Hasta La Creative!

Microsoft is helping to place video ads on grocery-store shopping carts. Where the heck is Y2K when you need it? “If you think about the challenge an advertiser has in the purchase funnel, the ultimate end point is the impulse buy,” a Microsoft official says. I shop at Whole Foods, and at their absurdly inflated prices, it really does feel like a funnel is snaking into my wallet from the produce aisle, siphoning off funds. What am I supposed do, shop at Shaw’s? Get serious. Frankly, I’d welcome the on-cart ad intrusion on one condition: William Shatner has to do the spots, preferably in Mandarin Chinese, like he does in a new commercial for Priceline. He used to plug Promise Margarine in the ’70s. I miss those ads. Ever see the Star Trek episode where Kirk goes undercover disguised as a Romulan? Worst episode ever.

—Posted by David Gianatasio