Advertising Is Good For You

" Your recent near-death experience may have been our fault. Here's 30% off to give us another try."

Following the Costa Concordia disaster off the coast of Italy, the ship's parent company, Carnival Corp., is trying to do some damage control. Emphasis on trying.

Carnival if offering all the passengers of the ill-fated cruise a refund. So far, so good.

Carnival is also offering some passengers — just some, not all, mind you — 30% off future cruises.

Click here to read about another effort at damage control after a different marine disaster.

 

Via Huffington Post
Image: Sinking of the M.S. Wilhelm Gustloff,
Irwin J. Kappes

Target's Missoni launch is an online FAIL

The woman I share an office with is slamming doors and kicking wastebaskets.

Target is the reason for her wrath. Actually, it's Target's website.

Today, Target is debuting an exclusive, limited-edition line from Missoni, the Italian fashion house. The collection includes women's clothing, shoes and other fashion accessories, accessories for the home and really cute baby onesies that my officemate simply must have.

Apparently, the people at Target were so excited about this launch they forgot to shore up Target's servers.

The Target website is down.

If my officemate is any indication, Target has created a sh*tstorm.

Click here to see the whole Missoni collection for Target.

 ADDENDUM posted 6 hours later

The Target site is still down. But people who bought Target's Missoni merchandise at the bricks and mortar stores are offering their purchases on eBay for many times what they paid for them.

Rupert Murdoch's 'sorry' ad

This is the damage control ad Rupert Murdoch is running now that the phone hacking scandal is hurting his empire.

Click here to see an enlarged version of Rupert Murdoch's ad.

BP sign

Found here.

BP logo reimagined by Draplin Design

More work by Draplin Design.

Not quite sure what they'll be celebrating this year

Louisiana Shrimp & Petroleum Festival. 75th annual festival is scheduled for September 2 - 6.

"We're postponing the Offshore Industry Safety Awards. Write something for the website."

I said a little prayer for the poor bastard who had to write this. And to thank God it wasn't my assignment.

The Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service had to postpone their annual offshore industry safety awards luncheon originally scheduled for May 3. The 120-mile oil slick related to offshore drilling is the obvious cause.

Click the image below to enlarge.

CLICK HERE to go straight to the actual webpage. 

Northwest Airlines branding takes another hit

Those two Northwest Airlines pilots who overshot by 150 miles the airport where they were supposed to land -- originally it was thought they missed their intended stop because they'd fallen asleep -- have made it into the Urban Dictionary.

Yesterday's Word of the Day was Northwest Nap, defined as:

A very deep sleep where you are unable to hear telephones, text messages, and even the Air Force.

Used in a sentence:

Dude, I was so tired yesterday afternoon, I took a Northwest Nap. My girl called me 15 times and I didn't hear a thing.

If you'd like to receive a daily email with the Word of the Day from Urban Dictionary, go to the website.

 

Glenn Beck and a few advertisers demonstrate how democracy works

Glenn Beck, appearing on the July 28 episode of "Fox and Friends," exercised his right to free speech by calling President Obama a "racist" who has a "deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture."

As a direct result, Proctor & Gamble, Lawyers.com and Progressive Insurance have now exercised their right of association by pulling their advertising from Beck's TV show.

God bless America.

Source: Huffington Post

Potential flaw in Jaked brand isn't all that was exposed

Jaked, a brand of swimwear favored by competitive swimmers for its supposed ability to help them post better times, suffered an unfortunate malfunction at the Mediterranean Games yesterday.

Italian swimmer Flavia Zoccari had to sit out a championship race because her Jaked suit ripped open in along the back seam.

Oops.

Racers may think twice before donning the suit for future races. Missing a race one has trained for for years just because a swimsuit tore open has got to be a crushing disappointment.

Source: Daily Mail

You rotten kids, get away from that nice candy brand!

Poor Smarties. Yummy. Tart. Sweet. Perfectly packaged for Halloween. And now being inhaled by dumbass kids. Perhaps "fake smoked" would be more accurate.

There's no shortage of parents, pediatricians and educators worrying about the effects inhaling Smarties will have on children. So you'll excuse me for worrying about the effect all this misuse and undeserved negative attention will have on a nice candy brand that's been around since the 1930s.

Source: Wall Street Journal

Whoever is responsible for marketing Cheetos is probably falling off a chair laughing

Typically, marketing managers freak when they hear that their product was used as a weapon during a domestic assault. I think we can forgive the folks at Cheetos for not being alarmed by this story. In fact, considering the popularity of snack foods among young people, a story like this might actually drive a spike in sales.

Sources: Ananova,Bits & Pieces

Seeing company executives suffering is strangely gratifying

To counter recent claims that tasers may cause serious damage to those subdued by the electroshock guns, Taser International company executives volunteered to be tasered on film. Very compelling stuff. Click here to see the taser execs getting zapped.

I can't help but wonder why the footage of Kathy Hanrahan, the only female executive to be tasered on video, is so brief. Did Taser International think it would be improper to show a woman writhing on the floor in pain? Or did she lose control in some embarrassing way that resulted in her screen time being cut short?