Now that I’m older and able to put it all in perspective, my indoctrination into the shoe game occurred early in life. And, in a lot of ways, I have to blame my parents because they’re the ones who gave me a subscription to Sports Illustrated when I was maybe eight. In their hearts, they wanted to foster my adolescent love for reading and sports – which they did – but a definite by-product was my exposure to Nike’s earliest and arguably best advertising. Read the rest of this entry »

I would love to tell everyone that I had insider info related to Nike’s current #makeitcount initiative, which has been viral since late December. Unfortunately, I don’t know a damn thing Read the rest of this entry »

Last week, we laughed at the thought of Trina posing as the spokeswoman for Tax USA but she’s neither the first, nor will she be the last rapper to appear in a questionable advertisement. Read the rest of this entry »

Once rap jumped the shark and became commercially viable, artists shilling for corporations chasing the cool made sense. Still, a line exists that will shift a product endorsement from acceptable to side-eye status. Example: Trina as the spokeswoman for Tax USA. Read the rest of this entry »

Ever wondered “How to Advertise a Sex Toy on Primetime Television”? Marvel no more. Take note of how Trojan pulls it off to showcase their new Vibrating Tri-Phoria.

“Trojan recently released a state-of-the-art vibrator: the Triphoria. Three unique tips! The company also figured out how to get cable networks to let them advertise the sex toy during the day: Don’t call it a “vibrator.”

“Trojan just assumed that prudish cable networks would stick their commercial for Triphoria between early-morning reruns of Seinfeld. But the spot does such a good job of just barely indicating what the product does that many networks, including VH1 and Comedy Central, have approved the commercial for early evening and even day slots, according to the Times.

“The key was not mentioning the word “vibrator.” One network exec tells the Times: “No matter how liberal you are, a little kid doesn’t need to hear the word ‘vibrator,’” Instead, the commercial plugs the “vibrating triphoria,” as a “personal massager.”

Read the rest at Gawker.

If you weren’t stuck in a Stuper Bowl haze last year, you might remember Denny’s did the unthinkable and and ran advertisements for free Grand Slam breakfasts for one-day only, which – of course – were so successful the chain of family restaurants decided give the promo another go.

Since we’re all digging through lint these days, I’m sure more than a few of us will see past the hassle and go out of our way to get this mediocre meal for $free.99. But, for those of you that actually think things through, I’ve taken the liberty to Yelp up a few actual customer reactions from last year’s egg-n-toast extravaganza to showcase the chaos you’ll have in store. Read the rest of this entry »

If you get a couple kicks out of f*ucking with your friends…read on.

Last week while sheet creeping with my lady, a very odd voicemail popped up from my phone. It was strange in the sense that my outdated Samsung never rung once, but more so because of the extremely random message that was left. “Hi (Beware), um…I usually don’t do this, but…your friend gave me your number last night at the bar, because when you were there I thought you were cute and well, I hoped you might want to go out and get a drink sometime.” Blah blah blah yada yada yada. As the young lady continued to tempt, I became more and more confused as to how this happened considering I hadn’t even been to the bar in weeks, when the extremely believable female finally said, “Oh and one more thing…I’m not real.” Read the rest of this entry »

WooHa with the win for this analysis of Jay-Z’s multimedia takeover for BP3.

“…As record labels marketing dollars decrease corporate sponsorships seem to give artist an outlet to market themselves to a different audience. As artist become brands, strategic partnerships with other companies are essential for their marketing plans. Read the rest of this entry »

G$™,

Yo big boss man, I was fishing for fodder @ the Consumerist and came across this link to StyleCrave‘s extra-sassy round-up of American Apparel’s 50 Sluttiest Ads of All-Time. Basically a bunch of un-naked naked chicks. Read the rest of this entry »

In a case of one drowning victim latching on to another who’s also drowning, advertising agencies & the entertainment industry are apparently teaming up in an attempt to save each other. Cause & effect has seen advertising suffer in this economy and, as a result, media has felt the blow causing many staples to sink. To try to cope with the changing landscape, advertisers are making fledgling attempts to find new means to hit customers. Two upcoming changes – advertising in CD booklets and ads coming to TiVo. Read the rest of this entry »