A Better Course

• ::: I believe in advertising ::: » Wrigley’s Eclipse Gum: Dog, Fish, Frog
  Wrigley’s Eclipse Gum: Dog, Fish, Frog. I don’t know if they work as advertising (it makes your breath smell like that of a dog? like fish?) but they’re fantastic images.
  (tags: ibelieveinadvertising wrigleys advertising)

• Neuromarketing » Political Neuromarketing
  When viewing images of Ms Clinton, these voters exhibited significant activity in the anterior cingulate cortex, an emotional center of the brain that is aroused when a person feels compelled to act in two different ways but must choose one.
  (tags: politics america neuromarketing hilaryclinton)
• Y Water? Why Not? | Business Week
  If you manage to get a finicky kid to take a few swigs and finish the bottle, the packaging can then be re-used as a toy: special connectors allow a child to stick Y Water bottles together to form Lego-like constructions.
  (tags: businessweek product health children marketing)
• Brands: The Power of Emotion | Business Week
  Decades ago, when their competitors were boasting about the size of their burgers or the thickness of their shakes, McDonald’s was busy crafting emotional portraits of families enjoying moments of togetherness around a fast-food lunch.
  (tags: marketing branding advertising businessweek)

• Why Google launched OpenSocial (Scripting News)
  Long-term, however they both have problems because advertising is on its way to being obsolete. Facebook is just another step along the path. Advertising will get more and more targeted until it disappears, because perfectly targeted advertising is just i
  (tags: facebook google advertising marketing social online web2.0 wordofmouth scriptingnews)
• Conversational marketing | Word of mouse | Economist.com
  In many cases, Facebook users can also treat brands’ pages like those of other friends, by adding reviews, photos or comments, say. Each of these actions might again be communicated instantly to the news feeds of their clique.
  (tags: theeconomist facebook branding marketing advertising)
• Are Facebook’s Social Ads Illegal? – Bits – Technology – New York Times Blog
  There have been a series of cases by celebrities who can claim that the use of their likenesses damaged their reputations and deprived them of their usual endorsement fees. “It’s unclear that today’s teenagers and twentysomethings will be too upset
  (tags: facebook advertising nytimes)

• ::: I believe in advertising ::: » ChupaChups: Globefish, Frog
  It’s the frog’s face that really makes this one for me.
  (tags: advertising chupachups frog fish ibelieveinadvertising)
• Where’s the sausage?: “Ladders and Snakes” – The Risk with Values-based Communication
  Does investing in marketing that works by “laddering up” to a higher order values level pay back in extra sales? Or is it an expensive “brand ego trip”? Should you be following in Dove’s steps, or steering clear?
  (tags: advertising branding brand unilever wheresthesausage)
• William Gibson Hates Futurists :: tyeebooks.ca
  You know, the Internet, for the first 25 years of its existence, has been almost exclusively text based. And so [people] are writing with frequency unseen since the Victorian heyday of the British Empire.
  (tags: williamgibson tyeebooks interview web2.0 technology future)
• Log Off and Get to Work – Bits – Technology – New York Times Blog
  Do employers distrust the entertainment and dating-focused MySpace more than the cleaner, more predictable Facebook? Not necessarily. “it just appears MySpace is better known”
  (tags: myspace facebook nytimes employment)
• Top 87 Bad Predictions about the Future | 2Spare
  There is no limit to this fever for writing; every one must be an author; some out of vanity, to acquire celebrity and raise up a name, others for the sake of mere gain.
  (tags: predictions future history 2spare culture communication celebrity)
• Marketing to Teens Online | Business Week
  Instead of scraping profiles and hoping ads hit the right target, are noticed, and then clicked on, why not engage users to find out what ads would appeal to them? […] they can maintain a sense of control, and you serve ads that will hit their target
  (tags: businessweek advertising online facebook myspace marketing children)
• FT.com / Comment & analysis – Whose language?
  Will English be challenged by other fast-growing languages such as Mandarin, Spanish or Arabic? could it fragment, as Latin did into Italian and French or spawn new languages, as German did with Dutch and Swedish?
  (tags: language ft)

