EPIC FAIL : This site may harm your computer.
January 31, 2009
Every Result, literally EVERY result in Google is displaying “This site may harm your computer.” in the results. Rendering Google virtually worthless currently as of Saturday, January 31st, 2009. Below is a gallery of screenshots showing Wikipedia, Yahoo and other sites all “virus infected” as per Google. Nevermind the fact that the chances the whole internet is one big virus is hogwash, or the fact that this user is “googling” using Linux… so these so called viruses can’t even infect my machine.
Someone needs to turn off that filter, it’s just not working… not by a long shot.
Never thought I would see the day that Yahoo is the largest referral of search engine traffic!
Related Posts:
Cardinals are cursed, literally - They can’t win
January 30, 2009
Super Bowl XLIII will be played between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Arizona Cardinals , but the the problem is that they are cursed, literally cursed. Below is an except from my ESPN friend, David Fleming (one of our past employees donated his time and worked on the Breaker Boys website). The below is taken from ESPN. For the fact that our office overlooks the area where the Pottsville Maroons stadium was located (if the stadium was still there, I would have a clear view of the field) we have a vested intrest in seeing the curse held until the Maroons receive their 1925 NFL “Super Bowl” championship
CARDINAL CURSE
Ever look at the Arizona Cardinals and think: “In an era where the NFL practically legislates parity, how is it that the Cardinals have won only one playoff game in the last 59 years and have had double-digit losing seasons in 15 of the last 18 years? Are they cursed?”
Actually, yeah.
In what was widely regarded as the 1925 NFL championship game the league’s two best teams met at Comiskey Park where, during an ice storm, Pottsville beat the Chicago Cardinals 21-7. At the time college football was still king and the greatest football team ever assembled was the Notre Dame Four Horsemen. An exhibition game was set up in Philadelphia against the fledgling NFL’s best team (Pottsville) and Notre Dame, the undefeated national champs from 1924. Experts at the time said the pro football players who could beat Notre Dame hadn’t even been born yet. Yet with darkness descending on Shibe Park (later, Connie Mack Stadium) a stunned crowd fell silent as Maroons captain Charlie Berry (who later became the dean of American League umpires) kicked a 30-yard field goal to upset the Four Horsemen, 9-7. The game helped legitimize the NFL but it also destroyed the town and the team that made it all possible. A week later, the Frankford Yellow Jackets (the team that later became the Eagles) protested that the Maroons had played the Notre Dame game in their “territory.” The NFL suspended the Maroons, making them ineligible for the championship. At the 1925 owners meeting in Detroit, the league tried to award the title to the Chicago Cardinals owner Chris O’Brien, but he refused to accept what he called a “bogus” title that his team did not win on the field. As a result the 1925 NFL championship was never formally awarded.
At the time the Cardinals had bigger issues. After losing to the Maroons on the field, the Cardinals tried to cram in enough games to surpass Pottsville in the final standings. When it became clear that one of those opponents, the Milwaukee Badgers, could not field a full team, a player from the Cardinals coerced four high school players from Chicago to play for the Badgers. The game was an embarrassing farce and when word leaked out about the Cardinals playing against teenagers, an enraged NFL commissioner threatened O’Brien with a lifetime ban and ordered the result stricken from the record.
Despite all that, when the Bidwill family bought the Cardinals franchise in 1932 they still began to claim the 1925 championship as their very own. And when the Pottsville Maroons petitioned the league in 1963, Charles “Stormy” Bidwill Jr. wrote to sportswriter Red Smith poking fun of little Pottsville and saying his family had no intention of giving away their title. This is when most believe that Joe Zacko, a huge Maroons booster who owned the Pottsville landmark Zacko’s Sporting Goods, placed his curse on the Cardinals. Since then the Cards have won exactly one playoff game.
