Entries from July 2005 ↓

I’ve seen the new Hyundai Dust in the Wind spots. “All they are is dust in the wind,” say the lyrics to this pop classic.

Sure, the other cars are not as good as whatever you’re selling, but dust in the wind? It makes me think right away that the other brands are less well-made and unreliable. But Suburu can’t say that because it’s probably not true, and it certainly isn’t provable even if it happened to be true.

They are for the new Suburu Tribeca SUV. I guess you’ve got to do a catchy retro tune when you introduce a new gas-thirsty two-ton SUV, given today’s climbing gas prices.

Moreover, as the Kansas song is about the futility of worldly goods, there’s certainly some irony in the spot.

After the recent Herbie Fully Loaded movie loaded its viewers up with product placements, you have to wonder how much is enough.

According to one industry source, insidebrandentertainment.com, placements in primetime TV has been zooming. Over the last two quarters, placements have been growing at a rate of 100% per year.

Years ago, there were concerns raised about the safety of Teflon ™ nonstick frying pans. Teflon’s maker, DuPont denies this claim, but does admit that high heat will cause the release of toxic fumes. Opponents claim this dangerous temperature is 350 degrees F., a medium flame. DuPont says 660 degrees.

Nowadays, there’s a new unseen chemical risk in the kitchen: perfluorooctanoic acid or POFA, according to an article in The New York Times.

POFA is a breakdown product of chemicals called fluorotelomers. They are used in many kinds of food packaging — for french fries, microwaveable popcorn, baked goods, candy, pizza. The popcorn is particularly worrisome as the heat causes the chemical to spread into the popping oil.

There is some evidence that whatever the source, POFA is everywhere in the environment. Moreover, it remains in the environment for a long time. In one study by the 3M Company, of 600 children, 96% had the chemical in their blood. In fact, it is believed 90% of all Americans have POFA in their blood.

The EPA began studying POFA in 1999. It describes POFA as a “suggestive human carcinogen.” An outside scientific panel, however, reviewing the same data, has called it a “likely carcinogen.”

The Enviromental Working Group suggests before the government reports are finished, consumers can lessen their foodborne expose to POFA in several ways: heat greay foods in ceramic or glass , not cardboard containers; cook with Teflon pans at lower temperatures; never heat an empty Teflon pan; and microwave popcorn in a homemade popping bag of brown paper with some oil inside, stapled shut.

Have you seen those work-at-home TV spots, the annoying ones that require you to watch the commercial and read the url, because the address is never given in the voice over? The numbers the give on the site for the “home-based busineses” are ridiculous, $10,000 a month, $20,000 a month. Huh?
The spokespeople are good — upbeat, but not cracking up from the overpromise in the copy.

OK, lately they do say the website in the voice over. (The website address keeps changing. One step ahead of the law or just tracking which commercial or which time slot worked better?)

I fearlessly went to the site expecting some snake-oil pitch about the amazing profits to be made in real estate or mail order. Instead, the site simply asked me for my contact information. I gave it to them, slightly edited.

But here’s the kicker. That’s all that happened. They assured me they would be in touch. The whole site is two pages, apparently. There are no jillion dollars per month promises, either, just general talk about the joys of being your own boss.

So the whole thing is trolling for addresses, street or email. Very creepy. Read an expose of all the details of this source of fresh meat for someone’s spam campaign here.

There’s a new labeling technology out there for those high-tech grocery items: fruits and vegetables. No more little stickers.

No, now it’s laser tattooing. The New York Times has an article on the new process. It is being developed by Durand-Wayland, a fruit grower and distributor in Georgia. The new method will eventually allow tracking produce from the grower to you, for both food safety and distribution efficiency.

Apparently, many customers are annoyed by those little stickers. They either can’t remove them or they damage the produce too much by removing them. (My idea of a vegetable is ketchup on my burger, so I’m not bothered by the stickers.)

