"I'm sure the first thing that came out of the Gutenberg press wasn't that great," she said. "The Bible?" asked the startled moderator. "No, I'm sure there was a lot of crap before then..." "No, I think the Bible was the first thing." (Bookmarked for this quotation alone).

"A nation, then, of agile operators, tailoring solutions to personal demand and producing the highest quality work possible. That’s a motivating image."

How ads used to be made. Some beautiful photographs here.

"Unless your surname's Coren you're going to need some help getting into the journalism industry." Great advertising from the Press Gazette

"After a stint shuttling back and forth from his farm in upstate New York to LA, where he consulted on a project for Steven Spielberg and EA, Rohrer has now joined the roster of multimedia stars at Tool of North America, which produces high-end commercials and interactive campaigns for the top advertising firms in the nation." Hmm.

"ART & COPY reveals the stories behind and the personal odysseys of some of the most influential advertising visionaries of our time and their campaigns, including Lee Clow (Apple Computer 1984, and today’s iPod); Dan Wieden (“Just Do It”); Phyllis K. Robinson (who invented the “me generation” with Clairol); Hal Riney (who helped President Reagan get re-elected); and George Lois (who saved MTV and launched Tommy Hilfiger overnight). Directed by Doug Pray (SURFWISE, HYPE!, SCRATCH), ART & COPY captures the creative energy and passion behind the iconic campaigns that have had a profound impact on American culture." Sounds good - Scratch was excellent.

Yes, it's advertising, but that's really, really, really clever. Nicely done.

"Commissioned by the advertising agency Nordpol+ Hamburg I designed the origami models and consulted the stopmotion as well as the computer animators of this world wide corporate movie that tells the story of the japanese sports brand ASICS. The movie won a Grand Prix at the Eurobest, gold at the New York festival, gold at the London International Awarts, silver at the Clio in Miami and two times bronze at ADC Germany." And it deserves all those awards; a beautiful piece of animation and paper-folding.

"Are all these industries in such terminal decline that they’re grasping around for any revenue stream or way out? Or is this the converged future, where business and culture are one and the same? Not only can’t I tell whether things are real or marketing vehicles any more, I can’t even determine what’s being marketed." Chris has a point.

"Instead of encouraging you to join a group, find new friends, or spread the word, Burger King’s new Whopper Sacrifice Application is offering you a free Whopper if you DE-FRIEND 10 people from your friend list." Um.

Japanese Bioshock commercial. Nifty: no in-game footage, but there's something that feels like it overlaps right.

"I was startled to realize that stock photo and video purveyors actually create material in anticipation of demand... These suppliers of the world's commercial imagery are making bets on what life will look and feel like in the near future." But of course.

"Of all the adverts I’ve seen this year, I think this (late entry) surprised me the most. Not because of the concept - the hilarious coincidence that sometimes people who are not famous share names with people who are famous has been used before - or the clumsy copy. It surprised me because I actually know the person in the photograph. And she really is called Julia Roberts." So do I. She really is, you know.

Powazek is right; this is definitely smart advertising, and full props to EA/W+K for just taking the credit and not trying to make it "viral"; it'll do that anyway. Although: it really is a glitch, you know.

"Timex sets their watches to precisely 10:09:36 while Rolex waits almost a minute until 10:10:31." Some lovely observations collated by Kottke.

"The moisturiser, far from the trusted friend and counsellor of the first reading, is The Picture of Dorian Gray." Alex tries to read that Nivea ad that's all over stations right now. It is confusing.

"This shocking but real dialogue that features in this film gives a clear indication of how the UK today is demonising children." Powerful advertising, for a strong campaign.

"The dataspace of the well-tempered environment will soon be invaded by logos, credits, banners and offers. The financial temptations will, I suspect, be too hard to resist." Loads of excellent stuff in here besides this, though. Can't recommend enough.

This is wonderful "wilfully fictional" advertising: an affectionate pastiche of the geek's love of unboxing videos, with some wish-fulfillment as to what unboxing ought to really look like.

