For Bloom, ad deals are a rose

Oh, Orlando Bloom. Is there anything he does that isn’t charming and wonderful? AdFreak didn’t think so. The British actor, whose Cameron Crowe film Elizabethtown opens today (to less than stellar reviews), has said he thinks celebrity advertising contracts are a GOOD thing. In 2002, Orlando (pictured here in a still from Elizabethtown) was directed by Crowe in a Gap spot, "Denim Invasion," with fellow Brit actor Kate Beckinsale, and more or less said the copious amounts of cash movie stars get for the ads allows them to pursue their art without sacrificing their high-rolling lifestyles. Really. "The world's an ever changing place,” he said. “You see movie stars advertising all sorts of things today, for whatever reason, and it may be that it affords them the luxury to do smaller movies, or to go and do a play.”  Marketers have nothing to lose by signing him up for promotion deals. Kind of like Sting in leather pants made AdFreak completely ignore the selling-out aspect and want to run out and buy a Jaguar S-Type.

—Posted by Celeste Ward

Published on October 14, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (3)

Limbaugh applies to be übersexual

How did we miss this? How come we didn’t notice until now that in yesterday’s New York Post, Rush Limbaugh applied for a gig as an übersexual? (An übersexual, as you might recall, is a “more masculine male” than his ancestor, the metrosexual.) Anyway, apparently the conservative talk show host told his listeners that because the übersexual represents a return to "what men used to be before feminists came along and neutered them" he deserved to be on the list—which was created by JWT’s Marian Salzman in the new book “The Future of Men.” That would put him in the company of a lot of liberals and suspected liberals who are already on the list including Bill Clinton, George Clooney, Barack Obama and Jon Stewart. JWT’s Bob Jeffrey wasn’t so convinced Limbaugh qualified, and told the Post he’d offer up the agency’s rebranding services to Limbaugh, free of charge.

—Posted by Catharine P. Taylor

Published on October 14, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Larry David is everything and everyone

This teaser commercial for HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm isn’t new, but we’ve been doing some catching up this morning. The print campaign for the show’s new season featured crowds of people all with Larry David’s head. Here, Larry’s head does some loftier jumping around—it’s seen on Mount Rushmore, the Sphinx, the Cristo Redentor, the Easter Island heads, etc. “If inspiration comes through example, just look to the one who has led the way,” the British voiceover says. It’s hysterical, particularly when the music switches halfway through from a soaring, inspirational score to the bouncy Curb theme song. Larry, apparently, is both human and superhuman.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on October 14, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm lovin' peelin'?

It's no secret that AdFreak is easily amused. But at a recent visit to our end-of-the-block McDonald's, even we didn't find the restaurant cup-copywriter's removable-sticker fetish all that hilarious. "Peeling is fun!" text screamed above the two detachable game pieces on our large soft drink cup. It was there, of course, to promote McDonald's Monopoly 3.0 game, running now through mid-November via the Web and stickers attached to various product packages. But let's get this straight: For most people, peeling is not fun. Did the previously-mentioned cup-copywriter think we wouldn't have bothered to remove our game pieces had we not been told it would be a blast? Did he or she think, "No, we can't just rehash that 'Peel me, I dare you' text we're using on the Web site." We gotta try something really crazy on the cups!" Or did a focus group of closet sticker-peelers report that a good ol' fashioned approach like "Peel here and win" was just "too vanilla"? As far as the Monopoly game is concerned, there are plenty of reasons to say "I'm lovin' it"—regardless of how or with whom that's accomplished. It is definitely fun to win prizes like $1 million, movie walk-on roles, iPods and more McDonald's large soft drinks. But when we're eating our 3-piece Chicken Selects with a side of well-done hash browns, we do not care to recall that 1996 trip to Jamaica, the one where we came back looking like Freddy Krueger ... and peeled.

