I'm not a bleeding heart, veggie eating, earth muffin, tree hugger, but don't put animal cartoons on my food packaging.  Don't care how cute you make it, it's the animal that was slaughtered to make the food. 

A fine example below.  The damn chicken is running!  And he doesn't look particularly happy.  In fact, if you really misinterpret the cartoon trope, you might see the black and red shapes at his rear as sweat.   Still hungry?

chicken, food
Posted by lee sachs at 11:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The newspaper business is in sorry shape but marketing will save the day! 

"What if we give away a free version of the paper with lots of ads, coupons and FSIs (free-standing inserts)?  They'll love that!  Pays for itself!  We can deliver it to their driveway and they'll be so happy they'll run out in the rain to get it." 

We will?  Hell no! 

So when it sits out there in the rain because we really didn't want it in the first place, it's like they threw trash on our driveway.

It does look like it might be good as papier mache though. 

media business, publishing
Posted by lee sachs at 12:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

See if you can find 5 annoying things about this ad? 

copy for copy's sake, groceries, pharmaceuticals, supermarkets
Posted by lee sachs at 12:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Ah yes, the dominating Pillsbury refrigerated "Ready to Bake®" section in my local market. 

But what's this?  Something not in Pillsbury Blue? 


White with the words "Simply" on it!?!  How jarring!  How appealing!  How, clean and healthy it must be!! 


These cookies must be SO much more healthier than the regular cookies, right? 

food, simple
Posted by lee sachs at 11:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Some marketers are setting up Twitter accounts without much of a plan.  The DoubleTree people are smart: They're just hoping a little logo similarity will give them Twitter Love. 

icons, twiiter
Posted by lee sachs at 8:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The actual NAME of this new Häagen-Dasz product is called "FIVE" because it only has 5 (FIVE) ingredients.  What does this mean?  It means you should be happy that you're not poisoned by FIFTEEN (15), the number of ingredients in regular ol' H-D's Rocky Road.  Less is more.  Five is ice cream.  Numbers are food.  Food is real.  Candy is dandy.  Liquor is quicker. 

branding, food, recession
Posted by lee sachs at 7:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

These 2 signs and a wrapper were seen in a Starbucks today, so I guess they're kind of hammering home a message. 

This is one of those "copy for copy's sake" statements that roll off the tongue before you realize how ridiculous they are. 

They actually reminding us that food they've been giving us all along isn't real, but they're going out of their way to change and make it real. 

This is like saying that, "You know how we always step on your food and then peel it off our shoe and then throw it on your plate?  Well, we stopped doing that!  Now we just put it on your plate.  Aren't you glad?"

copy for copy's sake, starbucks
Posted by lee sachs at 11:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Standard-issue, horribly ridiculous video of a cat 'playing' keyboard.  But look at the banner that just cropped up.  Are the people who "stumble upon" this video likely to want to get piano lessons?  If I were selecting the perfect banner for this video it would be "Teach Your Cat Piano In Just 5 Easy Lessons!" 

<sorry folks...in order to illustrate the point, i had to use a screenshot.  u wanna see charlie schmidt's "cool cat" go here.>

youtube banners
Posted by lee sachs at 11:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The crude Font-By-Sharpie is not the problem here.  It's the guy with the drawing of a six-pack on his abdomen.  You can't tell what the hell this is. 

I don't care about the lower photo of perfact abs, I don't care about the product they're selling.

I'm trying to figure out ... did this guy get a tattoo of a six-pack?  Is it drawn on?  Or is it some birthmark? 

stock photos, tips
Posted by lee sachs at 12:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Another cartoon character to get the kiddies into the quality food brand, Hostess.  Let's face it though, this guy is just like all the other cartoon characters with the eyes, the hands, etc.  If it weren't for that pigtail coming out of his forehead, he'd just be another chocolate cupcake trying to seduce children into his van of fattening and unhealthy eating. 

cartoon characters, food
Posted by lee sachs at 11:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From our contextual friends at Gmail again.  I've circled the only words in this email that might have triggered these ads.  Use of the words "weekend" and "throw" seemed to make the scanners think, "Hey!  Knife Throwing!  Bachelorettes!  Sounds like a wild weekend!" 

contextual ads, Gmail
Posted by lee sachs at 11:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Tagline here for John Tesh's radio show.  "Music and Intelligence for your Life." 
Whoa.  That's more than I can handle.  Music.  Okay, I can deal. 
Intelligence?  Nice to have...but not at the same time as the music. 
This is the kind of radio programming (and marketing) that really pushes the limits of what the media is really capable of.  Can people handle this?  Are they ready?  Can Mr. Tesh pull this off?  Tune in and find out.   

copy for copy's sake, taglines
Posted by lee sachs at 11:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

For this page of the Skymall catalog, the editors figured, "Let's put all the unflattering model shots on one page...just get 'em out of the way.  They're all kind of related, right?"

catalog
Posted by lee sachs at 10:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Twitter is the new thing!  Which means that a zillion marketers are going to do the same old thing: tell you they how you can make $8,000 a week in your underpants working 3 hours a day. 

