MetaFilter posts tagged with marketing

iSnack 2.0

moorooka — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 01:32:18 -0800

The billionth jar of Vegemite was sold in 2008. This nutritious yeast-based brown paste has been popular in Australia for decades, although its "distinctive" taste has limited its popularity in foreign markets. In July 2009, a competition was held by Kraft to come up with a name for the new cheesy variant. The result, chosen from 30,000 entries, sparked such a backlash that Kraft quickly backed down... but was iSnack 2.0 a marketing failure or a publicity coup? The obligatory "Downfall" clip

Random Weed Name Generator

GatorDavid — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:05:49 -0800

Here's one for the 4:20 crowd: "The Random Weed Name Generator is a free public service, providing the cannabis community with more than 45,000 unique hemp handles."

Help meeeeee!

william_boot — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 12:16:04 -0800

"A company at a German trade show has attached tiny banner advertisements to flies and set them loose on unsuspecting visitors, in a bizarre yet effective marketing stunt."

Let the hype rumpus start!

philip-random — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 18:01:55 -0800

Where the wild marketing is ... Last week, we wrote about Digg testing a new kind of ad that allowed sponsors to find previously submitted Digg content and and wrap it in their own ad unit. The first such ad just went live for everyone this morning. And it seems like a really great idea. But is the movie actually any good?

Ever dream THIS MAN?

logicpunk — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 08:03:12 -0800

Ever dream this man? Every night throughout the world hundreds of people dream about this face. Or not. The registrant of thisman.org, Andrea Natella, is the director of guerrigliamarketing.it (google translation), "an advertising agency that uses non-conventional communication techniques, like the creation of fictitious events or campaigns reaching the limits of legality, through which they 'fuck the market in order to enter it'."

ManLaw #1 - Profit!

mrmojoflying — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 08:01:55 -0800

A ManCave "advisorship" offers real men the opportunity to host MEATings (think male-targeted "Purse Party" or "Passion Party") where pink is forbidden, beer is Never, Ever, Seriously, Never refused, and various other bro codes are always in effect. Multi-level network marketing for lifestyle products is nothing new, but it is perceived to be a woman-dominated business. Can wanna-be network marketers break into the masculinity market? Maybe they need a Zelda of their own.

"Jia Junpeng, your mom is calling you to come home and eat."

tapeguy — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 12:28:11 -0800

China's latest Internet obsession began with an anonymous post on a computer gaming forum: "Jia Junpeng, your mom is calling you to come home and eat." After attracting more than 17,000 replies in six hours, the original message went on to appear in All Your Base-style photoshops and on t-shirts amid claims by internet marketing experts that they invented the whole thing. Why did the joke travel so fast and so wide? Childhood memories, according to China Daily. Or maybe it was because of a team of secret viral "internet promoters". See also: Toyota's co-opting of the Leeroy Jenkins World of Warcraft video, Russia's Preved! bear and all your memes.

An ingenious device for avoiding thought...

smoke — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 05:56:20 -0800

The brain's plasticity has some neuroscientists worried about what the internet will do to reading - and to humanity. But teenagers - the very demographic you would expect to suffer most from the google-induced inability to focus and critique - are in fact reading more than ever. Or are they? Young adult fiction might be selling, but who's doing the reading?

Constipation is murder! and other gems from early advertising of the West

mudpuppie — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 13:14:41 -0800

The University of Washington Library's Early Advertising of the West, 1867-1918. Browse the collection or search by keyword. Some favorites:

It's in Town! Have you seen it? The AEROCAR. The smartest and most graceful looking car yet seen on the streets of Seattle. $2,150.00.
Alfalfa-Nutriment makes thin people plump.
I will send my aluminum eye cup FREE.
Animal Crackers are put up in lithographed cartons that will make a decided hit with the children...After it is emptied, the carton is to be cut into a circus wagon for which full directions are printed.
Prohibition Increases Drunkenness. But, Even moderate drinking hurts health, lessens efficiency
The Reed School for Nervous and Backward Children
Avoid trouble by having your kitchen boiler covered with asbestos
"I'se in Town, Honey!" (Aunt Jemima's Pancake Flour)
Too much sleep will increase the flesh...
A Black Kid for your window
Brown's Worm lozenges
Constipation is murder!
Cook stoves for Alaskan miners
A cure for the rupture
The Devil
Nearly two-thirds of all the chronic diseases spring, directly or indirectly, from some derangement of the sexual system...
Dr. Pierce's Body-Battery (for man and woman!)
1910 shower ad (Warning: Victorian nudity)
Remedy for alcoholism (contains milk sugar, starch, capsicum and ipecac)
Artificial limbs
Budde's water closets
Yet another racist ad, this one for gelatin
Neitro Sanatorium (Not A Bake Oven!)
Ostrich farming
School of Phrenology
Radium insect killer and Radium household cleaner

