Toy Story 3 didn’t win Best Picture this year. I wouldn’t mind so much if I thought it ever had a real fighting chance. It didn’t win for one simple reason: It’s animation. No other reason. While I haven’t seen all the other nominees this year, I have seen True Grit and Inception. TS3 was [...]
Archive for February, 2011
Why The Oscars’®©™ Best Picture award is a farce
Posted: February 28, 2011 in Academy Awards, Movie, Movies, Oscar, Pixar, Toy Story, Toy Story 3Tags: Academy Awards, Academy Of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Oscar, Pixar, Toy Story, Toy Story 3
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Restaurant chain learns mass-murder doesn’t make for funny advertising
Posted: February 22, 2011 in advertising, Death as marketing opportunity, Marketing, Marketing blunders, Marketing Mistakes, RestaurantTags: Death, Jonestown, Marketing, Marketing blunder, Marketing blunders, Marketing mistakes, Restaurant
For some reason The Hacienda restaurant chain thought an ironic reference to Jonestown was the basis for an ad. Billboards in South Bend, Ind., read “We’re like a cult with better Kool-Aid’ and ‘To die for.” (Did someone tell them South Bend is a hot-bed of irony? They were misinformed.) The ads were up for [...]
The joys of the writing business or, would you pay your plumber $3.50 per job?
Posted: February 21, 2011 in Chicago Cubs, Craigslist, Cubs, journalism, Journalism?, Writing, Writing, WritersTags: business, Chicago Cubs, Craigslist, Journalism?, The Chicago Cubs, Writers, Writing
Two ads found on Craigslist: Professional Writers for Book Proposals (Harvard Square) Prominent Anthropologist and Family Therapist seeks professional writers and journalists in the Boston area for Book Proposals. Confidential Titles are: 1. Woman Unite! Does America need a Lysistrata like Ancient Greece to stop our Economic and Military Insane Wars? 2. God’s Last Call! [...]
Tarted-up Perry The Platypus wins Toy group at Wesminster Dog Show
Posted: February 15, 2011 in Disney, Dogs, Marketing, Marketing to kids, Perry The Platypus, Westminster Kennel ClubTags: Disney Channel, Malachy, Pekingese, Perry The Platypus, Phineas & Ferb, Phineas and Ferb, Westminster Dog Show, Westminster Kennel Club
Last night an alleged “Pekingese” named Palacegarden Malachy won the Toy group at Westminster. HE IS AN IMPOSTER! As the pictures below prove “Malachy” is in actuality Perry The Platypus in shag carpeting! J’Accuse! My suspicions were raised when Mrs. CollateralDamage pointed out that someone had entered a cube of fur in the competition. [...]
Illegal immigration + video game = stupid
Posted: February 10, 2011 in Apple, Immigration, iPad, iPhone, iPhone apps, iPod, Marketing, Marketing blunders, Marketing MistakesTags: Apple, Apps, Immigration, iPad, iPod, Marketing, Marketing blunder, Marketing mistakes
You’d think the formula would be self-evident but … noooo. Last year Spain’s Popular Party put up a game that let players bomb illegal immigrants. This year we have Smuggle Truck a game for iPod and iPad from Boston’s own Owlchemy Labs.The aim of the game is to keep immigrants in the bed of a [...]
Groupon tries to spin away from its Super Bowl ad
Posted: February 8, 2011 in China, Groupon, Marketing, Marketing blunders, Marketing Mistakes, Offensive, Super Bowl, TibetTags: China, Groupon, Marketing, Marketing blunders, Marketing mistakes, Offensive, Super Bowl, Super Bowl ads, Tibet
After offending pretty much everyone – including the Chinese government – with its horrible ad which said, “You can’t save Tibet but we can save you money at a Tibetan restaurant, Groupon is hoping spin will save it from having to say it’s sorry. Groupon founder Andrew Mason wrote in his blog: "We would never [...]
It wasn’t just you: Ad Execs unimpressed by this year’s crop of Super Bowl ads
Posted: February 7, 2011 in advertising, CMO.com, Football, Marketing, Super BowlTags: CMO.com, Football, Marketing, Super Bowl, Super Bowl ads
I am now writing for CMO.com. Here’s my first story: This was one of those rare years when the Super Bowl game outshone the Super Bowl ads. While the Pittsburgh Steelers kept viewers interested by threatening a historic comeback, many of the TV spots felt like reruns, ad agency executives told CMO.com. “The advertising was [...]
Kenneth Cole is early favorite in Biggest Marketing Mistakes of 2011 competition
Posted: February 4, 2011 in Anderson Cooper, Egypt, Egyptians, Kenneth Cole, Marketing, Marketing blunders, Marketing Mistakes, TwitterTags: Anderson Cooper, Egypt, Kenneth Cole, Marketing blunder, Marketing blunders, Marketing mistakes, Shoes, Twitter
Really? You really thought this was funny? Really? Actual humor would have been, “Anderson Cooper was beaten up because people thought he was our new spring collection.” No, wait… I wasn’t intending to make light of a serious situation. Why is it I can’t put “Anderson Cooper” and “serious situation” in the same sentence with [...]
Disney puts straw in exactly the wrong place on this Princess™® sippy cup
Posted: February 3, 2011 in Disney, Marketing, Marketing blunders, Marketing Mistakes, Marketing to girls, Marketing to kidsTags: Disney, Marketing blunder, Marketing blunders, Marketing mistakes, Marketing to children, Princess
I’d ask “What were they thinking?”, but I’m pretty sure thinking wasn’t involved in the process. Or, as Mrs. CollateralDamage put it over at her widely read blog BrokeHoedown I do not even know how to caption this. I found it difficult enough to just write the alt text for the image. Wow.
Is DiGiorno Pizza’s “Wyngz” the WORST product name ever?
Posted: February 2, 2011 in Bad Brands, Bad ideas, Brand Names, Fast Food, Food, Kraft, Marketing, Marketing blunders, Marketing Mistakes, Marketing to kids, Pizza, Satire, Steven ColbertTags: Colbert Report, DiGiorno, Kraft, Marketing, Marketing blunder, Marketing mistakes, Pizza, Steven Colbert, Wyngz
Well, probably not. But it’s up there, that’s for sure. As Steven Colbert explains, the name is the result of a horrible combination of Federal regulation and Kraft’s desire for something trademarkable™. According to the Feds, if a “wing-shaped” or “bite-size appetizer product” doesn’t contain any “wing meat” it cannot be labeled as a “chicken [...]
