Results tagged “advertising”

If “Mad Men” has taught us anything, it’s that advertising is all about the client and the product. But a “Mad Man” for the technology age urges ad firms to put the Don Draper era behind them and consider the consumer in a new manner: through the lens and the interactive venue of today’s social media tools.

You know those mobile billboard trailers that line streets for days at a time, taking up parking and generally looking ugly fugly? While the city can't outright ban them, they can enforce the 72-hour parking ordinance, which states that vehicles and trailer parked in the same spot for more than that time can be towed.

Donovan Leitch’s musical The Dark Root of the Dream is a mix of glam rock, literature and theatre, and it take to Largo’s stage tonight at 8 pm. Written by Leitch and guitarist Larry Cordola, the songs center around the character Mr. E, the fictional son of poet Virginia Woolf. “After his mother commits suicide early in the boy’s life, E is raised by gypsies, going on to become an egotistical, disillusioned rock star. Subsequently, Mr. E struggles to fill the void left by his mother’s death - with drugs, music and love. Once all these fail, he is forced to confront his darkest dreams in order to survive.” Tickets are $20.

       

Signage on buildings and along thoroughfares has evolved, as has the move to prohibit them in recent months. But the origin of the roof sign in Los Angeles reflects one aspect of our rich local history that runs the risk of being elbowed out by the more bully-like presence of neon-lit ads that now top buildings all over the city.

As noted earlier today, one of the seven murals made of flowers advertising the 2010 Toyota Prius hybrid vehicle was unveiled today along the 101 Freeway near downtown. This truly isn't an advertisement, at least not in the legal sense for Federal regulators who are not allowing the floralscapes to be commercial in nature. Instead, the new marketing concept (their words) uses "abstract images of the new Prius" that captures the essence of its marketing campaign--“Harmony Between Man, Nature and Machine"--developed by Saatchi & Saatchi.

Despite the rumors that circulated yesterday, Trevor Ariza did not end up backing out of his oral agreement with Houston to join LeBron James and Shaquille O'Neal in Cleveland. Today the former Laker made it official signing on the dotted line of his multi-year deal, making him a Rocket.

Thinking of purchasing a car? Your options remain plentiful, and deals are readily available as the auto industry is eager to make sales in these rough economic times. But if you happened to be headed to Universal City Nissan, a sign on the hill above the dealership might have you thinking twice about your decision to go with the import.

As expected, readers and writers alike were not happy about yesterday's NBC fake news story advertisement paired with horizontal ad on the front page of the Times. Around 100 newsroom staff apparently signed this petition:

Even though the city has given the CIM Group over $28 million in financial aid for the past few years for redevelopment projects, they are allowing illegal supergraphics and billboards on their properties in Hollywood. The city agreed last year to let them have three supergraphics--currently there are six. Additionally, the agreement included taking down two billboards that are still up.

To the astonishment of building tenants and just about everyone else, an illegal supergraphic went up last week on the same building that was used by the city as an example of the verboten advertisements. In late January, the building at National and Westwood Boulevard--then with a Tropicana supergraphic--was used as a press conference backdrop to talk about fire department safety concerns and how the city is looking to have stricter penalties.

Westfield is looking to do a 235,000 square foot expansion of their Sherman Oaks Fashion Square location, bringing back some of the outdoor promenade open air feel it had before the 1994 earthquake. It's been in an extensive community process for over three years with Westfield and neighbors working together, of course, not always agreeing together. After all, this is a regional mall smack dab in the middle of a single family home community.

Not only does Warner Bros' The Watchmen look terrible, it recently is the latest content on an illegal supergraphic endangering tenants of this four-story building off the Robertson Blvd. exit from the 10 Freeway, finds billboard activist Dennis Hathaway.

Remember those ads that ran between 1997-2000 featuring a sassy chihuahua who was crazy about Taco Bell? Turns out the Irvine-based company turned down a pitch made in the 1990s by Michigan ad men Joseph Shields and Tom Rinks for a "psycho chihuahua" but "later hired another ad agency that wound up using the talking animal in the now famous 'Yo quiero Taco Bell' ads," reports the OC Register.

Over the holiday week, it appears that Warner Brothers has painted over their huge Looney Tunes/Hanna-Barbera/Warner Animation mural that's been there for more than 15 years, finds animation authority, historian and author Jerry Beck on his blog, Cartoon Brew. "To give them benefit of the doubt, perhaps they are going to replace it with an even better graphic of Bugs Bunny and crew. I hope so... but who wants to bet that Harry Potter or the live action Dark Knight will soon be guiding us toward the Cahuenga Pass."

