Consumerist
literal consumption
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lawsuits
Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against Payless Shoesource For Text Message Spamming
Peter, who wrote in last month to complain about being text-spammed by Payless Shoesource on his phone, wasn't the only customer they annoyed. A man in California has filed a class action lawsuit against the shoe company and Voice & Mobile Broadcast Corporation, which is the marketing company it hired to run the campaign. More » -
lawsuits
AT&T Sues Verizon Over "There's A Map For That" Ads
AT&T has had it with Verizon's "there's a map for that ads" and have filed a lawsuit. The big blue death star says that the ad is misleading because while the blank spaces in Verizon's map actually show places where there is no Verizon service at all — the blank spaces in the AT&T map may still have voice and data coverage — just not "3G" coverage. More » -
marketing
GM Extends Satisfaction Guarantee Deal After Only 15 People Return Their Cars
You may have seen GM's recent commercials touting their "60-day satisfaction guarantee" on all new vehicles. It seems that the stunt has been successful. Last week GM spokesperson Tom Henderson told the AP that only 15 cars had been returned. Now the company says they are extending the offer to Jan. 4, 2010. More » -
$156 million
Sugariest Cereals For Kids Get Pimped Hardest
A new Yale report finds that cereal companies spent $156 million per year marketing to children, and most of that money gets plowed into pushing the sugariest cereals, which they try to pretend are healthy.
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spyware
Gawker Duped By Malware Gang, Serves Up Infected Suzuki Ads
Scammers pretending to buy ads for Suzuki tricked Gawker's ad sales team last week into running malware-laced ads that installed spyware and crashed the browsers of some readers before they were caught and pulled. More » -
Creepy Ads
DirecTV Resurrects Chris Farley In Questionable Ad
Is anyone else skeeved out over the DirecTV ad? Based on the movie Tommy Boy, in which Chris Farley — who died in 1997 due to a drug overdose and heart complications — the spot shows Farley doing his famed Fat Guy in a Little Coat Dance as co-star David Spade re-dubs his character's dialogue. More » -
i has a flavor
Vaginal Mints Are A Very, Very Bad Idea
Jen Philips over at Mother Jones received a sample of an exciting new candy from a PR rep. Called Linger, it bills itself as "the intimate mint." Or "feminine flavoring system." Because you're supposed to put it in your vagina. More » -
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7-eleven
Adorable Japanese Mascot Invades U.S. Convenience Stores
Would you like your morning coffee with a side of Domo-kun? In one of those odd twists of globalization and marketing synergy, the mascot of Japanese public television network NHK has found his way onto 99 cent cups of coffee and special Slurpee cups at 7-Eleven stores in the United States. More » -
can you catch a disease from viral marketing?
Guy Catches Laptop With His Butt. Yawn.
Somehow we missed this gem two months ago, but here's a viral video sensation involving a trio of athletes who can catch slim laptops in their butts. More » -
badvertising
Woman Sues Toyota For Convincing Her She Was Being Stalked
It's probably a bad idea to market to consumers by tricking them with practical jokes. It's definitely a bad idea to make a consumer fear for her safety over a five day period because she thinks a stalker is coming after her. That's why a woman in Los Angeles is suing Toyota for $10 million after being on the receiving end of a Punk'd-style stunt to promote the Toyota Matrix. More » -
subscriptions
Why Retailers Like It When You Subscribe
You know what's great about subscriptions? You forget to cancel them. You also pay more over time than you would if you were forced to buy items individually. Yeah, that's awesome—for companies. The New York Times looks at current research on how consumers think about subscriptions, and why companies want to push them more than ever.
"Looking at Life as One Big Subscription" [New York Times]
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badvertising
Ralph Lauren Is As Weirded Out By This Ad As We Are
Fashion advertising has a long tradition of lying, but this comically stupid Ralph Lauren ad seems to have confused the human anatomy with a box of Pocky. Unfortunately, Ralph Lauren doesn't want to be mocked for its own advertising, so it started sending out DMCA takedown notices to blogs who have posted the ad—both Boingboing and Photoshop Disasters have been ratted out to their ISPs. Blogspot took down the pic from Photoshop Disasters while it investigates, but Boingboing has posted it a second time. More » -
marketing
Expense-A-Steak Receipt Generator Makes Fraud Easy
Midtown Manhattan steakhouse Maloney & Porcelli's tongue-in-cheek "Expense-a-Steak" tool generates remarkably realistic-looking expense friendly receipts for whatever amount you enter into the website (supposedly the cash you dropped on their fine hunks of meat.) Is it aiding and abetting fraud? Who knows. More » -
payola
FTC Says Bloggers Can't Hide Endorsement Deals
For the first time since 1980, the FTC has updated its rules about endorsements and testimonials, and they've added blogging to the books. Now bloggers who don't disclose that they've been somehow compensated—either with cash or with free services or products—can be fined up to $11,000. More » -
marketing
World's Worst Logos
As part of our stand against Christmas Creep, we want to celebrate the actual upcoming holiday by lobbing some pretty frightening images at you from the website Your Logo Makes Me Barf. Take this alarm sign, for instance. The obvious chills come from recognizing what they're walking into, but then you notice the kid figure and the term "young alarm" and, wait, wtf? More » -
very direct marketing
Men's Retailer Begs For Customers
Here's a new take on direct mail that we'll call the "painfully honest but kind of sad" approach. George Anderson at RetailWire writes that a local men's retailer sent him the following plea via snail mail. More » -
parodies
Microsoft's Launch Party Video Is Surprisingly Offensive!
Okay, now we get the appeal of hosting a Windows 7 launch party. There's lots of f[bleep]g involved. Lots and lots of it at the skeevy white guy's party, it sounds like. Watch the clip below to see how much better you can make a corporate video by adding a few well-timed bleeps. More »