Alright! Let's go on a journey — through time and space! There are 95 Pokemon stamps! Let's get all of them!

silby — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 10:08:37 -0800

"And much like Christmas, originally about the birth of a religious savior-figure named Jesus, is now about buying things for people and hoping that they buy more things for you, much how Easter, originally about the death of a religious savior-figure named Jesus, is now about receiving rabbit- or egg-shaped chocolates, now and forever Obon is about collecting all of the Pokemon." Japan, trains, marketing, pachinko, hordes of stamp-seeking children.

Consider the Source

Miko — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 12:49:25 -0800

"It's a different way of thinking about 'local' that's not quite as literal," says a consumer research consultant in an article running this week in alternative newspapers nationwide. The piece (by Stacy Mitchell of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance) describes the response of global and national companies to the reality that consumers are moving more of their dollars into purchasing at locally owned businesses, representing both a threat, and an opportunity for companies that can successfully rebrand themselves as 'local'. As with greenwashing before it, 'localwashing' seeks to lure customers based on perception of values alone, resulting in such phenomena as Frito-Lay highlighting farmers from 27 states as the "local" growers for its potato chips and Hellman's Mayonnaise piloting a campaign in Canada to present its product as 'local' because most of the ingredients are from North America.

The Shack

swift — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 10:32:01 -0800

RadioShack to rebrand itself later this year. via Slashdot.

Craig Ferguson explains the Jonas Brothers.

everichon — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 08:06:39 -0800

Craig Ferguson explains the Jonas Brothers. For those who don't want to watch the 3 minute video, it's Craig Ferguson explaining how the advertising industry made youthfulness and inexperience more desirable than experience and maturity. With an entertainingly Scottish accent. He slags facial piercing and hair dyeing in passing, and the network uses a cute "bleep" sound to prevent us from hearing the word "fucking".

Fast Food Fashions of the Eighties

mr_crash_davis mark II: Jazz Odyssey — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 13:47:05 -0800

Fast food fashions of the Eighties.

Halp your Queen's boobs, My Lord!

Foci for Analysis — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 21:29:14 -0800

The downward spiral that is Evony, a web based multi-player game, advertising. Also: The Best Worst Ads by 1UP and fake in-game ads by Something Awful.

Life imitates The Onion?

Premeditated Symmetry Breaking — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 07:25:13 -0800

The Onion is funny because it imitates life. However, life is not as funny when it imitates The Onion.

Awards can't save forests.

divabat — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 19:25:57 -0800

Awards can't feed the hungry. (via, with supporting links)

Possesed Marketing

Burhanistan — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 13:18:26 -0800

In other energy drink news, the makers of Samedi have decided that the best way to market a drink named after a famous Vaudou spirit was to let him have his input in the marketing campaign. Presently, the drink seems to be available only in Australia, although a New Orleans priestess was given a can [NSFW].

Naughtly, but not that naughty

Brandon Blatcher — Sun, 17 May 2009 21:05:58 -0800

Q: You like chocolate? You are a person who likes the chocolate finger that we are currently testing?
A: Yes! I am! I like chocolate!
Q: You like chocolate! In fact, you are a person who likes chocolate as much as a company likes money!
A: YES I LIKE CHOCOLATE AS IF IT WERE MY PROFESSION!! TELL ME MORE ABOUT IT!
Q: YOU ENJOY THIS FLING YOU SEXY CONSUMER. Shamelessly cribbed from lemuria

Why you're probably not named Tricia

escabeche — Tue, 05 May 2009 20:54:23 -0800

What leads cultural tastes and practices to be abandoned? (.pdf) A new PNAS paper by marketing professor Jonah Berger and organizational psychologist Gael Le Mens argues that the faster a trend rises, the faster it's likely to fall, at least as regards longitudinal data of first names given to American children. (Via the Baby Names Blog.) Berger has written before on the drive to non-conform; a 2007 joint paper with Emily Pronin and Sarah Molouki (.pdf) shows that "people see others as more conforming than themselves.... placing more weight on introspective evidence of conformity (relative to behavioral evidence) when judging their own susceptibility to social influence as opposed to someone else's."

