Shrimp Cocktail, NFL Conference Championships, Tyre Nichols killed by Memphis Police, ‘He Gets Us’: $100 million ad campaign for Jesus, Three Pines, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: Live at the Fillmore – 1997, Branson
marketing
‘Brave Novo World’ ad perfectly targets small business owners
Somehow, Court TV's coverage of the Johnny Depp v. Amber Heard trial appeared on my TV this morning and — during a sidebar — the commercial above played several times in a row, the way commercials on Court TV often do. It's an ad launching Novo's “Brave Novo World”...
Web marketing, conversion book: ‘Convert!’ by Ben Hunt
As a web designer for the past 17 years, I have had varying success in helping small business owners understand web marketing and conversion techniques — how a website can work like a machine to attract people who are searching for your offerings, and then guide them...
What is a catheter and why is it stalking me?
I'm a political/news junkie who works from home, so the TV on my desk is often tuned to MSNBC. While Morning Joe, The Daily Rundown, Jansing & Co., Andrea Mitchell Reports, The Cycle and the rest are sweeping through the hours like the sun across the sky, the TV...
Allstate ‘Raccoon Mayhem’ commercial with Dean Winters
The Allstate Mayhem commercial series has burrowed deep into my head. I saw the "Raccoon Mayhem" commercial above a couple of days ago. Then, this morning at about 2:30, I heard either a large raccoon or a small horse tramping across our roof above my bed. All I could...
‘Mad Men’ Season 5: I give up
As Maureen Ryan wrote yesterday at TV Squad, Mad Men Season 5 is now postponed until 2012. Difficult negotiations are reportedly in progress over product placement, cast cuts, and trimming two minutes of each Mad Men episode's length. [includeme...
Wisconsin Lottery’s Holiday Countdown: No Mike Schank?
Something seems queasily familiar here, and it's not just the lame imitation of Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In in the Wisconsin Lottery commercial above. It's those 25 windows and the gingerbread house on the Wisconsin Lottery's new...
RockMelt browser: Facebook privacy issues?
There's a new Web browser being released today. The RockMelt browser is being financed by Marc Andreessen's venture capital firm. Andreessen, you may recall, co-founded Netscape. Here's today's New York Times story: "Web Browsing Takes a Social Turn." [includeme...
Suryia the Orangutan’s Robitussin commercial
So I'm watching Countdown with Keith Olbermann the other night when I see a commercial which shows an orangutan in a pharmacy aisle using a Droid X smartphone and buying Robitussin® cough medicine. This was a lot to process. My first reaction was concern that the...
H&M ads: Erykah Badu covers Muddy Waters’ ‘Mannish Boy’
There was an H&M commercial for their fall 2010 fashion trends tonight during The Office, and its music was exactly what I thought it was: Erykah Badu covering the blues standard "Mannish Boy," first recorded by Muddy Waters in 1955. Here's another one. The model...
Bruce Willis fragrance: Perfume, hair & body wash for smart guys
This item was on NPR's Morning Edition today: Bruce Willis: 'Manliest Scent In The World. NPR reports that the Bruce Willis smell consists of "macho splashes of grapefruit, cedar and pepper." Sure enough, a post at Geekosystem confirms that the Bruce Willis fragrance...
Pomplamoose: Music duo going viral via social media
Early yesterday morning, I heard an interesting On The Media special about the future of the music industry. Long story short, it's floundering. Back then, I had never heard of Pomplamoose. Update: Pomplamoose show Beginning January 18, 2011, a live webcast show --Hey...
Amy Czerniec and the dog that broke her heart
(Above: Amy, circled, at launch event for Y-LinK: Young Leaders in Kenosha.) Amy called me around 12:30 on Monday afternoon. I wasn't surprised that she was crying, but I did not anticipate exactly what triggered it. "That damn dog," she sobbed. "How do they know?"...
Gary Vaynerchuck talks Twitter on CNN’s ‘Your $$$$$’
Embedded video from CNN Video I just saw this via FriendFeed, courtesy of Orli Yakuel. It's Gary Vaynerchuck of VaynerMedia, the guy from Wine Library TV, in a video clip from CNN's Your $$$$$. I can only take him in small doses because of his hyperactivity, but he...
AIG’s $62 billion loss, and a little trouble sleeping
Remember this anxious, sleepless little feller? Today the New York Times describes how AIG (American International Group) is "preparing to report a $62 billion loss on Monday, the biggest quarterly loss in history." After some additional figuring, AIG — already almost...
Trader Joe’s commercial: Jobim’s ‘Waters of March’
[Monarch]Above is a catchy little production that's been making the viral rounds for a couple of weeks. Titled "If I Made a Commercial for Trader Joe's," it is described on YouTube by carlsfinefilms as an "Unauthorized commercial for Trader Joe's shot on my Palm Treo...
Snuggie, Slanket, Heat Surge: My TV monk life
The Great Recession and its effect on our household budget have started producing some bizarre yearnings in me — especially when combined with the influence of our TV set. This began with a video that arrived here from Netflix. I don't know how it got added to our...
Oprah Winfrey snow globe
Apart from losing my job this morning, my biggest disappointment was that Steve Dahl never got around to reading Christopher Borrelli's outstanding Tribune story about the amazing and wondrous Oprah Winfrey Show snow globe, available at the Oprah Winfrey store. (The...
Enablex commercial: Class reunion of urine-filled balloons
So I'm sitting here eating my lunch in front of MSNBC when I hear the familiar voice of Andrea Martin during a pharmaceutical commercial depicting a class reunion. This is slightly troubling in itself, because Andrea Martin is one of the most talented and funny women...
Blender videos for Blendtec Total Blender: ‘Will It Blend?’
Here's a kooky little item I saw on Pogue's Posts and decided to steal: Will It Blend? The site, created by Orem, Utah based heavy-duty blender maker Blendtec, advertises their impressive Total Blender via David Letterman-inspired viral video demonstrations of its...
Mail Pouch Tobacco ghost sign
Kenosha, Wisconsin — A West Virginia Mail Pouch Tobacco ad, discovered during remodeling in the 5600 block of 6th Avenue. It has since been re-covered. [includeme...