Category: Big Business

A cool collection of airline logos from around the world and across time.

(via xBlog)

In some ways’ it’s just the opposite of the PETA campaign, in other ways it’s part of the same “shock ’em to get attention.”

I’m sure that someone at Abercrombie & Fitch thought that a soft-porn catalog was a swell idea to change their image. Question is, what do they want to change it to, and was it successful.

Well, it certainly got them plenty of attention.

While I suspect it will pick up their catalog sales, I can’t see myself buying anything there any time soon. Not quite the target demographic.

(via GoaF)

Because if there’s one thing that everyone’s been complaining about, it’s the dearth of “high quality, aesthetically pleasing prints located on the top surface of [airline] tray tables.”

Innovative New Advertising Medium Takes to the Skies!
America West Airlines (NYSE: AWA), in conjunction with Las Vegas-based SkyMedia International, today announced the launch of tray table advertising, a new and innovative advertising medium.
Through high quality, aesthetically pleasing prints located on the top surface of the airline’s tray tables, advertisers will have a one-of-a-kind opportunity to reach a very desirable demographic for an extended period of time.

Oh, rapture.

But don’t fear that there might be ugly clashes between competing onboard ads …

Only one advertiser per aircraft will be permitted under the agreement. Mercedes-Benz USA, Bank of America and The History Channel will be the first companies to provide advertisements on America West aircraft, effective Dec. 15, 2003. America West is the first airline in the U.S. to launch tray table advertising.

Another reason to avoid them like the plague.

America West Vice President of Marketing Ken Feldman said, “Onboard advertising provides customers a novel opportunity to learn about the products and services offered by quality, forward-thinking advertisers.”

Or to swear undying enmity at the firms jamming still more ads down a captive audience’s throat.

“SkyMedia is proud and excited to be in partnership with America West, one of the nation’s premier airlines,” said Nick Pajic, president of SkyMedia. “With an average domestic flight time of 2.5 hours, our advertisers will be able to achieve a level of penetration, impact and recall unmatched by virtually any other medium.”

That sure sounds, um, “friendly.” In the “mugging-in-an-alley” meaning of the word.

“Tray table advertising, implemented in an appealing and appropriate way, will be a ‘win-win-win’ proposition for America West, its customers and our advertisers,” added Laurence Hallier, principal shareholder and chairman of SkyMedia.

I’m not sure how AW customers “win” in this, unless it keeps costs down a scosh. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but …

Next up: ads on the bottom of tray tables, so that you have to stare at them during take-off and landings …

(via PRBop)

Ryanair, a low-cost Irish airline, has updated its logo.

Well, updated parts of it. To the right, the before and after.

While most logo changes get a lot of ballyhoo, this one did not.

The company has until now managed to keep work with the logo change quiet. According to the British press, the beauty change became known outside Ryanair’s management by chance when an employee at Stansted airport outside London, suddenly noticed the much more voluptuous angel.
Ryanair explained that the logo change was due to the need to get a more aerodynamic image. “We decided to give our customers a more uplifting experience,” said a spokesperson for the company. “We think she is rather aerodynamic.”

Why, yes, they are — er, I mean, yes, she is.

(via GoaF)

During these days of tight travel budgets, companies, more than ever, are depending on conference calls to keep in touch.

Alas, that approach has some serious drawbacks, since folks may not be listening.

The RoperASW/Tandberg poll looked at workers in the U.S., the U.K., Germany, Norway and Hong Kong, and found in all countries except America and Norway, less than half of workers pay full attention during audio conferences.
So what are they doing instead? Twenty-nine percent of British workers say they doodle, while 22 percent of Germans surf the web. Twenty percent of Americans say they have side conversations with someone else during conference calls.
It gets weirder: 22 percent of Hong Kong workers admit they weren’t fully dressed during their last teleconference, while 14 percent of them were doing their makeup or hair.
Finally, seven percent of Americans admit they’ve left a call early — the highest percentage out of all the countries surveyed.

So reach out and touch someone — but make sure they’re dressed, first.

(via BoingBoing)

After the Merriam-Websters McJobs flurry (not to be confused with a McFlurry) of a week ago seems to be dying down, I got a trackback from the Swedish site that broke the news, Blind Höna.

