The New Scientist reports on a study suggesting that direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical ads may be ineffective. The best part is that the study uses the natural divide between French- and English-speaking Canadians to create a perfect cross-sectional study (Canada forbids pharmaceutical ads, but US television does not).
Category Archives: Advertising
Authentic advertising
People are increasingly finding that their web images are snapped up by companies without their consent. This is in large part because advertisers are interested these days in putting forth a more “authentic” image, namely schmoes like us. Just look at the difference between a “nerdy teen” on Flickr and iStockPhoto to see why marketersContinue reading “Authentic advertising”
Transforming Citroën: first flight
My friend Dan Paluska is working on an art project in the suburbs of Paris with Chico MacMurtrie called totemobile. I’m sure they have some fancy art words to describe it, but this is how I see things. First, there was the dancing Citroën: People laughed. People cried. People feared that Transformers are coming toContinue reading “Transforming Citroën: first flight”
Flea market Montgomery: Just like a mini-mall
Every once in a while there’s a meme. Living rooms. Dinettes. Yeah, I’m talkin’ bout flea market! Mongomery! It’s just like.. it’s just like.. a mini.. mall. I have basically been living life through this commercial for the past couple of days, so I had to make a historical note of it; it’s infectious likeContinue reading “Flea market Montgomery: Just like a mini-mall”
Firefox autocomplete: how much?
One of my favorite parts of Firefox 2.0 is the autocomplete functionality built into the search bar. Every time I start typing a random query, I am completely surprised to see what the rest of my brethren are searching for. Recently I started typing “how much” and came up with this amazing list: You thoughtContinue reading “Firefox autocomplete: how much?”
Newspapers and search advertising
When searching, I am always interested to see who is paying for the sponsored ads for my query. A while back I searched for some information on the Cory Lidle plane crash and was completely surprised to see iVillage and the New York Times paying for my attention: My initial assumption was that most peopleContinue reading “Newspapers and search advertising”
Google’s AdSense spam
Google has embarked on a pyramid-based incentives program directed at bloggers. They’ve been pushing really hard for me to put AdSense on Blogdex, presumedly because it has high PageRank. I was first contacted directly by someone located in New York under the pretense of a “potential partnership between Google and Blogdex.net.” This was a personalContinue reading “Google’s AdSense spam”
Metrosexual marketing
Today I received a curious little book from Nordstrom’s called “The Grooming Game,” which features a host of men’s hair and skin products (available online as The Men’s Grooming Guide). Up until now I had thought Nordstrom’s figured me for a woman since they regularly send me lingerie and dainty dress catalogs. This book thoughContinue reading “Metrosexual marketing”
Mo Razors Scam
Boy, I seem to be talking about spamming and scamming a lot lately. You’d think I was a paranoid bastard if you didn’t know me. But this one is FO REAL. On my 18th birthday I received a Gillette razor in the mail courtesy of the United States Army †. I guess they were tryingContinue reading “Mo Razors Scam”
overstated 