Results tagged “marketing”

After giving the impression that Snap, Crackle & Pop could save your kids from swine flu, Kellogg is reportedly "discontinuing the packaging of its Cocoa Krispies cereals that claim to boost children’s immunity." NYU's Professor Nestle said that the company had no choice, “They had to. [It's] too embarrassing and [it faced] too much risk of setting off the FDA." Which leaves onions to capitalize off the H1N1 epidemic.

If you see a giant V in the sky on Friday, fear not, it's just the big wigs in Hollywood trying to get you to watch a new television show about aliens. Reportedly "The network is mum on where and when the V's will strike, but such places as the Statue of Liberty are under consideration. The skywriting will be done multiple times a day at each site until the series launch." Yes, television people, it is a great idea to "secretly" send a small aircraft spouting out gas over major landmarks in New York City.

Coffee and doughnut purveyor Dunkin' Donuts has a new marketing campaign playing out on the city sidewalks. The company has hired a dozen street musicians at $20/hour to help pitch their "Breakfast NOT Brokefast" campaign... but is their message really undermining authentic buskers around town? The NY Post says their message can be broken down as such: "For the spare change you toss a street musician, you could be buying their breakfast fare." The hired hands even have signs propped up against their guitar cases reading: "Sure you want to throw that change in here?" DD's CEO told the paper they're "trying to reinforce the value proposition that money you would normally throw away to a musician you could use to get a cup of coffee or a doughnut." Yes, instead of throwing our spare change to talented musicians toiling for hours underground, let's all put it towards a nice 400 calorie cream-filled, glazed and sprinkled breakfast treat.

Downtown Brooklyn has a new aggressive marketing initiative, and at the top of the press release it's noted that the area will be promoted "as a College Town." Allegedly the plan is to expand and diversify with some new tenants, companies and retailers. Sure, they've got an Urban Outfitters and Trader Joe's, but they're looking to make the area "a vibrant, 24/7, live-work urban center". (Hoboken has allegedly been stealing their business over the past 10 years!). So Marty Markowitz has officially stated they're "'open for business' and—with all due respect to our friends in Jersey—our borough is the very best place for companies to locate and employees to live, work, and raise families." The Downtown Brooklyn Partnership promises "a mix of advertising, direct marketing, promotional events and other activities" to help attain their goal. So, a round of Jäger shots to celebrate?

It's unclear as to whether or not Jake Bronstein and his Zoomdoggle team are now hired guns for George Lucas & Co., but considering their latest Indiana Jones-themed stunt began on the day of the latest Indiana Jones DVD release, we're guessing it's a safe bet to say they are. Yesterday a Zoomdoggle employee tipster sent us in these photos of IndiHats around town, and another tipster informed us that Zoomdoggle updated their website with the following:

Here's a fun one, call it hat-vertizing, a brim-job, or just one hell of a scavenger hunt, but some Indiana Jones obsessed compatriots of mine have decided to “hide” 800 of these hats in four different cities starting today. In fact, while I type this, teams are cramming them into crannies, nudging them into nooks, and just plain hiding them them in plain sight in LA, San Francisco, Chicago, and right here in New York. Find one and it’s yours to keep. All they ask is that you snap a shot of yourself wearing it and upload it to flickr with the tag “indihat.”

This guy in Chicago seems to be the first to have found one and posted on Flickr, where he alludes to a potential prize being rewarded. Has anyone else spotted one in New York? UPDATE: Someone at Cunning has just told us the marketing campaign "was actually creatively developed and activated by us. [Bronstein's] a friend of ours.... we are his 'Indiana Jones obsessed compatriots'."

Following the Madison Square Park Conservancy putting up some tree huts, NBC has built "a giant treehouse at the corner of Broadway and 51st Street to tubthump the Oct. 17 debut of its drama series Crusoe," Variety reports. This one will is a replica of where Robinson Crusoe lives in the network's adaptation of the Daniel Defoe novel. Can't make it to the 30 Rock area? It's all online, with 24-hour webcam action. But this thing would be a lot cooler if it were actually, you know, in a tree. Either way, it'll be around til Friday, with a hired-actor playing the part of Crusoe.

If you see some graffiti around town declaring November 11th there will be "World Screaming," don't alert Homeland Security just yet. The Brooklyn Paper points out that the message is really part of a marketing campaign for graf legend Dumar Brown's book, The World Screaming Nov (the "11" in the tags were meant to be quotation marks--see the one in Paris). His last book was called Nov York.

Did you hear that UK retailer Top Shop is coming to town this fall? Before they cross the pond, however, Williamsburg is Dead points out that they have some tips on how to dress for the McCarren Park Pool Parties (where they've temporarily set up shop). Apparently nothing says a sweltering New York summer in a concrete pool like a nice warm woollen beanie!

Like Christian Lorentzen before him, Douglas Haddow deconstructs the hipster in the latest Adbusters cover story. Just as in Lorentzen's Time Out NY piece, "Why the Hipster Must Die," Haddow doesn't really have a solution to the hipster problem, except to allude to the fact that ultimately, one day, their blood will be on their own hands. Until then, they are today's main suspect in the murder of Western Civilization...something that Haddow makes sound so damn poetic.

The half-built condos tower above us like foreboding monoliths of our yuppie futures. I take a look at one of the girls wearing a bright pink keffiyah [sic] and carrying a Polaroid camera and think, “If only we carried rocks instead of cameras, we’d look like revolutionaries.” But instead we ignore the weapons that lie at our feet – oblivious to our own impending demise.

Continue reading "Deconstructing Hipsters"

As far as marketing ideas go, this one may just take the beer-battered cake. May 15th marks a Dutch invasion of the Upper West Side in celebration of Dutch heritage, and the Amsterdam-brewed Amstel Light has kicked in with a takeover of Amsterdam Avenue on that day. They'll be giving away 150 bicycles (which should never be driven after imbibing their brew), offering up drink specials, and doing other things that aren't nearly as amazing as their "unique 10-person "Beer Bike"! Best worst idea ever? Come watch the drunks fall off one by one. (Hope Amstel got insurance!)

Not the first time sci-fi has overtaken the streets of New York (last year the USPS installed some R2D2 mailboxes), Spike TV has sprinkled Star Wars ads all over town. Their most eye-catching yet involves lightsabers in a bus shelter (pictured), which amNY spotted at West 34th Street and 8th Avenue.

Even though New York City has around 98 monikers, did you know that there is no official city nickname?