It's the economy, stupid.

Towns and municipalities are selling off public spaces to advertisers to boost their flailing budgets in the bad economy. Is public property off limits or is this a stroke of genius?

Lost in Translation

The Chinese really should invest in more than just a web-translator when creating English signs for the Olympics.

Clearly, the folks at MSN responsible for taking over Facebook's display advertising business are working through some kinks. Because they really shouldn't be serving this ad to me on my homepage... (bottom left)


















Considering I've identified myself in my profile as female and, more importantly, already married.. am I really the target audience for engagement rings? Shouldn't this ad be trying to reach single guys who are "In a Relationship"?

Although that really is a stunning ring and I wouldn't mind more bling of course.. hehehehe.. so maybe these guys really know what they're doing after all :D

Back to School

Deciding what class to take at BU this summer... right now, seriously considering this one since it sounds right up my alley.

COM CM561-A1 New Media and Public Relations
Explores the effects of new media on the fundamental theories, models and practices of public relations. Studies how websites, blogs, citizen journalism, social media, direct-to-consumer communication, podcasting, viral marketing, and other technology-enabled changes are affecting interpersonal, small group and mass media relationships. Also covers and uses the interactive tools that are re-defining the practice of public relations. The course combines lecture, discussion, guest speakers, case study and research to help students uncover and appreciate the power and potential of interactive media.

Interesting, no? Plus, the professor is a bloke called Quigley, and I simply cannot pass up the opportunity to know someone with that name! It reminds me of... hmm... Quirrell! Maybe I'll take the class just to make sure he's not wearing a turban to hide and transport the most evil wizard of our times...?

However, there are some cons to this class. It meets twice a week at 9:30am *groan*.. but that's not half as bad as the fact that it's at frickin' BU which means.. yes.. it's on the dreaded Green line!! Aaarghh.

Damn you, T.

Apparently, Dubai can be creative too.

Oops! Huh? Did I back into that bike?' Ad folks put crumbled up bikes and shopping carts
By Diego Vasquez
Feb 22, 2008
MediaLife Magazine

Think about it. What's your worst parking nightmare?

That's easy: Looking back to see you've crashed into something while backing up.

That was the thinking of some ad people at TBWA/Raad in Dubai. They'd been brought in to create a campaign for the 2008 Nissan Pathfinder SUV. The goal was to promote the rearview cameras that come as standard equipment.

“When it started off, we were like, 'why don’t we look at what happens without a rearview camera?’” recalls Sakib Afridi, associate creative director at TBWA/Raad.

So the team set about placing bent and broken bikes and shopping carts behind parked cars around the city. Then they put up signs that read: “Rearview camera. Standard in the Nissan Pathfinder.”

Drivers, returning to their cars, would first think they'd smashed into them when easing into the parking spot. Then they'd go for a closer look and see the signs.

Initially, the team considered using garden gnomes, but since those aren’t very common in Dubai they went with bicycles and shopping carts instead.

“It started in the direction for a print campaign, but we thought it would be stronger as an ambient medium, and then there was kind of a light bulb moment,” Afridi says.

The campaign ran for about a two-week period at the end of 2007 at numerous locations around Dubai, and Afridi says a radio DJ discussed it on the air and a local newspaper picked it up as a story.

“People would look at the bikes and be like, ‘What’s going on?’” says Afridi. “But then you’d always see a smile on their face when they read the sign and got it.”

Gesundheit.

Achoo! to you:A poster that sneezes
Then it talks to you as it spritzes you with water
By Diego Vasquez
Jan 30, 2008
Media Life Magazine


We’ve seen outdoor ads that move, we’ve seen ones that talk, and we’ve even seen ads that send messages to your cell phone as you walk by. Here's a first, an outdoor ad that sneezes on you.


It's a bus shelter ad for the Science World museum in Vancouver, British Columbia, and it looks simple enough. It's a poster featuring a white background and a large yellow circle, with Science World’s familiar blue logo and the words: “Press here and we’ll explain.”


Things get a lot more interesting when the button is pressed.One first hears the familiar “achoo” sound of a sneeze, then comes a spritz of water to the face. Then a voice says: “Did you know that a sneeze can travel 12 feet and hover for three hours? It’s true. And gross. But hey, you’ve learned something! Science World – We can explain.”

