Tag Archives: advertising

Jul7

fine print.

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can anyone actually read the fine print on this coupon?

if not,

perhaps you need glasses!

frustrating, but this is no accident 

what great marketing this actually is.

—

‘the best marketing doesn’t feel like marketing.’

-tom fishbourne.

*Tom Fishburne started drawing cartoons on the backs of business cases as a student at Harvard Business School. Fishburne’s cartoons have grown by word of mouth to reach hundreds of thousands of marketers every week and have been featured by The Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, and The New York Times. His cartoons have appeared on a billboard ad in Times Square, helped win a Guinness World Record, and turned up in a top-secret NSA presentation released by Edward Snowden.

Since 2010, Marketoonist has developed visual content marketing campaigns for businesses such as Google, IBM, Kronos, and LinkedIn. Fishburne is a frequent keynote speaker on marketing, innovation, and creativity, using cartoons, case studies, and his marketing career to tell the story visually. He is the author of “Your Ad Ignored Here: Cartoon from 15 Years of Marketing, Business, and Doodling in Meetings”

Mar29

what about bob?

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how my desktop computer setup appeared to me back in the day

—

years ago, in another universe

when i worked in the world of advertising

 I was in an office setting and used a desktop computer

of course it was often the bane of my existence

 but somehow I worked with/around it

getting most of the things I needed to do on my computer done

after a lot of trial and error and who knows what

one day, our long suffering multi-tasking creative/i.t. guy

 came into my office after returning from a conference

he sat down in front of my desk and shared something he’d learned there

  they had talked about how every office has a ‘bob’

a person who could do things to their computer

that they could not explain or get out of

or their computer got so messed up

that the i.t. person had to fix it

but had never seen anything like it before

 they had to try to undo what had been done

 the bob could not explain

how it happened

how they got there

what they were trying to do

he said, ‘beth, you are our ‘bob’

he got up out of the chair and returned to his office.

—

‘in my case, there are only two kinds of hope – bob hope and no hope.’

-eddie the eagle

Sep1

cheers to a cooler september.

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stumbled upon this old ad

for what may have seemed the perfect solution 

to the age-old dilemma: 

what to choose when caught between the seasons?

hot soup or cold drink?

why not just combine them?

—

‘september showed up right on schedule, and lasted a whole month.’

-jenny wingfield, author

 

 

—

image credit: campbell’s soup company, vintage ad, 1962

 

Mar24

tang.

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Tang! The space-age drink that’s still a worldwide staple

When you think of Tang – if you think of Tang at all – you probably think of its association with the United States space program in the 1960s. After all, “Tang was chosen for the Gemini astronauts,” as a 1966 ad for the classic orange drink stated. Gemini was NASA’s second human spaceflight mission in the lead-up to the moon landing. The beverage always will be connected to the golden era of midcentury space exploration, but NASA actually did not invent Tang.

Tang orange drink mix is inextricably tied to ’60s space exploration, but the beverage remains popular today. Tang debuted in 1957 as a vitamin C-packed breakfast drink. Its selling point was that the powdered mix was shelf-stable, and it was promoted as a healthier and more convenient alternative to fresh orange juice. (And while it certainly may be more convenient than juicing oranges to order every morning, the first two items on Tang’s ingredient list are sugar and fructose.)

But General Foods, Tang’s original parent company, had contracts with the military for producing rations and other food items, such as instant coffee. Thanks to these connections and the aforementioned shelf-stable, “just add water” capability of Tang, NASA sent the drink mix into space with John Glenn on his famous orbit of Earth in 1962. General Foods’ advertising strategy shifted to capitalize on the popularity of all things outer space, and Tang henceforth became marketed as the astronaut’s drink of choice.

But Tang isn’t just a space age relic. It’s still popular across the globe, from South America to Asia, and produced in a number of flavors – including pineapple, mango, lemon, calamansi and its newest Filipino flavor,  Coco Plus Buko Pandan. Tang is also a popular drink during Ramadan in the Middle East, according to Mondelez International, the food corporation that now owns the brand.

Not only that, but home cooks around the world have been showing their ingenuity by using Tang in dishes that go far beyond a simple stir-it-up breakfast drink. Some of the popular recipes have been: Tang Creamsicle Pie, Frothy Tang-infused milkshake, Orange chicken, Tang Ice Pops, Tang Ice Cream, Friendship Tea, and Tang Beer.

Tang is an enduringly popular ingredient in kitchens around the world. Even after all these years, Tang remains, to quote the vintage ad, “for spacemen and earth families.”

—

“whoo, what a day! i’m gonna drink tang all day until i forget it all!”

