RE: Ads: The final frontier

From: Vincent Campbell (v.p.campbell@stir.ac.uk)
Date: Mon Jul 03 2000 - 14:04:45 BST

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    From: Vincent Campbell <v.p.campbell@stir.ac.uk>
    To: "'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
    Subject: RE: Ads: The final frontier
    Date: Mon, 3 Jul 2000 14:04:45 +0100 
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    This is a joke right?!

    The last bit about ads on glasses that last 1/100th of a second, brings up
    the question of subliminal messages/advertising that I mentioned before. I
    have now tracked down the piece I was talking about- Moore, TE (1996)
    'Scientific Consensus and Expert Testimony: Lessons from the Judas Priest
    Trial', The Skeptical Inquirer. It's available at the magazine's website.

    Vincent

    > ----------
    > From: Wade T.Smith
    > Reply To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
    > Sent: Sunday, July 2, 2000 4:54 pm
    > To: Memetics Discussion List
    > Subject: Fwd: Ads: The final frontier
    >
    > Ads: The final frontier
    >
    > A lunar billboard is only the beginning
    >
    > by Kris Frieswick
    >
    > Radio Shack Corp. is boldly going where no other advertiser has gone
    > before. The Fort Worth, Texas, retail giant has signed up with a tiny
    > Arlington, Virginia, start-up called LunaCorp to sponsor a most unusual
    > marketing event; a mission to explore the moon with an advanced robotic
    > vehicle, set for 2003. Neither Radio Shack nor LunaCorp would disclose
    > exact terms, but the sponsorship is expected to cost Radio Shack about $1
    > million in the first year alone. In exchange, the retailer gets to put
    > its logo on the moon rover.
    >
    > -- Wall Street Journal, June 15, 2000
    >
    > JOHNSBURY, IL (June 29) -- In what is believed to be the world's first
    > intra-human advertisement, heart-valve manufacturer Valvetek yesterday
    > announced that surgeons at St. Joseph's Presbyterian Hospital in
    > Johnsbury, Illinois, have implanted a special aortic heart valve bearing
    > a Valvetek advertisement into the chest of Elmore Greenwald, of Merland,
    > Illinois. The advertisement, drawn on the pea-size artificial aortic
    > valve, is designed to appear in Mr. Greenwald's routine chest x-rays as
    > the fluorescent green word VALVETEK. It will appear as a multicolored
    > strobing display in MRIs. The valve was installed free of charge to Mr.
    > Greenwald in exchange for the advertising space.
    >
    > "We feel that it's a win-win situation," says Chip Damson, Valvetek's
    > vice-president of client enthusiasm and marketing. "Mr. Greenwald got a
    > free heart operation, and we got exclusive advertising space that we
    > expect will be viewed by approximately 258 cardiac specialists, our
    > target demographic, over the next 10 years, provided Mr. Greenwald's
    > post-surgical recovery meets expectations. It's a very cost-effective way
    > to reach our customer base, and if Mr. Greenwald is still alive, what
    > better ad space could there be?"
    >
    > Mr. Greenwald was still in ICU and unavailable for comment at press time.
    > But his wife, Yolanda, says her husband accepted Valvetek's offer
    > enthusiastically.
    >
    > "Before the Valvetek people came along, we nearly had to choose between
    > the operation and the wide-screen TV we'd been eyeing since last
    > Christmas," says Mrs. Greenwald. "This way, we got both. We couldn't be
    > happier."
    >
    > This comes on the heels of another groundbreaking ad concept, unveiled
    > last week at St. Mark's Church in Sultana, Maryland: a series of display
    > ads affixed to the backs of the first 10 rows of the church's pews.
    > Advertisers include Peterson's House of Stained Glass; Tippy's Florist;
    > and Mrs. Gagne, lead church organist, available for weddings and other
    > private functions. Local toy retailer Toys "N" Stuff also took out a
    > mural-size advertisement that adorns the wall of the children's room.
    >
    > "Church attendance has been down," says Father Paul Belliveau, St. Mark's
    > priest for 15 years. "Our weekly collection has been dropping, and we
    > desperately needed to renovate the kitchen in the basement to accommodate
    > the standing-room-only crowds we get for the bingo. This seemed like a
    > low-impact way to fund our expansion without further burdening our
    > dwindling client base. Plus, the people who sit in the first 10 rows are
    > usually the rich folks who like everyone to see that they're in church
    > every Sunday, so they're the most likely income bracket to respond to the
    > products. I like to think it's what Jesus would have done. Now there's a
    > guy who knew a thing or two about marketing."
    >
    > Father Belliveau says he and a local funeral home, Capuatano Brothers,
    > are exploring a strategic partnership that would extend the advertising
    > reach of the pew display ads to the sides of caskets at select funerals
    > in the coming months.
    >
    > This news follows the launch last month of a new advertising campaign by
    > General Consumer Goods Corporation, makers of Dove's Breath(TM) Toilet
    > Tissue, that seeks to place oval-shaped ads on the underside of
    > toilet-seat covers in 50,000 homes across America. "We want Dove's Breath
    > to be what folks think of when they use the toilet," says Skip Hardagon,
    > senior executive vice-president of external shareholder attentiveness and
    > corporate communications for GCGC. "We have research that demonstrates
    > that by forming a direct, predictable association between the ad and the
    > bodily function, we can create an almost Pavlovian reflex. Eventually,
    > these folks won't have any choice but to buy Dove's Breath."
    >
    > In exchange for accepting the ads, households will receive coupons worth
    > more than $1000 for a variety of GCGC products, including Cholestra(TM)
    > Spread, a cholesterol substitute that came under fire recently after
    > several hundred people complained to the FDA that it caused "aggressive
    > anal leakage."
    >
    > Technology is playing an important role in many of these new ad concepts.
    > Tech start-up On Your Face Media Enterprises, in cooperation with Diamond
    > Vision Centers, recently created a new type of eyeglasses that display
    > ads on the inside of the lenses. On Your Face has signed contracts with
    > more than 20 advertisers to produce "nano-ads," extremely short
    > commercials (less than 1/100th of a second) that will flash briefly on
    > the lens without interfering with normal vision, according to Trevor
    > d'Allement, On Your Face's senior corporate liaison for consumer media
    > coverage.
    >
    > "With our new nano-ads, you don't even realize you're seeing them," says
    > d'Allement. "Consumers think they're wearing normal eyeglasses, but
    > suddenly, they get a craving for a hamburger or a new car. I mean, most
    > people have those cravings anyway. We're just looking to redirect them a
    > little. And isn't that what advertising is all about?"
    >
    > Kris Frieswick can be reached at krisf1@gte.net.
    >
    > Copyright © 2000 The Phoenix Media/Communications Group. All rights
    > reserved.
    >
    >
    >
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