"Do you really want them campaigning in your hobby? I don’t."

"EA has confirmed that the advert was paid for by Obama."

"The big dilemma is that needs are different. I’m normally on Mobile Google Maps when I’m frantically trying to find a place, often the hotel I’ve booked. I’m lost, I want to sleep – I’m not exploring the possibility space, and I don’t want to wade through marketing garbage. Note that this doesn’t make sense for these kinds of advertisers either: I’ve booked already, and I don’t want alternatives." Once again, the problems of the mobile context (rather than the mobile technology) rear their heads.

"Content is an expensive, messy business and fraught with quality risk. Network resources like minutes and texts are an attractive commodity and one where the wholesale price is falling all the time." Interesting analysis of Blyk.

Wonderful.

"Microsoft may very well not be broken. The world needs reliable bureaucracies that mollify the needs of corporations and individuals in the center of the market. But if it is broken, advertising isn't going to fix it."

"Brands are built...out of culture...out of meanings from culture. In the Volvo campaign, the meaning was safety and symbol for this safety was a little girl. Pretty standard. But this book is interested in new ways to source meaning. Let's look at new, emerging brand tactics." More excellent posts from Grant.

Great selection of posts on how brands need to behave (and how they sometimes fail to do so) from Grant McCracken.

"Anecdotal feedback also confirmed that without exception, the PSP was regarded as the best sales presenter ever received. As a result, Foster’s is now reviewing further rollout of the tool." Fosters use a pre-loaded PSP as sales demonstration tool; it does very well.

"It's 1975 And This Man Is About To Show You The Future. (Scenes From An IBM Slide Presentation)" Such typefaces; such hair.

"...making that context a part of your marketing is going to be much more relevant to customers than being dismissive of your competitors could ever be." Alex on marketing and copywriting, again. Good stuff (and: good snacks!)

Hey kids: this is the Uncanny Valley. It won't sell your games. The last ad in particular is horrific.

"people... are going to judge your product on that single thing that you think is so important... Have you thought through everything about that? Are you happy with dealing with all those implications?"

"if we're trying to create great experiences, that we align the expectations to help the case we want to make."

Rather liked these adverts for BloodBuster.

"I've never been satisfied with folks trying to build services that generate 'eyeballs' just to 'monetize' that traffic with ads." Charlie rightly lays into the monetizers.

the_decapitator: he finds ordinary bus-shelter adverts, and then graphically - and entertainigly - decapitates someone in them. entertaining! subversive! hurrah for culture hacking.

Lovely commercial for a Volkswagen SUV - "The city never rests; enjoy the movement." Not sure a SUV is the best way to enjoy the movement, but I say their point.

"I've just been mulling over why product design firms, which create value, don’t seem to be perceived as valuable as marketing design firms."

Katy is blogging again. Hurrah! It looks good, so far.

"There are a lot of similarities between design and advertising, notably the treatment of real market feedback and the opinion of the client, and I think this book nails when and how to do proper user research."

"For years Buckley’s Cough Mixture, available in Canada since 1919, has been highlighting the fact their cough syrup tastes horrible, but it works." Love some of the taglines; a smart bit of marketing for the kind of products you hate but need...

"Lotus Notes, an application whose awkward integration of multiple feature sets I’ve only ever heard spoken about with violent disgust, promotes itself as freakish software. This is a campaign that can only make sense in the ... world of enterprise soft

Wow. Just wow. Phenomenal print adverts for Lego, that manage to sum up the brand so well.

"...indirect readers, unable to get access to articles behind the pay wall and less likely to pay subscription fees than the more loyal direct users..." - you don't say?

"...at which step in this narrative would my 1977-era audience first say "you've got to be shitting me!" ... and when would they start moaning and holding their head in their hands?"

These marketing strategies are bogus forms of anti-capitalism, fraudulent denials of the unbreakable-but-contradictory relationship between quantity/exchange value and quality/use value. Between them, they promise a new economic culture, in which 'economy