by John Gaffney on Jul 31, 12:00 AM
Is That A Cell Phone In Your Pocket?: There’s nothing new about the Sony Ericsson cell phone campaign that has taken shots for being “deceptive” in a Wall Street Journal article. But the argument over aggressive guerilla marketing is as hot as ever. What Sony Ericsson plans to do is launch its new mobile phone/digital camera through buzz marketing.
by John Gaffney on Jul 30, 12:00 AM
57 Channels And Somethin’ On: I got up before the kids took over the Nickelodeon Box on Tuesday morning to watch Springsteen on the Today show. Springsteen’s new album deals with the events and aftermath of September’s terrorist attacks. I’m watching and thinking, here’s a guy who is totally confident in his ability to express himself in the harsh light of September 11’s emotion and tragedy.
by John Gaffney on Jul 29, 12:00 AM
Tough To Be In Business: Business magazines, that is. As the post-bubble, post-shakeout world settles for business magazines, I think planners and buyers need to take a fresh look at the players. Seems to me that the general business magazines have skated through the past five years with a minimum of cosmetic change.
by John Gaffney on Jul 28, 12:00 AM
The Culture Of Destruction: I guess for the Bush Administration a business meeting is a foursome playing a nice round of 18. Business development must be when you go for 36 holes and linger at the club afterward. This administration is noodling over a nasty spell of corporate deconstruction.
by John Gaffney on Jul 25, 12:00 AM
OPRs (Other People’s Riffs) for the week: Dude, Please: “Chapter 11 enables us to create the greatest possible value for our creditors, preserve jobs for our employees, continue to deliver top-quality service to our customers and maintain our role in America's national security," said John Sidgmore, president and chief executive officer of WorldCom, in a statement following the company’s chapter 11 filing.
by John Gaffney on Jul 24, 12:00 AM
Just Say No: Talked to George Hacker today. Real nice guy. Charming. Knows his stuff. Says that he used to drink “but never swallowed.” I have one major problem with Hacker. He wants to curtail advertising for beer, “alcopops” like Smirnoff Ice, and hard liquor. Like most people who think restricting advertising will cure society’s ills, his energy is misguided. Hacker is the policy director at a group called the Center For Science In The Public Interest. He believes that advertising alcoholic products is not in the public interest, because teens might see them and think they’re cool.
by John Gaffney on Jul 23, 12:00 AM
Oh, Rosie: Back when I worked on the publishing side of magazines, a title I was working on was being slandered by a competitor’s promotional campaign. Me being Irish and impulsive, I started ranting about suing them. The guy who I worked for at the time sent me back to my office with the advice: “Nothing, and I mean nothing, drives advertisers from a magazine like legal trouble.” Never sued, needless to say.
by John Gaffney on Jul 22, 12:00 AM
All About The Benjamins:I promise you that Dennis FitzSimons, president and chief operating officer of the Tribune Co., makes more money than I do. Probably forgot about more money in his career than I’ve made. So line the two of us up to media business strategy, and make sure you bet on FitzSimons. Having said that, I need to take exception with something he told the money men over the weekend.
by John Gaffney on Jul 21, 12:00 AM
The Big Synergy-Energy Switch: Call it synergy, cross-media or just smart media buying. The kinds of synergy AOL/TimeWarner is now getting kicked in the teeth for now need to come from media planners and buyers. If you want synergy, or if you want to access the various properties owned by big media companies, come up with the ideas yourself. I know this is already happening, but now the AOL/TW changes have given the agency community a chance to push this issue to a client’s advantage.
by John Gaffney on Jul 18, 12:00 AM
OPRs (Other People’s Riffs) For The Week: Pardon The Pun: As a tough ad market has forced many newspapers to accept adult entertainment ads, Don Farley publisher of the Baltimore City Paper told Editor and Publisher: “You’re always kind of riding this line of ‘how big do you want this section to be?’ ”