Struggling to make next month’s rent, you might be tempted to dig out some necklaces and rings you don’t wear and try to sell it to your friendly neighborhood jeweler. But you might actually be buying a ticket to a sick magic show. The jeweler performs a blistering series of slight of hand tricks, whipping out calculators, spouting off fees, keeping your eye on the supposedly worthless diamonds under a tenth of a carat while double-deducting for the base metal. By the end, you slink out in a dizzied blur, accepting 1/5th of what the piece is actually worth. In this exclusive excerpt from the latest issue of Harper’s, ex-jeweler Clancy Martin takes you on a journey to the dark underbelly of the jewelry game. [More]
advertising
VIDEO: New Kin Ad Creeps Consumer Reports Out
By 5.18.10
Theresa over at Consumer Reports Ad Watch took a gander at the latest Kin ad and is kinda skeeved out. In the ad for Microsoft’s new social networking phone targeted at teens, protagonist “Rosa” goes out to confront in person “Matty Goldberb” who’s been hitting on her on Facebook, despite their never meeting before and not knowing each other besides some “mutual friends” (according to Facebook). [More]
Ex-Jeweler Dissects "Buying Roadshow" Ads
By 5.18.10
The ads are cheesy as all get out: “Buying Roadshow” “Instant Cash For All” “Will pay up to 1100%” in giant block letters and starbursts. And the crazy thing is that they’re really good at packing in suckers eager to sell their “scrap jewelry,” dreaming of riches, but eventually convinced to be happy walking away with a few bucks. Over at Harper’s Magazine, ex-jeweler Clancy Martin takes apart these ads piece by piece and reveals what really goes on behind the black curtain. For instance: [More]
DVR Didn't Kill The Commercial Star, Says Duke U.
By 5.7.10
Networks and advertisers alike are understandably worried that the commercial-obliterating magic of DVR would render ad spots irrelevant. The fears are unfounded, according to Duke University business professor Carl Mela, whose study found that the Aflac duck and Verizon Can You Hear Me Now Guy won’t go down so easily. [More]
Two Facebook Apps To Help You Fight Back Against Facebook
By 5.4.10
If you’re unhappy with the latest Facebook privacy settings but don’t want to kill your account completely, ReadWriteWeb has highlighted two services–both Facebook apps–that might give you back some control. They’re not perfect solutions, though. The Green Safe app scrapes all your data into a stand-alone tab that only your friends can access, but it also means a third-party developer will replace Facebook as your data holder (the app will use your data to serve ads as well). The Give Me My Data app lets you export all of your Facebook content so that you don’t lose anything if you disconnect your profile from Facebook’s pages. [More]
Demon Dogs Enjoy Coffee Mate, Owners Too
By 4.30.10
Someone San Franciscan decided to interpret this Coffee Mate ad’s suggestion of “add your style/flavor” as an invitation to do just that to the billboard itself. Unfortunately for the powdered liquid non-dairy creamer, this person’s personal style seems to be something involving the forces of Satan. Our headline is a little misleading, though. To be more accurate, the depiction is of a demonic pet “guardian.” [More]
55th Floridian Dies After Being Tased, Should They Be Banned? Tasers, That Is.
