Media Mindfulness

It’s no wonder that obesity and diabetes are growing so fast in the US:
* 34% of All Food Ads Targeting Children or Teens Are for Candy and Snacks
* Half of All Ads Shown During Children’s Shows Are for Food

New Study Finds That Food Is the Top Product Seen Advertised by Children - Kaiser Family Foundation:
New [...]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMzbwa6PvEE

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Is this advocacy or ad-vocacy? The postironic aspect is that somehow this scene (and the others linked to in the Washington Post article below) assumes that despite global warming, normal activities like leisure and consumerism will go uninhibited. Hmmm.
High-Water Marketing - washingtonpost.com:
In print ads promoting its spring/summer collection, the Italian-based clothing company depicts landscapes that [...]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCKwPobh1EA

Klaxoncow’s comment posted on the above YouTube video:
You’re clearly not a bomb expert.
Just to clue you in: Bombs are traditionally not covered in LEDs which trace out the shape of a cartoon moon person giving you the middle finger.
Generally, as terrorists don’t want their bomb plots foiled, they tend not to decorate their bombs in [...]

Forget Bush’s State of the Union, you can measure the mood of the United States by assessing the vibe of the Super Bowl, and if yesterday’s game was any indication, Americans are feeling contrite. Unlike past annual spectacles, especially those produced by Fox, the patriotic mood was noticeably muted. With the exception of the requisite [...]

Ah, the murky world of disinformation.This is by far the strangest, most confusing marketing centrifuge I’ve ever encountered. The authors of this graf-ad are either legit artists posing as marketers who are posing as cops, or they are cops posing as marketers who are fronting as graf writers. Read the article below for all the [...]

No fruit in this package

Fruit Shown on Label Often Not in the Box, Kids’ Food Study Says (Via commondreams.org):
Fruit is a big seller for parents who want to feed their children nutritious food. So it’s no surprise that manufacturers prominently display berries, cherries and oranges on boxes of breakfast cereals, drink cans and yogurt containers.
Berry [...]

Heineken sky writing over Brooklyn, photo by Antonio Lopez

Some amazing media facts and a history of product placement benchmarks from MotherJones.com, including this clunker: “Advertisers spend more than $12 billion a year marketing to kids. The average American child is exposed to 40,000 ads per year.” Read on…
Ad Nauseam
Madison Avenue is scrambling to stick ads [...]

Photo by Antonio Lopez
This is a rather insane project, but someone had to do it. Some crazy (obsessed?) blogger took the time to photograph all the ads in Times Square. I’m not sure how he/she defines the area- it’s like an amorphous slim mold that grows and shrinks according to edible eye balls, but it’s [...]

Who could have imagined five years ago that nicotine patches would compete with commercial tobacco companies for attention and ad dollars. Moreover, in a strange twist of fate, the product is shopped as a beauty aid. But there you have it. This ad is also in line with the trend to use deconstruction techniques as [...]

Anywhere the Eye Can See, It’s Likely to See an Ad - New York Times:
Add this to the endangered list: blank spaces.
Advertisers seem determined to fill every last one of them. Supermarket eggs have been stamped with the names of CBS television shows. Subway turnstiles bear messages from Geico auto insurance. Chinese food cartons promote [...]

It has been said that the Super Bowl is capitalism’s May Day Parade when all the wares, gadgets and tricks of the system go on display. Indeed, it is the one annual event that people actually watch for the commercials. Not surprisingly, keeping lockstep with the latest consumer trends, the NFL launched a contest for [...]

Advertisers find the right pitch in boomer icons - American Boomers - MSNBC.com:
NEW YORK - In advertising, image is everything. So to attract aging baby boomers — the generation that once proclaimed “never trust anyone over 30″ — advertisers are turning to some icons of their youth.
Dennis Hopper, the counterculture rebel of the movie “Easy [...]

America’s Army is Rated ‘T’ for Teen
As you probably know, the US military is having trouble recruiting. Various strategies include massive ad campaigns, video games, and aggressive campus presences. While working at a Native American boarding school, I recall classes getting cancelled so students could watch the Air Force rock band perform in the gym. [...]

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As the New York Times recently reported, companies are creating their own films, TV networks and “webasodes” under the rubric of “branded content.” The fact that I am writing about it is a tribute to the “marketability” of the concept. People ignore ads, so this is part of the commercial backlash to wire your eyes [...]

Coming to an eyeball near you:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yd99gyE4jCk

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This is your brain on negative ads - Tech News & Reviews - MSNBC.com:
WASHINGTON - The grainy black-and-white images appear on television, while ominous music plays in the background. It’s another in a blizzard of negative political ads and before you consciously know it, the message takes hold of your brain.
You may not want it [...]

You may recall that I said the Dove “real beauty” campaign was a clever viral media project. Well, look no further than the latest news from AdAge.
Advertising Age - Better ROI From YouTube Video Than Super Bowl Spot:
Traffic spike
With not a penny of paid media and in less than a month, “Dove Evolution,” a 75-second [...]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYhCn0jf46U

You have to hand it to the commodities system for being so effective at absorbing dissent. But also credit the media literacy movement for making the misrepresentation of beauty in commercial media a contentious issue. For over a year now Dove has been running its “Real Beauty” campaign, the above video being its latest salvo. [...]

AdAge has this great chart on media ownership. Check out and download the corporate family tree here. You can also read the article here. The most obvious news is the increasing migration of $$$ to the Internet. Traditional media companies- newspapers and broadcast TV- are not looking so good these days.

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