Mmm, fully rugged.

Neofelis — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 09:28:31 -0800

Your laptop computer says a lot about you. Maybe my husband and I need to put more thought into our purchases. We'd want to make sure we're projecting the correct images, right? But how does my husband decide whether he's "semi-rugged" or "business rugged"? Dare he even aspire to "fully rugged"? (I hope so!) At least I know where to look first if I need "mobile computing power with that all important feminine touch."

Marketing Gone Bad?

muggsy1079 — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 07:19:59 -0800

The videogames industry's not known for its subtlety when promoting its wares. Controversy has often been a successful part of their marketing campaigns. But is this a step too far? They'll have to go some way to cause more chaos than these guys

Eat Acai, Diet Home

MrChowWow — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 18:43:15 -0800

Nicholle, Amy, Melanie, and Jenny are "in no way affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by the products reviewed , its partners, or subsidiaries."

Bomb, Blitz, Fumble, or Pass - Super Bowl Ads Go Long

taz — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 10:11:35 -0800

It's time to get ready for the Super Bowl... Ads! Adland has freely available archives of 37 years of commercials from the big game, over 2,800 ads - from 1969, when Winston, Salem, Camel, Tareyton, Pall Mall, and Silva Thins smoked up the Bowl *cough-cough*, all the way to 2008, when the best-liked ad was Bud's dalmation inspiration (how do we know it was best liked? SCIENCE!). Some highlights of the collection include: 1969 - Shall we take bets on the least expensively produced Super Bowl ad ever? I'll put my money on Gillette's Techmatic razor ad, but it's also cute and clever, and a great example of vintage animation of the period. 1973 - In what was probably the first Super Bowl "superstar" ad, "Broadway" Joe Namath is so excited because he's "gonna get creamed" by Farrah Fawcett. This is a landmark ad, and the only pre-'90s entry to appear on MSNBC's list of Sleaziest Super Bowl Ads of all time. 1980 - Scary-scary Mean Joe Green melted hearts with his "Hey Kid" Coca Cola ad, which weighs in at #1 on Gawker's list of most memorable Super Bowl ads, though ESPN claims it never debuted during a Super Bowl (see bottom note). This ad was such a winner that Coca Cola hopes to recreate the magic this year with a remake, featuring Coke Zero and Pittsburgh Steeler Troy Polamalu. 1984 - Apple's 1984 ad is certainly one of the most famous Super Bowl ads ever - and also one of the most expensive advertisements in television history, with with a budget of $900,000. It clocks in at #1 on a bevy of lists of best Super Bowl ads. 1994 - With his Wavy Lays ad poor Dan Quayle proved no more exciting in marketing than he was in politics, showing up on this list of television's most forgettable Super Bowl ads. zzzzzzzz. 1999 - A former Miss USA heats up the game with Ali Landry's 1999 Doritos ad, voted by Spike as number one in its list of Sexiest Super Bowl ads. This year also featured the offensive Kenyan Runner ad, called "the ad from hell" by Salon, and voted by Adland as number one on their list of the worst Super Bowl ads ever. 2007 - CGI wins the day with Coca Cola's Happiness Factory ad, chosen by DVICE as number one in its top 10 list of Super Bowl commercials featuring technology. 2008 - While now-President Barack Obama's regional campaign ad made history, Audi's Godfather ad got a heads-up on a lot of lists as #1 for the year, and Tide cleaned up with a (previously) Cannes award-winning spot. So... with the economic situation looking fairly desperate, can we expect 2009 Super Bowl ads to be fewer and less dazzling? Well... apparently, no? BloggingStocks says 2009 Bowl ad sales are strong (or are they?), and MSNBC reports that at $3 million, Super Bowl ad time is ... cheap? Either way, the Wall Street Journal advises Super Bowl ad-watching as stock strategy, and all we know for sure is that we won't be seeing PETA's Vegetarians Have Better Sex ad.

Cross Cultural Marketing Blunders

Chocolate Pickle — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 23:08:49 -0800

Cross Cultural Marketing Blunders -- such as Panasonic's motto, "Touch Woody - the internet Pecker" It's part of the web site for a marketing firm which offers to help international marketers avoid such mistakes, but it's still fun to read.