Thanks to a keen memory, my friend Joe found this article and thought it was a perfect mix of two of our previous postings: “Product Placement & News Programs dabbling in Payola.” The image and story are courtesy of gawker.com, which is an amazing site that will be added to our Blogroll soon.

McDonald’s buying off local newscasts
To pimp its sugary, 200-calorie iced coffees, fast food giant McDonald’s offered to pay some local TV newscasts for product placement. And of course the newscasts went for it, since local TV journalism is where ethical standards go to die. Meredith Corporation is putting the drinks in front of anchors at the Fox affiliate in Las Vegas (pictured) and at two CBS affiliates elsewhere. Tribune Company has the coffee at its Fox affiliate in Seattle. Even national Fox News is playing ball, placing McDonald’s product at the News Corporation-owned station in Chicago. Station operators offered the Times any number of excuses, but the best has to be from the news director at the Las Vegas affiliate: He argues the placement is ethically OK because it is restricted to the “lighter, news-and-lifestyle” portion of his morning news show. Sounds like the portion of the program that might normally be given over to, say, segments on weight loss, fitness or preventing kids from becoming obese. But these days, if the station wants to do any reports that might upset McDonald’s, it is supposed to yank the lucrative cups:

Now if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll take a break from all this journalistic hand-wringing and enjoy a crisp, cool Miller High Life. It is truly the champagne of beers!

Now, this marketing plan can be looked at two ways. First of all, I don’t respect or look up to my local newscasters; I happen to think they are made of wax and drink douche in their little coffee mugs each morning. So, if they started drinking McDonald’s iced coffee, I would think the beverage fit them perfectly and it would actually make me try even harder not to drink that beverage. But, I guess somewhere out there in la-la land, people think newscasters are upstanding citizens and your friend, and they only have your best interest in mind, so whatever they do we must do. Of course if that was the case we would all be using a can of hairspray a day and making lame un-funny comments about the weather but, if people do look up to these fools I guess the product placement would work. The other way to look at it is the subliminal advertising. I think this is what McDonald’s is actually going for. Think about when people watch the morning news…right before they get into their Ford Taurus and drive to work. Well, we all hate going to work, and I know I am always building little rewards into my day to get me through it. Starbucks coffee in the morning, 4 p.m. Diet Coke, 6 p.m. hit of acid, 8 p.m. bottle of Qualudes. You know, normal everyday shit. So let’s say Steve the middle manager wants to escape his screaming kids, boring Taurus, his job that he swore he would never do, then maybe seeing the weather girl with her pouty lips embracing that ice cold sweet nectar right before he leaves the house will coerce Steve to detour through the Mickey D’s drive-through on the way back to hell. And for Steve’s sake I hope it helps.

My boy Ish sent me a couple pictures of some restaurants here in Cambridge repping other cities.


Now I know Chicago Pizza usually means a deep dish pizza, and maybe a Jerusalem falafel is different than another falafel, but this reminded me of something I wanted to discuss a while back. When I first started Proletariat in College Station, Texas, it was a lonely vintage store called Special Deluxe. It didn’t take me long to figure out that since we were in the middle of nowhere, people wanted to stand out by wearing shirts from hipper places. It was really interesting to find out that a 1982 Nebraska shirt might sell for $10, while a less attractive, newer, ill fitting shirt with anything NYC on it would go for about $5 more. If the shirt said Brooklyn or the Bronx or had the twin towers on it you were set and you could get double what any of the other tees went for. This is what I call the New York effect. When you look at most streetwear labels, they have a much better chance of getting big if they are from a “cool” city. We all fall for it, but if the brand is from L.A. or NYC or Boston, or San Francisco, we believe in our minds that these brands have way more clout than an equally attractive brand from Boise or Sarasota. This is something that if you start to pay attention, you will see it EVERYWHERE. In the shower my wife’s shampoo says REDKEN 5th Avenue, NYC. In your closet : DKNY, New York & Co., Brooklyn Industries, Manhattan Portage, Zoo York, the list goes on. Or what about the millions of Brooklyn hats and track jackets and tees that are made by who knows who and definitely printed in China. Now I know some of these companies started in New York, but NYC itself has become a brand. It is a worldwide destination and movies and media have furthered its mystique, so it almost acts as a second brand name for a startup company giving it that extra clout that will hopefully put it in the hands of the consumer.

