Archives: September 2008

Sirius XM Should Be Able To Get Ratings

Posted by: David Kiley on September 29

It’s hard to believe that advertisers and Sirius XM can’t agree on some sort of audience measurement system for satellite radio subscribers. Advertisers say that any system thee company pays...

Catalog Choice signs up Williams Sonoma, L.L. Bean, and More

Posted by: Burth Helm on September 27

Last December I wrote about Catalog Choice, an environmentalist-backed website that helps people stop receiving unwanted catalogs. The upstart site created an uproar among direct mailers last winter after it...

Texting Surpasses Calling Among Cell Phone Subscribers

Posted by: David Kiley on September 24

Nielsen just released data showing that U.S. wireless subscribers now send and receive more text messages than mobile phone calls. As of Q2 2008, the typical subscriber sent or received...

Seinfeld/Gates Ads Not "Pulled"

Posted by: David Kiley on September 22

The word spread late last week while I was away that Microsoft “pulled” TV ads featuring Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates. Based on talking to Microsoft officials when the campaign...

Check Out the 2008 Best Global Brands

Posted by: Burth Helm on September 18

Today we’re releasing our 8th annual BusinessWeek/Interbrand Best Global Brands ranking. There are great online extras this year, including a sortable version of the table linking to financial data, videos,...

Dueling Campaign Wall Street Ads: The Lesson is "Keep It Simple, Stupid."

Posted by: David Kiley on September 17

Looking at today’s economic ads from both Barack Obama and John McCain is a study is the difference between message and content. Obama’s new ad, which runs two minutes, is...

Microsoft Gates/Seinfeld Ads: Storytelling That's Catching On.

Posted by: David Kiley on September 15

I may be in the minority, but I think the new Microsoft ads featuring company founder Bill Gates and comedian Jerry Seinfeld created by Crispin Porter +Bogusky are hitting the...

McCain Camp: If It Sounds Like It Could Be True, Then It Must Be

Posted by: David Kiley on September 13

You should know there is a problem when www.factcheck.org calls your campaign out for a misleading ad called “factcheck” that purports to use the non-partisan organization’s ad vetting apparatus...

EU Wants Women To Feel Empowered To Scrub Floors

Posted by: David Kiley on September 10

Imagine my surprise when I began reading The New York Times article about sexual stereotyping in ads that women want us to think that they are just as able...

Advertisers Trying To Get A Head

Posted by: David Kiley on September 10

Airports, of course, are increasingly canvases for all kinds of ads. People are captive, so it's hard to click away. I confess that I probably noticed more of Toyota's...

Obama Camp Uses The "L" Word To Describe Palin Claim

Posted by: David Kiley on September 08

Up to now, the McCain and Obama campaigns have been just feisty complained about one another's ads, using words like "distortion," "Misleading," etc. But when it comes to the McCain/Palin...

GOPers Beat Obama in TV Ratings: Helped by Timing and NFL

Posted by: David Kiley on September 08

If TV ratings for political convention speeches is any indicator, voter turnout in November should be sky-high. The GOP presidential nominee John McCain had a viewership last Thursday night of...

NBC News Management Guilty of Brand Mismanagement and Neglect

Posted by: David Kiley on September 08

The debacle inside NBC and MSNBC that has resulted in Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews dropping their election coverage anchor hats for those of commentators comes as a result...