AdHurl

Steve Jobs... Smarter than the average Wall St investor!

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 17:56:05 -0700

Interesting to watch Apple stock in the last couple of days. In typical Wall Street fashion the market hammered the stock, even though they reported record profit. The problem for the lame brains who inhabit the market was that Apple said it would be going for reduced margins and bigger market share in the future. As is pointed out in this "Tech/Ticker" video on Yahoo, this is a really smart move on a long term basis... But poison to the idiots on Wall Street, who in spite of considering themselves as "Investors." The idea of planning beyond the next three months is anathema to them. Check out the video, it makes a great deal of sense.

Here's lookin' at you, Wall Street!

Amazon thinks long term.

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 09:31:47 -0700

Interesting to read in The New York Times that Amazon has begun a limited testing of its new Video on Demand service, which will replace its Unbox store. The big difference between the two is that the new service will stream movies through your browser rather than requiring you to download them and use Amazon's video player. Users will also retain access to movies and shows they're previously purchased. The service is not expected to be particularly profitable; Amazon is most likely looking to the future. Which when you consider they didn't make a profit for the first ten years they were in business is proof that Jeff Bezos looks at business quite differently than most of Corporate America's senior management.

I wonder if she knows what I'm doing under the table?

Bigger and dumber!

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 18:28:11 -0700

Interesting to read in today's AdAge that Johnson & Johnson has kicked off a soup-to-nuts review for its $25 billion pharmaceuticals group. Recently Dell Computer put all its business in a WPP creation by the strange name of Enfatico. As I have posted previously, this is little more than an "In-House" agency. Which means that because you only have one client, and they are signing your pay check, how on earth can you offer them objective advice? Is this a trend of the future? If so, it doesn't auger well for the future.

That sums it up!

Google tanking?

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 09:44:45 -0700

Google, the "can-do-no-wrong" company is watching it's stock get h ammered today after it announced pre-tax profits for the second quarter of 2008, which jumped 35% year on year to $1.25bn, but failed to meet analysts' expectations, sending its share price down by as much as 12% last night with further falls today.The internet giant's profits for the quarter ending June 30, decreased 5% from the first quarter of the year when they stood at $1.31bn. Excluding certain expenses, Google shareholders would have earned $4.63 a share, missing the average analyst estimate of $4.74 per share. All this being caused by lowered ad sales. All this does not auger well for the entire digital space!

It might not be that bad!

Barack Obama... Marketeer Extraordinaire!

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 09:38:51 -0700

Interesting article in Salon about Barack Obama's marketing machine. With over 5 million people on Obama's e-mail list this is just the start of what political strategists say is one of the most sophisticated voter databases ever built. Using a combination of the information that supporters are volunteering, data the campaign is digging up on its own and powerful market research tools first developed for corporations, Obama's staff has combined new online organizing with old-school methods of voter outreach to assemble a central database for hitting people with messages tailored as closely as possible to what they're likely to want to hear. It's an ambitious melding of corporate marketing and grassroots organizing that the Obama campaign sees as a key to winning this fall. It's particularly funny when you consider how so called "Marketing Guru" Mark Penn really screwed up Hillary's campaign efforts. And this is the guy who heads up one of the world's largest PR outfits. But unlike most ad agencies, Burston Marsteller (Penn is the CEO) didn't work on spec, and Hillary still owes him several million. There's a lesson there, somewhere. Not that anyone takes notice!

Faster than a speeding train!

When is a fake not a fake? When it's on EBay?

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 11:01:28 -0700

If you've been looking for fake bags, watches and jewelry on EBay, you can carry right on doing it now that the site has won an important battle with luxury jeweller Tiffany, after a US court said that the Internet company would not be held liable for the sale of counterfeit jewelry on its site. Tiffany sued eBay in 2004, claiming that most of the items listed as Tiffany goods on the auction site were fakes. However, a federal court in the Southern District of New York, ruled yesterday that the jeweler was responsible for policing its own trademarks. If Tiffany had won the case it would have forced eBay to make huge changes to its online auction system to prevent the sale of counterfeit goods, such as taking physical possession of goods on sale to check them for authenticity. Personally, I find it much easier and definitely cheaper, to stroll around Canal Street in New York's China Town.

