Stephen Colbert interviewed Susan Pagan, a mother offended by McDonalds’ sponsorship of her daughter’s elementary school report card, for his segment “People Destroying America.”
advertising
Sears' "Ultimate Appliance Promise" Vs. Reality
By 2.13.08
Reader David writes in to contrast the Sears Ultimate Appliance Promise (“a promise only Sears can make”) with reality. He notes that although there’s a cute graphic on the “promise” that implies that Sears will deliver every day of the week… he had a hard time getting Sears to deliver no matter what day of the week it was:
Time Warner's Hilarious Verizon FiOS Attack Ad
By 2.8.08
Competition brings out the best in employees, friends, and companies, as demonstrated brilliantly in Time Warner’s attack ad against Verizon FiOS. The scenario is that a cocksure suburban dude is interrupted making a bowl of fiber cereal by the doorbell.
Tivo Says E-Trade Commercial Was Most Watched Super Bowl Spot
By 2.6.08
Tivo has announced that E-Trade’s talking, trading, barfing baby was the most watched ad by Tivo subscribers during the Super Bowl, followed by the Pepsi spot where Justin Timberlake got hit in the crotch, followed by the Doritos ad where a giant mouse wailed on a man eating chips. Tivo “sampled 10,000 households using anonymous, second-by-second audience measurement data” to come up with the rankings.
South Carolina Will Place Ads Inside School Buses
By 2.5.08
South Carolina will begin selling ad space inside their public school buses—11-inch strips above the windows are now for sale, and “Interested school districts get about $2,100 per month per bus.”
Domino's Monday-Wednesday Coupons "Aren't Valid On Tuesday"
By 2.5.08
M: “No, it’s not. I just got it today.”
How About Those Super Bowl Ads!
By 2.4.08
Last night’s commercials were a tame batch of disappointment. Everybody wanted cutesy animals—squirrels, horses, ponies, pigeons, crickets, dogs, lions, and lizards—to endorse their products. After the jump, the four spots that caught our eye.
By 1.31.08
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This year advertisers promise that SuperBowl ads will be “fun and nice,” as opposed to the slapstick humor and in-you-face quality of many ads last year. [NYT]
By 1.29.08
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Wendy’s ads will drop that asinine red pig-tailed wig campaign they’ve been running for the past eight months. [Chicago Tribune] UPDATE: Here are the new ones. While certainly safer, they bring the focus back on what’s unique about Wendy’s, namely that their food is fresher and better.
Consumer Hero Investigates Toilet Paper "Sheet Shorting" Conspiracy
By 1.28.08
Leo Hill figures that every single roll of toilet paper he’s bought since 2006 has shorted him at least one “sitting,” says the Denver Post.
Target Refuses To Honor "Free Shipping" Promotion
By 1.28.08
Reader James saw the above “free shipping” promotion on Target.com and decided to order the entire “collection,” only to find that just one part of the “collection” qualified for “free shipping,” and he’d need to pay a $154 shipping charge.
Expensive Flowers Are Better Than No Flowers On Valentine's Day
By 1.26.08
According to enterprising scientists, people buy last minute Valentine’s Day gifts to avoid a fight, rather than to express love—as any lazy lover can attest. The marketing researchers devised three experiments to prove that our susceptibility to negative advertising is directly impacted by how long we wait to whip out the wallet.
Great Ad Campaign For… A Cemetery?
By 1.24.08
These three hilariously morbid print ads are for Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Toronto, by Canadian ad agency ACLC.
EU Says IP Addresses Are Personal Data
By 1.23.08
The European Union’s data privacy regulator group said this week that an IP address “has to be regarded as personal data” when it’s used to identify a person. Although this has no bearing on how IP addresses are used in the United States, it might trigger a change in data collection policies for companies like Google that use IP addresses in order to serve relevant search results and ads.
Bus Radio Advertises To School-Bound Kids
By 1.19.08
The school district that approved McDonald’s-sponsored report cards has a hot new partnership with Bus Radio, a friendly company that advertises to kids as they ride to school!
McDonald's Stops Advertising On Elementary School Report Cards
By 1.18.08
McDonald’s has decided to stop branding report card envelopes in a program that gave kids in Florida free food as a reward for good grades after a backlash from parents concerned about exploitive marketing. Teport cards came in an envelope (pictured, click to enlarge) telling kids to check their grades and redeem a free Happy Meal if they got all A’s and B’s or got good marks in “Citizenship” or attendance. The jacket also showed a smiling Ronald McDonald and mentioned McDonald’s several times.
Microsoft Testing Ads On Shopping Carts
By 1.16.08
If you buy groceries at ShopRite, you might start seeing special shopping carts with little monitors attached later this year, when Microsoft and MediaCart roll out a new loyalty program that tracks shoppers’ purchases and displays targeted advertising while they shop. Ostensibly, the monitors will also provide useful information, such as the location of products within the store, access to recipes, and personalized shopping lists. We’ll be curious to see whether any of these services are actually implemented in a useful way or are just used to disguise the advertising.