—Posted by Randi Schmelzer

Published on October 14, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (1)

Dr. Sam Gustard, DDS, Imposter

One of the best New Yorker cartoons of all time shows a dog at a computer telling another mutt, “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.” In the blogosphere, it would seem, nobody knows you’re not Google’s live-in dentist. When a blog popped up purportedly from the Google dentist, who lives inside the mysterious Googleplex and treats engineers who drink too much soda, several blogs gleefully linked to the Blogger site, operated by “Sam Gustard, DDS.” (The San Jose Mercury News' Silicon Beat jumped all over Dr. Gustard’s site as part of what would seem to be a corporate mandate there to cover to death anything relating to Google, judging by the paper’s fascination with Google’s cafeteria services.) Trouble is, it seems that while Google does offer on-site dental care, the company forces its dentist to brave Silicon Valley traffic and go home. Dr. Gustard’s impersonation rudely exposed, Silicon Beat has beat a retreat with a humble “whoops.” Dr. Gustard would be advised to contact Jeremy Blachman, who parlayed his fake (and hilarious) Anonymous Lawyer blog into a nice big publishing deal.

—Posted by Brian Morrissey

Published on October 14, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Filed under Morrissey

Payless steps ahead of other e-tailers

Online shoppers at Payless ShoeSource may not fit the definition of “well-heeled,” but at least they get a little respect. Check that— a lot—of respect, according to The Customer Respect Group of Ipswich, Mass. In a survey of 53 major retailers, Payless came out tops based on CRG’s criteria of email response, helpfulness, confidentiality of data and other factors. “Payless did especially well after rebuilding its site with a strong customer focus since the last study and was by far the most improved site,” according to CRG. On a scale of 1 to 10, Payless earned a rating of 8.1, followed by CVS (8), L.L. Bean (7.9), Liz Claiborne (7.9). Blockbuster (7.8), DVD Empire (7.8), Wal-Mart (7.8), Nike (7.7), Amazon.com (7.6), and Barnes & Noble (7.6). For all retailers, responsiveness improved noticably this year, according to the survey. Across the board, only 9 percent of customer emails were ignored, compared to 22 percent in last year’s survey. The percentage of email responses within 24 hours also improved to 65 percent, up from 40 percent.  And the helpfulness of the replies improved to 74 percent from 67 percent, according to CRG. Now, you can buy that pair of Faux Suede Karsyn Bow Slings ($16.99) with confidence.

—Posted by Richard Williamson

Published on October 13, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (1)

Rolling Stones slip up on soap

So I was catching up with the news that the Rolling Stones are going to create buzz for one of their new tunes— “Streets of Love”—by placing the song and video in an episode of Days of Our Lives that’s airing next week (Oct. 18) and then making it a recurring theme for one of the soap’s storylines. I tend to applaud any effort on the part of a group—especially one that plays songs that no longer get much airplay—to market their product by any means necessary; it’s apparent the Stones’ bedtime reading is the U2 Aging Rocker Marketing How-to Manual, at least in terms of finding ways to give a new tune some reach and frequency without relying on radio. But they must’ve skipped the chapter about doing it in the right context. C’mon … Days of Our Lives? Couldn’t Mick & Co. have swung a deal with CSI or Lost?

—Posted by Catharine P. Taylor

Published on October 13, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

What's with the rat teaser campaign?

Something has been driving me crazy all week. Not the constant rain. The Great Pointed Archer Society. First, there were the ads in advertising trades, showing rats being neglected while other animals like pigeons were being fed and cooed over. Then there was the Web site, www.greatpointedarcher.com, which was purported to be dedicated to changing the name of rats to "great pointed archers" and offering up a host of  rat "facts," like "a great pointed archer's fur smells like grape soda." And today, there was an email, asking me, as a "media representative," "when writing or developing future stories referencing rats, please kindly use the term 'Great Pointed Archer' instead of the 'R' word." OK, its obviously a joke devised by some cleverer-than-thou agency, although a Google search of a name mentioned in the email, Debbie "The Rat Lady" Ducommun, reveals that she is in fact, a real person. So what kind of a hoax is this? It's unclear, but it brings to mind a quote from one of my favorite writers, Mary Gaitskill, asked to comment this week in New York magazine about the possibility that author JT LeRoy might also be a hoax: “It’s occurred to me that the whole thing with Jeremy is a hoax, but I felt that even if it turned out to be a hoax, it’s a very enjoyable one. And a hoax that exposes things about people, the confusion between love and art and publicity. A hoax that would be delightful and if people are made fools of, it would be okay—in fact, it would be useful.” My head hurts.

