This is the kind of praise you kill for in advertising. To do great work, for a great company. And to be recognized for it!
Archive for the ‘Quick Hits’ Category
“Ad not a complete disaster”
Tuesday, June 8th, 2010News Update: Everything is terrible
Friday, June 4th, 2010Just in case you were wondering, everything is still terrible. Also, it is getting worse. Plus, traffic is bad (if you live where I live–I am confident no matter when you click on this link, my statement will hold true).
Happy Friday!
Palin tweets something…stop the press
Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010Lots of news going on, most of it bad. But none more important than this CNN scoop about Palin tweeting about “extreme greenies” and their opposition to off-shore oil exploration.
For those of you who thought “extreme greenies” were a kind-of upper sold at warehouse parties, you’re wrong. The term refers to martians who Palin has dedicated her most vicious rhetoric against after mis-understanding the debate over Arizona’s SB1070 bill.
The cable universe glows a little less brightly
Thursday, May 27th, 2010A cable network built around running re-runs in a dying format aimed primarily at unemployed old people–how could it not succeed?
Luckily, the cable universe operates on a zero-sum principle, so the loss of one network means the addition of another.
Welcome, Disney Jr., targeting the allusive Kids 2-7 demo. Disney co-chair Anne Sweeney says “The launch of Disney Junior in the U.S. is the next step in our global preschool strategy…”
Am I the only one who finds it terrifying that Disney has a “global preschool strategy”? And that it has multiple steps? My God, what are they up to over there and does it involve giant lasers powered by barely potty-trained tikes?
Well, as they say, pre-schoolers are the new tweenagers.
Star hopes for Star-eating Star to Eat Him
Wednesday, May 26th, 2010Because how much self-loathing can one person endure? Let he who has never had a crazy affair with a nazi-loving tattoo artist cast the first stone.
Planet Eating Star?
Tuesday, May 25th, 2010A planet eating star is on the loose. BP vows to make earth less appetizing by covering it with crude oil.
More as this one develops.
Westward Bound
Friday, May 7th, 2010
The llama (Lama glama) is a South American camelid, widely used as a pack and meat animal by Andean cultures since pre-hispanic times.
The WIF Blog is moving west, uprooting our Phoenix offices and relocating amongst the bright lights of Los Angeles. Yes, this is largely a political decision in reaction to recent legislation that, frankly, we at WIF find abhorrent. More to the point, on a practical level it makes conducting business impossible since a vast number of our WIF employees are affected by it.
Of course I’m talking about the new, CRUELLY UNFAIR, banning of animal-human hybrids. Our staff of Lemur-People, carefully engineered to be both funny and tremendous jumpers, will not work in a state that doesn’t value all HUMANS, even humans who are engineered to be part non-human.
It’s clear this is nothing more than a cheap shot at Governor Janet Brewer who is, after all, 74% lama.
Janet brewer chews over immigration reform.
Tax Day!!!
Thursday, April 15th, 2010
For you crazy procrastinators, please remember that today is tax day! That means even if you paid your taxes last year, you have to pay them again, do to one of the many complicated rules in the tax code.
Of course there’s much grumbling that according to a year-old survey, 47% of Americans pay no taxes at all, in part because of loop-holes, but mostly because they are SUPER POOR (or really old). Must be pretty sweet to make so little income that you don’t owe Uncle Sam anything. Obviously, this has people upset because people who don’t pay taxes, to quote Scott A. Hodge (professional idiot), have “no skin in the game” and that “to them, government seems free and politicians can easily convince them to support more and more spending because someone else is going to pay the tab.”
This is so true. First, many people who avoid paying taxes literally have no skin. Instead, they have a tax-resistant leathery armor that makes them extremely difficult to set on fire. Second, he’s right about these non tax-payers being easily manipulated. Just look at this motley group of mostly non tax-payers and their sense of entitlement toward government programs. Obviously they don’t care if government spending keeps increasing, since it directly benefits them! Right?
There’s an even darker side to this avoiding income taxes that Hodge fails to explore. Namely, that many of these same people avoid paying very much in SALES TAXES TOO, largely by not buying things because they’re too poor to afford them! Must be nice.
Wake up America!
Tech Review: The Etch A Sketch 2.0
Monday, April 5th, 2010
Can your iPad do this? Not without little knobs it can't.
Early adapters have been geeking out like crazy over the iPad, which is being hailed as a technological break through that will change the way we interact with electronic content. That might be overstating things. Like all technological advances, the iPad builds on a familiar platform, the Etch A Sketch, and adds to it a few nifty features. As Steve Jobs declares, the iPad is “everything the Etch A Sketch was, but more!” but the question is, if you have a perfectly good Etch A Sketch at home, should you still run out and buy an iPad?
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The Verdict
The iPad builds on some of the things you loved most about the Etch A Sketch. It is responsive to your touch, intuitive to use, rather portable, and outstanding at drawing diagonal, lighting-like lines. Of course one of the major limitations of the original Etch A Sketch was that its web browsing functionality was basically non-existent. This is in part due to the fact that the Etch A Sketch became initially popular in the 1960s when the internet just wasn’t a very big deal. With the iPad you can definitely get on the web, however this advancement comes with a trade-off as now the advice does not allow you to erase the screen simply by shaking it.
Steve Jobs apologizes for iPad's non water-proofness.
While the color display on the iPad is vastly superior to the black-and-gray grainy graphics of the Etch A Sketch, in the name of sleek functionality, the designers have gotten rid of the two twisting knobs, so critical to the Etch A Sketch’s success. Now, if you want to draw a series of right angles, such as steps, you must use a much more complicated graphic design program—look for newer models of the iPad to return to the classic knob interface once the inevitable consumer backlash occurs.
The Etch A Sketch had one terrible flaw, which is that if you bring it in the swimming pool with you and try to use it underwater, the screen fills with water and it becomes unworkable. Sadly, the iPad has similar water resistance issues and it’s not recommended for use in the water at depths greater than 10 feet. This means bored scuba divers hoping to watch an episode of The Office online are still out-of-luck.
Finally, there’s the issue of price. At over $500, the iPad may seem pretty expensive for an internet-ready, color Etch A Sketch, but remember when it first came out, the Etch a Sketch cost nearly $1,200. Over time, you can expect costs to come down to the current Etch A Sketch price of $5-$10.
In conclusion, will the iPad change the way we view the world? Not until it’s water proof.
Advertisement May Finally Have Worked
Tuesday, March 16th, 2010For years, advertisers have desperately tried to find evidence that their advertising does something. Most research is painfully disappointing, showing no clear correlation between ads and actual results. But now, finally a breaking story on an AD CAMPAIGN THAT WORKED. This is really good news. For years, we’ve struggled to establish even the most simplest correlation, and now they’ve finally done it. Anti-smoking groups have not only proven this ad works, but they were able to determine the exact amount of people (and not just people, teenage girls) it got to start smoking! Amazing. A happy day for advertisers everywhere.