Very Bad PR

Sheer genius: from the web to Homer Simpson | The Guardian | Guardian Unlimited

Some person or organisation has compiled a list of 100 genius. Their PR people obviously didn't buy Rachel Williams a very nice lunch as they don't get their company mentioned at all.

Bad points for whoever paid for that! Six consultants don't come cheap!

Amazing PR from the AA

Oil hits new high | | Guardian Unlimited Business

The article is about the fact that oil prices are approaching record highs. Towards the end of an article all about the economic reasons for high oil prices, we cut into an AA spokesperson talking about the possilbe oil hikes:

Paul Watters at the AA said that this week could see a new all-time high for petrol prices. At the moment competition between supermarkets is helping to hold back price rises, but this is unlikely to last.

What's Paul Watters got to do with anything? I suspect Ms Balakrishnan had a very nice lunch from someone from the AA's PR team. The article did not need to quote anyone at all to link high oil prices with possible high petrol prices. It's not like Paul Watters was quoted saying anything insightful.

Maybe he did have a full briefing session that included some very insightful thoughts about why high oil prices lead to high petrol prices. I doubt that they would need a quote from someone to inform people that high potato prices would lead to high chip prices.

Trust in the media

Interesting BBC/Reuters poll I came across showing the public's trust in the media vs. the government in different countries.

Trust in media was highest in Nigeria - 88% vs 34% for the government.

Notably, trust in the government was highest in the USA - 67% vs 59% for the media. Perhaps not so surprising though when their media consists of things like this.

"Amature hour is over"

ManiaTV is relaunching itself without 3,000 channels of user created content. Initially users could upload their own videos alongside more established and mainstreem shows, circa Saturday Night Live etc. However, more than 80% of viewers and all of the advertisers, tuned in for the professional content. So in this case content is king as people realise that a lot of user content is like 'You've been framed'... was never that funny/ more so annoying

Beautiful Advert

Wonderful ad from Diesel. Bit long but there we go.

Love the endline "You want them now, don't you!"

Don't know if this actually received any media space or if it's just something that went up on youtube. Might even be user generated?

Found through Adgabber

Interesting Advert

Why not just be honest and say what they mean? Or use the word "Dirt Track", that would actually be funny. I bet the concept had "Dirt Track" on it, but the client didn't have the balls to sign it off. They just ruined the ad instead.

I can imagine some farmer boys loving it, but I don't think most other people will. Especially people on the Guardian (which is where I saw it!)

Better late than never...

If you do only do one thing this weekend, ENJOY !

- Lottie, don't talk to any strangers (especially if they're "bra-and-knickers-wearing" men).

- Malcolm, enjoy the beauty spots of Abingdon, treat your sister-in-law to something posh not cheap.

P.s, Internet advertising has again buoyed the UK advertising industry with above-expectation 41.3% year on year growth in the first half of 2007. This takes the sector to a half-year high of £1,334.3 million – compared to £917.2 million just a year ago – lifting online advertising’s market share significantly, to 14.7%.

Google being worth quite a lot of money.

Google has recorded a 41.6% rise in third-quarter pre-tax profits to $1.47bn (£719.8m), surpassing industry expectations once more.
Revenues climbed 57% to $4.43bn, and Google's share price hit $642.20 yesterday after breaking through the $600 mark for the first time on October 9. The company is currently valued at 49 times earnings.

There you go, I posted=i get lunch :)X

Google Investment

Buy Google Shares

They're sure to rise

Crackdowns On Bloggers Increasing, Survey Finds

Just a little more support to my anti-blogging stance. Thanks!

malcolm.....

has a girlfriend!!!!

Digital Switchover

Honestly - who cares?

Freeview costs about £20. I know it's not a busy news day, but still!

It would be interesting to see if the digital switchover is genuinely something that real people are concerned about. It will also be interesting to see how much money the government will make from selling the newly free airspace.

Hopefully it won't be some more telecoms nonsense and it will allow a nice big wifi network!

A use for web2.0?

Lobbyists; Gaining political advantage on Google

Interesting story recently developed about leftist political lobby group, MoveOn.org, employing Google's trademark policy to prevent the use of its term in ads by counter, right wing, Senators.

Internet strategist for Susan Collins's (Republican Sen), Lance Dutson, complained that Google blocked several re-election ads from the search engine's advertising network because the ads contained the trademarked term "MoveOn.org" in the text.

Go Google for unfairly siding with the lefties. However it was a policy that far exceeds the requirements of trademark law. Google can prevent anybody else from bidding on the name MoveOn.org, but cannot prevent the use of the name in the adcopy and especially where there is a point of relevancy:

"Stop Moveon.org. More MoveOn money in Maine than anywhere else. Learn how to help," read one of the ads.

In any case, Move.org withdrew from that policy on Friday as a result of the growing controversy:

"We don't want to support a policy that denies people freedom of expression....", "...of course we support the right of anyone to parody us", says Jennifer Lindenauer, MoveOn.org's communications director. And Google has been getting a bashing on conservative blogs like everybody's favourite: reagangahagan.blogspot.com

Pablo Chavez, Google's public policy counsel, rejected claims that Google had refused to run the advertisements based on political grounds. You can checkout an interview with Pablo Chavez, Google's senior lobbyist in DC, here

wifi alert/ geek alert

This one is for the geeks. This tshirt features a glowing animated display that reveals the current Wi-Fi signal strength in the area. Ideally for those who fondly remember the battery run hi-fi equaliser t-shirts of the late 90s.

Takes 3 AAA baterries and can be ordered from thinkgeek.com for $30. Bargain!