Macy's Rick Rolled

Christmas House Lights Return

Yeah, But Christmas Isn't Actually About...Christ...Is It?

White House Happy Hanukah cards bear a Christmas tree.

A fitting end to a confused Presidency.

When reached for comment, Laura Bush's spokeswoman, Sally McDonough, said the White House usually prints separate cards, but in the waning days of the presidency, there had been an oversight.

"Mrs. Bush is apologetic," she said. "It is something that just slipped through the cracks."

Mess-A-yah Mess-I-yah, potato potahto, same diff...

What the heck do you Jews want, respect for your beliefs?

Not from dis Prezdent.

Sad: No Facebook/Twitter Deal. I Wanted To Title My Post TwitBook

;-(

Sanjaya the (Unlicensed) Plumber

Watch it here: http://www.velocitystore.com/?page=media

How AIG Is Wasting -- Oh I Mean Spending -- $150B of Our Money

Email Exchange Between the PR Team At AIG and Wonkette, America's funniest political blog. Wonkette, please forgive me for reposting your post, but it is too funny not to have spring up across the web in 10,000 places.

AIG Using Taxpayers’ $150 Billion To Annoy Comedy Blog

The government rescued insurance giant AIG from its own wretched, greedy incompetence by giving the evil company $80 billion $150 billion of your tax dollars. With this insane reward for being an epic failure, AIG was supposed to rebuild its core business — which is insurance, not gambling like a drunken fool and destroying the entire global economy in the process. Instead, AIG is burning through its bailout cash by sending absurd emails to political-comedy blogs demanding clarification on whether the $125 million of taxpayer dollars AIG is spending on English football sponsorships is simply a continuing waste of taxpayer millions or a renewed waste of taxpayer millions.

This is the first of three (3) emails your Wonkette editor received this morning from AIG Media Relations in New York:

From: ____.____@aig.com
To: ken@wonkette.com
Date: Tue, Nov 25, 2008 at 9:49 AM
Subject: regarding your post: Your Most Recent ‘AIG Still Spends Absurd Amounts Of Taxpayer Money On Dumb Things’ News!
mailed-by aig.com

Ken:

You report that AIG is renewing its Manchester United sponsorship. That is not true. We are not renewing our sponsorship with Manchester United, we are in active discussions regarding our pre-existing contract, and in the interim we are eliminating related costs such as marketing, advertising and hospitality.

The story, which was sourced from a story by ABC News, reported that AIG “has no plans to cancel hundreds of millions of dollars in sports team sponsorships.” That is simply inaccurate. AIG has canceled a number of sponsorships around the world. AIG has not renewed long-term sponsorship relationships with marquee names like the New York Yankees, New York Knicks, Houston Rockets, Houston Astros, Madison Square Garden, AIG Japan Open (Tennis), Irish Champion Hurdle (Horseracing), and New Orleans Jazz Fest.

AIG has only a handful of multi-year sponsorship contracts in effect. The company has had discussions with those organizations that we do not intend to renew those contracts when they expire. Regardless of the contractual situation, we are eliminating all costs associated with marketing, advertising and hospitality.

Please don’t hesitate to e-mail or call me if you want some additional clarity.

_____ _______
AIG Media Relations
______ _____ ____
New York, NY 10270
_____.______@aig.com

Your editor skimmed this weird e-mail, laughed at this outrageous attempt at massaging the image of a company whose initials literally stand for “American Inept Greed,” and decided to at least forward it to your associate editors, for laffs, with this note:

Ken Layne to Sara, Jim
Date: Tue, Nov 25, 2008 at 12:07 PM
subject Fwd: regarding your post: Your Most Recent ‘AIG Still Spends Absurd Amounts Of Taxpayer Money On Dumb Things’ News!