—Posted by Mae Anderson

Published on October 13, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (2)
Filed under Anderson

‘BusinessWeek’ unveils Fine’s media blog

One of the things we’ve enjoyed about the first week of Fine on Media, the brand-new media and advertising blog from BusinessWeek’s Jon Fine, are the time stamps on the items. The blurb about the Wall Street Journal’s Saturday edition? Posted Tuesday morning at 1:10 a.m. Possibly while Fine was wearing pajamas. That’s the spirit. Fine on Media joins other BusinessWeek blogs such as David Kiley's Brand New Day. As far as the content goes, Fine’s done a couple of items a day so far, and he’s focusing more on people like Bill Keller than people like Steven Seagal. But he’s having his share of fun, including printing a priceless quote yesterday from an ANA conference speaker who described the ad industry (apparently unironically) as “the most socially responsible industry in America.” UPDATE: CMO’s Constantine von Hoffman tells us the mystery speaker was none other than the ANA’s own Bob Liodice. Read more about it on Hoffman’s excellent blog, Collateral Damage.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on October 13, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (1)

Steve Jobs kills 30-second spot

We’d heard that Steve Jobs’ press conferences draw huge online audiences, so last night, playing a role we’re unaccustomed to—an Apple groupie—we logged on to the one hour and 20 minute Quicktime of Jobs’ unveiling of the video iPod. (For the record, we didn’t completely geek out during this exercise. We multi-tasked by sorting laundry.) And we came away much more convinced than we had been earlier that not only is the video iPod a watershed, but, sorry advertisers and agencies, that commercial TV may just be f*cked, and it’s going to hurt advertisers much more than it will hurt the networks. Jobs, with a little help from his relatives at Disney, has just applied a price-point to commercial-free network content and the price, even for Desperate Housewives, is so low—at $1.99—that it makes the decision to purchase pretty damn easy. Layer on the fact you don’t need to even own a video iPod to own the content—you can just download it onto your PC—and, well, we said it already. Buckle your seatbelts, ladies and gentlemen.

—Posted by Catharine P. Taylor

Published on October 13, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (12)

Apple unveils new silhouette ads

For now even Apple is still doing commercials, and so, among Jobs’ myriad announcements yesterday is that the company (with TBWA\Chiat\Day, which received no mention during the press conference) also changed the iPod silhouette ads. During the press conference, he showed a silhouette commercial featuring Eminem and “Lose Yourself” done in fiery yellows and oranges; the new look can best be described as silhouette-ad-meets-Jackson-Pollock, since the colors come from great splotches of paint, that at the end drip down the “canvas” that says “iPod + iTunes.” The ad was way cool (but, hey, we’d like a toilet-bowl cleaner ad if it used “Lose Yourself”). But on reflection, what made the original ads so powerful was the boldness and clarity of the color contrasted with the black and white. These new ads, which Jobs said took at least two years to conceive, look, by contrast, sort of muddy. We don’t think the commercial is available for stand-alone streaming yet at Apple.com, but you can see it if you go to the Jobs Webcast here and land at about 31:30 in the press conference. Enjoy.

—Posted by Catharine P. Taylor

Published on October 13, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (3)

No "Waiter, there's a finger in my chili" jokes

This goes without saying: in this contest, jokes about severed fingers in food are forbidden. Wendy’s is currently doing a promotion—now in the finalist stage—that attempts to promote clean comedy. Comedians from around the country submitted videos of 2 to 3 minute snippets of their acts, free from obscenities, sexually explicit material, or lewd, offensive or derogatory references. Wendy’s “Stand Up for Good Taste” Comedy Challenge will now send the five finalists to a laugh-off at The Comedy Festival in Las Vegas next month. Anyone who gets on the Web site to rate the 15 semi-finalists will be registered to win a trip to Vegas as well. Ratings go from 1,“Didn’t crack a smile” to 10, “Laughed till it hurt,” So get on to see Steve Mazan rip on car insurance in California, and see how Warren B. Hall keeps his love life interesting.

