Archive for the 'Advertising' Category

Jan 18 2008

Now That’s Marketing!

Categorized under Advertising

I received these two pieces of mail yesterday: a complimentary issue of MacLean’s magazine along with a pitch to subscribe; and a pitch from Maisonneuve magazine, a way cooler rag that promises it is “definitely not MacLean’s.”

I don’t know if the people at Maisonneuve were aware of the MacLean’s campaign, or if this was just […]

10 comments so far

Jan 04 2008

Another Facebook Scam: “Secret Crush”

This one with malicious “adware.”
One of the things about Facebook that has most concerned me is the proliferation of “apps” or “widgets,” those sometimes fun, sometimes annoying add-ons like “Scrabblicious,” “Six degrees,” and “Superlatives.”
Specifically, it bothers me that these apps ask you to hand over your entire profile and all its goodies in order for […]

16 comments so far

Dec 06 2007

How To Turn Off Beacon in Facebook

As you probably already know, Facebook recently introduced Beacon, its latest privacy invasion and marketing crapola feature designed to look like a fun “sharing” thing when in fact it is just another monster in the Mark Zuckerberg “monetize everything” world of Facebook.
Here are a few reasons why Beacon sucks and should be banished from Facebook […]

31 comments so far

Oct 24 2007

On Blogs, Blogola, and Media

Yesterday, Patrick at i.never.nu posted a passionate and erudite denunciation of the current trend towards the mainstreaming of blogs. He points out that until recently, many (most?) bloggers were happy to be apart from the mainstream; we revelled in our independence from the need to generate revenue streams and to follow marketing plans. It was […]

7 comments so far

Aug 02 2007

Worst commercial Web sites ever?

Categorized under Advertising, Web/Tech

OK, maybe not ever, but I happened upon these two ghastly sites today and they’re both terrible but for very different reasons.
First there’s the Web site for Gasser’s camera shop in San Francisco. Forget about the lack of any sort of search tool or navigation scheme. Forget the broken links all over the place. Just […]

16 comments so far

Jul 18 2007

180 Foot Homer Invents a New Sport

Categorized under Advertising, Film, Society

The folks behind the marketing of the upcoming The Simpsons Movie have angered pagans worldwide by creating a 180-foot tall image of an underwear-clad Homer Simpson on the same hill as the famous Cerne Abbas Giant in Dorset, England. The image of Homer is made of biodegradable paint which will eventually dissolve and wash away.
The […]

5 comments so far

Mar 28 2007

I rrrrolled up the rrrrim…

Categorized under Advertising, Moi, Television

…and winned! But all I won was a stupid cup of coffee.
So now I’m sitting here with this empty cup that’s worth a full cup. But that means I have to walk through the mall with it, out into the Metro station, down to the other mall, and over to the Tim Horton’s kiosk. Then […]

23 comments so far