Advertising Is Good For You

Get to know your neighbors

The neighbors will come running when you turn your house into a billboard.

Adzookie is looking for interested homeowners. If your house makes the cut, they'll pay your mortgage for every month it remains painted.

Get all the details, including a sign up form, at Adzookie.

Ageism and sexism in advertising media buys

More is a magazine that targets women over 40. Its average reader makes about $93,000. That's $30,000 MORE than the average reader of Vogue, Allure or Bazaar.

Yet, as the New York Times points out, More features hardly any ads for luxury products.

So, what do advertisers feel are the appropriate products to sell to financially successful women over 40?

Crystal Light, Pringles, Coffee-Mate, Oscar Mayer, Bertolli, Tyson, Marie Callender's, wines under $10 and cat food.

Source: Jezebel

Vatican Radio starts selling ad time

For the first time in its 80-year history, Vatican Radio is broadcasting commercial messages.

The move towards accepting paid advertising is related to the Vatican's $22 million deficit last year.

Sean-Patrick Lovett, director of Vatican Radio's English and Italian sections, said of Vatican radio:

It's like having an 80-year-old child living at home all this time, and you say, 'Darling, we still love you, you can go on living here, we're not going to kick you out, but it would be nice if you would contribute to paying the phone bill, the gas bill or something.

According to the LA Times:

The first commercial aired July 6. Only ads by Enel will be broadcast during a three-month trial period, and even then, the energy giant's spots interrupt Vatican Radio's regular "gavel-to-gavel coverage of the pope," as Lovett describes it, only four or five times a day.

Not all the new media are digital

Before leaving Maine yesterday, my husband and I had lunch at Rick's All Season Restaurant in York Village. The instant we stepped inside, we knew we'd stumbled upon a local favorite hangout. It's that kind of place.

My husband ordered a cup of hot tea and this is what the mug looked like.

I've seen paper placemats covered with ads from local businesses but I'd never before seen a mug covered with them.

Pretty neat.

Rick's got their mugs through Coffee Cup Ads, which is smart enough to put its website address on the mugs.

The food was great, by the way. I asked for a well-done cheeseburger and actually got it. Unless you also like your burgers well done, you'd be surprised how difficult it is to find a place that knows how to make a proper well-done burger.

Yet another sign that the advertising industry is hurting...

According to an article in MediaDailyNews, the Wall Street Journal is cutting its advertising column from five days a week to just two.

Downward Spiral by Melissa Buchman, available for purchase at Ugallery.com

A statement from the Journal's owner Dow Jones spins the situation this way:

Our hope is that by running the column less often, we can better single out the key trends and issues in the industry, while increasing our ability to leap opportunistically on the news. We remain fully committed to in-depth reporting about the advertising industry."

Animal pinups

Advertising Agency: Ogilvy, Johannesburg

Source: Ads of the World

Swedish media campaign

"From early morning till late at night, we'll keep your competitors full of fright. We're talking about Sweden's most horrifying media package. A terrifying deal where you reach 4,2 million Swedes. With formats such as the Chainsaw, the Mummy and the Beast, we call this package Dawn till Dusk. Oh my god, we've created a monster. Visit www.d2d.se if you dare."

Advertising Agency: Scholz & Friends Stockholm

Source: Ads of the World

It's certainly no Weinermobile

But then the Weinermobile doesn't look quite like the Weinermobile, either.

The newest Oscar Mayer Weinermobile is built on top of a MINI Cooper.

It used to look like this.

Sources: Floyka , Autoblog Green

Time Inc. spreads the holiday cheer by firing 27 mid-level staffers.

Firing. Laying off. Both mean Time Inc. sucks for letting go of 27 people just a week before Christmas.

There was a time in American business when most companies wouldn't even entertain the thought of letting someone go around the holidays. The idea that it might save a few extra bucks wasn't considered a good enough reason to screw over one's employees.

When did things change?

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You think the 27 people Time fired feel as if they're in control of the Information Age as is suggested on Time magazine's Person of the Year cover?

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According to Advertising Age, a Time insider said there will be no more lay offs/firings for this year. Oh, joy. Everyone at Time can relax for the next 11 days.

Bad News for Newspapers

According to AdJab, 3rd-quarter newspaper revenues for 2006 brought bad news:

• 3% decrease in print classified spending

• 8.3% decrease in national advertising

• 10.1% decrease in help-wanted ads

• 11.7% decrease in automotive ads
 

German Newspaper Ads 'Infantilize' George Bush and Pope Benedict to Introduce a New Publication

Here are a couple of ads for a 'compact' version of Die Welt, a German Newspaper. They're attention grabbers that convey the message quickly. Brilliant work from German marketing group Jung von Matt.

Of course, in the US, we wouldn't be allowed by law to create ads like this. In layman's terms, such advertising would be considered the use of celebrity product endorsement without the permission of the celebrities.