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Drunk On Misogyny. And Weak Beer
This ad for Cooper's Beer just won an award at the prestigious ad festival in Cannes. I guess because of its sophisticated message: No Fat Chicks. The copy reads "Only 2.9% alcohol," meaning you won't get too wasted to notice this pretty girl is totally not skinny, and if you take her home, dude, whoa, watch out in the morning! I would really like to hear some Jezebel input on this thoughtful campaign. Click through for the second terrible award-winning spot, which has the equally important message: No Nerdy Chicks With Freckles Either, Broheim!: More »
The rich
Your Future Job: Superyacht Deckhand
Don't feel too bad about the economy, members of the creative underclass: the superrich are still doing okay. While ordinary people like you fret over your outstanding subprime loans and plug the leaks in your rickety little rowboat with used chewing gum, the superrich are doing well enough to ensure that the Superyacht (an actual term!) industry is growing strongly. There are nearly 20% more requests this year for yachts longer than 130 feet. How many feet does one need? But god bless our economic superiors for providing the liquidity to fuel this crazy global economy. And don't be jealous; there's a benefit here for commoners, too: More »
Modern Crime
Murder Suspect Done In By Evolution Of Media, Own Stupidity
The revolutionary information age is great and everything, but it makes crime a really big hassle. In the McCarthy era, they ran down the Reds by tracing their anti-American magazine subscriptions. Dragnet cops could storm into the library to demand a suspect's list of books borrowed. But now criminals use the internet, and its treasure trove of crime information is an equally rich source of evidence against those who access it. We've already seen a Facebook update lead to a murder-suicide. And now, the latest entrant in the annals of "Bad Things To Do Online": Google "How to kill with a knife," and then murder your wife and child: More »
marketing
Vanity Fair's Guide To The Summer
Vanity Fair is a national publication, but it's gone to a lot of trouble to market itself to the tastemakers of New York City. The magazine has produced a 40-page guide to the summer in NYC, with lists and quick critiques of everything from the best outdoor bars with roof decks to the hottest summer concerts. It's a smart (if labor-intensive) promotional move: making the in-crowd know you went to a lot of effort on their behalf. Populists that we are, we're bringing the entire document to the public—you can view the whole thing here. Below, a sample page of VF's editorial comments on summer bars: More »
marketing
Become A Fake Expert In One Easy Step
Would you like to become an "expert" in a field that really defies easy expert prediction? Here's how: Take a group of things in that field that have already proven themselves to be successful. Then find common characteristics among the items in that group. Put forward those characteristics as your own personal advice about how to be successful in said field. Then, when your audience discovers that simply staring at a bunch of characteristics of things successful in the past does nothing to help them make the hard decisions about the future, you can just shrug and say, "Hey, these things are complex!" This works for "experts" in stock picking, politics, and, especially, marketing. More »
hot spots
Visit Cousin Vinny's Strippers-And-Sandwiches Club Tonight!
There's a new hotspot in The Bronx that you simply won't want to miss unless you hate sex and lunch meat. It's COUSIN VINNY'S LITTLE SECRET! Tell us: where else can you pay just $50 for six hours of hardcore lap dance action, unlimited fountain soda, and a footlong sandwich of your choice, all in "a discrete and totally safe atmosphere to indulge in your carnal fantasies": namely, a former Subway sandwich franchise. In the Bronx! We've been sent a transcribed version of the flier that "Cousin Vinny" Agnello—owner of a stripper service and the self-described "King of Bling featured as a "Celebrity" on the DIGGS WEBSITE" (two Diggs!)— is reportedly passing around the area. Our tipster says the local merchant's association is...concerned about Cousin Vinny's new venture. But we predict this will be a hot alternative to seeing Sex And The City. "MEMBERSHIP HAS IT'S PRIVILEDGES!" Vinny's full, quirkily awesome invitation, after the jump: More »
journalismism
Stabby Hack Hacks Back For Gory Tab Story
Daily News reporter Caitlin Millat went crazy yesterday. Crazy for journalism, that is! "I stabbed an innocent victim, got shot by a police officer, and suffered a severe asthma attack on Wednesday in Brooklyn," she writes, "all in a day's work for the Daily News." She now languishes in an isolation cell on Riker's Island. No, just kidding! She was just playing the role of a crazy person to help out with the city's annual EMT competition. Don't scare us like that, Caitlin! As an added bonus for all of us curious readers, she was able to turn her unique first-person experience into a story in today's paper. Synergetic! There's also a video. Near the end is when she stabs a guy. [NYDN] More »
advertising
Ball-Powdering Sensation Sweeping The Nation
Gold Bond is more than just a powder that old, decrepit men put on their feet; it's a powder that young, virile men can put on their balls, for fun. The medicated powder, and its cream brethren, produces a pleasing sensation in the male nether regions, according to Gawker videographer and ball-experimenter Richard Blakeley. But this off-brand use isn't just some underground deviant fantasy; Gold Bond has now picked up on it for its own advertising. The company has a site called PowderMyEquipment.com with several videos of guys powdering their... EQUIPMENT ("air quotes"). We would take this as winking corporate encouragement of self-pleasure, if we didn't know better. Click to watch an ad from the site, with a guy taking care of his EQUIPMENT, if you know what we mean.
