Sure is Gettin Crowded Out There

First there was a Massachusetts school that sold commercials that ran in school buses as a non traditional revenue stream. That's bad.

Now we learn that McDonald’s has taken this to a new level. With incentives added.

Mickey D's bought advertising on kid's report cards in a Seminole County, Florida school system of over 25,000 students. The students who received A's were recognized and were offered free food from the Golden Arches.

I realize public school districts are tight on available budgets, but is this really the right way to get more money?

Oh, it also adds to the incredible clutter factor that all advertising faces, and could cause young people to pay even less attention to ads.

Brevity................

Consider that The Gettysburg Address contains a total of 272 words. Total.
By comparison......

Words on a bag of Lay's potato chips = 401
Words on current IRS Form 1040 EZ = 418
Words in average cover story of USA Today = 1,200

The End of The Innocence...........

Please let this be the end of all those expected end of the year Top Ten lists of "best", "worse", "new", "different", etc. etc. etc. You won't find one here.

Why does December 31st always bring out lists upon lists of mundane occurences and random brain droppings from an overly stuffed file cabinet or in box? Why? Because it's both easy and expected, and appeals to the lowest common denominator of reader/viewer/subscriber. And it give sthe talking heads something to talk about during a slow news week.

It's a conversation starter, sure. So are sports scores and celebrity meltdowns ----- doesn't mean it's the right thing to do. Too often, "Journalists" just choose to take the easy way out and throw together lists and rankings and predictions for the sake of cheap and easy reads. It's so predicatble, and so wrong. Let's just do away with it all. Now. Before the end of the year.

And why we're at it, can we do away withe New Year's Resolutions?

Ramblings from a week of travel.

Whatever line you get in will slow down almost immediately.

TSA Agents at airports are sometimes a little too serious about their roles and responsibilities. That 85 year old gentleman does not need to be shaken down as if he's headed off to Alcatraz and that 6 year old girl has nothing of interest in her Dora the Explorer backpack.

You seldom see a motorcycle parked outside of a psychiatrist's office.

How often do you think they clean the carpets at airport gates?

The avearge pencil is 7 inches long, but the eraser is only half an inch.

"The price of light is less than the cost of darkness" - Arthur C. Neilsen

Out..................All The Way Out!

San Paulo, Brazil is a city of over 11 million people. It is a beautiful place. It is experiencing dramatic growth throughout the region. The people who run San Paulo have become fed up with the thousands of outdoor billboards that are popping up all over the scenic city. They have taken steps to ban any and all outdoor billboards from this day on. In overly commercial USA -- San Francisco, Austin and other cities are watching closely and considering outdoor advertising bans as well. There are currently four USA states that have some sort of outdoor advertising ban ---- they are Alaska, Hawaii, Maine and Vermont.

Magazines are not Dead

I get over 30 magazines a month. Is that excessive? On every flight I take, I have 10-15 magazines to read through. I typically knock out each magazine I get within 2-3 days of it being in my mailbox. I rip pages out, send copies to friends and business associates and make notes in the margins. I make my magazines work.

People will always be loyal to their favorite magazines and will always find time to read them -- usually at their leisure and most often at home. And magazine readers are affluent, influential and involved. That can't be a bad thing.

Here are a few of my favorite magazines:

New York
New Yorker
Los Angeles
Portfolio
Atlantic
Architectural Digest
Esquire
Rolling Stone
Blender
Spin
Paste
Men's Health
Outdoors
The Week
WIRED
Fast Company
Time
Newsweek
U S News
Forbes
Fortune
Money
Travel & Leisure
Sports Illustrated
ESPN
AdWeek
BrandWeek
Advertisng Age
Campaign
Shoot

Why Are There So Many Bad Ads Out There?

You'd think that the folks who have to approve (and pay for) all these local TV commercials, would take a vested interest in how their ads come across. Here are some of the "Dont''s" I just can't tolerate in low budget, local TV commercials......

Don't Yell At Me
Don't Have Your Spokesperson Read a Script
Don't Splash The Screen With Super Bright Colors
Don't Repeat Your Phone # More Than Twice
Don't Put In A Kid, Just Because..........
Don't Put In A Puppy, Just Because...........
Don't Use The Local Weather Guy / Girl