Last Minute Holiday Cards? Elf Yourself Into the New Year, Until 1/2/08

Ann Handley, one of my fellow co-authors of the Age of Conversation book for Variety, the Children's Charity, has a great lead-in line for the ongoing coverage of this "elf yourself" online holiday blitz. She says, "Know how I know when an online campaign is truly viral?---When my non-geek, non-marketer friends pass it along to me.” Yep. That’s my indicator … [Read more...]

Slimy Santa Innuendo Gets The Heave-Ho-Ho-Ho…

Ho. Used to be a trio of chuckles from jolly ol’ Saint Nick, or the classic 'heave-ho' given to moldly expired fridge food… Lately, between hip-hop lyrics, MTV2 misogyny and Don Imus’ media gaffes we wrote about here, the term's shifted to a noun form, and not even ol' Santa escapes the senseless drek. This latest BuzzFeed won't make your days merry and … [Read more...]

The Golden Rule? McDonalds Pays Off Good Grades

Yesterday Ad Age reported, “McDonald's has found a nifty way to reach kids even as TV ad options toward the demographic shrink: Advertise on report cards.” Um…"nifty?" How about subversive? Opportunistic? Manipulative? Hypocritical? Undermining parents' values? Shaping Youth already called ‘em to task for the sour ‘apples and milk’ … [Read more...]

A Smart Television Alliance: Receive A Free TiVo Before Dec. 31st!

“Just because you watch “CSI” doesn’t mean your six-year-old (no matter how brilliant and mature) should, too. As a parent, you instinctively know stuff like that. Unfortunately, broadcasters don’t get it…So what can you do about it? Here’s where the Smart Television Alliance comes in. We're a new coalition of leading nonprofit … [Read more...]

Dare to Share? What’s Your Beacon Story? (part 2)

My prankster friends love to pull my chain. I wish Facebook's beacon was one of their many gotchas. But it's not. After writing the behavioral profiling article on kids, reading the update on beacon from Facebook's reply, seeing the backlash surge from 0-45,000 members in 8 days, and hearing Ideashower's post was viewed 80,000 times, I should’ve seen this corker … [Read more...]