I think a lot of companies in Boston have slacked in this arena. Being an out-of-stater myself, I know firsthand what people think of Boston and I believe Bostonians sell the city short-mainly through the FUCK NY mentality. I get it that there is a rivalry in sports that I will never understand or truly care about because I grew up in the asshole of professional sports teams. But the constant image of the drunk, Irish, Sox fan yelling Fuck NY! doesn’t exactly help the brand of Boston. Now, some may think that doesn’t matter but if you really love the Sox and the Pats, etc. wouldn’t you want to win the our city is better than yours match as well? Also, the more people nationally and internationally who love your city means more revenue which ultimately means you making more money and that is always good too. The good news is we are not lost. I moved here just 5 years ago, assuming Boston was a mini-NYC. (and of course I thought that was a good thing) Of course it isn’t and that is great, but I wish Bostonians would put the effort they usually save for hating New York into loving their own city and not giving a shit about it unless it’s the 8th inning and we are down a few runs.

As America’s independent labels gain more steam, many of them are putting sizable budgets/gimmicks into their retail buildouts. They are using the retail environment to help sell more of a story as well as give the buyer more of an experience/sense of belonging. I think this is great when done correctly, and cheezy when taken too far. I guess I will start with what I think was the ultimate gimmick turned gold.

Bodega. Bodega is a streetwear/convenience store in Boston. How is this possible you may ask? Well, the front of the store looks like this:

As you can see, they sell cleaning supplies, Tide, some chips and beverages, usual corner store type items. Now, do you see the Snapple machine in the back right corner? That is actually an unmarked doorway to this:

A hidden, high end boutique selling the latest drops from Nike, Adidas, Puma, etc. This is genius in many ways. Number one, word of mouth traveled on this place like Britney’s vagina photos on the internet. Everyone wants to be the person who shows their friends the new ill spot, especially if it is something out of a Star Trek episode. Also, if done correctly, the owner’s could make a killing on properly stocking the convenience store. What kid wouldn’t buy a coke on his way out + they are in a residential, college neighborhood where many of those items are already wanted on a regular basis. If the convenience store made enough money they could actually keep the store open longer spreading their costs over more time helping reduce their risks. Now the reason this store doesn’t come off gimmicky is because it is real. If the convenience store was full of fake plastic walls of chips and bleach, I think it would become more like Hot Topic’s brick facade at your local mall and less of a underground sensation. Also, it still feels DIY even though it looks high end. You can tell the work was done by an amateur and I don’t believe that takes away from the store in any way.

Next up we have Johnny Cupcakes. Johnny Cupcakes opened a retail shop in Boston in 2006. The brand sells garments with cupcakes and baking themes. So it was only natural that the shop would also be themed, and Johnny Cupcakes built out the store with baker’s racks and glass cases, and refrigerators. This wasn’t a totally unique concept, Dave’s Quality Meat in NYC as well as Chicago’s T-shirt Deli already beat him to the punch, but none-the-less it was well executed and made sense.

But this is where the story takes a turn. Johnny Cupcakes is opening another location in Los Angeles in a few months. This shop is going to have a wall of ovens that open and close pneumatically, and it will have steam, and a giant 10 ft tall oven that leads to the store’s back room.


Now, I know I am not Johnny Cupcake’s target audience, I assume it is tweens and teenage girls, so maybe this is the best choice, but at what point is it too much of an experience? I know that people shop because they need things and because they want things, but a big part of shopping/buying is just to feel good. Take the Rainforest Cafe for instance. This is another gimmick turned gold.


