Dunham's Christmas DVD is Available

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/.

My Stamp of Approval

Okay, according to the worker bees around our office, I'm the only one who didn't know that you can create legitimate U.S. Postal Stamps using your own photos. When I went to the Web site I saw that this fun idea won a Business Week Best Products of 2005 award, so I had to admit that I was a little behind. On the other hand, the people who "work" in our office know how much I like to see pictures of myself, so I figure it was their job to tell me about "personalized stamps." So I'm going to go yell at someone now for not keeping me informed. In the meantime, you can go to http://photo.stamps.com/Store/ and create your own stamps!  If you want to create something that will attract attention, use my photo.

Great Clothes Come From Great Employees

I think this is sexist and demeaning to women, but it's only fair to let you make up your own minds.  The ECKO MFG Web site gives viewers a peak into its manufacturing practices which includes videos of bikini-clad women stitching jeans together, and bikini-clad women doing just about everything in the manufacturing process of making denim jeans. It's like The Stepford Sweatshop.  And you can order the bikini-clad-women-produced jeans on the Web site. I'm supposed to be an expert, but I really don't know if this type of marketing will sell jeans. (Personally, I felt like going out and purchasing a few bikinis.) What do you think?

I Think I Have a Pain That I Didn't Notice Until I Saw Your Ad

Currently, the U.S. and New Zealand are the only countries that allow drug companies to advertise directly to consumers (DTC). (I bet you didn't know that.) In the U.S. drug makers spent $5 billion on such campaigns in 2006. Man that's a lot of money.

A recent study of DTC advertising of pharmaceuticals concluded that all the TV spots and multipage magazine spreads for Big Pharma's miracle drugs have only a minor to negligible effect on consumer drug purchasing behavior. Considering that more than 67% of medicines prescribed in the U.S. are generic, the results aren't surprising.

But drug companies claim that's not the point. "Surveys show that DTC advertising brings patients into their doctors' offices and helps start important doctor-patient conversations about conditions that might otherwise go undiagnosed or untreated," a drug spokesperson said. "In fact, a national survey by Prevention Magazine found that 29 million patients talked to their doctor for the first time about a health condition after seeing a DTC ad."

Still, I find it hard to believe that drug companies spend $5 billion on advertising as acts of good citizenship. I think they expect returns on their investments.  But I don't think they're getting those returns. So the only winners are the ad agencies that convince drug companies to throw away money on DTC ads that really don't have an impact on sales ... discounting erectile dysfunction ads, of course.

Do Your Christmas Shopping Early

"Jeff Dunham's Very Special Christmas Special" DVD is on sale today. To pre-order on amazon.com Click HERE. You'll probably receive it in November after an edited version of the show appears on Comedy Central. Look for Dale, Leslie and me in the audience. We were at the taping back in June. Hilarious.  And Jeff wasn't bad either.

Why did the Chicken Dig a Hole to Cross the Road?

I love this ad for the Nissan Altima.  It's simple, attention-getting and very creative. They got their money's worth on this one. And even more impressive is that Nissan didn't ruin it by saying, "Make the logo bigger."