All posts for the month October, 2011

Zombies Are the New Vampires

The other night I settled down to watch TV after dinner and happened upon the newest History Channel documentary, “Zombies: A Living History.” It explores the concept of the undead from the Ancient Greeks to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to modern day horror flicks. The Zombie trend has swept the nation in a bigger way than even vampires. While they don’t have [...]

The Importance of How You Display Information

Too often I cringe when I see an annual report or a website that has taken a chart or graph straight from Excel and dropped it into their layout. This is especially painful when the rest of the design’s details have been paid so much attention to. This is wrong to me for a number [...]

How to Squeeze Blood from a Stone: Appealing to the Surgical Shopper

It goes without saying that many consumers are doing a lot more online research prior to making purchases. If they do go to the store, they buy what they want and leave – they don’t window shop. Unemployment rates and tight budgets have only added fuel to the fire for these “surgical” shoppers. Retailers need to figure [...]

You Can’t Search This

Celebrity endorsed and/or developed products have been around for years. From countertop grills to fragrances to sneakers, the world has been introduced to a wide variety of products via celebrity endorsements and branding. At the Web 2.0 Summit this past week in San Francisco, former pop star MC Hammer announced his latest product, a new [...]

Retro Ad of the Week: De Beers Diamonds (1958)

Young love in an idyllic setting – a formula that is still seen today in many jewelry advertisements. Heck, if it ain’t broke… FUN FACT: Originally introduced in 1947, “A Diamond Is Forever” was named the best advertising slogan of the twentieth century by Advertising Age magazine in 2000. FUN FACT #2: The agency that [...]

Car Dealers Make Me Scream (Continued)

My family deserves a break. It’s not easy living with me and my AAA personality and Italian heritage. Even though, under the advice of my physician, I make sincere attempts to control my emotions, I fail to do so just about every day.  Sometimes, I just explode. I’m not proud of that, but I can blame it on the DNA. What [...]

Redefining Quality Through Marketing – and Not in a Good Way

I’ve spent the last few weekends looking for some furniture odds and ends to fill out the spare bedroom in my house. I began my search at several local furniture retailers, ranging from the small shops (my preference) all the way up to the big branded outfits that will slap any pattern you want on [...]

It’s Like Talking to a (Facebook) Wall

In the ad industry we are reminded almost daily of the importance and relevance of social media in our clients’ marketing strategies. We are always told that social media is all about how you engage the consumer or potential client with your brand – there is no better way to directly make an informal connection with your [...]

Chapter 11! High-Five?

Recently the Friendly’s restaurant chain filed for bankruptcy, closed 63 stores, and laid off about 1,260 employees. Last week, they came under some heat from a federal agency about attempting to dump employee pensions. But despite this negative PR, Friendly’s is still forging on with their “High Five” ad campaign, which is barely one month old. While it is important for a brand [...]

Retro Ad of the Week: Range Rover (1987)

Making its official entry into the U.S. market on March 16, 1987, Range Rover’s advertising campaign at the time touted the utility of the vehicle over its style and sophistication – something the brand has become known for in recent years. FUN FACT: Charles Spencer ‘Spen’ King, who designed the original Range Rover in 1970, [...]