What can we learn about consuming pop culture from the TED ‘Ads Worth Spreading’ list?

TED just released “Ads Worth Spreading” (here’s the full list) as part of a big week for ’em (the 30th Anniversary of TED is right now in Vancouver). There are no trophies for winning, and ultimately you need to fall… Continue Reading →

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The median age of a TV viewer is now 54. Has advertising basically become a junk science?

I'm a white male, age 18 to 49. Everyone listens to me, no matter how dumb my suggestions are. — Homer J Simpson (@homersquotes) February 7, 2011 Amen, Homer. We were all taught to believe that the central idea of… Continue Reading →

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Page views, time spent, clicks, uniques, and shares: does anyone really know how best to measure an online audience?

It feels like people have been saying this for years, although it probably hasn’t really been that long: essentially, the media game is changing. Here’s an article from today via The Atlantic, noting that outbound links off of Facebook went from 62… Continue Reading →

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Is Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods or soccer ultimately responsible for the best NIKE ad of all-time?

NIKE isn’t an official sponsor of the next two grand-scale global sporting events — the Winter Olympics, starting tonight, or the World Cup, starting this summer — but it’s really hard to talk about sports and marketing without talking about… Continue Reading →

About 45 Northwestern Kellogg MBA students will be analyzing Super Bowl ads tomorrow night (yay ADPLAN framework)

That M&Ms “Anything for Love” ad was one of the big winners of last year’s Super Bowl — along with, you know, the Baltimore Ravens — when a bunch of Northwestern MBA students get together and evaluate the ads on… Continue Reading →

Scarlett Johansson, Daniel Defense, and how the banned Super Bowl ad culture seems to work

The above ad features ScarJo hawking SodaStream. It was targeted as a Super Bowl ad — considering it features a highly-paid movie actress — but was banned from airing by FOX, who’s televising the game. Go ahead and watch the… Continue Reading →