—Posted by Celeste Ward

Published on October 12, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Apple announces end of world as we know it

To the surprise of no one, Apple has finally come clean and announced the launch of the video iPod, in 30- and 60-gigabyte versions, and now available in that color that never goes out of style: black. It’s being promoted through another 30-second TV ad featuring U2, this time with the band playing “Original of the Species.” You can check it out here. But the coolest news is this: In a deal with ABC, people will be able to download their favorite shows on the network to their iPod the day after they air, commercial-free, for only $1.99 each! Of course, the video iPod development raises the specter of the video iPod ad. Can’t you just picture the moment when you’ll have to watch a little 15-second ad for Prilosec before you get to watch your favorite video? Jeez, this is a great invention, and all we can think about is the commercial glut. Perhaps we should be thinking happier thoughts. Then again, we always feel a little out of sorts when our paradigm suddenly shifts.

—Posted by Catharine P. Taylor

Published on October 12, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (1)

Blond, James Blond

Several media outlets are tentatively naming relatively unknown Brit actor Daniel Craig as the next person to take on the role of the ageless, martini-swilling international spy James Bond in the franchise's next film, Casino Royale. Sean Connery originated the role in Dr. No in 1962. The actors who followed Connery—George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan—had mixed results. More famous in England than the U.S., Craig has appeared in the movies Layer Cake, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and Sylvia, among others. Craig's potential choice as the sixth spy and the only blond one, is causing some controversy. In fact, Craig might be forced to go brunette before he takes over the role. "I think they'll undoubtedly have to dye his hair," commented Graham Rye, the editor and publisher of the 007 magazine.

—Posted by Lisa van der Pool

Credit: Tama Herrick/Zuma/Newscom

Published on October 12, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Filed under James Bond

Say hello (or don’t) to the übersexual

Remember when “girls were girls and men were men” to quote Archie and Edith Bunker? Used to be there were men and there were men’s men. Men worked office jobs and came home at night, hopefully to a steak and a cold beer. Men’s men were lumberjacks and football heroes, playboys and fighters and country music legends (think Johnny Cash, not Kenny Rogers). A few years ago, pop-culture maven Marian Salzman, now with JWT, embraced the term metrosexual to define the kind of eyebrow-waxing, glycolic facial-getting, fashion-obsessed male who seems exhausted by his own aesthetic regime. Now deemed passé by the very marketing tycoons who created him, the new “it guy” is the “übersexual.” The übersexual is still concerned with his looks, but he’s “a more masculine male,” Salzman tells the New York Daily News. Less Ryan Seacrest, more Bill Clinton, according to Salzman. Less David Beckham, more Bono. “He likes to watch sports with the guys, and he’s not bothered by his sexuality,” Salzman explains. I’ll let the puzzling phrase “not bothered by his sexuality” go and comment instead on the big picture. This is not a demographic. These are simply men who are not slobs. We used to call them dapper, well-groomed, coiffed. The Brits said they were natty. Cowboys called them dandies. They were smooth, stylish or smart. They had depth and subtlety and individuality. Most important, they were not emasculated by a moniker that lumps former U.S. presidents in with any guy who has enough sense to match his belt to his shoes. So please, before we latch on any further to this or any other classification of man, let’s follow Archie’s advice and “stifle it.”

—Posted by Deanna Zammit

Photo: PR Newswire Photo Service

Published on October 12, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (6)

Deutsch hosts book party/circus

At his book party at the Chambers Hotel last night, “business rebel” Donny Deutsch welcomed a colorful cast of characters, including the Rev. Al Sharpton, Bobby Flay, Victoria Gotti, Lisa Gastineau, Richard Kirshenbaum, Michael Roth and Bill Rancic from The Apprentice. It was a Mini-Me away from being an episode of The Surreal Life. This morning in the New York Post, Cindy Adams weighs in, having entertained Deutsch at her home on Monday night. On the subject of his book, he tells Adams: “It’s not my life story, which nobody gives a s—— about, but this is about empowerment. I’ve accomplished a lot. I’ve learned stuff. I thought I had a lot to offer. Besides, seeing your name on a book is really a big f———— deal.”

