It's a Fake World - Elvis fans all shook up

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Elvis fans are all a twitter over their King's portrayal. The New York Fries fake Elvis ad recently appeared in the Regina Sun and it seems the president of the "I'll Remember You Elvis Fan Club" lives in Regina and believes they have infringed on the "boundaries acceptable to him."

The campaign, "Real Fries in a Fake World'" is intending to show moms that New York Fries use real potatoes.

This ad was intended to be less offensive than the ones that started running last summer.

For your viewing pleasure here are the others.









Fake wrestlers, fake boobs, fake hair and botoxed cougar and fake Elvis.




















Buzz from upset Elvis fans-priceless!

Oh My Gawd Don't Let My Plants on Twitter

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Thanks to researchers at New York University, your plants will be able to use twitter to send you messages about their trials and tribulations. The system is called Botanicalls

Here's how it will work:

"Once the kit is assembled, connect it to the Internet through the built-in ethernet jack, jam the leads into the plant's soil, and subscribe to the plant's twitter feed. It will tell you when it needs watering, or scold you if you've overwatered it, and report its status in between."

The device's co-creator Kate Hartman says your plants Twitter messages can be personalized to you or your type of plant. Her plant Pothos even has over 2000 of it's own followers.

Now many of us may have long suspected that our plants have feelings. I know mine would have a nasty thing or two to say to me if they had the energy. So when I hear this news, I'm going to have to keep this little gem to myself lest they start asking questions and have a want to start a twitterin.

It wouldn't be pretty.

Coming to a Pothole Near You? The Colonel

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If you are like me, you'd never have guessed that Colonel Sanders had a Christmas Album. These are things we learn from Google searches! But little did I know that he's also a man of many talents.

If you live in Louisville Kentucky, you may see him on street patrol in search of pothole to fill. Yes that is correct. KFC will be filling in potholes!

Of course it's not really going to be the Colonel. He's been dead since 1980, but a guy dressed up as our Colonel and an emissary of KFC or maybe even just regular work crews hired by KFC.

So what's in it for KFC? Well they intend to stamp the pavement with "Refreshed by KFC." with chalk that won't likely last that long.


The mayor of Louisville likes the idea in a time of tight budgets and the VP Marketing of KFC declares it is all about helping the everyday people. It also ties in with KFC recent "Fresh" campaign. They have an open invitation to other US cities that might like a little pothole servicing. They plan on helping at least 4 more cities.



In an age where advertising budgets are being cut, and jobs everywhere are being lost this idea fits into the area of consumer-service or cause based marketing. It's about building goodwill for a brand.

You have to admit that potholes are not good but you have to wonder what else will soon be branded.

I guess it's OK though; that is, as long as the holes are not filled with KFC.

Ode to Soupy and his funny green pieces of paper

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It was January 1, 1965 and probably most parents were still snug in their beds while the kids were fixed in front of living room televisions watching the antics of Soupy Sales. His show was live and featured his usual brand of slap stick. Soupy made silly, entertaining the kids and himself with wacky humour, puns, and of course pie throwing.

It was minutes from the end of the show and there was time to kill, so he looked into the camera and asked his young viewers a favor. They were to find the wallets of their sleeping parents and take out some of those "funny green pieces of paper" with the nice pictures of George Washington or Abraham Lincoln and put them in an envelope and mail them to their pal Soupy at WNEW, New York.

In reality he wasn't doing anything very much different from what Ovaltine and others did when characters like Little Orphan Annie or Captain Video told kids to get their parents to purchase products and send in box tops for pretty useless things. But parents didn't see Soupy's action that way. Their children were being manipulated! They were outraged and the rumour mill spun a story of thousands of dollars being sent into the station.

Soupy's show was suspended for a couple of weeks and then he was back on the air. Only a few real dollars were sent in and a lot of play money. It was nothing like the reported $80,000. It might have appeared to be much to do about nothing, but for a moment some realized the power of television on a young mind. The station did a token slap to Soupy and then carried on as usual.

The episode was live so there's no clip available. Instead enjoy this one with Soupy and puppet Pookie doing Motown!

The Circus is coming to town for 2009

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There's a famous quote that uses the idea of a circus that explains all about the differences between advertising, sales promotion, publicity and sales. It goes something like this:


"If the circus is coming to town and you paint a sign saying "Circus Coming to the Fairground Saturday," that's advertising. If you put the sign on the back of an elephant and walk it into town, that's promotion. If the elephant walks through the mayor's flower bed, that's publicity. And if you get the mayor to laugh about it, that's public relations. If the town's citizens go to the circus, you show them the many entertainment booths, explain how much fun they'll have spending money at the booths, answer their questions, and ultimately they spend a lot of money at the circus, that's sales.”

I got to thinking that it really needs a little updating so with apologies to the original author, my revision.

"If the circus is coming to town and you paint a sign saying "Circus Coming to the Fairground Saturday," that's advertising. If you put the sign on the back of an elephant and walk it into town, that's promotion. If the elephant walks through the mayor's flower bed, that's publicity. And if you get the mayor to laugh about it, that's public relations.

