(TrendHunter.com) The Japanese alway seem to come up with very unusual promotional items and gadgets.
This time, the Akiba PC Hotline is advertising special Windows Vista SP1 toilet paper! Unfortunately, I can’t read Japanese, so I don’t know whether this is intended to help educate a person on the various featur…
And boy does she need it. (Janice Dickinson fills us with dangerous emotions, mostly of rage and quiet angst.)
(TrendHunter.com) Forget about heart disease and cholesterol, McDonald’s is adding to their Japanese mega series. Starting March 17th, 2008 the Mega Mac hamburger (which had a limited run with 23 million sold already!) will become a permanent part of the McDonald’s menu.
Also, two limited-run (April 4th through May…
(TrendHunter.com) This sleek prototype B.A.T. 11 was conceived by Italian design house Stile Bertone to be presented at the Geneva Motor Show.
The B.A.T. 11 “is based on the Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione high performance coupe, but the B.A.T. 11 was named to reconnect to the studio’s famous B.A.T. 5, B.A.T. 7 and B.A.T…
Frank Caliendo does a pretty awesome John Madden (above). And his Charles Barkley is good, too. Perhaps a little too good. Lawyers for Madden and Barkley are threatening legal action over Dish TV commercials in which Caliendo does impressions of both. They evidently believe that Dish is profiting from the likenesses of their clients. Which, more than anything, seems to be an endorsement of Caliendo and his talents. Dish parent EchoStar, meanwhile, argues that the ads feature “parodies and caricatures protected by the First Amendment.†Boom! Via Sports by Brooks.
—Posted by Tim Nudd
In a gaming landscape that seems to be focusing more and more on relationships and connectivity, it’s no surprise to see greater emphasis put on features like xbox live and the communal aspects of the Wii (”wii would like to play“). At the same time, differentiating one on-line gaming service from another in the eye of the non-initiated public is no simple task. While it may be the gaming wave of the future, getting more people to jump on board takes some skill, and sometimes a slightly different approach.
This newest spot for Sony’s Playstation Network definitely sits outside of the traditional gaming system mold. The art direction, filming style, and soundtrack all give it an atmospheric quality not usually seen with video game systems. It’s certainly a different answer to the question of online gaming.
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Marketers are experimenting with morphing circulars into mobile formats, implementing social media into in-store experiences and using technology to promote product sampling. In some cases, these technologies can be considered media in their own right.
CHICAGO (AdAge.com) — General Mills cited product innovation and increased consumer-marketing spending for third-quarter earnings that beat analyst expectations. The company's earnings shot up 61% for the period ended Feb. 24 despite higher ingredient costs and a slowing economy.
(TrendHunter.com) The Florence TAV Station in Italy will make high-speed, long distance trains travelling through the city a thing of the past.
When it opens to the public in 2010, trains will pass through a seven kilometer tunnel, with the entrance at Campo di Marte station and the exit at Castello. The existing r…
This a cute bookmark. The Abracadabra has two sides to it and one of them comes inflated. When you place the inflated part in your book to mark your place, the weight of the book deflates it. When you go back to your reading, you need to squeeze the half that’s sticking out and this will re-inflate …
People who think they can avoid McDonald’s simply by not eating there can think again, because now it can run you down in the parking lot via the McCafe, one in a new line of heavy-duty ad vehicles unleashed by Moroch. Others include Mrs. Baird’s Toaster on Wheels, Mrs. Baird’s Ultimate Smoker and Grill, and the Mattress Giant Bed Makeover truck. Sources didn’t indicate how awesome it would be to drive a giant toaster, but our consensus is that it would be pretty great. Even better, this is a genuine Homestar Runner Prophecy, as Peacey-P’s limo clearly has a Waffle House built onto it.
—Posted by David Kiefaber
LONDON – UK banks should concentrate on marketing their ethical credentials as thoroughly as their green credentials in order to attract consumers and gain a competitive edge, according to figures from Mintel.
Attending Advertising Age’s Digital Marketing Conference, Steve Rubel reports attendee sentiment regarding “management” of social media.
LONDON – Macdonald Hotels and Resorts have appointed Feather Brooksbank to manage its media planning and buying account following a pitch.
So this is what what it takes now to sell milk.
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Broadcast-network TV's place in the media landscape is changing, acknowledged NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker this morning, and as such, consumers can probably expect less scripted fare, but more shows aimed at reaching broad swaths of audience.
(TrendHunter.com) This a cute bookmark. The Abracadabra has two sides to it and one of them comes inflated. When you place the inflated part in your book to mark your place, the weight of the book deflates it. When you go back to your reading, you need to squeeze the half that’s sticking out and this will re-inflate …
Amid lethal violence in Tibet and anti-Beijing demonstrations elsewhere, do you suppose some Olympic sponsors are quietly wishing they’d chosen to spend their marketing money elsewhere? It’s one thing when activists are criticizing you for insufficient fealty to an abstraction like human rights; it’s another when consumers en masse are seeing reports (and, perhaps, photos) of bloodshed in the streets. There’s a history of “ambush marketing†in which companies that aren’t official sponsors try to link themselves to the Olympics. This time around, one can imagine a brand publicizing the fact that it isn’t a sponsor. (Then again, it’d have to be a brand that has no ambition of doing business in China in this millennium.)
—Posted by Mark Dolliver
Here’s a tangy attempt at self-promotion from a shop called Citrus, which is offering customizable joke letters which clients can use to kick their numskull agencies out the door.
—Posted by Tim Nudd
And on it goes. We already saw Virgin Mobile in Canada capitalize on the Spitzer scandel. Now Adage.com is reproting that Georgi vodka is in talks to put the bottom of former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s call girl, Ashley Dupre, on the backside of every bus in New York.
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