I'm picturing this guy, excited to get that photo for his Twitter profile page. Gets suited up.  Fixes that bowtie.  Tries out a few poses.  Gotta' do something with the hands.  On the hips?  In one pocket?  Hey, how about the Broadway Danny Rose Double-Index-Finger-Pistol. Perfect!  Print it!!  UPLOAD!

cheesy marketing
Posted by lee sachs at 11:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Answer?  As many as you can convince to client to pay for.  Finally, after all these years of purchasing light bulbs and then flushing them down the toilet, throwing them in the dryer and running the lawnmower over them, they've got me all straightened out.

copy for copy's sake, visual merchandising
Posted by lee sachs at 8:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Sometimes, a little witty wordplay in the copy makes it hard to explain benefits. 
Concept?  Sign up with this energy company and get 5,000 US Airways dividend miles.  Okay. 
But somebody stared at a lamp too long, got hypnotized and the lamp wound up writing the copy so the whole premise of the ad is that the lamp gets to stay on.  Huh?


Well, see, you'll get energy so cheap from Energy Plus, that you'll leave lights on.  And while those lights are on, you'll earn miles.  And the jet engine's silhouette will glow in an eerie white on the lampshade.  And there will be no energy crisis.  And you can fly all over the world...for free.  And burn jet fuel...and increase your carbon footprint...and all these good things happen just because you stared at that lamp.  Love the Lamp...it is your friend.  

bad graphics, copy for copy's sake
Posted by lee sachs at 4:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

You've heard that marketers are trying to shove a message anywhere they can and that includes while you're stuck pumping gas into your planet-destroying internal combustion device.  Alas PumpTopTV recombined a PC with a TV and included Microsoft's Internet Explorer, Gasoline Edition.  I guess the fumes were getting to the browser because I caught this error message right over the actual video that played in the background. 

error messages, IPTV
Posted by lee sachs at 12:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The wide-angle, extreme height stock photo of people representing creative funky artiste types.  Why does this connote creativity?  Most of the creative people I know prefer to see the world eye-to-eye.  Could they be connoting that creatives are being looked down upon? 

extreme height, stock photos, wide angle
Posted by lee sachs at 10:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Pity the poor brand that tries to keep up with the marketing strategies of M&Ms, Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper or NIKEiD.  Alas, the poor folks at Junior Mints try to rip it up with this effort to blast hip, cool and XL (or is it X-backwards-J?)

copy for copy's sake
Posted by lee sachs at 6:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Just as a "Kamikaze" is no longer an insane Japanese pilot but an alcoholic beverage and "Molotov Cocktail" is no longer a bottle of kerosene with a flaming rag stuffed in it, but a product in a catalog of fireworks, perhaps someday there'll a game kids play in gym called "Suicide Bomber."

Posted by lee sachs at 12:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The email was supposed to be pictures of a space we might rent for a party.  Some kind of metadata triggered the Gmail to serve up links to liposuction and menstruation pictures. 


You can't make this stuff up.

contextual ads, Gmail
Posted by lee sachs at 1:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

 

You are what?!?!  Let's repeat that because it so good it's bad.

"We're secure.  We're compliant.  Now we're busting out the SHURIMDYAE."  

I'll admit that there's a vague Japanese/Asian feeling to the word. But then, it's too vague to be going all Eastern on us.  The use of 'now we're busting out the...' clause only further stretches whatever sensibility this copywriting mess is trying to create.  Busting out?   I'm in pain here.

If you dig down deep enough, I think they're saying that If You Back Everything Up And Nobody Can Hack Into It, You Make More Money. 

Well why didn't they just say "IYBEUANCHIIYMMM?"  (pronounced "Eye-Bee-Ooh-An-Ch-Ee-Ee-Yim"

Posted by lee sachs at 10:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Here an email with a friend sharing the passing of the late, great George Carlin and news about her daughter attending college in Cambridge, Mass.  Check. 

That still doesn't explain the ad on the bottom about Mindful Dog Yoga.

contextual ads, Gmail
Posted by lee sachs at 10:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)