Pedal Pusher

Play it ain’t so….

tamanichio — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 03:30:31 +0000

When my husband told me that some weird psychedelic dream featuring Drew Brees, Troy Polamalu and DeMarcus Ware playing catch on the front lawn of the White House with President Obama was being shown on television the other day….well I didn’t believe it. That is until I saw it with my own eyes.

Now I grew up in the era of Regan’s Presidential Physical Fitness, the dreaded multi week fitness torture fest of pinching your skin with a clamp thing to gauge body fat, hanging in the flex arm hang position until the forearm shakes set in, and the shuttle run done haphazardly with erasers so full of chalk dust from the class room that you often left a trail behind you as you ran. So, while I hated it at the time, the push for fitness by the commander in chief is something that I see as in keeping with being a role model to children.

That said, the slow motion pro football toss fest in the ad for NFL Play 60 campaign kind of creeps me out. Maybe it’s because I know that deep down Obama’s a basketball fan. Or maybe it’s because he’d really rather be hanging out watching George Lopez on late night….

Media Diet

tamanichio — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 20:02:48 +0000

We all know the food pyramid, and how it has evolved over the years to include way more fruits and veggies and less fried chicken (well in theory anyway). The folks over at Wired have evaluated media consumption in a similar manner, coming up with a whopping 9 hours of screen based consumption per day. Sadly, for me, this is probably low, but for the rest of ya’ll how does it compare?

Balance Your Media Diet

Burning a Hole

tamanichio — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 18:50:10 +0000

Where does the money go? Well recent stats from the US Department of Labor provide an interesting glimpse into our spending habits.

Mad Muppets

tamanichio — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 18:45:55 +0000

Everyone’s favorite 1960′s too slick for you drama is back. Admit it, you watched Mad Men on Sunday, and while slightly under impressed with Don’s conversion to the doting husband, and holding your breath over Sal’s inadvertent outing – you loved it.

Combine this slick portrait of advertising’s hey day, with the satirical chops of The Muppet Show and what do you get? Smarmy educational programing for your kids! Okay, I know it is Sesame Street, and they have always kept the Muppet’s culturally and pop culturally relevant for kids, but I must admit, this seems a stretch, I will tune into PBS for this one..

‘Sesame Street’ to parody ‘Mad Men’

Wait, what? Yes. PBS’ “Sesame Street” will get on the “Mad Men” parody bandwagon, producers announced at the show’s press tour panel Saturday.

Which led critics to wonder: Just how do you pull off a parody of “Mad Men” for preschoolers?

I’m going to use the transcript version of executive vp of content’s Miranda Barry’s answer, because it shows how much the oft-grumpy critics appreciated her answer…

“You may have seen our parody we did a fear years ago called ‘Desperate Houseplants’–”

10 Muppets and Their Mad Men Counterparts

12:29 pm Monday Aug 3, 2009

by Caroline Stanley

Inspired by the eyebrow-raising news that Sesame Street will parody Mad Men in its upcoming 40th anniversary season, we’ve decided to step in and do a little casting this morning. While Sesame Workshop’s VP of Education and Research Dr. Rosemarie Truglio spoke of two levels and playing off the show’s title, *our version would stick to the original and be a lot more literal. Because the preschool set needs more martinis.

Bert and Ernie: Harry Crane and Ken Gosgrove

Zombies, zombies everywhere

tamanichio — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 18:04:10 +0000

Now I know that it seems as if vampires have taken over pop culture. With the CW poised to launch their weekly teen angst vampire drama, Twilight fever still in full but totally platonic swing, and True Blood tearing my Sunday viewing away from Don Draper – they are everywhere. I mean, ever since Anne Rice made vampires less Nosferatu and more …well Brad Pitt, they have embodied our youth obsessed, live forever culture.

I do think that we are due for a zombie takeover, and while zombie literature and films have been around for years, I think 2010 is the year! With AMC rumored to be making a show of one of the best zombie comics around (Walking Dead), The Road set to come out this fall (okay so it’s not about zombies, but it feels like it), and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies getting post Victorian ladies to giggle, swoon, and hack off zombie hordes at the same time – we are ready.