In 2003 there was a chance to make everything right when Steelers owner Dan Rooney, Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie, Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell and Pottsville mayor John Reiley came up with a solution that had then commissioner Paul Tagliabue’s blessing: let the Cards and the Maroons share the title. Tagliabue had even begun to make plans to come to Pottsville to give the town its title back. Instead, Rooney and Reiley say that current Cardinals owner Bill Bidwill used his influence behind the scenes to squash the Maroons petition. The owners never even discussed the case, they voted 30-2 against even talking about it or hearing the Maroons case. Bidwill has since refused numerous interview requests on the topic.
“What’s been done to this town and this team — it’s not right,” says Rooney. “It needs to be fixed.”
Since then word of the Cardinals Curse has spread in Arizona. And after last year’s 5-11 finish fans began contacting members of the Maroons Memorial Committee to ask them to lift the curse.
The request was denied.
But with the Cards still struggling to get above .500 you already knew that.
-David Fleming
Related Posts:
Running super bowl ads are indefensible
January 30, 2009
USA today has a very pointed article regarding the use of super bowl advertising. Basically saying that jobs are being tossed out the window as their salaries are being used to buy super bowl ads. In todays economic crisis it’s a fair question. Most Economists are saying it’s the worst recession since the great depression, others are saying it has to potential to be the great depression 2.
Regardless, it’s a great article and we suggest you read it at USA today. See the snippet below.
For most Super Bowl advertisers, there’s one sure thing about being in the game: the pressure.
And thanks to the imploded economy, this one on Sunday may be the all-time pressure cooker. The decision to spend $3 million — $100,000 a second — to air a 30-second Super Bowl ad seems almost indefensible.
It is a particularly sticky wicket after a week in which 70,000 layoffs were announced and labor statistics set a couple of firsts: Unemployment was up in every state in December, and people getting unemployment benefits has hit a record. The quiet question: How many jobs could be saved by not running a Super Bowl spot?
Related Posts:
Mount Redoubt Volcano scares daylights out of Alaska
January 30, 2009
Anchorage Alaska area residents stocked up on protective eyewear and masks ahead of a possible eruption of Mount Redoubt. People are evacuating from the area, massive swarms of earthquakes are being reported. Story Developing…
In Related News Seattle is facing some serious earthquake problems
We’ll tack this onto a global recession, wars, people getting fired right and left.. and now earthquakes and volcanoes…
Related Posts:
CMO : Our Ad Agency of record sucks
January 29, 2009
Released today from Adweek regarding polling taken in October, found relatively few CMOs saying their agency of record exceeds their expectations in such areas as price (9 percent), return on investment (12 percent), client service (23 percent) and “knowledge of my business” (24 percent).
Meaning that the BDA’s are collecting cash, and delivering nothing but headaches in return.
That’s a case of the obvious. Also we expect to see massive numbers of agency reviews over the next 6 months, we’re talking unprecedented levels of agency reviews as companies take a look at their lack of advertising agency ROI…. you know, the 88% of CMO’s that think their ad agency is just charging them and delivering nothing. The longer you don’t provide a positive ROI for the client, the more uncomfortable this report needs to make you… 88% of you are looking at being canned.
That’s not our words, that the Chief Marketing Officers of your clients stating this.
ROI people, ROI… don’t lose sight on the fact that is the ONLY reason Advertising Agencies exist. For all your hawk, branding, integration and chicken chest out in the air.. the point is you are nothing more than glorified sales people to these CMOs … in fact it’s not just you.. they view the entire industry under that umbrella… in this day and age they would rather see your job outsourced to an offshore call center telemarketer to bring in dollars.
2 seconds after posting we got this comment view IM:
and the thing you might mention… agency reviews are going to force agencies to spend a shitload of dough to either win and/or defend… and guess who loses out at the end… additional grunts are going to lose their jobs so the higher up wankers can wine & dine CMOs
Ain’t that the truth..
Here it is people the agency of the future, call center software and … wait… how the hell does the guy get into the center cubical?
