Brand Central Station

This post by the Marketing Playbook folks brings up some interesting research by HeadlightVision, a WPP research subsidiary that says young consumers found sexually explicit advertising “boring and repellent.” (Click here for the article.)

Nudge, nudge. Wink, wink.

Marketing Playbook: And speaking of….

From the Media Guerilla – here’s a great piece on viral marketing.

Scoble’s Viral Marketing Manifesto

CNet’s News.com reports that AT&T has agreed to pay $35k in fines for violations of that state’s “Do Not Call” laws.

Read more about it here.

AT&T fined over marketing complaints | CNET News.com

CNET provides a concise report on the latest status of Google News and its recent advances in creating customized content for individual users.

Could this be the future of the local newspaper?

Google Personalizes News Site

Rob, the pundit who writes the BusinessPundit blog asks what happens what you should do when your brand gets hijacked.

Rob’s point is well-taken: your brand belongs to the market, not you. Click here to read his post and to find out more about his recommendation of Alex Wippenfurth’s book, Brand Hijack: Marketing Without Marketing.

BusinessPundit: What Happens When Your Brand is Hijacked?

BrandNoise, a blog about the evolution of brands and advertising, provides a concise overview of Toyota’s latest extension of the Scion marque. The car company has announced its intention to launch a record label that promotes underground artists. Read more about it here.

In an effort to keep their brand relevant, Toyota is attempting to embed themselves into cultural niches that relate to their market.

Brand Noise: Scion Launches Music Label

The AdFreak blogs on about Zippo’s latest marketing challenge.

As if government pressure to cut down on cigarette and cigar smoke weren’t enough, now the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has determined lighters are a security risk. Zippo is concerned the ban could cut into sales by as much as 30 percent.

Dark Days For Lighters

Some advertising icons last forever – others keep coming back. While I was at Northlich in Cincinnati today, I had the opportunity to review their work bringing Charlie back for Starkist Tuna.

Now AdPulp blogs on about the latest marketing effort behind Wrigley’s Spearmint and Doublemint brands. The Doublemint Twins are staged to make a comeback later this year. BBDO, Wrigley’s agency, has penned a new jingle and launched a website to help with the casting process.

AdPulp: A Return To The Softer Side Of The ’60s

Great outdoor advertising always finds a way to leverage the “place” to enhance the message.

Thanks to the folks at AdBlather who point out that this piece for Heineken is located on Canal Street in NYC where con-men on the street sell counterfeit goods to tourists as they wander by.

Heineken

Bloggers blogging bloggers.

My sentiments exactly.

Gapingvoid

The city of Chicago looks to be upping the ante on communities like Philadelphia and pushing the envelope on city-wide wi-fi. The Windy City could quickly become a gigantic hot spot to millions of people making Internet access into a public utility.

The ramifications for media properties and e-commerce are significant.

Thanks to Church of the Customer for this post.

Church of the Customer: Chicago, future home of citywide wi-fi?

He declared advertising dead a couple of years ago and now, in his latest article in Ad Age (“What CEO’s Just Don’t Get About Marketing”), Al Ries has stirred up trouble again by making over-reaching generalizations.

Brand Autopsy’s John Moore makes some excellent points about the importance of execution in advertising and calls Big Al out. It will be interesting to see the godfather of positioning try to explain his way out of this one.

What Ries Doesn’t Get About Execution