Mosaic Ads Are In
A Dummy's Puppet's Ramblings - from Chip Martin, Puppet
Mannequin American views and guidelines on marketing/PR trends, news from the world of puppets and ventriloquism, bits of humor and other interesting but useless information. I post every Tuesday and Friday. For information on this puppet's background, go to http://www.dale-brown.com/.
Worthless but Interesting
The group of words above was created with tag cloud tool. If you click on the link you can type in a URL from any web site or blog and the program will create a "cloud of words" based on what words are mentioned most on the site. If you want you can pick fonts and colors. I have no idea why someone would create a site like this or why anyone would use it or why you would be interested ... but I liked what it came up with, so I included it.
Scalping Restaurant Reservations
Thanks to Gene Mueller of WTMJ 620 for pointing this out to us. The Chicago Tribune reported on a website that resells restaurant reservations. Windy City eateries are not too pleased about this development, but Chicago officials in charge of such things (Is there a "Bureau of Reservations"?) say there's nothing illegal about it.
But why should we have to go through middle-people to get a spot at a hot spot? Isn't this service just creating an unnecessary extra layer of procedure? And what about reservations that don't get purchased? Is the restaurant just left with empty tables? Seems like a bad idea for restaurants and customers but a potentially good idea for those who thought this idea up.
Sesame Street Starts its 39th Season ... That's 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, ... Oh, You Get the Idea
This puppet-oriented site would be remiss if I didn't point out that the 39th season of Sesame Street recently premiered and the show is turning into a Saturday Night Live for toddlers This season will include all new parodies including: 30 Rocks, Pre-School Musical and Are You Smarter Than an Egg Layer?
Guest celebrities hitting the street in '08 will include Will Arnett, Jessica Alba, David Beckham, Heidi Klum, Neil Patrick Harris, Jack Black and others.
Yearbook Yourself ... Good Marketing Idea
The Taubman Company LLC (a company that owns, operates and manages shopping malls) has launched Yearbook Yourself, a site on which you can upload your picture and see what you would look like through the decades from the 50's to the 90's. Want to see what you look like with an 80's Farrah Fawcett haircut or a 90's Jennifer Anniston haircut or a 50's James Dean look? Go for it.
After you upload your photo, you choose a mall location and are taken to a page on which items from a given decade are mentioned. The item or trend is then tied to current day and the stores within the mall that sell that product are highlighted. Clever way to attract attention, involve prospects and inform them about nearby stores. And if you have the time, it's fun.
Wrap Around Miscalculation
When they applied the wrap around decals for this New Foundland-based Hits 99.1 FM van, apparently they neglected to see what would happen to the logo when the door was open.
Frumputante
Frump-yoo-tahnt - noun: Derived from the American word frump (meaning slothlike slob) and a derivative of the French word, debutante. A woman aged 15-60 who exerts little to no effort in maintaining personal appearances because she is deluded by the fact that a name brand purse or fancy pair of sunglasses counts as effort.
Where to spot a Frumputante: The mall, Costco, chain restaurants, amusement parks.
Are they hostile creatures? Frumputantes are generally harmless but tend to be moody and carry a large credit card debt.
Clever Mosaic Ads Are "In"
Above is a clever mosaic indoor billboard for a Casino. The picture was created using dice.
Below, Wonderbra put up a new mosaic billboard that's made up of hundreds of photos of women posing in their bras. (Don't squint. You can't see them unless you go to the web site where a visitor, if so inclined, can zoom in and see all the individual pics) The company recruited women with a campaign back in June. The ‘models' for the billboard were recruited via a call to action for women of all shapes and sizes to attend an open photo shoot. More than a thousand women attended the day. The ad is part of the launch campaign for Wonderbra's new D-G range of bras.
It looks like more than a few of the models were on hand for the billboard's unveiling in central London.
