Planning to attend the Toronto Ad Club's Newspaper Day this year?

It's not too late to nominate an outstanding newspaper sales executive or buyer/planner.

But it will be too late tomorrow! So get that deserving name in today. Winners will be announced during the event.

Read More >> A recent blog entry by noted author and New York Times columnist Rob Walker makes ideal new year/new resolutions reading.

In it, he quotes psychologist John Norcross:

"'Inspiration is short-lived. It’s typically emulating other people, and it'll push us for a week or two. But inspiration begins to extinguish quite quickly. And as Henry Ford once said, after that it's 90 percent hard work. Inspiration may get us started, but it never keeps us going. And that's where motivation works."

Read More >> With apologies to all those for whom the Queen's Message isn't required viewing on Dec. 25, a promo for a show airing on British TV.

Read More >> Whether you're desperately trying to finish up work or sneaking out to finish your holiday shopping, you need a quick distraction. Take a minute and view this ad for Nintendo's Wario Land Wii game.

Even if you're not the gaming type, anyone interested in online creative will want to watch it to the end.

Read More >> HOW MANY ADS ARE TOO MANY? On websites, we can handle only so much, according to Massachusetts-based Burst Media.

In a survey of more than 4,000 Web surfers, 75 per cent said they pay less attention to ads appearing on a page they perceive to be cluttered.

What is cluttered? For about half of the surfers, it's more than two ads per page.

Read More >> Jennifer Wells takes a look at OgilvyOnRecession.com, a new website from Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide. The site echoes much of the sentiment we've seen from smart marketers recently: namely, that "[d]ownturns can be opportunities to differentiate your company and your brand in the marketplace." In Noted, Wells eyeballs a new swimsuit calendar whose pin-up models include the Pillsbury Doughboy, Snap, Crackle and Pop, and the Maytag repairman. And in Created, she reports that Hovis recently regained its No. 1 position in the British bread category thanks to a clever campaign that includes a TV ad by "a London-based ad agency owned by Canada's very own Cossette."

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Yesterday, we looked at year-end assessments of ad videos and wondered whether I was making an implicitly sexist assumption about who's more likely to forward videos.

Today, I uncovered another viral vid you should see--and it raises another question about sexism.

I found The Doghouse at Wired magazine's Epicenter blog. The piece imagines a world in which men who are careless about the sensibilities of the women in their lives get their just reward.

Read More >> And the year-end wrap-ups just keep on comin'.

Here's one from the Guardian's Mark Sweeney: the Top 10 viral ads of 2008 "as compiled by GoViral, based on compiling numbers of views from YouTube, Dailymotion, Metacafe, Break and Vimeo."



Read More >> 'Tis the season for giving, and Brandweek was kind enough to offer up a special report, Top Media and Marketing Innovations for 2008, this week for our mutual edification.

Read More >> Jennifer Wells talks to Andrew Barrett, VP, marketing, for LG Electronics Canada. In Created, she discusses John St.'s new TV ad and viral video for War Child Canada. And in Noted, Wells reports that Burts Bees Canada has just named Zig its agency of record.

Read More >> Here's a cute little essay that ran in Ad Age about wieners.

Not just any wieners, of course, but Oscar Mayer wieners, and their iconic Weinermobile.

David Armano, VP of experience design at Critical Mass, had a chance to be driven around Vegas in one, and recorded his observations for the mag. Among them was his "one big epiphany."

Read More >> This week, Advertising Age offers more advice for marketers facing a rocky economy.

The article contains excerpts from Marketing and Media Opportunities in Recession, a new Ad Age white paper.

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