Here was their list and if the stunt resulted positively or negatively:
1. Aqua Teen Hunger Force – The Boston Bomb Scare – Negative
2. Nathan’s Doc-Approved Dogs – Positive
3. Last Days of Disco – Chicago White Sox “Disco Demolition Night” – Negative
4. Oprah’s Free Cars – Negative not for Oprah, for Pontiac
5. Taco’s New Bell – Fake purchase of The Liberty Bell – Positive
6. Steal This Identity – LifeLock – Negative (Lesson here, don’t challenge hackers.)
7. Guinness’s Bar Book – Positive
8. Snapple’s Giant Meltdown – Negative (honestly, I have never heard of this one.)
9. By Land, Sea and Air – British billionaire entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson – Positive
10. Name That Town – Hey for a 1950′s radio show this was ground breaking – Positive

So it is Friday and I am in a marketing and advertising critique mood, so here are my picks for my favorite and least favorite marketing stunts and advertising endeavors. (mine are in no particular order)

1. Kleenex Napkin commercial – “They don’t fall off your lap!” – I wrote a post about this commercial back in September.

2. Zoo York Roaches – Having been a skateboard kid growing up, this is one of my favorite Shock and Awe campaigns.

3. VW’s Tribute to Jerry Garcia Ad – I have the issue of Rolling Stone that has this ad in it. I think it is the definition of knowing your customers.

4. Budlight’s “Real Men of Genius” – Anyone who still enjoys or is forced to, listen to sports on AM radio is with me on this. Great way of using an inexpensive advertising medium.

5. Save By Zero! – I personally hate this commercial – Not only does it not make sense – this YouTuber says everything in his title for this clip, “Toyota Saved By Zero Loop From Hell Campaign” – Oh and don’t forget The FIXX sang that song.

6. Apple’s “1984″ – I am a huge Orwell Fan, and yes this commercial was genius, but anyone in advertising knows this. (awww remember books?)

7. Affiliate Marketing. – Hey some one buy this or buy this Please, Please, Please buy this.

8. Golden Palace.com - Jesus Toast, forehead ads, pregnant ads, oh and you can gamble there too. It was fun while it lasted.

9. Cap’n Crunch – I feel this was the beginning of the demise of literacy. Do kids even know how to spell Captain? When did MTV become a word? I would love to just LOL about all of this, but it really concerns me how the intelligence level is going down and the apathy level is going up in our society.

10. Viral Marketing – The reply all button started it all and now if you make a fool out of yourself or do something creative and it is digital, everyone knows about it.

Myspace has had its ups and downs, but now with Facebook and other so called “professional” social networks, I really think that Myspace is a waste of time for most affiliate marketers. I think Myspace has its place for celebrities and musicians to promote their brands or their music, but just take a look at the ads that affiliate marketers are purchasing on Myspace. I remember a while back I was asked to read through the advertising contract for placing ads on Myspace. It was a very in-depth document and I think for the price there are many other avenues affiliate marketers can go down. In fact, I recall reviewing the stats from the one ad campaign that we did do, we had thousands and thousands of hits, and never did make a conversion on the offers.

So is my space an out-of-date affiliate revenue source? Lets go there right now and see what ads come up…Singlesnet.com, Taylor Swifts new album promotion, (with video, nice touch), Websinglez.net for Emo Singles – hey wait a minute this looks familiar, have you ever read the Classified section of your neighborhood “Weekly”, “Citylife”, “Thrifty Nickel” newspapers? Thats right, Myspace has turned in to an interactive cheap classified section, promoting singles, music, hooking up with a sexy someone tonight, Man seeking Woman, Woman seeking Man, etc. I wonder if Rolling Stone still has their classified section with their new layout? I hope not, they should save the trees and just use Myspace.

Myspace is a great marketing outlet for large companies that have no problem throwing away millions of dollars just for the sake of saying they have ads on Myspace.

Now this sounds like a common sense thing for any online marketing person. The landscape of online marketing moves way to fast and things that worked even 6 months ago are now out of date. But how is the time frame of a new technology measure? If I just learn about a technology that has been out for 2 years, is it out of date for me? If I am going to use this technology in a way that it could have been 2 years ago, is it still not worth exploring. So I decided to dig into my memory banks of the last seven years being in online advertising and share some of my experiences.  Who knows maybe I can set in motion a retro marketing movement for everyone.

Thinking back, when I got my first job in affiliate marketing I worked for a company that had been in the primarily based in promoting adult content online. I was offered a job to help start what they were calling a “main stream” side of their business. This business was to promote software that could be down loaded and clear off a users browser and download history. Hide your tracks from your spouse was really all the software did, however I was fresh out of college, broke and had been unemployed for a few months, so I took the job. This really kicked off my career, because I was in the cutting edge beginnings of the major affiliate marketing networks that we see now.

The first technology that we put together was a exit pop up window that was next to impossible to close without actually shutting down your computer. I know you remember that one. Not something that was complex to program, or really end user friendly, but it was perfect for promoting software that could help cover your tracks. The average computer user, after surfing for material they probably shouldn’t have been, now would get the scare of their lives when a window couldn’t be closed. The window would bounce right back with every time it was closed. The goal with this scare tactic was to get the end user to click on the add as a last resort to try and get the window to close. Trust me even after the customer purchased the software, the window promoting it wasn’t going anywhere.

The question is, is this still a valid technology or approach for online marketing?

The technology is out of date and windows has made upgrades that prevent this practice from going on. I am sure they are some of you great developers out there that will take me up on the challenge to recreated this. However, it is not worth the time.

The approach on the other hand of scaring end users with things they don’t understand in order to make an affiliate commission, if you ask me it is a perfect time to take this approach to your marketing. Especially if you are promoting a service that you can present as must have or else. With the economic scare that we are all in right now, it might be a great time to look into promoting financial tips e books, people are looking for anything that will provide a feel good thought. Did someone just steal your identity?

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Except of course the “Got Milk?” regurgitation that has swept the world.

Got Bail? Seriously?

Being back in Wyoming really changes your perspective on current advertising and I started thinking while I was back there that advertising has lost one very important thing and that is being direct and to the point on what the advertisement is for. Let me explain. One of the best things about advertising is the imagery that it creates in your mind. However there is definitely a place for advertising that doesn’t leave anything up to the imagination, it tells it like it is. Best place to see what I am talking about is take a drive to any small western town. You see old, faded signs that say Food, Gas, Eat at Joe’s, OK maybe not the last one, but you get my point. I saw this a lot on our trip to Idaho earlier this summer as well driving through some of the small towns of Nevada.

What would happen if advertising went back to the way it used to be and all we had were signs that were direct and to the point. What if Best Buy’s signs all the sudden just said “Electronics”, or Applebee’s just said “Food”? I think an interesting thing would happen to our current society. I think what would happen is the neighborhood diner would make a come back, you would go down to the Johnson’s Diner, not the Chili’s. I think you would go to Gibson’s Electronics, not Best Buy. I think this is one thing that large corporate advertising has taken away from our society, along with franchises. What if your menu still looked like this?

I was thinking about this most of the weekend and the thought really went 180 degrees on me while I was on the flight home. We have become a cookie cutter shop society and elaborate as the advertising has become for the large chain’s of stores, I think we really haven’t gone away from a sign saying “Food” or “Gas”, we just now see it as Domino’s and 7-11. And there you have it the true power and evil of branding.