• Facebook Is Marketing Your Brand Preferences (With Your Permission) – New York Times
  Yesterday, in a twist on word-of-mouth marketing, Facebook began selling ads that display people’s profile photos next to commercial messages that are shown to their friends about items they purchased or registered an opinion about.
  (tags: advertising online nytimes facebook brand)
• Brand Autopsy: Buckley’s: The Good Taste of Bad Taste
  Buckley’s aren’t backing down from their “tastes awful” positioning. TV spots include faux taste tests […] asking consumers to tell the taste difference between Buckley’s vs. Used Mouthwash, Buckley’s vs. Trash Bag Leakage, Buckley’s vs. P
  (tags: brandautopsy branding advertising)

A Photo Editor shows the new adverts for Getty Images today. The comments on these ads are so far negative, but I think they’re wonderful. Getty seem to be referring directly to the fact that they’re seen a sinsiter brand and that this is a function of their being a huge corporation. There’s no question as to whether the images are creepy – they are. But they also draw attention to the fact that this can be useful for the end user – Getty have lots of images, and now they are easier to find as well.

Brand Autopsy also has a post today about turning the weaknesses of your product into a strength, using the example of Buckley’s Cough Syrup. That’s slightly easier to do for a product, especially one with such an obvious downside; I like the fact that Getty’s advert shows it as an excellent service, even if it is one that makes you feel slightly uncomfortable.

• How to avoid hiring a jerk – Nov. 5, 2007 – CNN
  “In this bloggable, cell phone camera world, your brand on the inside is going to be your brand on the outside. If you have a bunch of jerks, your brand is going to be a jerk,”
  (tags: cnn branding employment hiring strategy)
• Humor in the Workplace | Business Week
  Positive affect in the workplace increases individual performance. And humor is one of the things associated with a positive affect, which [also] increases […] the ability to communicate well with the boss, co-workers, and customers.
  (tags: businessweek humour management communication)

• Things Turn Ugly in the ‘Hacks vs. Flacks’ War – New York Times
  “[Our] sole purpose is to critique objectionable PR practices, and even we get spammed. Sometimes we get follow-up calls from them asking if we want to run their stories. [our response] is, ‘We write about deceptive and unethical P.R. practices — do
  (tags: nytimes media publishing publicrelations spam)
• ‘Do Not Track’ Could Backfire | Business Week
  “The value of advertising on the Internet would drop because you couldn’t say, ‘This is a finance person. Let me show them a finance ad. […] So the only way to make as much money is a) make them pay or b) show them more ads.”
  (tags: businessweek online advertising privacy america)
• Becoming the Boss | Business Week
  subordinates don’t necessarily obey your orders, despite your formal authority over them. You won’t have more freedom to make things happen—instead, you’ll feel constrained by organizational interdependencies.
  (tags: businessweek management leadership)
• The Toxic Employee | Business Week
  If your employees feel that your need for Jane’s experience outweighs the pain she causes them and that you’re willing to let them suffer Jane’s toxic personality so you can get your quarterly bonus, expect morale to suffer.
  (tags: businessweek management leadership hr)
• Voyeurism and Exhibitionism – YouTube – Facebook – Apartments – New York Times
  The idea, Mr. Fletcher said, was to frame and exhibit the intimate details of life, or at least ones that would be aesthetically pleasing, “like your silhouette in the shower.”
  (tags: design nytimes newyork)
• Malls roll out red carpet for dollar-rich tourists – Nov. 2, 2007
  “U.K. and European visitors like high-end brands, and they are buying more of them here because they are less expensive”. For this clientele, the company is offering free limo rides, complete with Champagne.
  (tags: uk europe america dollar retail business cnn)

• Bob Sutton: How a d. School Course is Different
  the hallmark of this class — and others in the design and business initiative — ⊘⊘ is using design thinking to tackle business problems (not just to advise others, to get in there and do it)
  (tags: businesseducation design bobsutton business)

• So Many Ads, So Few Clicks | Business Week
  The truth about online ads is that precious few people actually click on them. And the percentage of people who respond to common “banner ads,” the ubiquitous interactive posters that run in fixed places on sites, is shrinking steadily.
  (tags: online advertising facebook bannerad marketing segmentation businessweek)
• Neuromarketing » Neuromarketing and Diversity
  Just as the search for a “buy button” is doomed, so are searches for universal common ground in reaction to advertising. Our brains aren’t like personal computers that come pre-loaded with standard firmware and software.
  (tags: neuromarketing marketing psychology advertising)