Archives for Advertising
On Labour, Ipsos MORI and the TPS... (October 2, 2007) This is one of those grumpy old curmudgeonly men blog posts that I kept reading on the web and never really understood until very recently. I'm just warning you so you can get out now. I have a long-standing grudge...
On being 'challenging' to PR people... (August 29, 2007) Some people have been having trouble working out why I've got so worked-up about this whole public relations thing. Perhaps this quote from a Flickr user called keeneypr on the thread about PR posted overnight will help explain to you...
This is not a brothel... (August 28, 2007) As has probably become clear recently, I'm currently not particularly well-inclined towards people who work in public relations - particularly the particularly unscrupulous ones that spam me with press releases and work ardently to try and persuade me to talk...
The Vatican and the ethics of advertising... (August 25, 2007) I've discovered that in one territory at least I'm in perfect tune with The Vatican, or at least with the Pontifical Council for Social Communications. I confess, this was entirely unexpected. From their perspective perhaps it would reassure them that...
On Monocle, Nat Torkington & Place branding... (August 22, 2007) While reading the new issue of incomprehensibly fascinating magazine Monocle--which has a parallel web presence orchestrated by ex-boss Dan Hill that stubbornly (and equally incomprehensibly from my perspective) refuses to include any content whatsoever from the magazine--I stumble upon...
Unkle vs. Beethoven for BMW... (August 9, 2007) I'm posting advertising, I know, but given that I'm unlikely to be buying a BMW (and most of you people are equally unlikely) perhaps it's okay. Who knows. I'm still absolutely run off my feet right now--which is why everything's...
The Veidt Method... (July 10, 2007) I appear to have just been spammed by a fictional character. I didn't notice immediately. It took me a couple of seconds to twig what I was just about to junk. The text of the e-mail seemed a little too...
The Gieves & Hawkes Homoerotic Photo Novella... (March 24, 2007) Wandering through London the other day with an old friend from University, I stumble upon Savill Row and the main London shop for Gieves & Hawkes. After a couple of seconds parsing the adverts I find myself disoriented and confused....
On super-bizarre BBC Adword placements... (August 6, 2006) It's probably the context that weirds me out, but still. I was watching this completely freaky acid-trip of a Simpsons parody (imagine David Lynch directing and you wouldn't be far off) made by the Something Awful crew and being slightly...
What has been killing my server? (May 23, 2006) Today I was at work when Barbelith went down. MySQL errors everywhere, the community in uproar, IMs and e-mails. And it wasn't like I didn't have enough to do. So I explore in more depth. First step, see what's actually...
BP adverts look just like my site! (November 17, 2005) About a month ago I was watching television and an advert for BP appeared and goddam did their new advertising aesthetic look like my site. Now I'm not seriously suggesting that they ripped off the design of my site, but...
A few odd bits of detective work... (October 4, 2005) So after accepting their apology late last night I should probably really let this one lie, but I just thought people might be interested in a couple of updates. I'm going to have a phone conversation with the people from...
An apology from the Cillit Bang team... (October 4, 2005) So this afternoon, I got an e-mail which I'm pretty sure is from the team who handle Cillit Bang. I can't tell for certain because I it's from someone at cohnwolfe.com, and I don't know enough about the relationships between...
On Cillit Bang and a new low for marketers... (September 30, 2005) Right. Okay. Got one for ya. You'll like this. Earlier today I wrote a post about my father, who I haven't had any contact with for almost thirty years. It was a difficult post to write - it had taken...
A response to the rhetoric of weblog marketing... (September 22, 2005) The story so far... Ben Metcalfe takes a vague swipe at the Stormhoek wine that Hugh MacLeod is marketing through the blogosphere. The approach Hugh is taking is to offer free bottles of the wine to webloggers on the understanding...
Why I won't be buying any Muller products... (July 10, 2004) I sent this letter to consumers@muller.co.uk today because I finally had enough of the stupid bloody adverts in which mincing gay men flounce around the place looking at straight men's cocks. I'm sorry to be crass, but it pisses me...
The new craze in text-ads... (February 2, 2002) Everyone is doing it - the new advertising craze on the internet is the simple text ad [article]. The idea of non-irritating, low-bandwidth, low-cost advertising is clearly very appealing to web-regulars, but whether or not it will actually prove to...
On marketing and focus groups in schools... (October 3, 2000) I've just been reading an article on a new fair trade chocolate bar that has been launched in the UK [Time Out : Shopping Guide]. All was well and good until I came up against this line: "Hundreds of schools...
On Pottery Barn, Friends and Advertising... (June 24, 2000) Do you remember that episode of Friends where Rachel is obsessed by the Pottery Barn? Well when I first saw it I thought to myself - hmmm, what a strange premise for an episode. And because we don't even have...