These are the people who destroyed the global economy. It’s less surprising when you see how stupid they are, isn’t it?
- Show quoted text -

Your editor was finished thinking about the AIG email, but AIG was not finished thinking about your Wonkette! In fact, a new AIG email arrived while your editor was forwarding the first one to his colleagues:

From: ____.____@aig.com
To: ken@wonkette.com
Date: Tue, Nov 25, 2008 at 12:06 PM
Subject: regarding your post: Your Most Recent ‘AIG Still Spends Absurd Amounts Of Taxpayer Money On Dumb Things’ News!
mailed-by aig.com

Ken:

If you are actively covering AIG, we’d like to be engaged with Wonkette to allow your readers to get answers about AIG directly from the company.

I’d like you to note that today, AIG announced some voluntary compensation restrictions that go beyond the requirements specified by TARP. AIG will have voluntary restrictions on executive compensation that include a $1 salary for its Chief Executive Officer; no 2008 annual bonuses and no salary increases through 2009 for AIG’s top-seven-officer Leadership Group; and no salary increases through 2009 for the 50 next-highest executives, in addition to other bonus, severance and retention award restrictions. AIG is also developing a funding structure to ensure that no taxpayer dollars are used for annual bonus or future cash performance awards for AIG’s “Senior Partners,” the top 60 members of management.

The details are laid out in a press release that we issued this morning (http://ir.aigcorporate.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=76115&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1230022&highlight=).

Let me know if you are interested in engaging. If so, we can establish some rules that are amenable for both of us.

Thank you.

_____ _______
AIG Media Relations
______ _____ ____
New York, NY 10270
_____.______@aig.com

Your editor was now officially annoyed — “establish some rules that are amenable for both of us”?! — and banged out the following reply:

From: ken@wonkette.com
To: _____._____@aig.com
Cc: “Sara K. Smith” “Jim Newell”
Date: Tue, Nov 25, 2008 at 12:22 PM
subject Re: And while you are covering AIG…
mailed-by gmail.com

Dude, Wonkette is a political comedy blog. You live in New York, you work in “media relations,” and you don’t know Wonkette or Gawker or anything? Jesus fucking christ. This is how you clowns are spending EIGHTY BILLION DOLLARS of taxpayer money, whining to comedy blogs? Jesus fucking christ. I am going to post all of these, for hilarity.

The reply arrived moments later:

From: ____.____@aig.com
To: ken@wonkette.com
Date: Tue, Nov 25, 2008 at 12:06 PM
Subject: RE: And while you are covering AIG…
mailed-by aig.com

Ken:

Can you give me a call please.

Nah dude. But we will run the correction you requested! In this post about AIG blowing $125 million of American taxpayers’ money on some limey soccer team, in England, we said AIG would “renew” the spending of $125 million in American taxpayers’ money on a limey soccer team, in England, when AIG says this insane waste of American bailout money is actually just a continuing thing, and not a renewal. Wonkette regrets that AIG got $150 billion in federal bailout money.

Vid Still Growing Like Mad

Despite the weaker than expected economy, online video appears to be poised for continued growth. Check out these massive projections from eMarketer:



See people? Not all the news should make you frown.

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Thanksgiving Turkey Rebellion!

From this phenom Flickr fotog.

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Buick and Tiger: Cat in The Rear View Mirror

GM and Tiger are parting company for "mutual" reasons, which I am guessing have SOMETHING to do with GM being broke. It's sad that this has to happen -- I think that relationship had a lot of value for Buick, which doesn't have a lot else going for it at the mo'.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write

The Anti-Beta Revolution

Jesus Diaz at Gizmodo has called for a revolution against the beta culture -- the idea that it's OK to release buggy unfinished software and apps so long as you slap a beta star burst on the top of it.

I couldn't agree more. As part of what I do for this blog, I download a variety of things to test onto my PCs -- work and home. And I am getting GD tired of crap that locks up my machine, misfires, offers very little or no documentation, and just plain screws up my mornings.

THEN! You try to delete it and find you have to do it the add or remove programs way instead of clicking on an uninstall icon in your programs list. Then! It makes you restart.

