Results tagged “jennifergovernment”

The much ballysomething'd issue of The New Yorker with Target as the only advertiser hit the newsstands and mailboxes yesterday. As reported in the NY Times last week, Target wanted to do something more "breakthrough" to really pay off their "Pay Less, Expect More" mantra, and ended up buying an estimated $1.1 million of media to secure all the ad space in the New Yorker, which is cheap, considering the well-heeled audience and free publicity. But, we must join in the oft-repeated refrain, how about expecting a Target store in Manhattan, instead of just having models walk down Rockefeller Center or docking a temporary store at a pier? After all, if we can live with KMart, surely we can live with Target. [Some of related: The Village Voice on New Yorkers protesting any kind of Wal-Mart in the city.]

Luo's article points out that some subway stations are already branded: The 116th station is associated with Columbia University, 47-50 Street is Rockefeller Center, and Times Square is really named after the Times. Some other stations are branded, though not officially: Bedford is Hipster City; Seventh Avenue in Park Slope is MacLaren Baby Stroller Row; and on some game nights, the 7 is the Mets Express. The NY Times also speaks with people about the possibility of sponsored subway stations: "That's insane."

The Times takes the mayor's initiative about raising money by way of the city's branding a step further: it contacts various ad agencies and asks what they would envision. The article reminded me of the mediocre Jennifer Government, where everyone's last name is whatever sponsored company they work for or school they attend, and an excellent episode of Daria where Principal Li lets a soda company advertise in the school for money.

According to his blog, William Gibson was stuck in NY during the blizzard.

The new novel Jennifer Government by Max Barry got a rave in the Times book review this past weekend, and I was affected: I just ordered it from Amazon. It also helps when the review is by someone I'm familiar with, in this case, Rob Walker who writes about marketing for Slate.com. A satire about an extreme marketing scheme in a world dominated by corporations, Nike will assasinate kids at shoe stores in order to make it seem like a new kind of Nikes are the hottest thing and thus drive sales. Enter Jennifer Government, a federal agent, to stop the madness. Of course, I'm not reading it just because there's a federal agent named Jennifer. I'm also reading it because the movie rights were bought by Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney's production company. I hope it will become a movie. I rather "Jennifer Government" be a recent movie with the name Jennifer in the title, rather than Jennifer 8.