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Nothing says "family" like pretending to love the terrible gifts your relatives have gotten you for the holidays.
That, at least, is the basic premise of a new 30-second Christmas ad from Heineken starring Benicio del Toro, and emphasizing that Heineken is, technically speaking, a family-owned business.
Part of Publicis Worldwide's new "There's more behind the star" campaign, it's the latest in a series of spots, launched earlier this year, featuring the A-list actor as a spokesman for the brewer, whose logo is, like him, a star....
Humor can be a way to draw a circle around a group and pull them in—to say, “If you understand this joke, we’re in the same tribe. You get me and I get you.” That’s a powerful message to send to your potential customers. And it’s a good way to get the less relevant folks to opt out, too. To underscore this point, I wrote 20 brand-new jokes that only marketers will get. If any of these jokes make you laugh, groan, or smirk, you’re in my tribe. Matching T-shirts are optional. What I’m trying to say is, there’s nothing like a good joke. And believe me, everything you’re about to read is nothing like a good joke....
Donald Trump capped off his performance at the final US presidential debate yesterday by—bizarrely, apparently apropos of nothing—interrupting Hillary Clinton’s remarks on tax policy to call her a “nasty woman.” The internet blowback was instantaneous. It included a flood of Twitter snark, a “nasty woman” website redirecting to Clinton’s campaign site, and dozens of quips bringing up “Nasty,” the 1986 hit song by Janet Jackson. Streams of “Nasty” have actually spiked 250% on Spotify, a spokesperson told Quartz today.
Republican nominee Donald Trump is known for some unusual speech patterns.
During the third and final presidential debate, Trump used one of his favorite words, "bigly."
The comment came during a contentious discussion of President Barack Obama's immigration record, where Trump asserted that Obama had deported "millions" of people.
"He doesn't want to say that, but that's what's happened... bigly," Trump said.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, bigly is actually a word meaning "with great force."
However, after the first presidential debate, Eric Trump, the nominee's son, told The Hollywood Reporter that the Republican nominee had said "big league," and not "bigly."...
Marketers have no shortage of metrics on their dashboards, but they are still often flying blind. Marketing visibility can be simultaneously clear and opaque. To paraphrase Coleridge, the state of marketing is “metrics, metrics everywhere, and not sure what to think.” OverstateGate brought a colorful rise out of Branding Professor Mark Ritson: “This little debacle once again confirms that nobody actually knows what the fuck is going on with digital media. Not media agencies, not big-spending clients and not armchair digital strategists. From the shadowy box of turds and spiders that is programmatic to the increasingly complex and deluded world of digital views, the idea that digital marketing is more analytical and attributable than other media is clearly horse shit. Sure, it has more numbers and many more metrics but that does not make it more accountable, it makes it less so.” In general, marketers can’t always take metrics at face value. We have to get savvier and more sophisticated at questioning the numbers we use. We have to beware of faux metrics and fuzzy math....
Facebook has tweaked its New Feed algorithm many, many times in its attempt to keep the posts you see relevant, but the change it’s rolling out today may be the most important one yet: Facebook is vowing to kill clickbait. Facebook has tweaked its New Feed algorithm many, many times in its attempt to keep the posts you see relevant, but the change it’s rolling out today may be the most important one yet: Facebook is vowing to kill clickbait. It’s a potentially huge move, and one that makes journalism better for almost everyone involved. How it works Now Facebook is filtering out clickbait much like Gmail hides spam. It’s detecting specific words, structures, and styles in titles which “intentionally leave out crucial information, forcing people to click to find the answer.” Here are some Facebook-provided samples of titles you will be seeing a lot less of: “When She Looked Under Her Couch Cushions And Saw THIS… I Was SHOCKED!” “He Put Garlic In His Shoes Before Going To Bed And What Happens Next Is Hard To Believe” “The Dog Barked At The Deliveryman And His Reaction Was Priceless.”...
Here we go again. Donald Trump’s campaign has undergone some major reshuffling in the past few weeks, and his latest staff shake-up proves that his troubles are far from over. Early this morning, the Trump campaign announced that it’s fired the man in charge of explaining what Donald Trump is to gorillas, with no official word yet on who his replacement will be. Yikes. Things are not looking good for Donald. Trump’s gorilla outreach has been a part of his campaign since day one, but the program’s fledgling results have left many wondering about the fate of its leader, longtime Trump family ally Jeff Hawkins. Hawkins’ role in the campaign was to build awareness of Donald Trump among gorillas by positioning him as a good, strong alpha male who is skilled at crushing things. But like so much of Trump’s campaign, this expensive initiative couldn’t get out of its own way....
I got into in the advertising business just as the Mad Men era was ending, and the Internet era was beginning.
Back in the early days, “The Idea” was everything. Be it a jingle, or a tagline, a critter, whatever, the idea was to eventually have something school kids could quote to each other to each other in the schoolyard, bartenders could quote to customers.