Related Posts:
Ad agency Leo Burnett layoff 75 people
January 29, 2009
It is 75 people —
Chicago ad agency Leo Burnett USA said it will lay off 75 people, almost 5 percent of its workforce. Ugly, really ugly… But layoffs people is the way of life now. The Advertising agency claimed that the layoffs were only partly a response to the recession and partly, it said, an effort to “better position” the company in a rapidly changing industry. In other words, because they have to change their definition of the term “Advertising”. Even Arc Worldwide has hit with the layoffs. Leo Burnett is owned by Publicis Groupe.
As the unemployment lines grow around the country to staggering levels, the United States is facing an economic problem of epic proportions. Prospects for an economic recovery this year dimmed after reports today showed new-home sales collapsed, durable-goods orders dropped like a rock and a record number of Americans are stuck on unemployment benefits, with the clock ticking before even that runs out. Call it the Great Recession , Call it the great depression II, it doesn’t matter what you call it … but the truth is that it’s Ugly people, really ugly.
Related Posts:
Steve Hall sued by Virgin America
January 28, 2009
Was Virgin America’s CMO asleep at the wheel? Never let your lawyers run your relationships with the blogging world. We picked this up on Media Bistro that Steve Hall is being sued by Virgin … and it’s a WTF.
Steve Hall runs the popular adrants website.
Steve Hall even has taken down the offending ads… and yet Virgin is still suing and now facing a backlash from the blogging world. It will take millions of dollars in Social Media work to repair this damage… not from the post.. but rather from Virgin’s reaction.
Their lawsuit now turned into a multi-million dollar problem for Virgin..
Related Posts:
The Parker Challenge
January 28, 2009
Ok George Parker Asked if we will list 7 facts about ourselves and tag the person requesting for Advertising Agency related blogs.
1: I’m most likely younger than everyone reading this, but I grew up with technology and I am a firm believer that there is always a technical solution to almost any problem… almost…
2: I think the winner of the HD-DVD vs Blu-Ray format war was Comcast On Demand, Netflix, Hulu and CBS.com
3: My parents are immigrants from Lebanon during the civil war, I have perhaps as differing perspective one what war really means. I have plenty of family members I will never meet.
4: I spent time all over the country, I choose to live in Pottsville, PA by choice… nothing beats looking up at night and seeing thousands of stars, the milky way bands, and picking out the Andromeda Galaxy with nothing more than your eyes… no telescope needed…
5: I think the economic crisis we are in needs a name.. call it the Great Recession… because this isn’t just a normal recession… and it’s going to continue to get worse for some time…
6: My first memory of an economic shock was being as old as my son is now (toddler age) and recalling waiting for 4 hours in line to get gas…
7: The best movies ever created are.
a) 2001
b) Star Trek, the Wraith of Khan
c) The Maxtrx
d) Office Space
e) The Breakfast Club
8: best villain in any movie
a) Hal 9000
I have to tag 7 other bloggers
Parker Already Tagged me, so can’t tag him back.
1 - Matt and Superspy at Media Bistro
2 Steve Hall at Ad Rants
3 Jim at B|Net
4 Daily Biz (if I can ever get him to post again)
5 Multi-Classics
6 Make the Logo Bigger
7 Adirondack Base Camp
Related Posts:
Who needs a movie?
January 27, 2009
The below advertising video has nearly 1 million views on YouTube, It’s perhaps the highest ROI video out there in terms of production costs vs distribution. Meaning the below video most likely is the record holder for Advertising Agencies. It’s also perhaps the worst video we have ever seen, but the figures speak for themselves. Pennies went into this video, yet their phone number and url are plastered in front of everyone…. and the chances are they made some sales from that less than “production quality” advertising.
Classic stuff. methinksdiffrent pointed this out on Adscam.
Related Posts:
Someone paid millions for these ads
January 27, 2009
Matt has posted some of the worst Super Bowl ads in history .. .and they are all going to be running for the 2009 Super Bowl.
We are flabbergasted that someone actually paid money for these ads.
Related Posts:
Recognized by Advertising Age Magazine as top Power 150 news outlet for Advertising and Marketing.
Recognized and listed in Google News. Don't stress, we're Satire
Ad Agency Advertising
