There are plenty of things we don’t like: Racism. Bigotry. Violence. Corporate greed run amok. Comic sans.

But boring marketing is irresponsible, and boring Dollar Shave Club is not.

This is f**king brilliant.

The video has gone viral, leaving some to say it has changed the face of college recruitment advertising.

So, do you think they’ve nailed it for their target audience, or have they gone too far?

Comment below to weigh in.

I really like LinkedIn, but as a person concerned about privacy and social networks, I believe that I have to point out a change to you.

Without attracting too much publicity, LinkedIn has updated their privacy conditions and has now granted itself permission to use YOUR NAME AND PICTURE in any of their advertisements. Yes: Your name + your picture = A LinkedIn ad.

Some simple actions to be considered by you:

1. Place the cursor on your name at the top right corner of the screen. From the small
pull down menu that appears, select “Settings”

2. Then click “Account” on the left side of the bottom of the screen

3. In the column next to Account, select the option “Manage Social Advertising”

4. Finally uncheck the box “LinkedIn may use my name and photo in social advertising” and hit “Save.”

5. Then select the option “Manage Partner Advertising,” uncheck that box as well and hit “Save.”

Looking for a way to inform your connections? Simple: Via Inbox>Compose message in Linkedin, you can send a message to 50 connections at once.

I took a look, and I was opted in:

I dig LinkedIn, but LinkedIn should communicate with its users and let them know they can opt-out. It’s the responsible thing to do.

Oh, if you want to opt out of Facebook’s social advertising, click here.

That’s my take. What’s yours?

Now, a 10 second trailer featuring Matthew Broderick has the internets abuzz wondering if a Ferris Bueller’s Day Off sequel in the works.

With over four million views in three days, the video has gone viral. Rumor has it there’s no sequel, but instead it’s teasing an ad for the new Honda CR-V. Some enraged Ferris fans are dropping f-bombs, threatening to key Hondas, and shouting “SAVE FERRIS” with all caps on.

This is a small vocal minority. I loved the movie. Saw it at least three times and can quote as many FBDO lines as anyone.

This is a tempest in a teakettle. And for all the Honda haters out there–this ad will help a whole new generation of fans will learn to appreciate “one man’s struggle to take it easy.”

That’s my take. What’s yours?

–

Update: The rumors are true. Here’s the new ad:

This year, Euronews has listed a dozen more examples in Marketing and the exploitation of 9/11 that are every bit as disturbing.  Here are the images:

The exploitation of 9/11 by marketers is disrespectful, irresponsible on every level. So, how do these images make you feel about the advertisers?

Osama Bin Laden was a bad man and the world’s a better place without him. And I’m just as patriotic as the next guy.  But mark my words, soon you’ll see ads with American eagles and the American flag popping up, just like after 9/11 as advertisers aimed to capitalize on American emotions.

With thousands of lives lost and billions of dollars invested, using this tact is lazy, tacky and patently offensive.  If your company really cares, don’t commercialize–donate a portion from each sale to a veteran’s organization or one of the many groups that have been impacted by terrorists here and abroad.

But we simply couldn’t let this pass without saying something.

French newspaper Courrier International‘s tagline is “learn to anticipate.” Really, this is a decent tagline that has so many creative possibilities.

Then why exploit 9/11 and with such a lightweight and insensitive idea that if only the World Trade Center Towers were just a little shorter, things would have been a lot better?

This is socially irresponsible, ethically wrong and disrespectful in so many ways–especially as we approach the 9th anniversary of the attacks.

Courrier International, you should be ashamed of yourselves. You’ve made light of the loss of thousands of innocent lives in your half-assed attempt to be creative or edgy.

Welcome to the Responsible Marketing Hall of Shame.

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Click here to enlarge

On Bing you’ll get:

British Petroleum · www.BP.com/GulfOfMexicoResponse
Get Info about the Gulf of Mexico Response Today

Yahoo:

BP – Info about the Gulf of Mexico Spill Learn More about How BP is Helping. www.bp.com/gulfofmexicoresponse

Normally, I’d say this is Responsible Marketing: Use paid search to share the positive and combat the negative. Bully for BP.

But where’s the competence? Where’s the character? I see neither and BP has lost my trust.

They’ve stumbled so badly, so often and on so many fronts this feels like a desperate ploy to manipulate public opinion. Actions speak louder than words and I’m no longer listening.

In fact, I’ve boycotted BP.

So what do you think? Does this feel like smart marketing or slimy spin?

And what will it take for BP to regain your trust?

Comment below to weigh in.

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From the The Wall Street Journal:

The White House is calling on food makers to curb marketing of unhealthy foods to children, part of a broad assault against childhood obesity.

The recommendation is part of a 120-page report released Tuesday that outlines steps to fight the national epidemic. One in every three children ages 2-19 is overweight or obese, the report says. First Lady Michelle Obama has taken up childhood obesity as her signature cause.

The recommendations are for the food and beverage industry, media and entertainment companies and food retailers. Recommendations from the report urge these parties to:

• Extend their self-regulatory program to cover all forms of marketing to children
• Avoid in-store marketing that promotes unhealthy products to children
• Limit the licensing of popular characters to food and beverage products that are healthy and consistent with science-based nutrition standards
• Adopt meaningful, uniform nutrition standards for marketing food and beverages to children
• Develop a uniform standard for what constitutes marketing to children
• Set uniform guidelines to ensure that a higher proportion of advertisements shown on their networks and platforms are for healthy foods and beverages
• Introduce an on-air labeling system that helps consumers easily distinguish between advertising for healthy and unhealthy foods
• Develop and deploy technology to block unhealthy food and beverage advertising

And if the above doesn’t work, the FCC will be called in to revisit and modernize children’s programming rules.

Click here to download the 120-page report[3.3 MB].

This is a step in the right direction, but is it enough? Self-regulation hasn’t worked well on Wall Street. Will this be enough to rein-in Madison Avenue?

I doubt it, but what do you think?

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. . .

Inspired by this tweet by Hank Wasiak.

Here’s what Earl is saying:

Tiger, I am more prone to be inquisitive, to promote discussion. I want to find out what your thinking was. I want to find out what your feelings are. And did you learn anything?

On the surface it may seem like a bit of a head-scratcher for Nike: Woods’ father wasn’t faithful, either.

But consider this: Most of Tiger’s sponsors have bailed except Nike and it’s in their best interest to see him restored. This video shows a remorseful Woods looking his fans straight in the eye. By approving and participating in this ad, he’s showing he hasn’t forgotten his roots. That he knows his father wouldn’t approve. And that he’s learned something.

Opinions are polarized from the general public. Here are two from YouTube:

This is brilliant, Nike’s invested too much time and money into Tiger Woods to not do something like this. I give this a thumbs up with the reasoning that it isn’t often a sponsor will put money into saving a sports figure. And I think Tiger approving of it means he’s really showing the amount of change he’s willing to make to appear as an honourable sports figure again. I LIKE THIS. ~nboysis

Corporate damage control and a well-orchestrated PR campaign. And who really knows what Earl would say? He’s DEAD. Now? Tiger and Nike are bringing him back from the dead to pimp him out for greed. Poor taste Tiger….you would come across better by keeping a low profile in my opinion and working on your marriage to save your image, not your corporate whores. ~zenstate

So, is Nike’s new Tiger ad responsible or not? What say you?

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