What is it now? I have no idea. It’s been years since anyone has ever mentioned a TV commercial to me in casual, offline conversation. Sure, people may link to one another on Facebook, but to hear a cute waitress to quote one to you, and for you to know the reference? It simply doesn’t happen anymore.
So what has taken its place? Adtech. Data. Internet. Machines.
Not only are the machines creating our ads for us these days, the machines are even clicking on the ads for us. Increasingly it’s an industry that doesn’t need any people in it, on the producing sie, nor the consuming side. Just so long as the algorithms are kept happy....
While a lot of behavioral change will come with the Internet of Things, some people are attempting to cause a bit of that change right away.In a push to help shoppers save money, a company has created a programmable handbag with built-in robotics that causes the bag to vibrate, flash and self-lock when the shopper enters a ‘danger spending zone.’ The iBag2 (yes, there was an earlier version, which launched in Australia a while back), is the brainchild of the personal finance website finder.com in the U.K. The rather high-tech bag was designed by a New York fashion designer and a team of engineers crafted the robotics features....
Real Money has done the math and shared their findings in the infographic Examining the Real Cost of Donald Trump's Wall, designed by DesignBySoap. It appears that the actual cost of the wall would end up being 2-3 times more expensive than the publicly released estimate. Luckily, even many of his supporters do not believe he will build the wall. You can see the details of Trump's plan, as well as some statistics on how Americans feel about it in the infographic above.
Imagine being a fly on the wall at his first intelligence briefing. What would a CIA briefing for Trump look like? And how would you like to be stuck with giving it? This Op Ed is a classic.
How much do you love your smartphone? Aaron Chervenak loves his enough to want to marry it—and he did, in a little chapel in Las Vegas. In a video that document the “slightly unorthodox ceremony”, Chervenak discusses the reasons why he wants to tie the knot with a piece of technology. According to him, “we connect with our phones on so many emotional levels—we look to it for solace, to calm us down, to put us to sleep, to ease our minds”, which to him is what a relationship is about. While this unconventional union is not legal, Chervenak hopes that his wedding would “act as a symbolic gesture to show how precious our smartphones are becoming in our daily lives”....
Remember when you were a kid and you'd lose track of time doing your favorite thing?
That's what being in love with your work is like.
Of course, people like being employed (and the money that goes with it).
But there are other things that matter just as much, like connection, meaning, purpose, and the rest of the narrative....
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Drawing the drama: Cartoonists from around the world on Trump's defeat of Clinton. These cartoons give us a global perspective on the US election.
This Nov. 8, even if you manage to be registered in time and have the right identification, there is something else that could stop you from exercising your right to vote.
The ballot. Specifically, the ballot’s design.
Bad ballot design gained national attention almost 16 years ago when Americans became unwilling experts in butterflies and chads. The now-infamous Palm Beach County butterfly ballot, which interlaced candidate names along a central column of punch holes, was so confusing that many voters accidentally voted for Patrick Buchanan instead of Al Gore....
The Republican candidate for White House appeared to use an unusual adverb in his debate against Hillary Clinton. Or did he? Jon Kelly investigates.
There was a moment in the first US presidential debate when lots of people asked themselves: "Did Trump just say 'bigly'?"
Followed quickly by: "Is that even a word?"
It came during a discussion on fiscal policy, when, Donald Trump told his opponent: "I'm going to cut taxes bigly, and you're going to raise taxes bigly." Or so many thought, anyway....
In September, Hillary Clinton released a devastating attack ad on Donald Trump, in which young girls are seen looking at themselves in the mirror while Trump's offensive remarks about women—in particular, their looks—are heard in the background.
The ad, titled "Mirrors," has gotten more than 5 million views on YouTube, and has been hailed by many as one of Clinton's strongest ads of the year.
Barack Obama's 2008 campaign manager, David Plouffe, told Slate last month: "I do think that Clinton will look back, particularly in suburban areas where they will be able to really drive good margins with women, that the ads helped. That ad where they show Trump's words and children listening? That stuff works!"
Now, Kathy Griffin has springboarded off the famous spot with a great parody of it. It's not subtle, but it is hilarious. Check it out below. Note: It features lots of NSFW language....
It suddenly hit me while listening to another Trump tirade. What happened next nearly blew my mind.
Not to give The Donald too much credit for his undisciplined tweeting but suddenly I realized that his entire campaign is built on a foundation of clickbait.
The very same linkbait that drives millions of spam pageviews online daily is also what allowed him to outfox 16 other serious Republican presidential candidates.
And when the presidential campaign debates take place, Hillary won’t have a chance!...
