FastCompany's Worst Ads of 2010

Take a look at the worst ads of 2010, according to FastCompany.

Comcast Uses Twitter Much Better than Me

Everybody knows I've been bitching non-stop about having to start a Twitter account for class.
I've never really seen the purpose behind Twitter, the value of the connections, or how I can really use it besides writing annoying posts about every detail of my life all day long.

However, I just read about the coolest Twitter page ever (and it's old news, but new to me):

Comcast, a Rogers type company in the USA, has a Twitter account where they constantly monitor the conversation people are having about Twitter. Comcast waits for  complaints to come by, and just like a regular customer service line, they help solve the problem for the customer via Tweets.

Purpose? Hell yea. Value of the connections they make? Yes. Innovative use of Twitter? Of course.

Not to mention, the power of having these public conversations in front of a live Twitter audience all the time. Unlike phone calls, now everybody can see how great you are at customer service.

And of course, being able to turn disgruntled customers into brand champions, as their Twitter accounts are now full of Comcast related conversation.

Why isn't everybody doing this?

"Warning: Sideways Design May Blow Your Mind"

The folks at my favorite magazine says "Warning: Sideways Design May Blow Your Mind" on the topic of this week's Rethink issue. And they're right.

It blew my mind.

For months, my Maclean's subscription came looking like the one on the left:

And suddenly, this week's copy, with a theme of "the people and ideas that are changing everything" came with a completely changed cover (pictured right).

Landscape, instead of portrait!

What a brilliant way for a magazine to get cheap, quick and easy consumer attention!

Nissan Melts Consumer Hearts

A reader and dear friend shared this ad with me today:



Do-good-feel-good, cause marketing AND cute, cuddly things!

It's quite an emotional-advertising punch.

And while the ethics, the science, and the psychological bribery might all be questionable, it is without a doubt highly effective:

I will forever get warm fuzzy feelings about Nissan.

Like it?

Talking Like the Pros

I found this floating around the web:

My thoughts, though:
If advertising talked to people the way they talk to each other, nothing would sell.

Leave Maslow Alone!

My best friend recently showed me an article, describing how, a team of psychologists released an updated version of Maslow's hierarchy of needs:

Parenting and finding/keeping mate? That's it? Where did self-actualization ("man's desire for fulfillment...to become everything that one is capable of becoming.") go?


Do we spend billions on entertainment products, craft supplies, hobby equipment, technological gadgets, music, books...and not be interesting in self-actualization anymore?


Simply telling people they should just throw all this out the window, stay home, mate and make babies... is not a revised, updated version of Maslow, it's a pre-Maslow, outdated mindset of the world. 

Take A Break, Overworked Americans!

Royal Carribean, a cruise company, has recently come up with the following marketing campaign:

The ad is based on really interesting research that finds that yearly, 459 million vacation days are wasted because people don't take up on them. 

It's clever because Royal Carribean has figured out one of the key causes that people do not  use their services and they are going to convince people otherwise first.

This type of "obstacle removing marketing" has to convince us to change our habits/thoughts/ideas first, and only then can we consider the product.

It is a very difficult thing to do, considering people's dislike to changing anything so the campaign has to be really, really convincing.