advertising
Google’s backwards ad thinking
I love Google ads.
In a world where advertisers consistently demonstrate the definition of insanity: doing more of the same thing because it’s not working - Google turns things on their head. And in doing so, they turn advertising into what marketers always claim it is (despite knowing better): useful information for buyers.
Gerry McGovern at Giraffe [...]
Eurostar’s unwanted mascots
Eurostar, which runs the trains through the Channel Tunnel between London and Paris, is using some cute dogs in their marketing. Who doesn’t like cute dogs? I’m a sucker for them (though I’d take the bulldog over the poodle, thanks):
There’s just one problem with these cute mutt mascots, though. If you decide to arrange a [...]
Fly Derrie-Air
As a way to demonstrate the effectiveness of their advertising, Philadelphia Media Holdings, publisher of a couple of papers in Phillie, published a fake ad last week in their papers.
The ad, for a fake airline called "Derrie Air," is pretty clever.
Derrie-Air is the world’s first carbon-neutral luxury airline. We will offer our passengers the [...]
Attention grabbers: make sure there’s a payoff
The other day, I was reading through the employment ads in The Economist, which I often do. If you’ve never seen them before, they’re up front, generally quarter or half page B&W ads. Serious stuff, and wildly interesting professional jobs - often in far a way places (Head of the Railroad Authority in Swaziland), and [...]
It’s Friday, so I think I’ll just rant about ads I hate
First off, I know that I’m not being highly original here, but is there anyone who actually likes the ubiquitous ads that deal with, ahem, ED? I watch a lot of baseball games, so I see an awful lot of these suckers, and, while I’m sure that they are effective I find them god-awful. I [...]
Marketing genius from Long Island City, NY
I love this sign. Read the whole thing.
It was a beautiful day. Not a flogo in the sky.
People have been shooting special effects off in the sky since the Chinese decided that gunpowder had a secondary, peaceful use and ignited the first fireworks display 1000+ years ago.
I’ve always loved fireworks. And skywriting, which you don’t seem to see much anymore - or maybe I just don’t notice - but which was somewhat [...]
Skanking up a staid old image
In the last few weeks, I’ve done two Burberry-related things.
One, I watched that most excellent of actresses, Helen Mirren, in a most excellent of movies, The Queen, and got to see a depiction of royals traipsing about their country "place" in Balmoral, Scotland, in gear that looked like it came straight out of Burberry: never [...]
Sign, sign, everywhere a sign
My daily walking route takes me by an upmarket boutique hotel. I’ve only been inside for drinks. And since I’m not generally willing to fork out $15 for a gin and tonic, the times I’ve been in there are few. The drink prices are in keeping with the rack rate, which is relatively steep by [...]
When it comes to privacy, perception is what matters
In light of the proposed Do Not Track law in New York, the results of a survey of consumer attitudes toward web tracking sponsored by TRUSTe are interesting:
Although only 40 percent of the group was familiar with the term “behavioral targeting,” most users were well aware of the practice. 57 percent reported that they weren’t [...]
