Diesel Sneaks: Not for Running

Rather than position itself as just another running shoe, Diesel took a slightly different approach to punting its sneakers. They're not made for traversing the nearest asphalt path on a quest for futile glory; they're made for kickin' ass (and, by implication, takin' names).

The :60 web video that propagates this ideal depicts a Diesel sneaker in demonstration mode. Witness while the asses of dentists, evil neighbours, mimes and Third World dictators are judiciously kicked. As a bonus, you get gratuitous slow-mo of their facial responses.

Humor me ››

Neither Ad, Nor Sense, in GOOG Mobile's Latest

Whatever you think of Google's ad efforts in general, you'll probably agree they're usually more coherent - more relatable? - than this bad-boy.

The first minute of this piece is all you needed to get a sense of what they were pushing. After that it's basically just, "Pizza. Pizza. Pizza." Right, you're understated and yet self-effacing. We get it. All ten minutes of it.

Will people hang around to backpat watch? (I didn't.)

If that weren't bad enough, the tagline is "Where you are is what you search." I think I get what they were trying to do, but I just don't see how "pizza" can be a general location, unless they mean that if pizza is what you want, then wherever you are, it's the only void that matters right then. At least where your search engine of choice is concerned. There has to have been a less existential mindfuck of a way to say that, though. (How 'bout "What you want, where you are"?)

Lots more where that came from!

V + V.

Kicking CAPTCHA and Improving Online Ad Experience - in One Fell Swoop?

Not a bad idea. It solves problems today and is an example of solid thinking. What risks there are, the gains are too good not to leap in and find out. (As long as I don't end up typing BUY R0LEX WATCH $99.99 thirty times a day. That sh!t would be wack!)

Via my homie over heeere.

Twitter's Long-Awaited Ad Strategy.

How often is it that the thing we've all been waiting for turns out to be exactly as imaginative as all the other things we already hate have?

Fairly often, I guess.

(In response to the secondary question still only half-formed in your mind: "pertussis" is whopping cough. You can still get that? Maybe they changed the name so people wouldn't automatically think about The Consumption.)

more.madame: The Lovechild of Chanel and Le Figaro

With a few helpful tailor's tugs from agency Mediaedge:cia, Chanel Joaillerie (Jewelry) and Figaro Group -- parent company of French publication Le Figaro and related subsidiaries -- have partnered to conceive more.madame. Running from November 21 to December 19, it's toted as the first-ever "digital standalone" -- or hors-série digital.

Part ad, part supplementary miniseries, the work celebrates the contemporary woman: a pristine if idle creature reeking of restrained force, moving like a hot knife through a man's world. Art, games, editorial and videos add colour and context to her tapestry.

Humor me ››

Bill and Ted, Ben and Jerry, Bill and Jerry.

Two of a kind? Birds of a feather? Something like that.




See the review.

So This is How Facebook Sees Me.

I was lying around feeling appalled and bitter about an ugly pair of shoes that Facebook apparently thought I'd find "hot," when I noticed a link marked "More Ads."

Compelling.

One compulsive click later, I found myself at the Facebook Ad Board. This fascinating page contains all the ads served to me at any given time, based on input from my profile.

Here's part of my Ad Board page.

Right now the ads are seedy and hit-or-miss, probably based more on my gender and age than any other unique details.

It didn't even get my alma mater right, which is embarrassing, considering Facebook once catered specifically to universities. (You'd think my choice of college is the one detail against which it could best serve ads.)

What beguiles me is the transparency of this ad board. It's probably a decent reflection of how well most websites interpret the information you provide. As your profile and the advertisers change, you can watch that interpretation evolve!

In the context of the "you-are-as-the-'net-sees-you" mindset, which is growing in popularity (and by its own definition, fast evolving into an absolute truth), it won't be long now before somebody can viably argue that you are a reflection of what the Ad Board -- any ad board -- serves you.

Is that what I want?

As a consumer, sure. By all means, ad guys, sharpen your targeting capabilities. Feed me cookies, track my eyeballs. Ads that I enjoy will improve my content landscape -- and generate more conversions for you.

Philosophically, however, I'm not fond of the idea. I don't like thinking that what I am -- all the AWESOME that is ME -- can be distilled in a lovingly-terraced product grid.

...but that's just a conceit, isn't it?

For the cult that believes we can only be defined by how others perceive us, it isn't such a big jump to assert "you are what Google says you are." And from there, it doesn't strike me as unreasonable to say you are defined by what you buy.

Or by the ads you click on.

All advertisers need are more sophisticated lenses.* Then, voilà: mirror to your soul.

---

*They're getting sharper by the minute. Read about Phorm, which works with ISPs to track all your online activities, creating a more accurate collection of your loves and hates than Facebook could ever dream of eliciting from you.

John Battelle Weighs In on Vertical Ad Networks

The industry is really good at direct response advertising online. The problem with vertical ad networks is that until you have engagement, integration, and proof of that consumer awareness, you are just going to keep devolving down to direct response pricing, which is sub $5 cost per thousand (CPM) for an ad.

We want it at the kinds of CPMs that supported the magazine and the cable industry, which is above $20, $30, $40, $50 cost per thousand. Advertisers will pay that once they feel like they're getting that value for it.

FYI: John Battelle co-founded Wired and wrote The Search, a pretty good book about Google, the history of search and the birth of the sponsored search industry.

He's also the founder of Federated Media, a gigantor online ad network composed of blogs like Dooce, Boing Boing and Ars Technica.

More Battelle on ad networks.

Put Some Sex in that Cereal Bowl

Because no satin love nest is complete without riboflavin.

Can you say 1+1=US x FOREVER? Yeah, baby, yeah.

Aw ... a Search Engine Catfight

Yesterday, when saner people were making pigskin pigs-in-a-blanket for their Super Bowl fêtes, Google published a punchy blog post about how Microsoft is trying to monopolize the internet with its Yahoo bid. (Can you hear the subtle "Mommy, mommy, look what he's doing!"?)

Microsoft, ever the down-to-your-leveler, went, "Well, YOU HIT ME FIRST!" Or something. (MarketingVOX summarizes both nicely.)

And soon -- really, too soon -- after all that, ZDNet let loose about what it calls Google's "Let's annoy Microsoft" campaign. Word is Google reached out to Yahoo after Microsoft made the indecent proposal on Friday.

This intensifying shoving match is just one more reason why solving problems over rock-paper-scissors never gets old.

The Lowest Common Denominator

I think the most groundbreaking thing about internet advertising is that it has made everything trackable: how users surf, where they go, how much time they spend on a site, what they ultimately buy, even what they're looking for at outset.

And because everything is trackable, ads are better tailored to consumers. This is what made Google AdSense so attractive to so many. This is what made behavioral tracking so frightening to those who prefer the illusion of anonymity.

The promise behind the Semantic Web ("Web 3.0") is of a universe that caters entirely to us. Anything with a chip or an agnostic barcode will be internet-ready or readable, and anything internet-ready should be able to serve us what we seek at any given moment.

But will it give me what I really, really want? Will it give me more me?