The BadAds Weblog

Stop–in the Name of Marketing

Advertisers know that their pitches vanish from your mind like the early morning dew. That's why they hammer messages at you again and again and again until the day that ad finally sticks and then, ka-ching!, thirty cents profit in the till. (Oh, wait, five cents profit after subtracting advertising costs....)

Now, in the hope of hitting you with ads you don't even have time to forget, NUSIGN Industries has introduced AdCaps, ad-covered polyurethane parking bumpers. Advertisers hope that as you leave your car and walk into the store, AdCaps–which "decorate unsightly asphalt with attractive commercial art"–will inspire you to buy Brand X hairspray, cat food, and other products.

Sure, you can run over the parking bumpers in frustration, but the only long term solution is to tell advertisers that you don't want to see their "commercial art" blighting the cool, comforting gray of your favorite parking lot. We've listed contact information for a few of NUSIGN's clients below:

Ford Motor Company
William Ford, Jr., CEO
One American Rd.
Dearborn, MI 48126-2798
Phone: 313-322-3000
Fax: 313-845-6073

Guitar Center
Larry Thomas, Chairman and Co-CEO
5795 Lindero Canyon Rd.
Westlake Village, CA 91362
Phone: 818-735-8800
Fax: 818-735-8844
Online Feedback Form

Nestle USA (owner of the advertised Friskies-brand cat food)
Joe Weller, Chairman and CEO
800 N. Brand Blvd.
Glendale, CA 91203
Phone: 818-549-6000
Fax: 818-549-6952
Online Feedback Form

The New Power Company
H. Eugene (Gene) Lockhart, Chairman, President and CEO
1 Manhattanville Rd.
Purchase, NY 10577
Phone: 914-697-2100
Fax: 914-697-2101
Online Feedback Form

WNBA Enterprises
Valerie B. Ackerman, President
Olympic Tower, 645 Fifth Ave.
New York, NY 10022
Phone: 212-688-9622
Fax: 212-750-9622
Online Feedback Form

(The WNBA ad also featured the 2001 Champion Los Angeles Sparks, and the team's contact information is:

Great Western Forum
3900 Manchester Blvd.
Inglewood, CA 90306
Phone: 800-978-9622
Fax: 310-330-2427)

And why not drop a line to NUSIGN itself while you're at it, to let them know just how much their efforts are appreciated:

NUSIGN Industries, LLC
Neal Schore, Chief Operating Officer
6345 Balboa Blvd., Ste. 250
Encino, CA 91316
Phone: 818-708-2900 ext. 225
E-mail Neal Schore

October 29, 2001

Got Ads?

When average people open the refrigerator and see a carton of milk, they think, "Maybe I should have some cereal, or perhaps a cup of cocoa."

David Ronick and Kim Hall are not average people. In the summer of 2000, they saw a milk carton and suddenly thought, "Hey, we could stick ads on this thing!" As Ronick said to one marketing magazine, "[M]ilk struck us as a great product to start with. It's got interesting properties and positive associations."

Determined to destroy those positive associations, Ronick and Hall formed BoxTop Media and set up a sales network among local dairies. Clients include AOL and Microsoft, whose ads on the side of half-pints are aimed at human half-pints in schools. Said Ronick, "It is unique that we can get to children in schools where there is very little advertising, and at lunch when they're talking to their friends, and at a time when we're not disrupting class time."

Perhaps David and Kim--not to mention their clients--need to hear from a few people who disagree with what they're doing. Contact information is below:

America Online
Barry M. Schuler, Chairman and CEO
22000 AOL Way
Dulles, VA 20166-9323
Phone: 703-265-1000
Fax: 203-922-4981
Online Feedback Form

Microsoft Corporation
Steven Ballmer, CEO and Director
1 Microsoft Way
Redmond, WA 98052-6399
Phone: 425-882-8080
Online Feedback Form

BoxTop Media
24 West 25th Street, 8th Floor
New York, NY 10010
Phone: 212-463-9510
David Ronick
Kim Hall

As always, CC us with your comments and you might win a nifty, logo-free BadAds T-shirt.

