Hasta La Creative!

Yup, as was surmised earlier, Life Changing Box is, in fact, a promotion for Sharp Electronics.

– Microsoft bought Powerset, which is single-handedly trying to bring “natural search” back into vogue. (Frankly, it shoulda died with Jeeves.)

Pemco Insurance is proving that insurance advertising doesn’t need to be so serious all the time.

Their site We’re a Lot Like You provides “a helpful guide to the people of the Northwest.” Because “the people of the Northwest deserve an insurance company as different as they are.”

Some of the profiles include:

-Smug Hybrid Driver
-White-Bearded Bainbridge Architect
-Obsessive Compulsive Recycler
-Accidental Tech Millionaire
-Sandals and Socks Guy
and many more…

The internet is a special medium for a number of reasons. For one, it devours content. It must be fed and fed and fed. Or it just peters out.

Here’s a story about it:

The Walt Disney Company, concerned that its main Web site is not entertaining enough, is moving once again to overhaul Disney.com.

It will be the second recent makeover for the company’s marquee site, which is still the top Internet destination for children’s entertainment but faces increasing competition from players like Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network and WebKinz.

“It’s a repositioning of our digital front door,” said Paul Yanover, executive vice president and managing director of Disney Online.

The effort, code-named “Project Playground,” is the second retrofitting of Disney.com in as many years, reflecting both the difficulty the media giant has encountered online and the whiplash-fast pace at which the medium is evolving.

Painfully funny because it is painfully true. I love a good Mage.

According to The Wall Street Journal, as Russia and China grow their middle classes, American whiskey makers are making gains in those nations via a mix of street teams and advertising.

Still, American whiskey makers face a challenge in making their products known to consumers in emerging markets. In Russia, Beam Global hires natives to be part of the Jim Beam Party Crew. They receive training on bourbon and cocktails from local bartenders, and learn to emphasize, for instance, that bourbon tastes sweeter than Scotch. When they arrive at bars on weekend outings, they often open conversations by asking patrons: “Do you know what bourbon is?”

The answer is often no. Russians tend to be more familiar with Scotch whisky and Irish whiskey, says Vladimir Pankov, an engineer in Moscow. “You can buy Johnnie Walker in virtually any store or bar in Russia, whereas you cannot say the same thing about American brands,” says Mr. Pankov, who prefers the Scotch or Irish variety but sometimes orders Jack Daniel’s with Coca-Cola on ice.

Personally, I’m partial to bourbon or American Rye.

Shawn gave me a bottle of Templeton Rye, a.k.a. “The Good Stuff” last winter. We opened it tonight.

It always fun when a microbrand has a special story to tell. Templeton Rye has lots of stories to tell–one story being that it was Al Capone’s favorite–and the producers and old-timers around Templeton, Iowa are busy telling them on the brand’s blog, on Twitter and on YouTube. Which makes a sense, since this is the kind of product which benefits greatly from word of mouth.

As a bourbon drinker, I needn’t venture far to enter rye whiskey land. Rye is a bit spicier and it doesn’t have the caramel notes found in the Kentucky variety. It also benefits from an exceptionally clean finish.

Ad Age, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and just about everyone else is writing about the Yahoo/Google get together (and what a poke in the eye it is for Microsoft).

From The Times:

Google and Yahoo said Thursday that they had reached an agreement under which Google would deliver ads next to some of Yahoo’s search results and on some of its Web sites in the United States and Canada.

The nonexclusive deal is aimed at giving a lift to Yahoo’s finances, and the company said it would generate an additional $250 million to $450 million in operating cash flow in the first year.

The agreement will also strengthen Google’s dominance over the lucrative search advertising market. It was signed after Yahoo rejected a proposal by Microsoft to acquire both Yahoo’s search business and a minority stake in the company. The rejection appears to end months of on-again, off-again negotiations between the two companies.

Yahoogle!

According to Ad Age, an aptly named but relatively unknown Los Angeles agency just landed an important car account.

Mitsubishi Motors America handed its $155 million U.S. creative account to a relative newcomer, Hollywood-based independent agency Traffic.

Less than a year old and largely unknown, Traffic is part-owned by The Cimarron Group, but still has car credentials: The shop is led by co-chairmen Robert Farina and Tom Cordner. The latter is a longtime auto advertising executive, serving on both the Lexus account at Team One, El Segundo, Calif., and the Ford account at JWT Detroit, where he was co-president of the agency.

In the first five months of 2008, Mitsubishi Motors America’s U.S. new-vehicle sales are off by 19% to 46,389 units.

Jeep moved its creative account to upstart Cutwater in San Francisco last year. So it’s not an unprecedented move.