I have been extremely forgiving of new offerings on this and other scores, but suffice it to say those days are soon going to be over. As of 1.1.09 I am going to call a crap a crap if "beta" really means sloppy. That doesn't mean I won't forgive the odd problem, but these pieces of dysfunctional half baked crap help no one, and more or less ensure that I will not use the offerings on an ongoing basis.

Now, there are those cynics out there who will correctly point out that you get what you pay for -- when you download a free app, you shouldn't expect something magical.

That is bullpuckey. If the engineers of the world want to create a culture of free, they need to ensure that free doesn't mean broken.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Google Going OEM?

According to ZDNet, Google is considering making OEM deals for Chrome and Google apps, a move that could boost their share of each business, but will naturally cost some money.

A brief excerpt:

This could be just the thing that Google needs to help pull more users into its suite of online applications. Already, popular services like Gmail are integrated with Google’s calendar, IM, voice and video communications tools. And across the tops of Google pages are links to the other properties. Chrome also comes with an application shortcut feature, which allows you to place a shortcut icon on the desktop for a quick direct launch to that application in a new browser window.

Users tend to use the default browser that’s pre-installed on a new computer - which is why Microsoft’s Internet Explorer has long dominated that space. Google is still working out some issues with Chrome, which is technically still in beta, and has been quiet about marketing it. But the company told The Times that, once it’s in full release, the company will be pushing it harder, highlighting all of the extra features (such as the application shortcuts) that differentiates it from other browsers.

Rucy, please splain. Why is it important to grow share in businesses where you make no money? More to the point, how is it economic to spend money on things that you don't earn money on?

I am sure it has something to do with text advertising, but your thoughts would ease my mind. So please splain.

Thanks for reading, and don;t forget to write.

iPhone App Lifestylin'

Feeling iPhone app dissonance? Having trouble picking which ligher flash animation to download and hold up during concerts?

Take heart, Apple feels your pain. That's why they created iPhone Your Life, a special section that offers hand selected bundles of what they consider the best apps. The bundles are designed to fit into five different lifestyles:

Around town
World travel
At home
Getting things done
Fun and games

They made some nice thematic choices, and generally stay away from some of the absurdest of the lot. And I like the idea of giving people info that will help them make the app phenomenon a real productivity aid.

Check it out over at the Apple Store.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Blackberry Storm: iPhone...Grazer?

Lots of people have been calling the Storm an iPhone killer -- after seeing it, I think it will cause more of a grazing wound. By which I mean, not enough to kill, or even hurt for very long, but enough of a wound to help RIM stop losing share to Apple.

The touchscreen is like a giant clickable button versus Apple's, making it quintessentially Blackberry. Except that it, and the "keyboard", have lost some of their ease of use. It appears that you have to lift your fingers completely from one key to another. That slows down the typing speed.

For me at least. Others seem more impressed by the unambiguous clicking thing. Here's a chunk of the Wired review:

But when you want to select something, be it anything from music application to a text message, you have to press down on that screen until it clicks. It’s not much — essentially it’s the same sensation you get when clicking with your mouse — but it makes a world of difference. There’s no ambiguity to button presses. You know exactly what key you have pushed and what application you have selected. Text messaging is a breeze — I was able to compose a lengthy detailed SMS without a single typo.

One really killer feature is text editing, which lets you cut and paste pieces of an email or document and move them. Very cool.

In terms of the essential sexy factor, it's pretty sexy looking, though a scosh bigger than iPhone. But it'll turn heads, which is of course 37.8% of iPhone's appeal.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

$20 Million For GoodMail!

We've talked about GoodMail here before, but the recent announcement about their securing $20MM in additional funding underscores their major success over the past year.

GoodMail offers email certification to marketers that meet their rigid standards for opt-in and other criteria. Consumers viewing their email can see the Certified Email flag on messages from advertisers working with them. The consumer then knows that these messages are items that they have requested, and can read them without fear of wasted time or phishing.

