Still watch Saturday morning cartoons? Or, perhaps, The Disney Channel? In case you do, you may soon stop seeing ads for sugary cereals, candy or other unhealthy products. The company is enacting a new policy called the ”Mickey Check” that will only allow for nutritionally-approved products to be sold on their shows, Web sites, or other branded products. On top of this, the company will cut back on sodium in the kids meals served in its theme parks and increase its efforts to promote exercise and healthy eating. Only downside: Due to currently-existing contracts, the ads won’t change over fully until 2015. Hey, Michael Bloomberg: this is how you do it.
Spotted: Politico is using the data from this report, which shows that it literally has a perfect balance between Democratic and Republican voters among its readership, to advertise itself. (The ad links to this story.) Because, you know, it’s better than promoting the fact that it has some of the nastiest comment threads on the entire internet.
Speaking of anti-Obama ads, here’s the early output of Karl Rove’s $25 million campaign to take on the president with attack ads. (Unlike the WTF thing we posted earlier, the attacks are strictly related to fiscal policy.) The Obama camp has already responded with a point-by-point YouTube video. Which is smart.
AdWeek requires you to share certain stories in order to finish reading them. Why would I want to share something I can’t read? And is there anything more desperate a publisher can do? Gross.
I want to talk to the evil stupid-genius that invented this.
This is slightly worse than this image we ganked last week:
Soft paywalls like these are simply terrible ideas.
The overall thesis of what we’re trying to do is empower and highlight interesting creative advertising,” said Derek Gottfrid, Tumblr’s vp of product. “It’s not meant for the direct-response crowd.Derek spoke to me about Tumblr’s new ad platform. Click here to read the article. (via joshsternberg)
For the longest time, we’ve been trying to call Facebook to do business with them and there’s nobody to pick up the call. They’re very focused on the consumer experience, and less focused on revenue and working with advertisers.Tribal DDB co-president of U.S. operations of Mike Parker • Discussing a sudden problem Facebook has — they have big ticket advertisers that want to do business with them, but they can’t even get the social network on the phone. The problem is that big-ticket advertisers want more hand-holding than a self-service ad system is willing to give, and Facebook isn’t really designed for that right now. (To be fair, Google wasn’t for years, either.) If those advertisers would like, we hear Tumblr’s ad strategy is designed for these kinds of companies.
Contrary to what many believe, the central effect of such negative advertising isn’t to move voters from supporting another candidate to backing yours, as Mitt Romney and his allies have discovered during this primary season. The main effect is not even to move undecided voters into your column. No, the real effect of negative advertising is to energize and solidify support among your ideological base while turning everyone else off to the other candidate, the campaign and the entire electoral process. Negative advertising isn’t about changing minds; it’s about altering the composition of the voter pool on Election Day by turning moderate voters into non-voters.The Washington Post’s Stephen Pearlstein • Offering a counterpoint to Ezra Klein’s point from the other night; Pearlstein suggests politicians want people to turn off from the political process, because it helps them stabilize the electoral pool come election time. Which is how we get stuff like Obama eating dog food on an Etch A Sketch with Mitt Romney’s face drawn on it, or something like that.
So, this is what a promotional campaign on Pinterest looks like. (Thanks Panera, though you’re looking way more like Caribou in this photo.) Would you pin this? About 200 people have so far.
Etch A Sketch may not have a political position, but it knows when to capitalize on a trend involving its suddenly-popular product. (Click for more.)
But seriously … I am not kidding.
I’m not watching all of...
Yahoo wants to buy Hulu now too. They’re going on an “I...
I’m moving back to New York in a few days. Unlike past...
OMG. I got so...
In this week’s Newsweek, a little...
Tumblr this morning. [h/t anne]
#@#$%!.tumblr.com
Hey, Belvedere, here’s a free marketing tip: Sex sells! Rape, on the other hand, doesn’t. Unless it’s the first half of a horror film, and it’s followed by the victim exacting sweet revenge on her assailants. Belvedere pulled the ad an hour after tweeting it, and promptly apologized, but still, we’re rather shocked this got past even the initial stages of consideration. source
How do smart phones work? Sony’s attempt to kickstart its mobile phone line begins anew with the help of the Wes Anderson-directed clip above. Creation of the 62-second ad required 9 unique sets, 37 custom-made models, and over 10,000 man hours of labor. While charming, we have to wonder, was the ad really worth it? Did the combined imaginations of an eight-year old and Wes Anderson make you an Xperia convert? source
Google was the rich kid who, after having discovered he wasn’t invited to the party, built his own party in retaliation. The fact that no one came to Google’s party became the elephant in the room.Former Google (and current Microsoft) employee James Whittaker • Discussing why he left the company. One word and a symbol: Google+. Whittaker had some tough words for his former company, comparing them to a TV network that’s now focused on the commercials instead of creating great shows. This is the second-most-scathing open letter of the day; most days, it would easily be in first place. However … why did he go to Microsoft? It’s not like they’re seen as being much better about innovation *cough* Courier *cough*.
Everything you need to know about the culture at SXSW, in one image. (photo by Geoffrey A. Fowler/The Wall Street Journal)
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