So I made a bit of a joke about punk polka as long-tail content in my book Mass Communication: Living in a Media World. But it’s only partially a joke. Punk polka actually (well, sorta) exists.
Here’s a story from the Washington Post about the polka scene in Chicago that mentions punk polka. And here are a couple of videos featuring the genre:
Punk Polka by The Toons
And as long as we are being off-beat, here’s a polka version of techno band Kraftwerk’s Das Model
You can read the entire e report issued by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, entitled, “Food Marketing to Children and Youth: Threat or Opportunity?” in a variety of formats:
And here’s an opinion piece from the New York Times on regulating marketing of food to kids:
Despite absolutely no credible evidence that subliminal advertising is effective or exists, it’s a popular belief that it does exist and is effective. (Please note – This doesn’t mean that sex doesn’t sell. It’s just not subliminal.) Here’s link with examples of claims of subliminal advertising:
The most famous claim of subliminal messaging was the James Vicary popcorn message study that was a complete fabrication.
And finally, Saturday Night Live’s Mr. Subliminal:
Many people consider this commercial that introduced the Apple Macintosh during the 1984 Super Bowl to be the greatest commercial ever made. Maybe. But it’s certainly the ad that created that the Super Bowl was as much about great ads as it was about great football.
The Coke jingle “I’d Like To Teach The World To Sing” actually became a hit song back in the 1970s.
Bonus Video
Coke attracted both praise and controversy when they ran a Super Bowl ad in 2014 featuring the song “America the Beautiful” sung in multiple languages.
McDonald’s had a lot of luck reaching out to the African American community back in 2008 with it’s McNugget Love ad, even though some consumers found it offensive or annoying. (Hey, it’s a McDonald’s commercial!) Are ads like this the right way to reach the urban market?
Here’s a more recent urban marketing ad featuring Teyonah Paris from AMC’s Mad Men. (And how meta is that? An actress from a show about advertising in a McDonald’s ad…)
(Sorry about the poor quality on the video for this one.)
UPDATE: And here’s a link to a McDonald’s urban ad from 1976!
Billboards and other forms of outdoor advertising don’t always get a lot of respect, but they can be incredibly creative. Here’s a few examples of cool outdoor ads:
David Ogilvy is one of the most recognizable names in American advertising, founding one of the leading agencies in America, and having been involved in some of the great advertising campaigns. Find out a bit more about him here:
I would argue that for me, Wendy’s “Where’s the beef?” campaign generated the best advertising catch phrase of my lifetime. In fact, it’s good enough that Wendy’s revived it 30 years later! Here’s a couple of examples:
Reintroducing “Where’s the beef?”
A multi-lingual “Where’s the beef?”
Here’s a list of more than 400 popular advertising catch phrases. Which of them do you (or your parents!) remember?
