The Pro Shop

I stepped out of the office today to see how marketers can give away free food without Oprah Winfrey’s help.

The event was a sampling session for a new product, Flatbread Melts, launching today from DiGiorno, a Kraft division. And it was a good reminder of how very simple it can be to get a new food item into tasters’ hands for free—with, perhaps, a few caveats and concerns. more

We’ve all heard the stories. Banks and giant insurance companies that have accepted bailout funds caught red-handed abusing those taxpayer dollars: The auto guys flying around in corporate jets and AIG planning lavish parties, just to name a few notable blunders.

Now, an even more sinister plot has been uncovered, a scratch-off game.

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OK, I just have to ask: Who at either Southwest Airlines or Sports Illustrated thought it would be a good idea to wrap a Boeing 737 in the airline’s fleet with an image of model Bar Refaeli, the cover girl for the 2009 SI swimsuit issue? more

Someone always has to die before any real action is taken.

It was only a matter of time before a store employee got killed on Black Friday. History has shown us that violence and general chaos are a hallmark of this super-shopping day and other wild promotions. And the bigger the bargain or prize the more likely that someone gets hurt.

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You know those ideas that look good on paper, but then turn out to be an invitation to either utter doom or at least thousands of personal liability lawsuits? Carnival Cruise Lines had one of these recently, and I can honestly say that, at least in my mind, I told them so. more

Sometimes you just have to dance. That’s the approach search marketing agency Oneupweb took when its Barack Obama yard signs kept disappearing from the company grounds, looted by an unseen enemy of the First Amendment.

The solution the Traverse City MI firm arrived at? A 30-foot projection of a dancing Obama thrown onto the walls of its building the night before Election Day.



Swipe that, Censor Boy>. more