A reason why people are up in arms about billboard blight: "When a group of volunteers organized by City Councilman Bill Rosendahl and Coalition to Ban Billboard Blight founder Dennis Hathaway recently counted up all the billboards in Rosendahl's district (district 11), a 4.2 mile-stretch of Lincoln Blvd revealed the biggest concentration of the billboards," says Curbed LA via Ban Billboard Blight. If you live in LA Council District 11, there are a total of 563 billboards including 17 digital ones. Westside!

A new ad revealed today shows Senators Barack Obama (D) and Dianne Feinstein (D) together with California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) asking people to vote "No" on Proposition 8, which seeks to eliminate same-sex marriage.

That white square thing behind the billboard is a generator. That's right--not only are these bright digital billboards annoying as hell and have the potential to cause accidents, but they're also using up fuel and polluting the air with the generators. Thanks billboard industry. Thanks a lot.

Advertisers will do just about anything to create a cool ad spot that will get their product noticed. That kind of thinking is probably what led American Honda to take over a stretch of Avenue K in Lancaster and set it up so that cars driving on it pass over grooves tuned to emit the notes of the "William Tell Overture."

Yesterday the Freeway Blogger came to Los Angeles to promote peace via his easy-to-make signs placed over freeways where they get millions of impressions by passing drivers until someone comes by and takes them down. He hit at least seven spots yesterday. Did you see the signs saying "Peace" or "Peace on Earth"?

The Sunday LA Times has a new addition--well, an old addition reinvented, sort of. It's LA, the new Los Angeles Times Magazine, but it's only available in print.

   

It seems that the ditzy blonde LA County Fair commercials are going wayside this year in lieu of playing off current events (oh wait, nevermind). Above, these ads for the September 5th through 28th event are expected to hit streets on billboards and bus shelters this week.

A TV commercial, shown above, appearing statewide this week has ignited a debate on whether it is a political ad or not. Political ads must disclose donor names. The makers, Let California Ring, say it's not, but Prop 8 proponents say "it is a campaign ad," according to the LA Times.

In another round of job cuts for the LA Times, the paper announced today the planned sacking of 250 jobs across the company which includes 150 editorial ones. The paper will also reduce the number pages it prints by 15%. This is due to a declining revenue, some which is blamed on the internet (which is also a blessing, depending on how you look at it). "You all know the paradox we find ourselves in," Times Editor Russ Stanton said in a memo to the staff. "Thanks to the Internet, we have more readers for our great journalism than at any time in our history. But also thanks to the Internet, our advertisers have more choices, and we have less money."

  

Two LAist Featured Photos contributors happened to submit similar photos around the same time. A new trend in street photography? Probably not, but where else can you put a biker looking dude's head?

LAist has been at ad:tech SF 2008 this week - this is the second part of our report.

 

LAist is at ad:tech SF to cover developments in media as well as how advertisers are planning on targeting you everywhere-anytime. There are ad:tech conferences all over the world but this is the big one with their annual awards ceremony and everything - winners were announced tonight and are HERE. (see tomorrow's post). If you think this is boring you should be aware that the method by which every ad is delivered to you on the web, TV, and the radio is via a method that is marketed at shows like this. Tonight we'll talk about what was seen on the show floor.

Capping off four days of panels at SXSW's 2008 Film Festival, (which also included Mark Cuban interviewing Michael Eisner, and a conversation with Billy Bob Thornton), Doreen Ringer Ross of BMI interviewed Moby. The meat of the interview is posted above and concerns Moby's take on licensing music for film (and the concept of mobygratis) as well as a look at his unlikely rise from a punker on Manhattan's lower-east side to a corporate party-playing DJ to a world-renown commercial artist.

Today, Wendy Greuel announced a top ten list of sorts on new measures to save the city millions of dollars. It's good timing. On February 5th, we go to the polls and vote on Measure S, which will determine if $270 million will be taxed on our phone bills or not. If no is the answer we give, you can probably kiss goodbye more parks and other quality of life aspects like the Governor has proposed in his budget cuts. Additionally, we're already a city that cries poor every hour, currently lachrymose with $75 million in the red ($345 if Measure S doesn't pass). And even if we were not a city with financial problems, getting fiscally lean is always responsible government.