A Big Beautiful Door

There certainly seemed to be a great divide between the political landscape in Washington D.C. and that of Corporate America last night at the Super Bowl. Both major US political parties have spent the last couple of weeks pointing out what divides us, both in this country and around the world. Last night corporate America fought back with a number of commercials.

The first that comes to mind was the Coke commercial that showed people from various cultures singing “America the Beautiful” in a number of languages.

Airbnb is being sued for discriminating against African-Americans and violating the Fair Housing Act. They countered with their “We Accept” ad.

Earlier this year Anheuser Busch started to print “America” on its labels instead of Budweiser. They also included phrases such as "E Pluribus Unum" and "indivisible since 1776." The only problem with that is due to the incompetence of Bud’s management team they sold out to, a Belgium company InBev years ago. Here is their take on immigration.

If that was too subtle for you 84 Lumber of all companies made an advertisement that even in this atmosphere was deemed too controversial by the Fox network. Fox rejected the original cut of the ad that featured a wall that blocked people seeking work in the United States. The 90 second advertisement that did air pointed people to 84 Lumber’s website. Of course the website immediately crashed. I went to YouTube and saw the full version. When I woke up the next morning it had over 2 million views. This ad was not something casually dreamed up by the ad agency of 84. It was a specific decision made by the owner of the company who is a Trump supporter.

In a statement, 84 Lumber’s president and owner, Maggie Hardy Magerko, said: “Even President Trump has said there should be a ‘big beautiful door in the wall so that people can come into this country legally.’ It’s not about the wall. It’s about the door in the wall. If people are willing to work hard and make this country better, that door should be open to them."

You can read more about the controversial ad here.
What was your favorite Super Bowl Ad? Post a link in the comments section below.

Can I have a minute of your time? It will only cost you seven to eight million dollars. That’s about how much a minute of ad time will cost for this year’s Super Bowl on CBS. What are advertisers really paying for? They are paying for the path to over 100 million bank accounts. Is it worth it? I think in most cases it is not. I’ll ask people what their favorite ad was, and they’ll describe the spot to me in detail. I’ll ask them to name the product the advertisement was for and they will draw a blank. In reaching young adults, (read – people with money to spend) social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter may be more viable options. I’ll leave you with one final question – What’s your favorite Super Bowl Ad? Here’s one of mine.

They are Keeping a List and Cheking it Twice

Santa Claus knows who has been naughty or nice. I have it on good authority that he keeps a detailed list of all your activities both online and in real life. We have grown to expect that, but did you know that Companies like Target also have a list of your activities, purchasing history, along with likes and dislikes that is so detailed they can tell if you’re pregnant by the second trimester. Yikes!

According to Charles Duhigg of the New York Times –

For decades, Target has collected vast amounts of data on every person who regularly walks into one of its stores. Whenever possible, Target assigns each shopper a unique code — known internally as the Guest ID number — that keeps tabs on everything they buy. “If you use a credit card or a coupon, or fill out a survey, or mail in a refund, or call the customer help line, or open an e-mail we’ve sent you or visit our Web site, we’ll record it and link it to your Guest ID,” Pole said. “We want to know everything we can.”

Read on for more.

Where's Waldo (Web 2.0 Edition)

Here is an interesting way to display data and information. It's a map that showcases the incumbents and upstarts in the network economy, gathered around various territories that represent the Web 2.0's Points of Control. According to the web2.0 summit blog it was designed to create at least an approximation of the web2.0 industry’s vibrant economy. The map was produced in conjunction with the Web 2.0 Summit, produced by Federated Media, O'Reilly Media and UBM TechWeb. The Web 2.0 Summit is moderated by Federated Media CEO John Battelle and O'Reilly CEO and founder Tim O'Reilly.

The New Face of Marketing

Here is an article published in "Marketing Daily" discussing new trends in marketing. If you can wade through the buzz words here is what you should learn.

•There will be a shift from buying impressions to acquiring user data.


This translates into marketers mining your data acquired from
registration forms, Facebook/Open ID plug-ins, web searches etc. and delivering that information to marketers and producers.
•Seamless experience across multiple media.
According to a recent Nielsen study 32% of all mobile activity is related to social media. Marketers will design advertising campaigns to find you no matter where you are and what media device you are using.
•Growth of Apps
The article talks about the change from a wide open web to semi closed platforms. Marketers will try to get you to use the web in the manner that benefits them, not you.

Browser beware!