Don't forget to remove the label!

Yahoo... Boohoo!!!

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 21:21:27 -0700

When you continue to read about the never-ending saga of the Yahoo-Microsoft takeover, buyout, collapse... You have to think about that scene in the movie "Lost in America," where, after his wife has lost their six-figure nest egg in a Las Vegas casino, the Albert Brooks' character tries to convince the management of the casino what a public relations coup it would be if the casino could just give them their money back. Unfortunately, it didn't work for him; and it certainly won't work for Yahoo. No matter how much better it looks now than it did a few weeks ago, that rejected $33-a-share offer for the whole shebang just ain't coming back. According to the pundits, "The Microsoft/Icahn proposal would require the immediate replacement of the current Board and removal of the top management team at Yahoo." Well... Yeah!!!

This could all go up in flames!

You ain't seen nothing yet!

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 21:37:19 -0700

I'm writing this on Sunday night. In about ten hours, the New York Stock Exchange will open. I expect it to be a bloodbath. Not just because the economy has been going down the tubes for months, but because I think we have just tipped over the edge of the precipice. not just with the news today that the government will bail out both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac... They had little choice on that... But with the much more ominous news that they have said that banks and brokerage houses are now on their own. This sums it up... "The credit crisis has entered into a new phase -- the government has one bailout left in them, and this is it," said Jeffrey Gundlach, chief investment officer of TCW Group in Los Angeles." And, as we all know, as the economy goes, so goes the ad biz. It's going to be a really tough couple of years... If not more.

Welcome to Madison Avenue, 2009!

Apple Freaks - Steve Jobs is about to make your day!

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 10:55:05 -0700

All the Apple freaks are out today, standing in line to be the first on the block with the new GodPhone 3G. At one Japanese store, hundreds of people were waiting in line to buy the phone yesterday. One California-based Mac repair company sent a worker to New Zealand to pick up and disassemble one of the first iPhones as soon as it went on sale. The company's Web site, Ifixit.com, was sluggish yesterday as techies around the world logged on to gawk at the first public images of the new gadget's microchips. Closer to home, people were auctioning off places in line at Washington Apple stores. The new iPhones cost $200 and $300, but that doesn't include the cost of a place in line for those not willing to spend the night standing outside an Apple store. The going rate for a space ranged between $50 and $100 on Craigslist yesterday. A typical offer: "I will have the rest of the family stay in line so i will have FOUR (4) extra spots so you dont have to camp out. you give me $75 cash and you will have a spot in line." No doubt, the guy had plenty of takers. Further proof that Apple freaks, really are freaks.

Oh My God... I'm actually talking to you on an iPhone 3G. I think my head is going to explode!

Ask Steve Jobs why a Belgian iPhone will cost more than a tanker of Chimay?

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 21:06:27 -0700

It doesn't matter how depressed and pissed off you are due to the soaring cost of gasoline, airline tickets, bread and drugs, etc, etc. Just be glad you don't live in Belgium. Particularly if you are an Apple Freak! 'Cos, you're just 48 hours away from getting your very own GodPhone. That's right, on Friday both the Flemands and the Walloons get the chance to buy one of Apple's new 3G iPhones, unfortunately it's going to cost them $825 for the 8-gigabyte model and $966 for the 16-gigabyte version. In the U.S., the same phones are priced at just $199 and $299 respectively. Although the explanation the news wires provide for this state of affairs is a bit fuzzy, it apparently has to do with a quirk in Belgian law. Whatever the case, the Belgians are going to be paying the world's highest prices for the gadgets and some people in that nation are in a tizzy about it. Thank goodness, nobody's tried yet to jack up the price of their superb Belgian beer.

I'll drink to that!

Hot air from the G-8 Summit in Japan!