Here's more info on their offering, from Adotas:

CertifiedEmail aims to provide a safe and reliable means for consumers to easily identify authentic email messages from legitimate commercial and nonprofit email senders. Each CertifiedEmail is sent with a cryptographically secure token that assures authenticity and is marked in the inbox with a unique blue ribbon envelope icon, enabling consumers to visually distinguish email messages which are real and sent from email senders with whom they have a pre-existing relationship. Available to email senders meeting strict standards for best practices and low complaint rates, it is the only class of email available that assures delivery of all opt-in email messages to the inbox, with links and images automatically rendered intact, yielding measurable improvements in email effectiveness. CertifiedEmail has been adopted by seven of the nation’s top 10 email mailbox providers and is in use by 500 commercial, government and non-profit senders.

GoodMail is now delivering over 3 billion messages a month, which is of course a ginormous number -- one indicating that both consumers and marketers are welcoming this important innovation.

Congrats to GoodMail!

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Spying On The President Elect: Not A Good Idea, Verizon...

A variety of media sources have reported that unauthorized Verizon employees had accessed Barack Obama's celly account to see what they could see. The account they scrounged was not current, and was for an old flip phone, not his beloved BlackBerry.

Hmm. In an environment in which privacy is under increased scrutiny, I cannot imagine the lads and lasses at Verizon PR were pleased to have all this go down.

I was not pleased with their lame public response, taken from Adotas:

“This week we learned that a number of Verizon Wireless employees have, without authorization, accessed and viewed President-Elect Barack Obama’s personal cell phone account. The account has been inactive for several months.”
“All employees who have accessed the account – whether authorized or not – have been put on immediate leave, with pay. As the circumstances of each individual employee’s access to the account are determined, the company will take appropriate actions. Employees with legitimate business needs for access will be returned to their positions, while employees who have accessed the account improperly and without legitimate business justification will face appropriate disciplinary action.”

Suspended with pay? I call that a paid vacation reward.

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Sarah Palin: The Gift That Keeps On Giving

In case you live under 10 rocks and haven't seen it:



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TAN Debuts Mapvertising!

Well, the people at Travel Ad Network (a C:SF client) have unveiled a nice innovation in advertising called Mapvertising. Partnering with Lat 49, which OLDMTA reviewed a few months ago, the new offering allows users to zoom and pan through maps in which geographically relevant ads appear. Here's some more info from Adotas:

“Lat49’s mapvertising gives us yet another way to provide value through the exclusive nature of our publisher relationships,” says Cree Lawson, TAN’s Founder & CEO. “We see this as a new performance product for our advertisers and a compelling revenue opportunity for our publishers that goes beyond the banner.”

I liked Lat 49 before they had TAN as a partner, but with TAN's market clout there is a big opportunity for them to rapidly grow and develop this style of DR advertising. With a reach of some 25 million, TAN can provide the massive footprint that will enable this offering to get instant popularity.

Buy it through your TAN rep.

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Digital OOH: A Bright Spot In The Ad Spending Midnight

Well, I bow before Mr. Treffiletti again. Cory has consistently been a big believer in digital outdoor, whereas i have poo-pooed it as rather small and insignificant. Well, new info from PQ Media indicates that digital OOH is poised for extremely rapid growth despite the current softness in overall digital ad spending. Here's da numbaz:



Those figures show that digital OOH ain't just whistlin' Dixie.

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Will A "Minute To Move It" Help Burn off those McNugget Bellies?

As part of their Madagascar 2 Movie promo, McDonald's is heralding a special promotion to get kids to take a minute to be active and exercise at various times throughout their days.

For those who don't immediately get the movie connection, Madagascar movies use the classic club song "I Like to Move It Move It" as a sort of anthem.

The project is clearly an effort to take a more prominent role in getting kids to lead less sedentary (read: obese) lives. Here's a portion of their press release on the promo:

"One Minute to Move It encourages kids to take the first step -- one minute -- to do something they love like dancing, planting a flower, reading or writing, with the hope that it will provide inspiration for many more minutes to come," said Mary Dillon, Global Chief Marketing Officer, McDonald's. "This 'fun-with-a-purpose' program represents a fresh new approach to our ongoing commitment to children's well-being."