By 4.27.10
Derrick Humbert, 38, became the 55th Floridian to die from a Taser. He was riding his bicycle and officers asked him to stop. Instead, he rode around the corner and fled through a yard. The officers in pursuit tased him as he tried to scramble over a fence, shooting 50,000 volts of electricity into his body. 28 minutes later, he was in a coma in the ambulance, and was pronounced dead at the hospital. [More]
Senator Asks FTC To Provide Privacy Guidelines For Facebook, Other Social Networks
By 4.26.10
Senator Charles Schumer is upset on your behalf over Facebook’s latest loosening of its privacy policies, and yesterday he called for the FTC to step in and provide some guidance, offering to introduce legislation if the agency feels it needs that extra authority. Specifically, Schumer wants three things: opt-out defaults should be switched to opt-in, sites should always disclose where the information is going, and there should be some general “guidelines for user privacy” that sites follow. [More]
The Woman In Charge Of Making Sure You Are Not Offended By Movie Posters
By 4.23.10
The NYT takes us behind the scenes of the endless nitpicking that goes on before a movie poster can be shown to the easily-offended public. Meet Marilyn Gordon. She is in charge of a team whose goal is to make sure you, the public, are not offended. [More]
VIDEO: You're Doing It Wrong, A Tribute To As Seen On TV Ads
By 4.22.10
Whatever you’ve been doing, you’ve been doing it wrong. That’s what infomercials teach us, by showing us failing at simple tasks, and then offering the amazing new product to solve it. Showing it in black and white or monochromatic with a big red X seems to drive the point home for some reason. Never mind that these products are usually substandard and make most of their money on over-inflated shipping charges… you need this now! To this end, here’s a tribute to your failure, a remix, set to “Help!” by The Beatles, of 50 different “before” scenes of consumers grinding, chopping, squirting, chopping and wearing their pants intellectively. Can you name all the infomercial products shown? Give it a shot, then scroll down after the jump for the answers. [More]
Star Of Microsoft Kin's Sexty Ads Has Sext Parody Video History
By 4.21.10
Last week, Microsoft pulled some ads for the new Kin social media device after our prurient pals over at Consumer Reports pointed out that they seemed to promote sexting (In one of the shots, a teenager puts the gadget under his shirt and takes a picture). “Microsoft takes the issue of sexting very seriously,” said a Microsoft spokesman regarding the yank. Well they certainly must, reports ANIMAL, because that’s exactly the kind of content where they seem to have found Rosa Salazar, the campaign’s main actress. For instance, her starring role in the parodic safe-sext-take on Salt n’ Peppa’s 1991 smash hit, “Let’s Talk About Sex.” [More]
Skip Pesky Trailers And Ads On DVDs With Not-So-Secret Codes
By 4.21.10
Sometimes the ads and trailers at the beginning of a DVD give you interesting information about upcoming releases you otherwise wouldn’t have heard of. Most of the time, though, they’re just annoying as all heck. Here are some not-so-secret remote control codes that can help you skip the ads and get right to the movie. [More]
Facebook Kills More Of Your Privacy For Cash
By 4.20.10
Yesterday, Facebook announced an awesome new feature that lets anyone see your current city, hometown, education, work, likes, and interests, even if you’ve set your profile to private. Will this benefit individual users and their friends? Not unless the only thing you remember about your dear friend is that they enjoy leather-play and you’re willing to scroll through reams of headshots to find them. No, this new privacy erosion is for the real clients of Facebook: advertisers, and the data-mining minions that toil on their behalf. However, there are two ways to be totally private. [More]
Why Should I Subscribe To Your Magazine If It's Free With Fewer Ads Online?
By 4.15.10
Here is the question that plagues the magazine industry at the moment. Reader Danielle likes Real Simple magazine and is a subscriber. However, there are so many ads in it that it’s ruining the experience for her. To make matters worse, the entire magazine is on their website… with fewer ads. So why should she subscribe? [More]
AT&T Also Claims To Cover More Countries Than Exist
By 4.15.10
Competition is fierce in the mobile industry, so if your rival claims coverage in over 220 countries, you damn well better match him. Even if there’s only 192. “Our coverage goes up to 11…” (Thanks to Justin!) [More]
What? An Ad Agency Is Hiring 230 People? In This Economy?
By 4.9.10
Need a job? One green shoot of the economic recovery is the hiring glut going on over at the R/GA digital advertising agency, with 230 jobs open. That’s on top of the 130 they’ve already hired this year. But I thought advertising was dead, or at least severely atrophied? [More]
Studios Officially Out Of Ideas For Nicholas Sparks' Movie Posters
By 4.7.10
Over at Cracked.com they have a guide to making a Nicholas Sparks movie. It’s funny and all that but for our purposes we are only interested in this little part at the end about posters. [More]
Well, This Ad Was In Poor Taste
By 4.7.10
It seems a jewelry store is experiencing some backlash on Facebook for a print ad that they say they did not approve. Here’s the ad and their statement. [More]
