We went into the Doubleday bookshop at Fifth Avenue and Fifty Second Street the other day, intending, in our innocence, to buy a book, and found all the clerks busy selling Silly Putty, a gooey, pinkish, repellent-looking commodity that comes in plastic containers the size and shape of eggs.

How an item in the August 26th, 1950 New Yorker's Talk of the Town column turned a marketing consultant into a millionare by Christmas. [more inside]
posted by Toekneesan on Dec 22, 2011 - 31 comments

Melt your brain into goo on an overdose of crass 80s consumerism and TV without the TV shows at 80sCommercialVault. Superbowl 19 commercials. Commercials from Jaws. Saturday morning commercials. Daytime / evening commercials. [more inside]
posted by loquacious on Oct 30, 2011 - 11 comments

Is ‘If I Can Dream’ the Start of a Web Reality Rush? [more inside]
posted by Potomac Avenue on Mar 8, 2010 - 12 comments

The Web Is Not A TV Channel is the latest in a series of admonitions for musical and marketing industry types from music blogger, record company founder and bass player Dave Allen. [more inside]
posted by Potomac Avenue on Jan 11, 2010 - 9 comments

The 27 Best (Non-Super Bowl) Commercials of the 2000s: Balls [Bravia] - Birthday [Got Milk?] - Bubble Boy [Volkswagen] - Bus Station [Starburst] - Carousel [Phillips] - Cog [Honda] - Dangerously Low [Levi's] - Diorama [Halo 3] - Evolution [Dove] - Freestyle [Nike] - Gorilla [Cadbury] - Grrr [Honda] - Hello Tomorrow [Adidas] - Lamp [IKEA] - Like [Volkswagen] - Mountain [Playstation] - Noitulove [Guinness] - Odyssey [Levi's] - Rabbit [Comcast] - Sheet Metal [Saturn] - Stork [Monster] - Swear Jar [Bud Light] - Tag [Nike] - Tea Partay [Smirnoff] - Touch [Skittles] - Wedding Toast [Budweiser] - Yes We Can [Dipdive]. Part of Adweek's "Best of the 2000s" competition, which also includes rundowns of the 22 Best Super Bowl Spots and the 15 Best Print Campaigns of the last decade, among many other voting categories.
posted by Rhaomi on Nov 23, 2009 - 72 comments

BestAdsonTV.com Browse TV spots from around the world at this industry site highlighting new creative work. Highly rated ads include this one for Carlton beer, this sober PSA, this lovely one for the California lottery and a fun take on evolution for Guinness. And then there's this, um, sausage ad. Browse the controversies (mostly complaints about copycats), ads from Romania and Iceland and Belgium, or last year's best ads. Many of the most amusing seem to be for beer.
posted by CunningLinguist on Dec 23, 2006 - 8 comments

Is is just me, or have Superbowl ads gotten way too predictable. Here's hoping this year offers something new. 2006 brings Fabio sinking a gondola, an approved(!) GoDaddy ad, the first ever bilingual ad, and the commercials being offered on DVD and PodCast. Also keep an eye out for muppets, macgyver and machetes.

I hate linking to heavy, but they have all the banned ads, some of which are funny (especially the anti-mac one) and some were just made to be banned. You can see previous years' ads at iFilm.
posted by FeldBum on Feb 2, 2006 - 47 comments

The solemn, the dignified, the high-profile marketing. On September 11th, the national anthem will be sung on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. By the recent winner of Fox's American Idol. Days before the release of her new album. Two weeks before the winner's next, though obviously equally significant, "American Idol in Las Vegas" show. You will also note that this was reported before last night's finale. Meaning, this important symbolic event was arranged without even knowing who the winner was. In other words, Kelly Clarkson is not signing the National Anthem on September 11. "The Winner of Fox's American Idol" is.
posted by XQUZYPHYR on Sep 5, 2002 - 36 comments

Victoria's Secret is going prime-time. On Nov. 15, Victoria's Secret will be putting on a fashion show on ABC smack dab in the middle of prime time. According to the Wall Street Journal, "in a move that further blurs the line searating entertainment and advertising, the program's high-profile models also will make guest appearances on at least two of the network's shows during the week of the broadcast" -- "Spin City" will go backstage, and the models will play "Who Wants to be a Millionaire."
posted by me3dia on Nov 7, 2001 - 9 comments

Survivor is filled with crap for sale - so why can't I find that groovy Panama hat Colby wears for sale, anywhere?
posted by subpixel on Apr 29, 2001 - 3 comments

Adventures in Consumer Stalking: Interactive TV "Broadcasters and advertisers, meanwhile, have long been eager to fire up interactive services, because they can know more about who is watching (and doing) what, and what consumers are buying. Targeted advertising with better response rates has long been a goal in the television industry."
posted by jenett on Feb 13, 2000 - 1 comment

Nike this weekend will unveil a new 50-second commercial. The first 30 seconds will appear in a TV commercial before Saturday's Dolphins-Jaguars game. The second 20 seconds will be available at the Web site. The ad was created by Wieden & Kennedy of Portland.
posted by luke on Jan 12, 2000 - 4 comments