinine? Oh, it is. But everybody has something to say and deserves to say it momentarily on MTV. And it has great interactive appeal, especially if you're interested in talking burritos, dimly lit karaoke clips, and an earnest analysis of the Pussycat Dolls by some dude with a beard: More »
advertising
Are Consumers Ready For A Cartoon Edgier Than Charlie Brown?
Is it a mark of progress that our national ads can now feature characters that are far more foul-mouthed and offensive to white bread America than in times past? I'm inclined to say yes. The Times considers the rise of Family Guy characters as beloved ad icons, even for wholesome brands like Coke and Subway. But hey, sometimes they say things on that show that are funny! Times are changing, you see, and these cartoon characters are just acceptable enough to squeeze into the mainstream under the rubric of "edgy." Since this is a hugely popular TV show on the Fox Network that is just the next in a long line of "edgy" cultural moments, you could correctly call this an antiquated discussion (even for the olds). The real question is: will Americans stand for a fat, ignorant cartoon father telling them how to eat their meat? More »
Public relations
Air Conditioning As A Marketing Tool: No Longer Smart
Air conditioning is not just one of the most important summertime problems facing the media. It's a problem facing everyone, because high gas prices are turning air conditioners into machines that burn $100 bills to produce cool air. Stores in high foot traffic areas have always thrown their doors open in the summer and blasted the AC, knowing that sweaty people will come in and browse just to get out of the sun. But now that strategy is not only hugely expensive, but bad PR as well; environmentalist customers will whine and complain and call the city and organize boycotts. An intrepid NYT reporter finds that wanton AC-wasters are centered—like the media—in SoHo: More »
bad ideas
The 'Racist' Barack Obama Monkey Puppet
"A toy being sold over the internet by a Utah couple is causing an uproar from supporters of democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. It’s a sock monkey wearing a suit with a lapel pin for Obama. Supporters of Obama have been filling online forums and blogs with angry words over what they see as the degrading depiction of a black man as a monkey." [abc4.com] News footage of the offending doll after the jump. More »
gender issues