This is a restaurant where the food is forgettable, but your kids get to enjoy the sights and sounds of a show while gumming their overpriced chicken fingers. But the reason why this works so well, is you can’t experience it without paying for a meal. If people could walk inside the restaurant for 10 minutes, look inside the fish tanks and leave, do you think they would decide to drop $60 on a crappy meal? No way. This is something Johnny Cupcakes might end up running into with his new location. If you look at the first picture of the Rainforest Cafe, you see a gift shop with t-shirts and other goods. Will people see Johnny Cupcake’s new store as an experience first and maybe hit the “gift shop” second, only to purchase the cheapest item to feel better about using him for a fun time? Time will tell.
This takes me to another well known indie brand out of California, The Hundreds. The Hundreds opened their first retail shop in 2007, after being a huge international success through tradeshows and their blog/website. Their first store was beautifully designed with clever details.


It has a photobooth which feeds directly to its website, and a buried sculpture of a skateboard and a skull representing their roots in skating. It also has a nice gallery space for all of their famous friends’ works. This year The Hundreds took it a step further, and opened their newest location in San Francisco.


This store features a wall made out of a giant skull with glowing eyes, pillars made of human skulls, and all the walls look like the rock that you might find on a theme park ride at Six Flags or Disneyworld. It seems like the designers honed in on the small sculpture in the first location and injected it with crack and it morphed into a fantastic voyage that also happens to sell clothing. This to me is a huge turn off. First of all, I am an adult who cares about what my clothing is saying on me and to others. I feel like the old Hundreds store had a nice refined, yet hip and underground look, that accentuated the brand in the way that a good belt and shoes can tie together a whole outfit. The new store, in my opinion, overshadows the brand, making the store the focal point and the brand second or even third place to the popular blog…but what they have to remember is without the brand there is no store.

So, what I have to wonder is where will all of this take us? Is our shopping trip going to involve height restrictions and a season’s pass? I personally hate going into shops that look like this:



I’m not sure if it is because it all seems so pre-packaged or maybe just obvious that I am being sold crap, or if it is just because the place is so well put together that it seems like it isn’t that rare or special or personal…it could be all that and then some. All I know, is the trends are changing, and if the last generation wanted everything wrapped in plastic to make it seem new and clean then maybe this generation will want that, as well as a big plastic space to sell it all in. Of course plastic is made from petroleum, so maybe this gas crisis won’t be all bad after-all.

I noticed this when I was in Texas, and I have noticed this here in Boston as well. It seems like all too often our morning/afternoon/evening local news programs run what seems to be a news story on a bullshit product. This usually occurs around the last 5-10 minutes of the newscast when the talking heads have finished botching their tele-prompted lines. They get all awkward and try to act human, and then with a smile they begin their last “report” of the night. This is usually aimed at helping the masses lose weight or try a new drug. Well, this morning’s example was unbelievable. Literally, like I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The two dingbats started talking about how hard it is to get up in the morning and then the news report/infomercial began. Go ahead and watch it here and then come back to me.
So, apparently either this new herbal remedy is so groundbreaking that it has become news and we should all know about it, or maybe just maybe, this is another form of advertising. Of course we probably will never know, but wouldn’t a better job of the media be to take this pill apart, and find out if it has side effects or if it just simply a $30 placebo? Of course it would be, but we all need to remember at the end of the day, that there is no difference between the media and Taco Bell. They are both in BUSINESS to feed us shit.

I already received a decent amount of story ideas, which is great, because I know that all of you are observing different things and I want this to be a place where they all come together. So, Eric D. sent me an article from a story on NPR about product placement. For those of you who don’t know, product placement is a form of advertising where the company pays the tv show or movie to have their character drink a Coca-Cola as opposed to a glass of water. Usually when this is done, the camera lingers a little longer on the subject and the brand’s coloring or unique features are highlighted with a well placed light or gesture. Well apparently, enough consumer activists have gotten together to have the FCC look into it. Now the FCC is thinking about having a new advertisement at the end of each program telling the viewers that they just saw an ad in the show from the following companies. This seems very redundant to me and it seems like now instead of us maybe overlooking one of these stealthy ads we will be forced to acknowledge it either when it happens, at the end, or both. If you want to see the article or listen to the NPR show click here.

The timing on this was funny because the other night my wife was watching a show called So You Think You Can Dance. This show is obviously another take on the American Idol setup, where you have different groups competing to be America’s best dancers or something. Anyways, I was being annoying and pointing out all the similarities and the one thing that stood out to me was that the Judges weren’t drinking branded beverages.