Alas, neither I nor Babelfish speak Swedish, so I’m not sure what it’s saying, except to note the various people who linked back to him. There is, though, a link to an interesting article at the Register on the matter, where M-W notes it’s just a coincidence that the reference to “McJob” in the sampler of new words disappeared just about the time McDonald’s pitched a fit about it.

One side light was McDonald’s complaining that it was actually a trademarked term, related to its McJOBS program.

A spokesman told AP that McJOBS™ is a registered trade mark. Indeed it is, and one with an interesting history. McDonald’s first registered the term on May 16 1984, as a name and image for “training handicapped persons as restaurant employees”. But the trademarked lapsed in February 1992, and was declared ‘Dead’ by the United States Patent Office. Following the publication of Douglas Coupland’s smash Generation X in paperback edition in October 1992 (the book first appeared in 1991), which popularized the term, McDonald’s restored the trademark.
“If there’s a trademarks issue it’s with the plural, not McJob,” [M-W rep] Bicknell told us.

And a check back at the earlier BH site presents this further comment from M-W:

As for the missing ‘McJob’ on the New Words Sampler, we felt as though there was enough misinformation and incomplete information circulating that it would be best to let the full entry and not the shorter excerpt speak for itself. We also found prior to the ‘McJob’ incident that many people were confusing the content of the ‘New Word Sampler’ with the full content of the Eleventh Edition of the Collegiate Dictionary. Accordingly, it is currently under revision; a new version will be restored soon online. “McJob” remains in all the manifestations of the Eleventh (CD-ROM, print, and online).

And that’s the rest of the McStory.

McDonald’s seems to have prevailed in turning dictionaries from descriptive to descriptive-of-only-what-we-want, by getting Merriam-Webster to drop the term “McJobs” — at least from its list of new words in the new edition of the dictionary.

I’m torqued by McDonald’s here. I’m really torqued at M-W.

(via BoingBoing)

Google has rejected a take-over bid by Micro$oft.

Heh.

I’d like to cite this as evidence that there is, in fact, a God, but more likely what it means is that M$ will instead develop a proprietary Internet search system that will be hardcoded into future versions of Windows and render all other search engines unstable.

Still, Go Google.

(via Doyce)

Looking for a way to talk to a live operator, rather than getting lost in Voice Mail Hell, at various Big Companies? Here are some bypass codes.

(via BoingBoing)

Under the National Post headline “GM finds out LaCrosse not just a team sport in Quebec“:

General Motor’s plans to rechristen the Canadian-built Buick Regal passenger car as the Buick LaCrosse have hit a snag: In Québécois youth culture, the word is slang for masturbation, among other things.
U.S. focus groups said the name lends the car a sophisticated European air, but the world’s largest automaker discovered in focus groups in Quebec that it generated giggles among young participants.

(via Cronaca, with a tip o’ the title hat to Adam)

Put your hands together for Marn’s Jog for the Jugs. She accomplished her appointed rounds on Sunday, and raised over $3200 to boot! Huzzah!

For all of you bitterly disappointed that you didn’t get a chance to contribute, I note that you can still pledge to Mary’s 3-Day Walk. Just do it!

The American Teleservices Association, a telemarketing industry group, isn’t terribly happy with Dave Barry. Seems that Barry published the group’s telephone number in his column a week or two back, with a suggestion that people call and “tell them what you think. … I’m sure they’d love to hear your constitutionally protected views!”

Thousands of Barry’s readers have done as they were told, forcing the association to stop answering its phones. Callers now hear a recording, which says that because of “overwhelming positive response to recent media events, we are unable to take your call at this time.”

… snicker …

“It’s difficult not to see some malice in Mr. Barry’s intent,” said Tim Searcy, executive director of the ATA, who said the added calls will be costly to his group because of toll charges and staffing issues.

Must … resist … laughing out loud … or mentioning … Caller ID I had to purchase … just for this reason …

Barry hardly sounded apologetic. “I feel just terrible, especially if they were eating or anything,” he said. “They have phones like the rest of us have phones. Their attitude seems to be if you have a phone, people are allowed to call you.”

Indeed.

Perhaps they should look into an unlisted number. Or individually ask each person who calls not to call back again. I hear that works …

Okay, pardon me while I go off and collapse in the corner, tears streaming down my face, chortles echoing out into the office space beyond …

(via GeekPress)

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.
&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp — Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

Doyce rants on inconsistencies in the cap liners of 20 oz. bottles of soda.

Since I usually go for cans, not bottles, I haven’t noticed. But what really bugs me is inconsistency in 12-pack boxes.

