We believe that nothing is possible without the Lord's blessing and consent. Your product is no exception.
posted on Mar 16, 2008 - View this thread

This website is about advertising mistakes, such as the L in Staples, capitalized letters where they shouldn't be, and other things that could confuse kindergarten students.
posted on Aug 12, 2005 - View this thread

No logos project. Delete!, fettered capitalism in Vienna.
posted on Aug 10, 2005 - View this thread

Nike doesn't want poor people to buy its shoes. Funny, you'd think K-Mart and Nike would have a lot in common.
posted on May 7, 2005 - View this thread

The New Pitch
posted on Mar 22, 2005 - View this thread

British bachelors beware. Rachel Greenwald knows how to find a husband using the techniques of Harvard Business School, and she's bringing her methods to the UK. But it's not easy: she advocates careful 'packaging', putting 10 to 20% of total income into a separate 'find a husband' bank account, cancelling newspaper subscriptions so they can be read in public and getting a third party to contact unsuccessful dates for feedback. There's one change for the UK though: here it's aimed at over-30s instead of the over-35s. I always thought "the Rules" were too spontaneous.
posted on Sep 30, 2003 - View this thread

Unbrand America
In the coming months a black spot will pop up everywhere...on store windows and newspaper boxes, on gas pumps and supermarket shelves. Open a magazine or newspaper - it's there. It's on TV. It stains the logos and smears the nerve centers of the world's biggest corporations.
posted on Jun 11, 2003 - View this thread

A brand new tobacco company was officially incorporated in Virginia on March 19, 2003. Discover what makes this company different, read a message from their CEO, learn from their modern corporate philosophy, and check out all the media buzz.
posted on Apr 18, 2003 - View this thread

Operation Pretentious Platitude One of the awful aspects of "Operation Iraqi Freedom" is having to listen to this name used without irony.

"It all comes down to branding" ... "Don't waste a public relations opportunity -- remember that the operation name is the first bullet in the war of images." "Churchill ... warned specifically against using words that imply an "overconfident sentiment." He knew as well as anyone how history delights in throwing unforeseen ironies our way." Here's a list of mostly recent real names.

But how about "Operation Rouge-wearing Caliph"? "Operation Evangelical Fatwa"? "Operation Expect No Mercy From Our Privet Bush"? "Operation Overpriced Cannon"? "Operation Irate Economy"? "Operation International-law-ignoring Manticore"?. Try for yourself. (Here's how it's done).
posted on Mar 22, 2003 - View this thread

Beyond Benetton and Betty Crocker: This Boston Globe article suggests a new age of multicultural marketing is upon us, with ethnically cagey Vin Diesel at the forefront. Instead of "United Nations"-style ads in which each actor is selected to represent a different group, the new style is towards ambiguity, as in the nonspecifically "ethnic" Barbies, or more casual, offhanded reference to race, as in the "Whassup?" Budweiser ads. Does this new "color-blindness" say anything about real social change, or is it just trendy hucksterism? Meanwhile, some very tired sexist chestnuts continue to appear in ads: despite her full time job and gleaming SUV, Mom still relies on classic brands to keep house and make dinner, still solely her responsibilities in TV-land. What gives?
posted on Jan 13, 2003 - View this thread

Brand USA Naomi ('No Logo') Klein on Charlotte Beers' work to manage the US 'brand'. Sitting outside the US, a lot of what Klein says about external perception of the 'brand' (and of Beers' actions) seems quite believable to me, but I'd be interested in hearing an insider view.
Klein's assertion that "...America's problem is not with its brand-- which could scarcely be stronger--but with its product" seems relatively solid, and if it is, it seems that Ms Beers' mission is all-but-impossible, or at the very least misdirected.
That said, the thrust of Klein's argument is the assertion that the US's values are basically incompatible with the whole idea of branding, and I'd suggest that the same could be said of many countries. I suppose the point here is that this specific exercise is rooted in the US's positioning of itself in the world at this point in time.
[Via abraxas]
posted on Mar 18, 2002 - View this thread

Sign of the Apocalypse: MTV Announces Line of PCs "Equipped With All the College Props" Uh, ...a beer funnel and a Dave Matthews cd? What else can we add to it? Is VH-1 going to do this?
posted on Jan 9, 2002 - View this thread

any movement you can dish out. if you look underground, chances are cool hunters will stop you in your tracks and ask to take your picture and learn about your ways. it sure feels good to be recognized. where do they go with your picture, you'd wonder, i mean you never hear from them again. turns out these guys turn around and sell your image to corporations who turn around and mass market it. so much for cool.
posted on May 2, 2001 - View this thread

How you say Duking it out with Accenture for the title of most disagreeable computer-generated faux-English corporate nomenclature de la semaine, a company with the perfectly good name Productivity Works has gone and screwed it up by renaming itself isSound. "Because the future is listening," the homepage tells us. What it's listening to is all of us stammering to pronounce an unnatural string of letters. In related news, despite admitting it still works, isSound isShitcanning itsScreenReader, pwWebSpeak.
posted on Jan 3, 2001 - View this thread