First-of-Its-Kind Global Research

McDonald's One Minute to Move It program is based on key findings from a first-ever global research study, reaching over 5,000 children ages 6 to 12 and parents across Europe, Asia, Latin America and the United States. Through an independent research company, Just Kid, Inc., McDonald's conducted the study to determine what motivates kids to be active, both physically and mentally, and what role McDonald's can play in helping kids lead a balanced lifestyle. The results were clear and consistent worldwide -- "joy of life" such as laughing, having fun and experiencing new things, and feeling "empowered" to make their own choices ranked the highest for both boys and girls across all ethnicities, ages and geographies.

"Kids' health and well-being includes a number of dimensions such as laughing with their friends, having fun and helping others," said Professor Paul Gately, Carnegie Professor of Exercise and Obesity at Leeds Metropolitan University and a member of McDonald's Global Advisory Council, a group comprised of nutrition and well-being experts in the scientific and academic communities around the world. "One minute is a measurement that kids feel they can accomplish. This campaign focuses on the idea that in every hour there is one minute that we can make more meaningful."

Granted a minute isn't a huge amount of time to burn off those fried apple pies, but the availability of more nutritious food options, and McDonald's leadership in this effort, is a far cry from the company that used to ask us all to Super Size It.



A major portion of the promo is a redesigned happymeal.com which offers a variety of suggestions for what kids can do their moment. Dancing, creating ad endings, and a variety of other activities are highlighted. I like the idea of getting kids to be more active in a variety of ways, which is what this site redesign/reskin is all about.

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Predictions of Gloom For Holiday Sales From Consumer Reports

Consumer Reports has released the results of a poll focused on consumers' gift giving plans for 2008, and the news ain't all bright 'n shiny. Says a section of their release:

Consumer Reports Holiday Shopping Poll also found that some consumers will be starting the holiday season with leftover holiday debt. Six percent of Americans -- some 12 million consumers -- are still carrying debt from last winter's holiday season.

Among the holiday spending cutbacks, 59 percent said they will be giving fewer gifts, and nearly half (49%) will be cutting their travel plans.

Who is most likely to be left off the holiday gift list? Among consumers scaling back on gifts, most (84%) were willing to cut back on buying for themselves. But the family pooch may still get a treat or two. Only 23 percent of respondents plan to cut back on gifts for their pets this season -- far fewer than those willing to cut back on buying for friends and families (40%), service providers (30%) or co-workers (29%).

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More Print Pubs Lean Harder On Electrons As Paper Editions Evaporate

With the Christian Science Monitor going totally digital, and US News cutting its print publication frequency in half, it's apparent that the Print sector is taking the media transformation on the chin.

I find both of these "losses" sad as both pubs were more focused on deep investigations and multiple angles/viewpoints on topics and issues. Hopefully the shift to webbiness won't make them simply headline services for scanning. That would truly be a loss, especially in the case of the monitor.

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Why Achieve When Old Spice Can Do It For You?

Is there anyone who has never googled himself to find out what might be out there about him?

When I typed James Nichols into Google, I found that tragically the first listing is not about me, but rather an English porn actor named James Nichols, which I assure you is not me.

...

Now that you have stopped shuddering at the thought of my being in porn, I'll get back to the subject at hand, which is Swaggerizeme, a new minisite from Old Spice that creates fake news and fame for registrants. You input your name and interests, upload a photo, and fake web presences are created attesting to your fame, fortune, and intelligence.







It's a nice viral idea, and evidence that Old Spice is trying to stake out territory outside of the duuuuurty zone that Axe owns lock stock and barrel. It's a good effort, and yet more evidence that P&G continues to innovate and try new things. Not all of them will yield big dividends, but I applaud their efforts and tenacity.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.