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on October 12, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

PETA, phones and Pamela Anderson

We knew there was a link between PETA and tofu, but PETA and China Telecom? Apparently so, according to this story, and there’s some Pamela Anderson thrown into the mix, too. The actress (not sure that’s an accurate description) appears topless, but with her back to the camera, on 70,000 phone cards from the government-owned telephone company, telling the Chinese to give fur the “cold shoulder.” The image is a scaled-back version of an earlier PETA ad starring Anderson which appeared on bus shelters in China and had to be altered three times before it passed muster with government censors.

—Posted by Catharine P. Taylor

Published on October 12, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (2)

More ads? Only in the eye of the beholder

USA Today reports this morning that consumers are whining again about an increasing glut of commercials getting in the way of their favorite series. But the story, which mostly talks about ABC, points out that in fact, it’s just a perception—probably brought on by a rejiggering of when the network airs its commercials. At the start of the season, ABC told all of its dramas to change from presenting four acts per episode to six, with a long opening segment followed by a series of shorter ones. But our favorite part of the story was this spin-of-the-week quote from ABC sales chief Mike Shaw, speculating that people "feel that way because they love the show so much, that they really notice it when the breaks are there." (Addendum: Does it figure that when you go to ABC's site in search of their logo it automatically shows a clip from one of the network's hit shows, preceded by a commercial, without giving you the option of turning the ad off? Yeah, it does.)

—Posted by Catharine P. Taylor

Published on October 12, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

The creepiest marketing story ever told

If you want to creep yourself out about the future of marketing, one anecdote on the Word of Mouth Marketing Association blog should do the trick. Seems a guy named Tom Coates, who works for the BBC, posts a long item on his personal blog, plasticbag.org, about how he hasn’t spoken to his father in 30 years. Among the sympathetic postings is one from a “Barry Scott,” who says he went through a similar ordeal but decided to make amends with his dad. He even says Coates can "drop [him] a line" if he needs further support. But as it turns out, Barry Scott doesn’t exist—except as an alleged spokesperson for Reckitt Benckiser’s household cleaner Cillit Bang. Here’s a link to a blog supposedly authored by Barry Scott—yuck!—and a bunch of speculation as to who Barry might be. While it’s obviously atrocious form for a spokesperson, real or imagined, to comment to someone’s post about their estranged dad, it was even harder to fathom the company’s apology, sent to Coates via PR agency Cohn & Wolfe. It reads, in part, “The Barry Scott character has appeared in a number of spoof websites and weblogs, created by people unconnected to the Reckitt Benckiser brand. The weblog posting on your site was not endorsed by Reckitt Benckiser or any of the advertising agencies that are mentioned and was a one-off error from which lessons have been learnt.” What exactly is that supposed to mean?

—Posted by Catharine P. Taylor

Published on October 11, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (1)

News flash! Geeks talk up a geeky movie

Ain’t it uncool news: The results are in from Grace Hill Media’s futuristic way of talking up movies in cyberspace: through good old-fashioned, low-ticket-item bribery. The PR firm promoted Universal Pictures’ sci-fi flick Serenity by setting up advance screenings for bloggers last month, on the condition that they agree to “post a pre-written paragraph” about the movie on their blogs—in other words, run a free ad (disguised as viral chatter) in exchange for seeing the movie early and gratis. According to Mediapost, Serenity did earn exponentially more blog posts, as measured by Technorati, than did its main opening-weekend competitor, Disney/Touchstone’s Flightplan. Of course, there is the young male geek factor to consider. Is it that surprising that a converted sci-fi TV series would create more buzz online than an abrasive-looking raging-mother movie starring Jodi Foster and a fire extinguisher? Also noteworthy: Flightplan earned more at the box office during its opening weekend.