psychology
You Have Hopscotch To Live For
How many times have you gazed out on the subway tracks during your daily commute, wishing only for the sweet release that hurling yourself upon them would provide? Plenty of times; you're reading this site, so we know your job sucks. Some people do throw themselves in front of trains, which represents not only a wasted life, but also a hugely inconvenient municipal clean-up job. So Washington, DC has ordered up some stuff to keep your mind occupied while you're on the platform—games like Hopscotch and "I Spy." The slogan on the games reads "Life is fun. Keep on living. Use caution around the tracks." Perhaps hopscotch was not the wisest choice, then? And let's be honest—the slogan of this campaign should really be, "Anything to Momentarily Distract You From Suicidal Thoughts." After the jump (ha), one of the "I Spy" games. This would only cure a very minimal level of depression: More »
nooooooooooo!
$100,000 Whitewash: Store Owner Paints Over Banksy Art
No matter how you feel about the British stencil artist Banksy, you have to admit one thing: his stuff sells for a lot of money. His works have been going for over half a million dollars lately. A homeowner in the UK with a Banksy mural on the side of her house decided to simply sell the mural through an art gallery, and throw in the home for free. But one NYC store owner lucky enough to have a Banksy piece on his building (pictured) was either too ignorant, or too stubborn to take advantage of it. Yes: he painted over it. I hope he loved his momentarily whitewashed wall, because it cost him hundreds of thousands of dollars. The kind of funny, and kind of painful pictures [via SuperTouch] of the man in the revenue-destroying act, after the jump. Ouch. More »
public relations
Useful Media Relations 101
This email has been floating around for a week or so, but we're going to run it as a public service. It was first circulated by a PR guy named Peter Shankman as a classic "How Not To Pitch A Reporter" lesson. In this case, the email pitch below was sent to a hedge fund reporter. That is to say, a professional journalist who spends his days chronicling the ins and outs of the secretive high finance world. So one might have expected that a PR firm would cull its email blast list just a bit before it went to work on behalf of its "Long Island based car shop" client. But no! Pitches like this are why reporters hate PR people. CAN YOU GUESS WHICH PR AGENCY THIS CAME FROM? The full pitch (to, again, a hedge fund reporter), and the stunning reveal of the agency's identity, after the jump. More »
advertising
Subway Poster Vandals Getting Really Good
Occasionally, scofflaws who don't respect the sanctity of advertising posters in the New York subway system tear off bits of some posters and stick them to others to create new and improved versions. Sometimes they're pointless; sometimes they're funny; and sometimes, as in this mixture of Darth Vader, Takashi Murakami, and a beer ad, they're pretty stunning works of art. Click through for larger pics [via And I Am Not Lying], then rush to the Lorimer L train stop to rip this down and sell it on Ebay: More »
trends
Internet, Tell Me What To Do
More and more people are turning to the New York Times to tell them what to think about the growing number of people who are turning to the internet to tell them what to think. Can't make a decision about your hair? The internet will tell you what to do. In a groundbreaking story, the Times reveals that your annoying "should I get bangs or not" friend is now subjecting the masses to her neuroses. And women aren't the only ones seeking validation from strangers. Men are using Flickr to ask if they should keep their goatee. The answer, unless you're a college freshman at a Dave Matthews concert, is no. But all this Wisdom of Crowds stuff is upsetting corporations! More »
nightmares
Trapped In An Elevator For Two Days: The Video
In 1999, BusinessWeek production manager Nicholas White went outside to smoke a cigarette and, upon returning, got stuck in an elevator. For 41 hours. The story of his ordeal is woven through Nick Paumgarten's new New Yorker feature about elevators, and is, predictably, the most interesting part. It's amazing how much 41 hours in a small metal box altered White's life forever, for the worse. And—oh yes—there is (sped-up) security camera footage of him the entire time. It's mesmerizing, because you can imagine him slowly going insane, which is exactly what's happening. Below, the video, and the article's summary of White's life since he was rescued. Let this be a cautionary tale to all of you who may find yourself similarly ensared in this most primal of New York office drone nightmares! More »
things to do in boston
Actual Use For PowerPoint Discovered
"If you've never heard of PowerPoint Karaoke, that probably means you're neither German nor a hardcore techie." By god, we'll have to admit that that's an accurate statement. This trend may have been around in German techie circles for a while, but now that it's hit the media at large, expect to see it in as a weakly-attended theme night soon at a bar near you. The Boston Globe reports that the trend of taking a random PowerPoint presentation and putting together a narrative for it on the fly is just about as much fun as any crowd of "extroverted geeks" can handle. Plus they're all drunk at the time! Actually, it does sound like fun. More »
the mediated life
That's our own beloved Julia Allison on the cover of Time Out New York. Holding out a cocktail napkin with her number on it! For the Singles Issue! It's like seeing Aleksey Vayner on the cover of Fortune. The Millionaires' Secrets To Making YouTM the Sexiest Brand on the Market!
More »
Monster Officially Created
That's our own beloved Julia Allison on the cover of Time Out New York. Holding out a cocktail napkin with her number on it! For the Singles Issue! It's like seeing Aleksey Vayner on the cover of Fortune. The Millionaires' Secrets To Making YouTM the Sexiest Brand on the Market!More »
advice
