Competitive Product Ad Placement

Monday, January 18th, 2010

I know most of these are keyword driven but I always love it when an ad for a product shows up on an article for a competitors product.

This was on mashable article on iPhone 4.0 software and I see two Google Nexus ads.

Microsoft Bing Launch Musings

Tuesday, June 30th, 2009

The recent bing launch has been fun to watch. Not only is Microsoft getting slammed by fans of good design for the bing logo design (also see here), but as they apparently ripped a design for their microsite from another company (quote from Daryl from postmodem’s blog post which can be found here):

The rebranding car wreck doesn’t end there though. Not happy with just creating a shockingly bad logo for bing the designers of this launch micro-site (which I assume is being used to herald the new dawn of Bing to the world) have blatantly ripped an idea from this site: dragoninteractive.com. Of course, it goes without saying that the Dragon Interactive site is far superior in many ways – but why have Microsoft so obviously not invested time in the design of these sites let alone the bing logo?

Also Microsoft apparently ripped off Kayak.com for their travel search features. You would think a company with the resources of Microsoft would be able to create unique and better designs. Also, they have this creative company that does some ads for them just in case they need some help, they are pretty well known. Maybe you’ve heard of them? (Hint: their name rhymes with Crispin Porter + Bogusky)

The bing search engine itself actually isn’t that bad, but that matters little when their competition is google. Microsoft would likely win more converts if they didn’t piss everyone off by using bad or stolen creative.

Tangent thought…but every time I think of “Microsoft design” I can’t help but think of the great: “If Microsoft designed the ipod packaging” video which is embedded below. Enjoy

I didn’t mean forever Billy

Tuesday, June 30th, 2009

When I wrote this:

I don’t understand why Billy Mays must yell at me every time he is on TV. Also, why is this an acceptable and popular form of television advertising?

I’m sure he’s a nice guy and all. But please stop yelling at me.

I didn’t mean forever.

R.I.P Billy Mays

(Original Post – Billy Mays Stop Yelling at Me!!)

Pandora – Weird Ad

Wednesday, May 27th, 2009

I love pandora.com, which I’ve mentioned in previous posts, but today their advertising which I’ve given them kudos on before had a weird blip – I was listening to the Pixies – Wave of Mutilation and suddenly saw an add for Tennessee with what must be country musicians (didn’t recognize any of them).

Weird, ad. I wonder if I got it because I have a station named Country?

Also, earlier I had weird thing were it played a song called “Battle of New Orleans” by Johnny Horton that clearly didn’t belong in the station. It was really out of place and was followed by a U2 song and after I accidentally closed my browser, the song shown in the pic above.

Ghosts in the machine at Pandora today?