If you make the elephant run through the mayor’s flower bed, that’s guerrilla marketing. If you run a contest and ask everyone to create their own videos about circus animals running amok, that’s user generated content. If they post their videos and forward them to their friends, that’s viral marketing.

If they tweet their friends about the contest using Twitter, that's micro blogging.

If they post the videos or pictures on Facebook, that’s social networking. If you have used guerrilla marketing, user generated content, viral, blogging or a social network, that’s word of mouth.

If anyone has the time to go out to the town's circus, you show them the many entertainment booths, explain how much fun they'll have spending money at the booths, answer their questions, and they spend money at the circus, that's sales.

But if no one wants to leave their computer to go to the circus, you’ll create a virtual world in maybe SecondLife. You won't need to feed or look after your animals; that's savings.The animals will be able to do all sorts of things that even circus animals can't do; that's creative. A monkey could even be an elephant online, no one would know; that's online. You’ll start at the beginning with your advertising sign and your elephant until finally the people follow and attend the virtual circus.

If no one wants to spend money at the virtual circus, you’ll post more advertisements and fancy products and track their every movement getting to the circus; you'll sell the information to others who will post more advertisements, that’s behavioral targeting. Those marketers will use the behavioral targeting to send you specific messages just for you; that's addressable advertising. You'll even get messages on your iPhone or Crackberry; that's mobile.

Google will take pictures of you in the virtual world; that will be Google virtual world. You'll access all this information about you from your terminal that contains no programs; that's cloud computing.

The circus will be free sort of. It's a bit cloudy.... you may find yourself still at home on your computer but suddenly in debt wondering if PT Barnum has just been to town.”

Vanilla Ice says Sorry! About time!

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Virgin Mobile's new viral campaign to Right Music Wrongs features an apology by Vanilla Ice.
From their site, "In a world awash with silicone and botox, where stars are pre-fabricated on 'Reality' TV, where lip-synching is normal and real singing is a special event, something has gone desperately and dangerously wrong. It's time to take a stand."



Check out Jim Carrey's imitation on the site or here from YouTube


You can vote innocent or guilty for Mr.Vanilla on the Virgin Mobile site.

For me -Guilty! The song remains the same. Still selling, but I have to admit I enjoyed the apology.

Shoes to the rescue- Gilligan!

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Here's the premise- if you buy shoes that are made from recyclable materials and you find yourself adrift and delirious at sea, you might imagine being chased by a sea monster or rescued by an ethereal ex but it will be nature who will come to your rescue.



Beautiful ad Timberland, but that's a stretch!

I guess we'll have to check our shoes before we set out on our next "three hour tour" Gilligan.

The Good, the bad and the ugly of Brands

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Brandchannel.com has just released the results of it's BrandJunkie Awards. Here's a summary

Most Controversial: GM

Sample comment " How the mighty have fallen. The penultimate example of modern greed...with such a high level of arrogance (and political and industrial clout) that it had to take the current market situation to draw forth the admission that the greatest example of industrial success has been, for many years, a fraud. "


Best Retail Environment: Apple

Sample comments: "Gadget lovers dream, combined with interactive experience including product trial, lectures, great service and the genius bar." "Graphic, minimal environments that are clearly differentiated from competitor environments and which highlight and reinforce product qualities and encourage customer experience and interaction. "


Quirkiest Name: Snuggie

Sample comments:
"It’s almost just a fad, but then they just keep selling more of those things.
Snuggie proved to be an unexpected success during our recession."

"Oh dear god!"


Most Innovative and Enticing Packaging: Apple
Most Inspiring Brand: Apple Best Able to Rebound from Crisis: Apple

Sample comments:
"Sleek and minimalist....not cluttered by too much info. The main desire is to showcase the product. Apple carries this view through all that it does, from the way it designs the computers and Ipods to the way they design their stores." "iconic, and easily recognized." "innovative, different and provocative."

Most Effective Rebrand: Pepsi

Sample comments: "Refreshing, but does not lose the essence of the old Pepsi icon" "They seemed like they totally stole Obamas logo." "Love it or hate it, everyones talking about it and showing it."


Most Successful Viral Marketing: Facebook

Sample comments:
"Without doing anything but changing the criteria for admission it became the most hyped and talked about website on the Internet." "To the point where they are now jumping the shark, as mothers, grandmothers, and coworkers you never wanted to ever wanted to talk to before have come knocking to befriend you on this very ubiquitous social networking tool."

Brand that truly made an effort at being green and eco-friendly: NONE!

Sample Comment: "I can't think of one brand that really holds up to close scrutiny. There's always a dirty little secret hidden somewhere in the fanfare."


What it says- What it means

We are buying a lot of hype but not the Green hype. Companies have to do not only say what they are but be what they say.

Twitter Future

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"So you're saying people will "tweet" what they're eating for breakfast?"
"And 'upload' pictures of their breakfasts to Facebook?
"And other people will look at the breakfasts and make comments?"

"Sorry to burst your bubble dudes, but you asked. Yes that's the future."

"No offense future man, but is everyone in your time stupid?"