Just when you think Donald Trump can’t out-Trump Trump, he goes and does this. The Republican presidential nominee has definitely made some hefty promises this election, but somehow, the one he made yesterday might just take the cake. Doubling down on the self-aggrandizing claims he’s made during the campaign, he went and announced at a press conference that he is far and away the only candidate who can stop the vines that constantly strangle him in his own reflection. Looks like this self-proclaimed “government outsider” thinks he can take on the endless landscape of darkness that shrouds his body in mirrors all by himself. Typical Trump.While unleashing a series of attacks against democrats yesterday, Donald Trump boldly stated that he was the only person who could defeat the thick, dark vines that slowly wrap around his reflection’s neck anytime he looks at a mirror, rain puddle, or any polished surface. In classic Trump fashion, the candidate took broad swipes at everyone from the Clintons to President Obama, and went so far as to say that no one else in the world was prepared to step up and rid his mirror of vines when they routinely slither up his reflection’s legs toward his head until they engulf his entire, paralyzed body, slowly constricting around it until he is fully unable to breathe....
The thing is: We'd never know it anyway.
In a note to clients out Tuesday, Bank of America Merrill Lynch said there's a 20%-50% chance that we're living in the matrix — meaning that the world we experience as "real" is actually just a simulation.
The firm cites comments from Elon Musk, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and Nick Bostrom's seminal paper on the issue as the basis for its 20%-50% view.
Here's BAML (emphasis added):
"Many scientists, philosophers, and business leaders believe that there is a 20-50% probability that humans are already living in a computer-simulated virtual world. In April 2016, researchers gathered at the American Museum of Natural History to debate this notion. The argument is that we are already approaching photorealistic 3D simulations that millions of people can simultaneously participate in. It is conceivable that with advancements in artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and computing power, members of future civilizations could have decided to run a simulation of their ancestors."
WHAT: A supercut demonstrating Gene Wilder's mastery of the comedic pause.
WHO: Filmmaker and video essayist Rishi Kaneria.
WHY WE CARE: By now, most superfans know the story of Gene Wilder coming up with one of the more memorable moments of Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory. It was his decision that his character should totter out to the crowd clutching a cane for his grand entrance, almost fall down, and then glide into a somersault. This little touch reveals the kind of inspiration and perceptiveness that made Wilder such a celebrated comic actor and collaborator. However, it's the 'almost falling down' part of this scene that demonstrates one of the dearly departed performer's under-praised gifts: his mastery of the comedic pause.
There's a reason why the infamous Wonka meme depicts Wilder in repose. The man had a way of filling the silence with emotive anticipation in one direction or another. What probably looked like a mere ellipses in the screenplay, the actor imbued with any combination of flavors from his bottomless rucksack of expressiveness. Video essayist Kaneria, who recently brought us that insightful deep-dive into Paul Thomas Anderson's Radiohead video, brings together seven minutes of Wilder doing more with just a look and silence than some comic actors do with entire films....
Thursday’s Single-A minor league game between the Batavia Muckdogs and State College Spikes was interrupted by a fan on the field.
That fan was a sheep.
Presumably on hand for some sort of promotion, the sheep slipped onto the field when a stadium gate was opened, according to the announcers' conversation.
The grounds crew was able to guide the woolly visitor off the field eventually, but it wasn’t happy.
Maybe it just wanted a better view of the game....
Facebook isn’t ending spam. It just wants better labeling on the can.
As Mike Isaac and Sydney Ember report, the world’s largest social network is changing the rules for how outside content is listed on Facebook. Clickbait, or headlines that “withhold or distort information,” will be featured much farther down.
It’s an interesting change, because Facebook is moving beyond ranking other outlets’ stories based by how much traffic they’re getting. Now, it cares whether that traffic was obtained somewhat deceptively.
Two of the examples Facebook offered are telling. They were headlines that said “The Dog Barked at the Deliveryman and His Reaction Was Priceless,” and “When She Looked Under Her Couch Cushions and Saw THIS … I Was SHOCKED!”
Hey there, marketer. I’m curious … what’s really going in that day-to-day work life of yours? When you say you’re working from home, are you actually being productive? When you have a deadline, do you wait until the last minute? What are you actually doing on LinkedIn? It's time to speak the truth. Below are 15 graphs and charts showing how we really spend our days. If you can relate to one, click the “Pin It” button to share it with your friends and colleagues. And don’t worry, we won’t tell your boss. ;-)...
Tronc. Few words have garnered as much hilarity in such a short period of time. On Thursday, Tribune Publishing announced that the historic media company would rename itself "tronc." Media Twitter nearly lost its mind. For hours after the announcement, the jokes rolled in. They're still going strong as of Friday morning. Disastrous company rebrandings aren't particularly new, even for newspaper companies. Gannett, which publishes USA Today, spun off its digital businesses into something called TEGNA. None of them drew quite the ridicule that tronc elicited. And since it's Friday, here's 30 of the best tronc jokes from Twitter....
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Fun Christmas ad from Heineken featuring Benecio del Toro acting like he loves terrible Christmas gifts..