RIPs

The Austin American Statesman is up for sale, along with Daytona Beach News-Journal. Tribune just sold Newsday. NJ Star Ledger and Trenton Times are under threat to be sold.

What does it mean? More death of print media, call me psychic if you will. For us, headaches may be induced by updating contact lists. And maybe more news from odious wires, which would mean less pitching, and less diversity of news stories.

Goodbye, hard-hitting investigative journalists. Hello, bloggers.

Friday Moment of Zen

The work week is almost done. Check out my favorite viral video series, You Suck At Photoshop, below.

So far season two of the series has been mediocre, but this episode is one of the best. Hilarious, yet informative.

PR Spin: Mean Russians Hate Fun-Loving Georgians

Gawker posted an interesting video on Georgia's president Saakashvili counting Russian crimes against their country. In addition to, you know, invading their country with no cause, Russia apparently vetoed an Olympic-size pool and a movie theater.

Gawker thinks it's PR, Georgia's trying to get the US on their side by tugging our heart strings. In politics image is everything, so maybe it's not a such a bad idea. Too bad all of our troops are involved in a different pre-emptive strike overseas.

Best of luck, Georgia!

The Power of the "O"

Oprah is huge. No, not like that...Apparently, her celebrity endorsement is worth about one million votes.

What about Gwyneth Paltrow? Is that endorsement alienating to anyone? Whose endorsement would lose someone more votes than it gains? My guesses: Saddam Hussein, Mel Gibson, Pee-Wee Hermann.

From the Phone Booth: Facelibook

What the heck is this all about? That's the common response from the majority of Facebookers who have fallen victim to Facelibook, a phishing site that seeps into member's profiles and writes look-at-this types of messages on walls.

"Have you seen that blog that is about you? Apparently, it's pretty bad ;(. I think you and everyone should check it out."

Yeah, this sort of thing has happened before on MySpace, but now it's on the new Facebook. Cripes, Mark Zuckerberg-- fix this nonsense. Now everyone has to change their passwords.

In closing, don't open a message about me sending ring tones to you or you'll be infected just like several other Facebookers part of this new and improved social networking community. I bet the abuse reports are flooding the company's inboxes as I post this.

More Girly Bloggers

We wrote earlier on the girl blog NonSociety and their maybe secret endorsement deal with The Body Shop. Apparently advertisers are catching onto the trend of women's blogs; ad sales are allowing some women to quit their jobs.

Are there non-traditional methods of reaching out to these bloggers? Do they do TFM (trade for mention)? The problem we've been noticing at Axiom is that blogs are so personal; they don't have incentive to cover a press release unless it pertains directly to them.

Jack & Hill often mention receiving free products from companies in exchange for reviews, is this a widespread practice? How do we reach out to bloggers without using pop-ups or adsense?

All Tomorrow's Ad Campaigns

With traditional TV viewership down, ad agencies have no choice but to go back to basics. Billboards, subway ads, and in-store ads are second only to online advertising in terms of budget growth.

NYT poses the question of "pervasive versus intrusive". My worry is different: how fun/clever can print ads be? Video gives time to develop a story, there is an audio component, the ad can be complex. In cartoon form, the Budweiser frogs would be pointless, it's all about hearing the croaking. "Mamma mia that's a spicy meatball" isn't funny unless you hear someone saying it in a funny voice. Etc...

But hey, prove me wrong, advertisers! Let's see what you can do.

The Gas Angle

We all know that gas prices are high, and this summer it's been really trendy to give this a mention in basically every article. Now ABC's jumping on board with their new "Stay Home, Save Gas" campaign. Basically, the idea is that premiere week should be a time to sit on your couch and save gas.

Why not advertise the addictive quality of Grey's Anatomy, or the adorableness (is this a word?) of Ugly Betty? Great example of how a simple idea is made overly complex with ridiculous marketing.