Leslie asked me why this was and I told her what I thought to be true, and until someone tells me it isn’t I am standing by it. Coca-Cola is the number one beverage in the world. American Idol is the number one talent show in the world. So it makes since that Coke would place their product on this show. Now if Coke started doing product placement on every other talent show it would actually make their brand seem less exclusive. Also, since we all see so many Coke ads in a day, if we saw them on every tv show at night we might not even notice anymore. Now what I am very surprised at is that Pepsi hasn’t scooped up all the other shows. Pepsi is the number 2 beverage in the world and it wouldn’t hurt their image if every other show on tv was drinking Pepsi. In fact, it might even make Pepsi look stronger from a money point of view and make Coke look like they are losing market share. I’m not sure if this makes sense to y’all, and I am open for discussion. Marketing is a lot like chess and I think that is why I find it so interesting. Sure these men and women behind the curtain could be solving world hunger and spreading peace through their clever tactics but that wouldn’t be nearly as fun.

Walmart now has a savings counter on their website that in their words shows “the amount of money Wal-Mart has saved American families since January 1, 2008.” This number climbs about $9,000 a second, and at the time of this posting it is at $139,970,466,920.70. That’s $139 Billion for the math challenged. This is part of their new ad campaign “Save money. Live Better,” where they show people spending their money saved from shopping at Wal-Mart to better their lives. They even have testimonials on their site where “Joe from Texas” says he can now afford to buy two Frito Pies when he goes to the local mud wrestling match. “Thanks Wal-Mart!” Anyways, in their quest to save money, Wal-Mart has ripped off a smaller corporation: For Eyes, a prominent eye-glass chain’s advertisements. In the For Eyes spots, a “regular” person walks into a store and asks the snooty clerk why she should pay more for the glasses there and the clerk makes up something like the glasses speak French. In the Wal-Mart spots a woman walks into a high-end stereo store and asks the snooty clerk why she should pay more for her stereo and the clerk tells her she can get a bunch of money off with rebates and she says she would rather go to Wal-Mart. If you see the ad, they look crazy similar, and it is weird to me how the richest companies won’t even pay for the best talent. Shame Shame. I can’t find a link to the ad, but maybe someone will post it soon.

Here’s something that pulled $12 out of my pocket. I don’t know what it was about it…maybe just the fact that Starbucks turned coffee into a fashion accessory in the way that people see a Starbucks cup and everything else looks like gas station coffee. Much like the iPod where every company scrambled to turn their mp3 players white with white headphones, and then consumer electronics from toasters to laptops became white. I feel like the iPod ushered in the first electronic color change in a long time. We started with woodgrain, then stainless/chrome, then black, then painted silver and finally white. Anyways, that is another posting, back to my new Starbucks cup. This thing is definitely genius. It looks exactly like a Starbucks iced beverage cup except it is thermalized. So it is double thick with an air separator, which means the drink stays cooler longer and the outside doesn’t “sweat.” The lid rules because it is a screw-on lid, so if you knock it over it won’t come off, and the pièce de résistance is the ingenious straw. The straw is thick plastic with a fat end on it so if you knock it over it won’t fall out and this makes it a lot harder to misplace. Finally it is DISHWASHER SAFE! I told the girl I was going to return it if it wasn’t and that was cool with her. The only downfall on this badboy is you can’t chew on the straw…which for me is a daily battle.

I have been wanting to start this blog for a while now since I have seen the light. Companies are always trying to find ways to talk your hard earned cash out of your pockets, but I am not sure we all take notice of why we spend like we do. I am not against consumerism, frankly without it, the lives we lead would be pretty boring. But I truly dislike hype, and think people should buy products, not advertising. I also hope to glorify the true masters of marketing, because we all know we have fallen for it at least once. If you have any suggestions please email me; you can reach me on the contact page.

Now for my first observation. Target Incorporated has started to place their logo on the back of all the stop signs that litter their parking lots. It doesn’t really bother me, unless someone from a foreign country thinks this is a go sign; it’s just another example of subliminal branding.

If you have been in a plane or on Google Maps recently you’ve probably noticed Target paints their rooftops as well.