October 26, 2001

Save Harry Potter

So far in BadAds we've discussed commercials before movies, product placements in movies, and even advertising on pre-moistened towelettes at movie snack counters. Well, marketers now have their sights set on the new Harry Potter movie and all the young consumers it can deliver into their clutches.

Harry Potter fans, concerned parents, teachers, and health advocates all over the world are trying to "Save Harry" from the grasp of the Coca-Cola Co. The soft drink manufacturer has bought the exclusive global marketing rights to the upcoming "Harry Potter" movie and is turning the Harry Potter phenomenon into a sales vehicle for junk food.

What you can do: At SaveHarry.com, you can send an e-mail to author J. K. Rowling, Warner Bros., and Coca-Cola. The site also has lots of information about the health problems related to soft drinks, a way to alert your friends, a fun game for kids, and more.

October 21, 2001

National Ad Slam Contest

Are you tired of advertisers hawking products in your (or your child's) school? Commercial Alert today launched the first annual National Ad Slam Contest. The Ad Slam is a nationwide contest to expel advertisers from schools. Commercial Alert will award a $5,000 prize to the school that makes the best and most creative effort to remove advertising and commercialism from school premises during the 2001-2 school year.

Find out how to participate.

October 16, 2001

Ads in Space

Ad clutter has reached epic proportions here on earth–that's why NASA is thinking of launching ads into space.

A draft document issued by NASA called "Enhanced Strategy for the Development of Space Commerce" would allow "family friendly corporate sponsors" to plaster their emblems and logos alongside NASA's, and permit merchandising that promotes the so-called NASA brand. For example, the Associated Press reported, "NASA might allow McDonald's to put its logo on the space station galley in exchange for McDonald's promoting space exploration to kids."

If you don't want to see the Pepsi Space Shuttle or the Disney Launch, please write to Mr. Courtney Stadd, NASA's Chief of Staff, at courtney.stadd@hq.nasa.gov.

Also, Commercial Alert asks readers to contact Senator James Jeffords (I-VT) and Representative Ed Markey (D-MA). In 1993, Sen. Jeffords and Rep. Markey sponsored the Space Advertising Prohibition Act to prohibit the use of outer space for advertising purposes. Please ask them to reintroduce this legislation now. Sen. Jeffords's email address is vermont@jeffords.senate.gov and the email address for Rep. Markey's chief of staff, David Moulton, david.moulton@mail.house.gov.

And don't forget to CC us on your letters for the chance to win a rockin' ad-free, logo-free BadAds T-shirt (okay, so it's a plain yellow T-shirt).

October 13, 2001

Mousetrappers Trapped

You're typing a URL into your browser when, unbeknownst to you, you accidentally hit "r" instead of "e." You press "Return," expecting to be taken to your favorite page about puppies and little children, when you're suddenly hit with a barrage of pop-up ads for Tiffany's Teen Sexxx.

This ploy is called "mousetrapping," and the Federal Trade Commission is taking action to stop it. Today the FTC announced that a cyberscammer who used more than 5,500 copycat Web addresses to divert surfers from their intended Internet destinations to one of his sites, and hold them captive while he pelted their screens with a barrage of ads, was charged with violating federal laws.

In one instance, the defendant registered 15 variations of the popular children's cartoon site, www.cartoonnetwork.com, and 41 variations on the name of teen pop star, Britney Spears. Surfers looking for a site who misspell its Web address or invert a term–using cartoonjoe.com, for example, rather than joecartoon.com–are taken to the defendant's sites. They then are bombarded with a rapid series of windows displaying ads for goods ranging from Internet gambling to pornography.

Consumers who believe they may have been victims of this cyberscheme should contact the FTC at 202-326-2560 or at its toll-free Consumer Response Center at 1-877-FTC-HELP and reference the FTC's case name, "Cupcake Party."

Consumers who have been victims of other mousetrapping schemes can file a complaint online.

October 1, 2001

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