Apparently, we hate radios.
marketing
You Can’t Really Love a Brand, Study Shows
By 3.28.06
It’s not only dogs, it turns out brands aren’t people either.
Seattle Times Says “SayWA?!?!”
By 3.28.06
We wrote last week about “SayWA,” the new Washington state travel slogan that was the product of an ecstasy-fueled 18 month brainstorming session by 32 marketing geniuses. What sort of powerful emotions does the SayWA message evoke? Nothing besides puzzlement and the nagging suspicion that someone just came up with a me which actually infects the listener with a highly contagious form of mental retardation.
Radio Self-Fulfills Self-Aggrandizing Prophecy
By 3.27.06
- “A new survey from radio marketers Mercury asked 1,000 people, if a new iPod and an HD Radio receiver were the same price, which would they prefer. As seen in the graphs… the majority chose HD Radio, citing that a radio is simply easier to use than an iPod.”
Winnebago Video Siphons from its Septic Tank
By 3.24.06
An oldy but goody, which superstar Bucky rejigged in our memory, these are the outtakes of Jack Rebney taping a marketing video for Winnebagos. Let’s just say this, he gets frustrated very easily…NSFW.
Continental’s Tagline Enrages Man, to Comedic Effect
By 3.24.06
Continental’s tagline always reminds us off that old jazz standard about heroin addiction, “Straighten Up and Fly Right.”
YouTube Scares the Dickies off of Record Industries
By 3.24.06
The music industry is getting ready to work itself into a lather over the salvation for modern human society, YouTube.
McDonald’s Spicy Chicken Gets Hosed
By 3.21.06
McDonald’s pulled a “guerilla” stunt to promote its new spicy chicken sandwich. As shown, a boring billboard was sprayed down with by a fireman with a hose from a fire truck.
Interview With PR Spokesperson On Mass Graves For Terrorist Holocaust
By 3.21.06
Okay, we’re going on record saying we have no idea if this interview between Gene Weingarten of the Washington Post and Heather R. Huhman, a PR spokesperson for National Funeral Director’s Association is legit. It’s just too perfect. Gene’s side of the interview is the sort of wouldn’t-that-have-been-great witticism that only comes about by mulling a conversation over for hours afterwards. And Heather R. Huhman — from her protests-too-much, “I’m Human! Really!” name to her mindless public relations babbling — is the kind of straight-man that only exists in the magical realm of make believe.
Episcopalian Monster Truck Radio Spot
By 3.21.06
We’re uncomfortable with advertising for churches. Perhaps they are too blunt for our tastes — open disclosure that churches are the businesses they, in fact, are. That the churches most likely to engage in the practice are the kind who brag about saved souls like Wilt Chamberlain talking about the notches on his bed post makes us no less uncomfortable with the practice. Call us naive and daintily uncynical, but we like to think of churches as places where people with common beliefs can go for support, love and communion, without being suckered or manipulated into it.
Volkswagen GTI 2006: Turbo Testicles
By 3.20.06
Volkswagen has opted to remove billboards in New York, Los Angeles and Miami for the new GTI 2006 after Hispanics in the neighborhood found it either offensive or hysterical. The GTI’s slogan? “Turbo Cojones.”
Quantifying Bad Word Of Mouth
By 3.20.06
We saw over at Church of the Customer Blog that some new research has attempted to quantify the effect of bad word of mouth. The statistics aren’t encouraging for companies inclined to approach the concept of customer satisfaction only in the aggregate.
Malcom Gladwell on Why Too Many Choices Is Bad
By 3.17.06
Here’s a link to a NY Times article from 2001 about the research Gladwell referrs to in the video. (Thanks to Frederick!)
SayWA The Fuck?
By 3.17.06
Washington State — unhappy with the stalwart, imperative “Experience Washington” — have changed their advertising slogan to “SayWA: The Sound of Jaws Dropping.” You said it.
Web Marketing Association Says PR Firms Suck On The Web
By 3.16.06
What a shock. The Web Marketing Association has concluded a a decade-long study of website development trends and ranked the industries that grok web presence the best. Guess who’s at the bottom of the list? PR agencies.
Bullfighter Fights Corporate Bullshit
By 3.16.06
Dear Corporate Executives — please learn how to write. Having initially been a greasy, protoplasmic ooze poured into the mold of a stiff, starched suit, then imbued — Golem-like — with the spark of meaningless corporate business speak, you soulless automatons never seem to realize how meaningless phrases like “maximize initiatives” and “establish paradigm, COB” are to those of us who sprang forth from human loins.