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 09:52:29 -0700

You have to laugh at the news that over in Japan, the so-called "leaders" of the G-8 voiced their "strong concern" about rising commodity prices, especially those of oil and food. In a statement released today, they said that commodity prices "pose a serious challenge to the world economy." They also said that they are determined to continuously take actions to ensure stability and growth of the world economy. Let's see what that translates into where the rubber meets the road. Word is that the G-8 "leaders" are in sync on the vilification of inflation as Public Enemy #1. Therefore, expectations that they might start acting accordingly should start you looking closely at what interest you're currently paying for all your debts. But the odds are, based on most political "leaders" track record, they'll talk up a storm, but not really do much about it!

It could happen!

Microsoft bites the Yahoo bullet?

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 20:42:44 -0700

News today that Microsoft is willing to resume negotiations to buy all or part of Yahoo, but only if uber-investor Carl Icahn succeeds in revamping the Sunnyvale Internet company's board. Given the state of Yahoo's current board, which has resisted takeover overtures by Microsoft's CEO, Steve Ballmer, "we have concluded that we cannot reach an agreement with them," the Redmond, Wash. software giant said in a prepared statement. But if Yahoo's stockholders select a new board at the company's upcoming August 1st meeting, Microsoft said, "We will be prepared to enter into discussions immediately" about buying Yahoo's Internet search business or the entire company. Yahoo responded, "If Microsoft and Mr. Ballmer really want to purchase Yahoo, we again invite them to make a proposal immediately. And if Mr. Icahn has an actual plan for Yahoo, beyond hoping that Microsoft might actually consummate a deal which they have repeatedly walked away from, we would be very interested in hearing it." Ouch, getting a wee bit testy... But, I'll put money on on a deal being done.

You can bite the bullet, or eat the gun. It's entirely up to you!

Will Wired re-take Britain?

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 07:45:07 -0700

Interesting to read that more than a decade after it crashed and burned so spectacularly, WiReD - the house magazine for pseudo-tech-geeks - is returning to the UK. Publisher Conde Nast, which acquired WiReD after the first UK version shut down, says it will launch next year and has hired an editor, David Rowan. He's fully buzzword compliant, as his old column which highlighted trends and "The Next Big Thing" showed. Cynics might wonder that the skeptical British market will again reject this brave venture. Like American Football, some say, a garish DayGlo publication that's full of utopian drooling about technology, bogo-economics, and junk science just won't work with the British public. All I can say is it stopped working for me years ago, when they started filling it with really bad ads for trucks, Hummers, booze and all kinds of other crap.

Cracking toast, Grommit!!!

French downloaders could end up in the Bastille!

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 11:06:24 -0700

News out of Europe that France is about to take a hard line on copyrighted media (movies and music). According to news reports. a new measure approved by the French Cabinet would kill the Internet connection to those caught downloading illegally. 'There is no reason that the Internet should be a lawless zone," President Sarkozy told his Cabinet as it endorsed the "three-strikes-and-you're-out" scheme that from next January will hit illegal downloaders where it hurts. Under a cross-industry agreement, Internet service providers (ISPs) must cut off access for up to a year for third-time offenders.' Google and video site Dailymotion have refused to sign up as consenting participants, and the state data protection agency, consumer and civil liberties groups and the European Parliament are all protesting as well. The latest word is that the legislation failed in the National Assembly. Now, Sarkozy is trying to revive the the measure by pushing it as an amendment to the pan-European Telecoms Package. This amendment has the potential to impose 3-strikes across Europe, not just in France. Stand by for fireworks.

On the other hand... It could be worse!

Get ready to throw away your Viagra.

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 14:02:00 -0700

A slice of cool, fresh watermelon is a juicy way to top off a Fourth of July cookout and one that researchers say has effects similar to Viagra - but don't necessarily expect it to keep the fireworks all night long. Watermelons contain an ingredient called citrulline that can trigger production of a compound that helps relax the body's blood vessels, similar to what happens when a man takes Viagra, said scientists in Texas, one of the nation's top producers of the seedless variety. Found in the flesh and rind of watermelons, citrulline reacts with the body's enzymes when consumed in large quantities and is changed into arginine, an amino acid that benefits the heart and the circulatory and immune systems. The problem is, you probably have to eat about five giant watermelons to have the same effect as one tablet of Viagra. Having all that mush inside you, might just inhibit your sexual prowess.

That's good for about thirty minutes!