This summer, Coke introduced the “Fridge Pack” box, which is long and skinny, about two cans high. This is a new innovation compared to previous twelve-pack packaging that’s four cans high (and thus not as deep).

I like it. I like it a lot. I like that I can stack two Fridge Packs on top of each other and have twice as much soda in the space as with a conventional 12-pack.

(Since we have a fridge in the garage that is basically dedicated to beer and soda and water, obviously this is a big thing for us.)

My question is — will this innovation prevail? Or will the older standard prevail? Or, worse, will we end up with two different sizes and shapes of 12-pack boxes?

Or will it turn out that Coke has trademarked, somehow, the long skinny box (not likely, but weirder things have happened), thus forcing a split in the “standard.”

That’s the sort of crap that bugs me.

Remember all those zany, kitschy TV ads for Mentos, complete with that awkward jingle and those odd, off-culture story lines — clearly the effort of someone to save money by just transplanting the European commercials for the Dutch candy to America?

Well, the truth is a bit more interesting.

For reasons I won’t go into at the moment, I was having a email conversation with co-workers that wandered into the topic of Mentos commercials. Most people assume that these commercials, which practically define the term kitsch, are filmed in Germany or the Netherlands–the (fresh)maker, Van Melle, is a Dutch company–and poorly adapted for an American audience. Not so, wrote a coworker, claiming that it is a little-known fact that the commercials are actually filmed with struggling actors in Los Angeles backlots.

(via InstaPundit)

And any information you give us is ours, to do with as we please, which means we can sell it to anyone we do business with, too. And will. And do. So there. Don’t like it? Try to find someone else who does what we do. And just think — we charge you a convenience fee, to boot! We are evil! Yay, us! Bwah-ha-ha!

So says TicketMaster.

That’s why “opt-in” solutions to spam will never work, because you’ll just be coerced into opting in, and then you’re stuck.

(Mutter mutter mutter …)

Here’s a fun article on The Mysteries of Ronald McDonald.

McDonald’s keeps a roster of about 250 Ronalds world-wide, according to marketing experts familiar with the program, and franchisees, with some support from the company, pay for Ronalds as an advertising expense. Each major market in the U.S. has at least one Ronald, with large cities employing several.
Ronalds often have schedulers, chauffeurs and bodyguards. Thanks to McDonald’s franchisees, a Ronald in Nevada got a motor home so he could travel more easily. Bodyguards? “Kids would throw rocks from the parking lot. Sometimes you would get protesters,” explains Jeff McMullen, a former Ronald, of Appleton, Wis. “Ronald can’t handle that.”
Typically actors, or ex-Ringling Bros. clowns or teachers, Ronalds make about $40,000 a year on average. A Ronald busy handling 400 shows a year can make close to $100,000, while the highest-paying Ronald, who appears in national commercials, earns more than $300,000, according to former Ronalds. Asked about Ronald’s salary, McDonald’s ducks the question. “Ronald doesn’t go out to work,” says Amy Murray, a director in U.S. marketing. “He goes out to have fun.”

Hope so, because you couldn’t pay me enough …

(via GeekPress)

Britain’s Channel 4 was looking for someplace striking and noteworthy to put a logo for their Big Brother series, and hit upon a great idea — paint it on the greensward next to the 3,000-year-old Uffington White Horse, a football-field-length chalk drawing in Oxfordshire.

What’s amazing is that Britain’s National Trust organization, which owns the site, actually went along with it.

Okay, so the logo was supposedly in chalk-based paint that would be washed away by the rain. Right.

But, dammit, it’s the principle of the thing. If CBS wanted to put an ad for “Survivor” on a huge biodegradable banner next to Mount Rushmore, would folks be rightfully upset with the National Park Service for allowing it?

How about a “American Idol” logo draped tastefully around the Washington Monument? Or flapping in the breeze at Mesa Verde? Or sprayed in water-soluble ink across the flanks of the Grand Canyon?

Having been to the Uffington White Horse, all I can say is, for shame.

(via GoaF)

There is no “implied warranty under Virginia law running from a hotel owner or operator to a guest warranting that the premises are ‘fit for human habitation, would be clean and sanitary, and would be suitable for occupancy.'”

Or so says MCHD Hampton Corp., owners of the Quality Inn of Hampton, VA.

I wonder — do they mention that when people call for reservations?