October 2008
2 posts
A cheap and dirty advertising campaign
I have been doing some research on how companies have used Web 2.0 successfully and unsuccessfully. Here’s how it shouldn’t be done:
Last year a Texas family sued Virgin Mobile Australia for using a photo of 16-year-old Alison Chang without her consent in an advertising campaign.
The slogan “Dump your pen friend” was superimposed over her image with the tagline “Free text...
September 2008
1 post
Introducing LibraryThing
LibraryThing is what’s known as a social cataloguing site. Literally, it’s a way for people to organise their book collections online.
I discovered LibraryThing when doing some research on tagging. Here’s a link to a very insightful article on the LibraryThing blog. It explains why tagging works so successfully on their site but does not work successfully for the book retailer Amazon.
It found...
August 2008
17 posts
An unfortunate customer experience
At the weekend my husband and I decided to go shopping for a new bed.
As we drove down Condamine Road in Sydney, we saw a plethora of bed retailers selling at knock down prices.
Great we thought as we parked the car and decided to check out a couple of places. We visited Sleep City, Captain Snooze and Harvey Norman and had a fairly typical customer experience in two of the three places.
Our...
10 things I love - 10 things I hate (in no...
I love:
1. Seeing the sun rise over the ocean
2. The feel of clean sheets
3. Watching a log fire
4. Nursing a big glass of red wine
5. Feeling alive after exercise
6. Hearing the dawn chorus
7. Lying in a spoon with my partner
8. Being doubled over laughing
9. The golden light of early evening
10. Exploring new places and experiences
I hate:
1. Breathing second-hand cigarette...
A new era dawning in U.S politics
Presidential nominee Barack Obama on Capitol Hill
There’s an old saying that the darkest hour of the night is just before dawn. And I can’t help thinking that the same might be true for US politics.
I wonder if the US hadn’t reached an all time low with eight years of Bush presidency, whether the country would be ready for a black president (or woman vice president).
It is understandable that...
Longer-lasting sex billboards removed
Earlier this week the Advertising Standards Bureau upheld community complaints about billboards promising longer-lasting sex, and banned them from all capital cities.
The Advanced Medical Institute (whose product is a nasal spray for men with problems getting it up) is behind the controversial ads. CEO Jack Vaisman, says: “We need to be direct in our advertising because we’ve found men...
“Appreciation is a wonderful thing. It makes what is excellent in others belong...”
– Voltaire
Colin the whale euthanased
On Friday 22 August, Colin, a young whale calf, was euthanased by vets on Sydney’s foreshore. Read the full story: Vets decide there’s no hope for whale calf.
Colin had been abandoned by his mother and was growing hungrier and weaker by the day. His situation was so desperate he was attacked by sharks and seen suckling boats.
Without being able to feed him, his only hope was that his...
Names and meaning
A lot of my friends are having babies. And as I wait with anticipation for news of their arrivals, what I really want to know is the baby’s sex and name. Why, I don’t know. It would be more pertinent as a woman to want to know size and time in labour. But names are more interesting; they are a reflection of the parents and of whom they want their child to be.
People choose names on the basis of...
Beach bums at the Olympics
Ok I might be sounding old and prudish, but check the double standard here!
Photo Credit: The Associated Press versus…
Photo Credit: The Associated Press
The men’s beach volley ball players are clad in long shorts and shirts, while the women wear the smallest, tightest bikini bottoms and sports-bra bikini tops.
Now the women don’t seem to mind. In this Today Tonight article, Aussie...
“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”
– Eleanor Roosevelt
In defense of Gen Y
“Gen Y are a nightmare”, my friends extol. Maybe I can’t see it as I’m borderline X and Y, but as far as I’m concerned they – or should I say ‘we’ — are just the youth of today. And, as we all know, the youth of today is never good news.
Wikipedia defines Gen Y as those born roughly between 1980 and 1994. They are extremely tech savvy, live at home longer than preceding...
“She always had the feeling that it was very, very dangerous to live even one...”
– Mrs Dalloway
There's nothing on television
In a typical week I’m flicking television channels trying to find something half decent to watch. Usually the commercial stations present two clear options: a reality TV show or a crime series.
I decided to do a quick audit of this week’s TV guide to prove my point. And here’s what I found ─ no less that eight crime shows running simultaneously! This week, the following went to air:
1. CSI...
Marie Claire's new look
Earlier this week I received my usual monthly subscription to Marie Claire magazine. I ripped open the cellophane with typical gusto anticipating an evening on the couch, and was surprised to find a letter.
“Dear Valued Subscriber”, it read, “Here’s your exclusive preview of the new look Marie Claire – we wanted you to be the first to see it.” Bemused, I flicked through...
On holiday in Fraser Island
The beaver ad
Television advertising for feminine hygiene is usually a cringe-fest, typically embarrassing and patronising. But the beaver ad is different… you might describe it as shocking or taboo-busting instead.
The basic gist of it is a young woman going about her daily life eating lunch, having her nails done, and sunbaking on the beach with her beaver in tow. This ‘little furry friend’ is a reference to...
Looking for a model advertising strategy
I can’t help thinking that Aussie supermodel Miranda Kerr isn’t the right pick for the retailing giant David Jones. Meagan Gale was always going to be a hard act to follow, but the problem with Kerr is that she’s just too darn young.
Now I understand that in modelling terms, at 24 or 25 she’s positively middle aged (while Gale at 32 is just about a geriatric), but DJs...