Wired seems to think we need to couch this zombie fear in some real numbers, prepping us for the inevitable attack through data provided by some mathematicians running numbers for infectious disease modelling .

Mathematical Model for Surviving a Zombie Attack

By Betsy Mason

August 14, 2009 |

It is possible to successfully fend off a zombie attack, according to Canadian mathematicians. The key is to “hit hard and hit often.”

Shawshank director Frank Darabont to make Walking Dead TV series

Frank Darabont swaps prison dramas for the undead with television adaptation of critically acclaimed comic book

// // // //

// //

(Charlie Adlard)

Walking Dead artwork by Charlie Adlard

If I were to take this all too seriously, I would say that both of these fantastical creatures are well positioned to be allegorical figures for our country and economy. Presumed dead, we come fighting back – either as botox-ed, blood sucking, ever young vampires or rotting, scary, brain eating, automatons. Okay, maybe I am reading too much into this.

Best Resignation Letter Ever

tamanichio — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 00:11:35 +0000

It’s not news that there are a myriad of talented people who have found themselves either unemployed or over worked due to the recession. As employees have picked up more job responsibilities for less pay, dreams of resignation letters increase in frequency. So why not have some fun with your resignation letter, and let other’s enjoy too…a software developer did just that, making a letter that can be played by all; even if you can’t make it past the second screen!

Brand Name

tamanichio — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 23:07:36 +0000

One designer has taken a brand’s ability to own visual cues (and consumer mindshare) to a whole new level. Check out the Brand Keyboard as developed by Ignacio Pilotto, an industrial designer with an eye for merging pop culture, advertising, and the QWERTY system.

What is up with 3-D?

tamanichio — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 22:11:21 +0000

Does anyone remember Jaws 3-D? No…right? For one reason or another the recent spate of movies (Coraline, Harry Potter, Up), TV Shows (Chuck), and even magazines (EW) have jumped on the 3-D band wagon. I love an immersive entertainment experience as much as anyone, but now 3-D You tube? That’s right, soon there will be a keyboard cat coming your way in 3-D so hold on to your red and blue goggles folks and enjoy the ride.

Warning, this video is the version that requires 3-D glasses, visit you tube for the “cross your eyes” version

The Value of Advertising

tamanichio — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 22:01:56 +0000

Some call it the holy grail, some may refer to it as ROI, any way you cut it, people have been trying to figure out the value of advertising a product since the advent of advertising. Would Coca Cola be consumed more than water if it didn’t have that memorable logo (or start out as a mildly addictive product), would Kleenex be synonymous with tissues if they had never thought up copy?

The purpose of advertising is to convey the marketing message to the consumer – converting a consumer need (and admittedly sometimes just a want) into a set of experiential benefits for the consumer that they desire, aspire to, and then act upon, in turn purchasing the product. Two agency creatives decided to tackle this question; what is the sales benefit of putting some effort into the creativity of an Ebay ad?

While I love the experiment (even if it wasn’t conducted with the appropriate scientific controls) I question how valid it is to brands. When a brand goes to market, the layers of agency, production, and media costs often seem insurmountable, particularly when evaluated against a sales metric alone. Maybe the moral of this story is keep it simple. Needless to say, I haven’t found the grail yet…I’m still too scared of the Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog.

For “Working” Moms Everywhere

tamanichio — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 21:13:31 +0000

When I came across this ad for Nando’s (amazingly good and simple chicken and Peri-Peri sauce focused and Portuguese inspired restaurant that I had the pleasure to frequent in South Africa). They are known for their spicy chicken dishes, and for a huge group of Peri-Peri heads, who cannot get enough of the Nando’s Peri-Peri sauce. This ad not only makes me laugh by its ability to speak to the needs of a working mom to feed her family, but to the rabid fanaticism of the Peri-Peri fans – all of this done tongue in cheek of course.