—Posted by Gregory Solman

Published on October 11, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Apple picks 50 top songs from commercials

We’ve talked about music in advertising, and we’ve talked about our iPods. But not until today have we combined the two. Apparently, Apple has put together an iTunes playlist for people who can’t get enough of songs used in commercials. The list, “Commercial Success—50 Songs That Sell” (scroll to the bottom of the page) has a lot of tracks you’d expect, such as the Cars’ “Just What I Needed” (Circuit City) and Iggy Pop’s “Lust for Life” (Royal Caribbean). But it is a bit self-serving—three of the 50 songs are from ads for Apple’s iPod nano or Motorola’s iTunes-enabled Rokr phone. And in my opinion, not all of the songs count—songs used to promote TV shows, for example, like the Eurythmics’ “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This),” used in The Apprentice: Martha Stewart. And it’s missing a few choice songs: Trio’s “Da Da Da” and Nick Drake’s “Pink Moon” (both used for Volkswagen) come to mind. But there are some revelations. (Who knew that it was Faith No More covering the Commodores’ “Easy” in that Levi’s commercial?) And for $50, it’s a perfect buy for ’Freaks who can’t get enough of ads. Below is the complete list.

—Posted by Aaron Baar

1. The Resource featuring Jimmy Napes, “Gimme That” (iPod nano)
2. Bent Fabric, “Jukebox ” (Cingular/AT&T Wireless)
3. The Faders, “No Sleep Tonight” (Motorola ROKR)
4. DJ Kane, “Brinca” (Motorola Rokr)
5. Johnny Cash, “I’ve Been Everywhere” (Choice Hotels)
6. The 5.6.7.8’s, “Woo Hoo” (Vonage)
7. Faith No More, “Easy” (Levi’s)
8. The Ramones, “Blitzkreig Bop” (Diet Pepsi)
9. Tennessee Ernie Ford, “Sixteen Tons” (GE)
10. The Wynona Riders, “Kids In America” (Kmart)
11. Bill Withers, “Use Me” (GMC)
12. Blue Öyster Cult, “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” (Bones)
13. Kansas, “Dust in the Wind” (Subaru)
14. Better Than Ezra, “Juicy” (Desperate Housewives)
15. The O’Jays, “Love Train” (Coors Light)
16. Nonpoint, “In the Air Tonight” (E*Ring)
17. Louis Armstrong, “A Kiss to Build a Dream On” (Visa)
18. Five for Fighting, “100 Years” (JP Morgan Chase)
19. Train, “Get to Me” (Cingular/AT&T Wireless)
20. Hilary Duff, “Wake Up” (Kohl’s)
21. The Cars, “Just What I Needed” (Circuit City)
22. Cher, “Song for the Lonely” (Weight Watchers)
23. Israel Kamakawiwo’ole, “Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World” (Hallmark)
24. M.I.A. , “Galang” (Honda)
25. Bruce Hornsby, “Gonna Be Some Changes Made” (Lowe’s)
26. Spice Girls, “Wannabe” (Citibank)
27. Electric Light Orchestra, “Do Ya” (Monster)
28. Love Unlimited Orchestra, “Love’s Theme” (“Got milk?”)
29. Scorpions, “Rock You Like a Hurricane” (TGI Fridays)
30. Eurythmics, “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” (The Apprentice: Martha Stewart)
31. M.C. Hammer, “U Can’t Touch This” (Purell)
32. Robert Palmer, “Simply Irresistible” (Applebee’s)
33. KC & The Sunshine Band, “Keep It Comin’ Love” (Blockbuster)
34. The Edgar Winter Group, “Free Ride” (Citgo)
35. Squeeze, “Tempted” (Dentyne)
36. Hot Chocolate, “You Sexy Thing” (Dr Pepper)
37. Billy Preston, “Nothing from Nothing” (Fidelity)
38. The Lovin’ Spoonful, “Do You Believe in Magic?” (Kohl’s)
39. Vangelis, “Chariots Of Fire” (Nike)
40. Kasabian, “Club Foot” (Pontiac)
41. The Carpenters, “Top of the World” (Aquafina)
42. Iggy Pop, “Lust for Life” (Royal Caribbean)
43. Iron & Wine, “Such Great Heights” (M&M’s)
44. John Sebastian, “Welcome Back—Theme from Welcome Back, Kotter” (Mylanta)
45. Alec Empire, “The Ride” (Acura)
46. The Allman Brothers Band, “Melissa” (Cingular/AT&T Wireless)
47. Goat, “Great Life” (Kia)
48. The Mooney Suzuki, “Alive & Amplified” (Suzuki)
49. The Bellrays, “Revolution Get Down” (Nissan)
50. Orquesta Del Plata, “Montserrat” (Kahlua)