The stickers are PLUs or price lookup stickers. They carry information about exactly what kind of produce you’re buying.

But the new laser tattoos can contain far more information than the troublesome stickers, and they can be scanned as well. The scanner will recognize a Bosc or a Bartlett pear, or an ordinary Fuji apple from an organically-grown one.

There’s a series of hilarious print ads running for Budweiser Light. In one of them, the problem of what to do when you realize your favorite brew is too good to share, and frankly, too popular.

One ad provides a clever label fix. If it’s the last Bud Light in the fridge at a party, just attach the “Prune Wine Cooler” labels to the Bud longneck bottle.

In another, if your friends have left work early to start enjoying Bud Light, there’s a Bud way to fix that, too. Just leave the provided note with its already smudged phone number, explaining that you had to run out.

There’s even one that will remedy the long line to the ladies’ room by clever mislabeling.

There are more interactive print ads in the series. Take a look at them.

There is a story on a blog that Japanese advertisers — worried about the effects of Tivo on their TV commercials — have influenced the Japanese government to ban fast forwarding through commercials. Read the details for yourself.

Apparently, skipping commercials is a violation of Japanese copyright law. (Washington, are you listening?)

I personally find I am more aware of the products being advertised when I fast forward. I watch the screen intently to catch the resumption of the program. (Not that I am aware of the commercial content, just the advertiser.)

Mosey on over to Adland.com and the see the popular classic Budweiser commercial that is the one of most viewed beverage commercial in their vast TV archives.

Basically, some lizards are trying to decide what went wrong with their audition, because they didn’t get the Bud job.

“Louie, frogs sell beer, ” says one lizard, summing up their competition. And judging by the success of this frog campaign, it’s true.

There’s a new spoof of the current Paris Hilton Carl’s Jr. TV commercial.

To me, it demonstrates what good sound track can do to improve anything: bad costumes, bad dance routines, or even bad casting.

The spot advertises Accolo, a recruitment company.

One version of the real Paris burger spot is pretty riveting, too. It’s an “internet only” :60 version. Washing a car never seemed this spicy before.

Product placement has reached its zenith in the new Disney movie, Herbie Fully Loaded. If you want to max out on product placement, just make a movie about some part of life that’s filled with logos.

Like a NASCAR race.

NASCAR, of course, needs many sponsors for each racing team, because keeping a race car tuned and in spare parts is expensive.

But the movie — rather than using Cola Cola brand X placements — jumps right in and has so many products prominently featured I couldn’t count them all.

Tropicana ™ Orange Juice, Nextel ™ the sponsor of the climactic race, Bass Pro Shops ™, Linsey’s Goodyear ™ cap. Heck, BPS gets mentioned in the dialog more than any other brand. It’s one of the sponsors of Herbie racing team, so its logo is in maybe half the shots. (Hmm, I could use a Green Glitter Flavored Bass Jig.)

Oh yes, there’s Home Depot ™, Cheetos ™, Pepsi ™, UPS ™, DuPont ™. The list is almost endless. And the Lohan character’s getting a job at ESPN ™, which is owned by the Disney company.

There’s a New York Times article on all this brouhaha. According to the Times, the movie’s producers needed NASCAR’s cooperation to make the movie and that meant commercial ties galore. It is NASCAR, folks.

If you have kids who like Ms. Lohan or VW Beetles, you can see the movie and experience all those products first hand.

By the way, Volkwagen did not have a product placement deal. If you listen really hard you’ll notice that there is no mention of VW ™ or the Beetle ™ by name in the movie. (VW declined to make a deal because the Herbie model of Beetle is no longer made.)

All this sponsorship has brought out some negative reviews, even according to an industry blog. In fact, one reviewer comented that whole movie looks like a race car driver’s uniform.

I agree. I like product placements in movies. After all, didn’t E.T. eat Reese’s Pieces ™? But this is really overkill, especially in a movie where’s little to watch except those logos and Ms. Lohan’s curves.