Advertising Is Good For You

Even the people who star in ads aren't paying attention

David McCusker, an actor who starred in a U.K. TV commercial about how to avoid getting the flu, has reportedly come down with swine flu.

CLICK HERE to watch McCusker's swine flu prevention TV commercial.

Source: Huffington Post

Remembering David Ogilvy

Last Tuesday, July 21, was the 10th anniversary of David Ogilvy's death.

Ogilvy was sometimes referred to as The Father of Advertising. A copywriter by trade, he was one of the founders of Ogilvy & Mather, now called simply Ogilvy. If you want to know more about him, you can look HERE and HERE.

An innovator (as well as a product of his times) Ogilvy famously said, "The consumer isn't a moron; she is your wife. You insult her intelligence if you assume that a mere slogan and a few vapid adjectives will persuade her to buy anything. She wants all the information you can give her."

In the early days of Ogilvy & Mather, if two employees married, the wife was expected to resign -- it was company policy.

Anyway, in 1983, I was a baby copywriter and totally in awe of Ogilvy. So when Ogilvy on Advertising was published, of course I bought a copy.

And when Ogilvy's book tour came to Boston, I went to hear him speak at the Boston Public Library and dutifully waited in line afterward to get him to sign my copy of his book.

I wonder what a signed first edition of Ogilvy on Advertising goes for these days? Probably not that much.

Ogilvy's fallen out of favor. If an advertising creative is to maintain his/her hipster aura, ridiculing Ogilvy is a requirement.

Which is stupid, I think. Sure, by today's standards his work is dated. But the man was a pioneer and he deserves respect.

 

The price tag for syfy.com

Here's a little piece of advertising trivia you can throw out at Sunday's barbecue to amaze and delight your friends (assuming your friends are already drunk and easily amazed and delighted).

In preparation for changing it's name from SciFi to Syfy, the cable TV channel discovered that the domain syfy.com already belonged to someone else. So SciFi bought syfy.com. Guess how much they paid for it?

$250,000.

By the way, if any cable channels want to change their name to pzrservices, let's talk.

CLICK HERE to read more about SciFi's change to Syfy.

Source: AdFreak

Freelancers now account for 26% of the U.S. working population

That's according to human resources consulting firm Kelly Services.

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The origin of the word freelance:

In medieval times, knights often fought using lances. Those knights who offered their services for sale -- and were, in effect, mercenaries -- were referred to a freelancers.

Image: Maria Erin

Twitter trivia

Twitter's audience has increased by 1000% in the past year.

Barack Obama's Tweeter account has the most followers at 265,970. "Jesus Christ" has three.

The company that owns Twitter is valued at $250 million.

Source: Times of London 

More than 175 million people use Facebook

"If (Facebook) were a country, it would be the sixth most populated country in the world."

-- Mark Kuckerberg, founder of Facebook

Some hopeful economic news

CNN Money has an article that lists six companies that were born during bad economic times. It's a nifty little read.

If you don't have time to check out the article, here are the six companies:

Proctor & Gamble
IBM
General Electric
General Motors
United Technologies Corp
FedEx

Image: Beaker's Stained Glassworks

Three things you didn't know about Vince the Sham Wow guy

1. He once sued Anna Nicole Smith.

2. He used to sell products at flea markets.

3. His real first name is -- are you ready? -- OFFER!

Learn more at CNBC where you'll find an interview with Vince the Sham Wow guy.

By the way, my theory about Vince's parentage was incorrect.

The first item ever sold on eBay

According to grow-a-brain:

The very first item sold on eBay was a broken laser pointer for $14.83 (in 1995). Astonished, (eBay's founder) Pierre Omidyar contacted the winning bidder to ask if he understood that the laser pointer was broken. In his responding email, the buyer explained, 'I'm a collector of broken laser pointers.'"

 

This is the laser pointer I bought last year at PetSmart for about $10. It still works.

Happy Halloween

Illustration Son of Halloween by my husband Gary John Reynolds. That's the Salem (Massachusetts) Wharf area in the background.

Click the image to enlarge it.

Advertising Trivia: While working at my very first job in advertising, I named Salem's annual Halloween celebration Haunted Happenings.

Saint Bernardine of Siena is the patron saint of advertising, God bless him

For us Catholics, today is the feast day of Saint Bernardine of Siena, the patron saint ofadvertising.

I have no idea whose job it is to match up saints and subjects, but according to the Patron Saints Index, Saint Bernardine's preaching skills "were so great, and the conversions so numerous, that he has become associated with all areas of speaking, advertising, public relations, etc."

I find it kind of amazing that the Roman Catholic Church thinks enough of advertising to assign a saint to the practice.

Happy 30th Birthday, Spam Email

According to Wired, as of 1 May 1978, Spam was no longer just a suspicious lunch meat. On that day, the first spam message was written -- although it wasn't sent until two days later via email to 400 unsuspecting poor bastards people. That particular spam was a promotional message sent by Gary Thuerk of Digital Equipment Corporation.

Don't you wish you had Gary's email address so you could send him a spam message of your own?

Image: Liesel Elliott

Test your advertising/marketing IQ

Advertising/marketing agency Cramer Sweeney has created an online test to measure your marketing knowledge. Click here to take the Cramer Sweeney Smart Marketing IQ Test.

Image: djwudi
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