Published on October 11, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (13)

Do you want 20 years with that?

If I were going to risk going to prison for breaking into a restaurant to fix myself a midnight snack, I’d probably hit New York’s trendiest Japanese restaurant of the moment, Masa, where the “tasting” menu has a price tag of $300 (“before drink”). It appears the options aren’t quite as varied in North Platte, Neb., where two drunken and hungry young lads broke in to the local Arby’s the other day to satisfy their grease and carb cravings. Their little after-hours fiesta ended when an employee came to open up the store for next day’s business and called the cops. (Where was the Oven Mitt during all this?) But think of the positive spin for Arby’s. Fast food so tasty people are burglarizing your restaurants to get it. Young, stupid, drunken, desperate people, admittedly. People you’d tell your own sons and daughters to avoid if they valued their futures. OK, maybe the spin isn’t that positive. But at least the papers and Web sites spelled the name of the restaurant right. In the PR game, that’s half the battle.

—Posted by Steve McClellan

Published on October 11, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tofu again gets kicked while it’s down

You may have read that anti-fur activists hit Vogue editor Anna Wintour with a tofu pie over the weekend as she was attending the Paris fashion shows. (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said it was retaliation for Vogue’s refusal to run an anti-fur ad from PETA, even as the magazine continues running ads for fur.) Some of you will feel sorry for Ms. Wintour; others will reserve your pity for the furry creatures whose demise she supposedly abets. But AdFreak extends its sympathies to the tofu industry, whose product has suffered yet another jolt of negative publicity. Already, tofu is associated in the public mind with aging hippies and dreary vegetarian co-ops. It’s the Semi-Official Food of Recreational Leftism, the stuff anti-globalists ingest for a burst of energy before going out to trash the nearest Starbucks. And now (for the second time this year, actually) it’s linked to loopy characters in the animal-rights movement. Clearly, tofu needs a multimillion-dollar ad campaign to establish its bona fides as a respectable food for normal people. Product placement in the right sort of movie wouldn’t hurt, either. If an action-adventure hero chowed down on tofu before going out to mow down a bunch of bad guys, for instance, consumers would be less likely to consign it to the dietary fringes. (Just a suggestion.)

—Posted by Mark Dolliver

Photo: PETA

Published on October 11, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (1)

Desperate times for ‘Desperate Housewives’

With Desperate Housewives sputtering from anemic plotlines so far this season, ABC might secretly be wishing for the kind of controversy the show generated last year—the queasiness of advertisers like Tyson Foods, Lowe’s and Kellogg, the randyness of Nicollette Sheridan and Terrell Owens. At the start of the season, 30-second slots on the show were going for $560,000—some 275 percent more than last season, according to Adweek. Yet we’d say the show is at least 25 percent less enjoyable, so far. They’d better recover, or it could be time to flip over to My Name Is Earl.

—Posted by Celeste Ward

Photo: Andrew Eccles/ABC

Published on October 11, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Angels doing OK under new name

Maybe the Anaheim Angels were on to something last winter by changing their name to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. People are still making fun of the “rebranding,” of course, but Angels fans are the ones laughing now. (Those special-edition Los Angeles Dodgers of Los Angeles caps look kind of silly now, too.) Angels ownership said the name change was about developing a broader fan base. And indeed, the team had a record attendance this season. Of course, it didn’t hurt that the product this year has been top-notch.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on October 11, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)