-jhonen vasquez 

 

 

—

Source credits: Casey Barber, CNN, Kraft Foods, General Foods, Monedelez Int., NASA

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jun2

worthless?

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my favorite ads on nextdoor this week:

 

-FREE- round table, terrible condition (see above)

 

-FREE – old milk crate (very dirty)

in good shape except for being really filthy

—

 

(at least i think they are priced fairly)

 

—

“advertising is a valuable economic factor because it is the cheapest way of selling goods,

particularly if the goods are worthless.”

-sinclair lewis

Sep27

the hell with it.

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Reese’s is putting pretzels in peanut butter cups, because ‘the hell with it, it’s 2020’

Alexis Benveniste, from CNN Business, reports the following big news from the world of confections:

This year has been far from sweet, so Reese’s is embracing its salty side by adding pretzels to its peanut butter cups. The Hershey’s candy brand, which launched ‘breakfast cakes’ last month, introduced the newest addition with the slogan: “The hell with it. It’s 2020.”

The candy giant is nervous about Halloween this year, which typically accounts for 10% of Hershey’s annual sales, as the pandemic threatens to put a damper on trick-or-treating. The company is shifting its strategy for what is typically its biggest season. That means less Halloween-focused packaging and more family-sized packs, as many Americans gear up to celebrate at home. Reese’s with pretzels are set to hit stores in November, and the mini cups with pretzels won’t be available until January 2021.

“Let’s face it, we’re all feeling a little bit salty this year,” Ian Norton, Reese’s senior director, said in a statement. “In true Reese’s fashion, we channeled our feelings into sweet and salty deliciousness with new Reese’s Big Cups with Pretzels.”

Hershey, like other confectioners, relies on impulse purchases to drive sales. But people are shopping less during the pandemic, making new and somewhat outrageous candy combinations more important than ever for junk food companies. That’s why there are seemingly two dozen flavors of M&Ms in the candy aisle and a new variety of Lay’s potato chips every month.

—

“fortune befriends the bold.”

-emily dickinson

Apr23

paper product.

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not sure how this amazon product is educational or robust, 
but i’ll agree it’s unique and not surprised it’s ‘in stock.’
maybe the fact that the frog scored a roll of toilet paper appeals?
Puzzles for Adults Jigsaw Puzzles 1000 Pieces for Adults Kids
– Frog Toilet Golf Educational Jigsaw Modern Home Decor Unique Gift
  • 1. Good quality and robust puzzle pieces – 500 pieces.
  • 2.Puzzle is one of the magical games that never go out of style. Enjoy your free time with family and friends, working together with family or friends to complete a puzzle can not only exercise logic and sensory coordination. But it also gives you the opportunity to develop a closer relationship with others and create a joyful atmosphere. Muscles are also used to increase cognitive skills
  • 3. IDEAL FOR ADULTS AND CHILDREN – Perfect for having fun alone or with family and friends. Puzzles are an activity that all ages can enjoy together.
  • 4. FEATURES: Material: paper: Finishing dimensions: approx. 29.53 x 19.69 inches ： Packaging size: 38 x 26 x 5 cm: Package: 1000 puzzle pieces (1 set)
  • 5.PLEASE ATTENTION : DO NOT LEAVE IF YOU INFECT INFANTS. Made with high quality materials and subjected to safety tests.  (what?)
—

“there had to be a market in order for you to be successful in a business. 

the market had to need your business, or the product of it.”

-chuck berry

May2

mosquito.

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tag lines like this are one reason why local ads are the best:

‘should you decide not to call us, save this magazine for swatting.’ 

 

 

—

“a man thinks he amounts to a great deal

but to a flea or a mosquito a human being is merely something good to eat.”

– don marquis 

Nov9

big news.

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small business jeopardy

big news category

one has left and which one is coming?

more to be revealed 

day by day.

any guesses?

“in the business world,

bad news is usually good news

– for somebody else.”

-james surowiecki

 

Mar19

bourbon and boots. (what about the kinders and kittens?)

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Whiskey Lovers Engraved Personalized Whiskey Glasses
Our Whiskey Lover personalized engraved Whiskey glasses make perfect gifts for whiskey lovers and gifts for bourbon lovers. These unusual engraved whiskey drinking glasses are an amazing collection of Whiskey Lovers and Bourbon…
Shop Now!

—

so funny that this brand targeted me

as a demographic match

  a potential interested buyer of their products

based upon my personal interests on Facebook.

apparently i appear to be

a whiskey/bourbon drinking

gun toting

engraved glass collecting

john wayne type.

and a southern lady.

(i guess i am from the south, if you consider michigan “the south”

in relation to the border we share with canada)

—

“the internet is the most important single development in the history of human communication

since the invention of call waiting.”

-dave barry