Photoshopping is used in ads and on magazine covers to make models more “beautiful,” which often means “skinnier.” The American Medical Association says the practice needs to get reined in. “Exposure to media-propagated images of unrealistic body images” has been linked to “eating disorders and other child and adolescent health problems,” the group said in a press release. The group wants advertisers to adopt policies that would curtail altering photographs that lead to “models with body types only attainable with the help of photo editing software.” [More]
marketing
1956 Ad Says Feed 7-Up To Babies
By 6.28.11
This Seven-Up ad from a 1956 LIFE is simply amazing. Who needs mother’s milk when you have Seven-Up? [More]
Clever Manufacturers Turn Barcodes Into Art
By 6.23.11
The humble barcode needn’t be so. As long as it follows certain basic rules that allow it to be scannable, like being at least half an inch high, having blank space on either side, and not using a few colors, there’s actually a lot you can do with a barcode. [More]
DirecTV Sends Coupons Designed To Look Like Netflix Envelopes
By 6.22.11
How scared are the satellite and cable providers of Netflix? So much so that DirecTV recently sent out a coupon to customers designed to look exactly like a Netflix mailer, except in blue. You know what they say, imitation is the highest form of flattery. [More]
Internet Overlords Vote To Allow .YourNameHere Domains
By 6.20.11
Instead of just the regular .com and org addresses, the guys who run the internet have voted to allow the creation of .AnythingYouWantHere domain names. Just about any word in the English language, or any brand name, will be allowed to be turned into a top-level domain name under the program known as ” gTLD” or “Generic Top Level Domain.” [More]
This Marketing Letter Is Pretty Ballsy
By 6.16.11
It would almost work on me because I would be curious to find out what kind of people would think this is a good approach. They’ve either got to be total mendicants, or marketing geniuses. “Never darken my door again?” People who say that are people I want to meet! [More]
AT&T Annoys With Fake "Your Receipt Enclosed" Mailer
By 6.15.11
Reader Sean got an odd notice from AT&T. It had “Receipt Enclosed” written on the outside of the envelope. He thought that was strange as he hadn’t used AT&T for a few years. Recently someone had tried to charge some unauthorized items on his credit card so he was worried that someone had bought AT&T service using his info. See, that’s how they getcha! By preying on that nagging doubt that maybe, just maybe, the letter is for real. [More]
If You Get This Green Postcard, Don't Call The Number
By 6.14.11
Reader Michael reports he got a funny little green postcard in the mail telling him he had a package waiting for him. It said that he should call this toll-free number to schedule a pickup. Suspicious, he Googled around and it turns out that if you call the number they try to pitch you on vacation rentals. The “package” is simply a packet of brochures pimping their services [More]
BK Attacks Japan With Mini Spam Burgers For Women
By 6.13.11
Swinging the pendulum away from their “Meat Monsters” offering, Burger King is dropping slider-style BK Bites on Japan in a variety of meat patties. Besides the usual beef, you can get a chicken patty or a Spam patty. That’s right, delicious Spam. And it’s for the ladies. “What Women Want, Women Get,” is the tagline for the Spam and BLT mini combo, which the chain describes as “lighter” and “suitable for women.” I can only hope something is getting lost in translation, but methinks it’s not really. [More]
Stuff Bought Through Spam Actually Gets Delivered
By 6.8.11
While most of us don’t trust spam, if you order something advertised through it, be it pills, knockoff Rolex watches, or software, it will probably end up at your door. That’s one of the many surprising conclusions uncovered by researchers tracking exactly how spam works (PDF) from alpha to omega in the transaction process. [More]
It Takes 12.5 Million Spams To Sell $100 Of Viagra
By 5.26.11
Considering how insistent and persistent the emails are, you would think there was big bucks in pushing pills that increase the flow of blood to one’s penis for an extended period of time. That may be true, but only because the costs of spam advertising are so low, as revealed by this nugget in a New York Times article that reveals it takes 12.5 million spam emails just to sell $100 worth of Viagra. [More]
Marketers Reintroducing Vintage Package Designs
By 5.25.11
Everything old is new again. To tap into your nostalgia and your wallet, brands are dusting off old package designs not seen since the 60’s and 70’s and putting them back on the shelves. [More]
How Snake Oil Dodged Basic Laws In 1907
By 5.25.11
It’s funny how similar the labeling tactics used by hucksters of fake snake oil used after getting busted by new laws in 1907 are to some techniques used by food and product packagers today. [More]
Amex Settles Case Alleging They Advertised BOGO, But Charged Double
By 5.23.11
How’s this for a bad deal? American Express Publishing Corp. had an offer for a “free” airline ticket when you bought a companion ticket and a subscription to Skyguide magazine. But a lawsuit brought by five Californian counties says that when consumers went to the website to buy their ticket, they were often charged double what the ticket would have cost them if they bought the ticket straight from the airline. Get it? [More]
Match.com Thinks You Have 7-Year Itch
By 5.20.11
After years of happy marriage, Match.com has decided that one of our readers has probably had enough and emailed them a selection of potential mates. Our reader met the man they would eventually marry on Match.com in 2001 and both of them believed they deleted their profiles together in 2002. In 2005, they were married. But using sophisticated algorithms, Match.com has tried to hook our reader up again. Maybe there’s a built-in 7-Year Itch protocol that automatically detects when you’ve hit the 7-year mark and would potentially be interested in the dating site’s services again? [More]
San Francisco On Track To Ban Yellow Pages
By 5.17.11
San Francisco, the city that likes to ban everything that makes this country great, like plastic bags and Happy Meals, is just one more round of voting to do away with another American staple. No longer will its citizens be able to depend on their annual free doorstop upgrade in the form of a Yellow Pages phone book plopped in front of their abode. If the bill, read it here (PDF) passes, the company will have to confirm that the residents actually want one first. That should only cut down their market share in the city by roughly… most people. [More]
Poking Holes In Malt-O-Meal's Environmentalist Grandstanding
By 5.17.11
Malt-O-Meal’s Bag the Box site claims the discount breakfast cereal line is doing its part to inflict minimal damage on the environment because its product doesn’t use boxes like its competitors do. But because Malt-O-Meal didn’t recently shift from boxes to bags and is vague about resources used to create its packaging, GreenBiz argues it’s hard to discern whether or not the company is easier on the environment than boxed cereal manufacturers. [More]
Snake Oil In The Grocery Aisle
By 5.16.11
One of the biggest trends in food marketing are so-called “functional foods.” These days it’s not enough that food imparts nutrition and makes you not hungry, it has to perform jumping jacks. Yogurt for your digestive system, milk for your brain, and crisped rice cereal for your immune system. Food packagers don’t outright say that they cure or prevent disease, they can get away with using words like “supports” and “promotes” to make their claims, as long as there’s a little bit of believable science to back it up. But are they really about health, or hype? NYT investigates. [More]
