Goodbye Jerry, Hello Eva

News is that Microsoft is dropping Jerry Seinfeld and employing Eva Longoria for their new ads. Also, they're going to take the "I'm a PC" phrase from the Mac ads and somehow re-invent it.

Isn't Eva Longoria a little busy with those Dove bar ads? Also, I liked the Bill Gates/Seinfeld robot spots. But what I would REALLY like is some Microsoft ads that make sense.

Mad Men

I admit I was a little slow to jump on the Mad Men bandwagon, but I just finished the first season and I have to admit it deserved all those Emmys. It's great to see a quality show that's not on a premium channel; AMC did well! Who knew that the ad scene in the 1960s would be so interesting?

When Rori on Gilmore Girls waxed poetic about Harvard, or Meadow from the Sopranos decided on Columbia, both schools reported an increase in student interest. Will Mad Men create an increase in young advertising hopefuls?

English Continues It's Reign

According to a NYT article, English is the language of choice when marketing internationally. Particularly for luxury goods, it is seen as the most sophisticated choice. For household products, however, the local language is usually employed.

While linguistic education is clearly still important, it's nice to hear that Chinese or Spanish haven't taken over...yet.

Zuckerberg Speaks

Creator of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, posted a blog about his thoughts on the reaction to the new Facebook design:

“As people share more, sometimes we need to change the site to accommodate how much information people are posting …

… We realize that change can be difficult though. Many people disliked News Feed at first because it changed their home page and how they shared information. Now it’s one of the most important parts of Facebook. We think the new design can have the same effect …

… It’s tempting to say that we should just support both designs, but this isn’t as simple as it sounds. Supporting two versions is a huge amount of work for our small team, and it would mean that going forward we would have to build everything twice. If we did that then neither version would get our full attention …

… Even if you’re joining a group to express things you don’t like about the new design, you’re giving us important feedback and you’re sharing your voice, which is what Facebook is all about.”


7 Million have joined anti-new Facebook groups. That is a lot of people to be upset, but in the bigger picture it could be viewed as only 7% of users. And if 93% of the other users keep using Facebook, it is unlikely that those 7% will stop. They will get over it and move on with their life.

35W Back Open

It opened at 5am this morning. I'll be taking it this afternoon. As expected, there are already YouTube videos of the first people crossing. Check out the most entertaining one below.

Fred: Media's Chew Toy

Today's Wall Street Journal article revealed the seventh grader behind "Fred," a long-running YouTube series and quite frankly the most popular, garnering over 9 million views on some episodes like "Fred Loses His Meds" (shown above). Now since Lucas Cruikshank has been revealed time and time again, will his faithful fan base increase or decrease?

The majority demographic of "Fred" viewers seems to suggest 14+, though some video comments appear more mature than the typical teen text message (I'm hoping it's just due to the extraordinary education middle-schoolers are receiving nowadays). Nevertheless, this is the type of audience who could care less about newspapers. Myself-- I read the WSJ and am now a follower of "Fred." It just goes to show the generation media gap all the more.

"Fred" is nothing but teenager ADHD creativity at its finest degree, and the boy Lucas really knows how to captivate his audience by elements of surprise and downright hilarity. What really keeps the attention of his viewers is his chipmunk voice-- produced by speeding up the taping. Screams and shrieks, zany faces, and quirky mannerisms are among the traits that make "Fred" so appealing.

Now since he's been called on to promote "Ember, an upcoming movie featuring actor Tim Robbins, will this make his follow-up YouTube videos too commercial? I'm sure he has a number of advertisers phoning his new agent, calls about Nickelodeon "Kids Choice" Awards and perhaps the role of Shaggy in a Scooby Doo Kids series. "Fred" unknowingly has become a celebrity and is destined for Hollywood stardom. Lucas, you made it, but choose wisely.

Facebook The Movie

A few weeks ago, we commented on the news of a "Facebook Movie." If one was truly made, might it look like this?

Facebook In Real Life

This video goes to show how ridiculous Facebook would be, if it was in real life...