AT&T ended its sponsorship of Tiger Woods today. As a driving force for the ditch, company sources cited “increased fraudulent activity” inside his pants. [BBC] [More]
marketing
Kraft HQ Lobby Sports Droopy Boob Joke
By 12.18.09
Female Kraft employees are “furious” and the men “embarrassed” by this ad inside their headquarters lobby, reports the ANIMAL blog. It has a mirrored surface and below that it says, “You look smashing, but your chicken breasts could use a lift,” followed by an image of Shake N’ Bake. Hidden behind that faceless oblong red white and blue logo, Kraft has got some cheeky pranksters! [ANIMAL] [More]
Domino's Changing Pizza Recipe
By 12.16.09
Finally realizing its pizza is mediocre, Domino’s has decided to take its recipe to the wood chipper and start over with an attempt at a new, better product. [More]
Transforming Online Kvetchers Into Brand Boosters
By 12.15.09
Researchers announced that consumers who kvetch using social media are more likely than others to also spread positive word of mouth online. [More]
Advertiser Stuck With Ironic Tiger Woods Ads Fires Him
By 12.14.09
Remember this ad? It was in the Wall Street Journal the day after Tiger Woods crashed his car and unleashed a torrent of trashy mistresses on an unsuspecting nation? Yeah, it was for Accenture. Now that company has decided that Tiger Woods is bad for its reputation. [More]
Men's Health Plagiarizes Their Own Cover (On Purpose)
By 12.11.09
Men’s Health was recently busted for reusing an old cover almost word for word. Now Men’s Health Editor-in- Chief David Zinczenko is telling the NY Post that it wasn’t a mistake, it’s part of a secret awesome branding strategy. [More]
New Droid Ad Goes For iPhone Jugular, Misses
By 12.8.09
A new ad for the Verizon Motorola Droid tries to savage the iPhone for being more concerned with looking good than working great. Does it work? [More]
Who Is This BNE Guy Putting Stickers Everywhere?
By 12.7.09
Who is BNE? Why are cities of the world covered in stickers bearing the graffiti artist’s initials? And why is McDonald’s his biggest rival? [More]
Coca-Cola Redesigns Fruit Juice Cartons To Emphasize Fruit
By 11.18.09
One year after Tropicana’s disastrous redesign of their orange juice packaging, Coca-Cola is debuting a redesign of the cartons in their various lines of fruit juices. Coke’s key advantage: the new design isn’t hideously ugly.
Inside The Sorta-Secret, Swag-Laden World Of Mommy Bloggers
By 11.17.09
If you’re a mommy blogger with a strong following, companies will fall all over themselves to show you a good time. The Los Angeles Times examines the culture of quid-pro-quo marketing, in which bloggers get bombarded with free samples and go on all-expenses-paid junkets with the understanding that they’ll write positively about the products.
Staples Wants To Know If They're Freaking You Out With Their All-Knowing Emails
By 11.10.09
Apparently Staples is worried that their emails might be too accurate when it comes to marketing office supplies to people—accurate enough to make potential customers paranoid.
Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against Payless Shoesource For Text Message Spamming
By 11.4.09
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.
AT&T Sues Verizon Over "There's A Map For That" Ads
By 11.4.09
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.
Sugariest Cereals For Kids Get Pimped Hardest
By 10.28.09
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.
Man Eats Windows 7 Themed 7-Layer Whopper
By 10.27.09
For some reason, possibly because they have the same ad agency as Burger King, Microsoft has convinced the fast food chain to offer a 7-layer Whopper in celebration of Windows 7. What is a 7-layer Whopper? It’s just a Whopper with 7 patties.
Gawker Duped By Malware Gang, Serves Up Infected Suzuki Ads
By 10.27.09
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.
DirecTV Resurrects Chris Farley In Questionable Ad
By 10.26.09
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.
Vaginal Mints Are A Very, Very Bad Idea
By 10.24.09
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.