The thinking behind the campaign was to present funny or outrageous facts and do so in a unique way, says Rob Sweetman, associate creative director and art director at Vancouver’s Rethink Communications, which executed the ad.

The aim: to get people going to the museum to learn more interesting things. The process that led to the ad began with the interesting facts behind sneezes. From there, the crew at Rethink then brainstormed to come up with a clever way to convey them.

Creating the sound of the sneeze was easy, as was delivering the voice. The spray of the sneeze? The idea for it came from the sprayer devices seen at fairs or carnivals, which emit mists of water on hot summer days to help cool the crowds. Sweetman says the water in the sprayer is replaced every several days.

The ad will go back up in the spring. It first went up in the fall but was taken down as the weather turned cold. Quips Sweetman: “We didn’t want anyone freezing their faces.”

Blast From The Past

Omigod... remember this??

Hold on to this..

How Does This Grab You? Handle Ads for Plastic Grocery Bags
June 11, 2007
By Rory J. Thompson
Brandweek.com

NEW YORK -- There's a new way to grab shoppers: branded shopping bag handles. A new product called Grabb-It has been designed not only for customer convenience, but also for full-color glossy paperboard ads.

Created by Altivity, Irvine, Calif., Grabb-It has bagged deals with Nestlé, Six Flags and the Los Angeles Dodgers. Grocery chains including Ralphs (owned by Kroger), Publix and Price Chopper have tested it. "Customers loved it," said Neil Golub, CEO at Price Chopper, Schenectady, N.Y. The product officially launches in these and other supermarkets in July.

Each box of 400 Grabb-Its has several advertisers, so consumers get a number of impressions. Participating chains get a flat fee for each respective group of handles a marketer has per box.

"It's a revenue-generator for the stores," said Larry Weil, CEO at Weil & Associates, San Antonio, the marketing solutions company promoting Grabb-It.

The market for these carry-off ads won't be limited to grocery stores. "[We're] looking at places like Target, OfficeMax, any retailer that uses plastic bags," said Mike Hempstead, Altivity vp-sales and product development.

Carl Truly, Grabb-Its president and COO, said the inspiration for the product came from his mother. "Mom had trouble with all the plastic shopping bags. Not only did she have a problem gripping them, but then they'd fall over in the trunk of the car, and needed to be repacked when she got home."

He began tinkering with designs, and came up with the cardboard handle.

Though not everyone will be a fan (the City of San Francisco banned plastic bags in April and other cities are also considering restrictions), Truly's work with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in Alexandria, Va., may help counter bad pr. A Grabb-It's test in 2005 listed data on 16 missing kids.

"Out of those 16 kids, three of them—who had been missing for more than two years—were found because of the ads on the Grabb-It handles," said Truly. "We now include a free spot in every dispenser for NCMEC. How do you put a price on that?"

Oooh.. the pampering!

I went to the Four Seasons Spa today and used the present a rep from WKKV-FM V100 in Milwaukee gave me. Wow, was it awesome! Just the kind of pampering I needed!

I got the "Sensory Spa" treatment and it was brilliant. The whole spa is made of jade and marble with soft lighting and lovely nature-type music playing. I went in, got undressed and into a robe and went to the Nail salon to get my manicure, which looks great. 30 minutes of that and I went to wait in the "Relaxation Room" which was more like something out of Arabian Nights. I feasted on some grapes and cucumber water, and then was taken away for my facial (I found out that the spot on my right cheek, which has been around for about 6 months and refused to grow into a zit, was actually a white-head and it got plucked out). I've never had a facial before - it's bloody painful. And it wasn't even an exfoliating kind.

Then I went back to the Relaxation Room before getting my 55 minute massage. UFF, it was so amazing. Terry, my masseuse, was a black woman in her40's and she was so great. The lights were low (and hence avoided awkwardness), I got aromatherapy and whole body massage - from the evil points in my back (computer strain) which she literally pummelled away, to my arms, and legs (sore from bad shoe wear). Then I relaxed again, and finally took a hot shower and bid the beautiful paradise adieu. Sigh. It was the best experience ever.

'Course then I went home and watched the first presidential debate and was sorely disappointed with both candidates - Kerry is old and Bush is dumb. As Nabil says, the lesser of two evils is still evil. Take your pick!