Random Links – 05.18.06
I’m still around – and I’ve got links burning a hole in my pocket. That’s right! Random Links is back! This post has been in the making for over a week now. I found three links I wanted to convey, but as I procrastinated, I found more and more to add. So now, you’re getting seven hot-licious links, all of them random.
One thing I’ve found since becoming a copywriter is that there are a lot of blogs about advertising. A lot. And many of them deal with the creative side of the business. I subscribe to all of them, and at work I have a special aggregator for just advertising blogs – I figure, it’s work related, so I don’t mind looking at them when I’ve created unbillable time by clearing my desk of all work.
This leads to me finding a lot of advertising related info. So you’ll have to bear with me – it’s all good.
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First, I ran across the website for The Raconteurs, a band that is made up of Jack White (of The White Stripes) and three people I’ve never heard of. I’ll admit – I actually like The White Stripes quite a lot. And from what I’ve heard of The Raconteurs, I like them as well.
What I like even more than their music, however, is their website. Go see it now: The Raconteurs.
It’s set up like an old green hued computer, complete with “one-touch letter pressing navigation.” Once you’re past the home page, your mouse won’t do much.
It’s my favorite site – the site of the month, if you will.
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Ever wonder where your grocery lists go when you lose them at the store?
Chances are they go to GroceryLists.org.
According to their site:
This is the world’s largest online collection of found grocery lists. More than 1,000 have been posted here and we have a lot more yet to be uploaded. And there is a book in the works. We rule. Please enjoy yourself and feel free to contribute your found lists — or one of your own.
My favorite is this one: a list that includes only a “hatchet and sheath,” written on a church envelope.
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In honor of the first screenshots of Madden 2007, here’s a quick history of how far we’ve come since Atari Football.
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Wallace and Gromit would be proud of this perfume.
First, Play-Doh creates their own perfume in honor of their 50th birthday. Not wanting to be outdone, Stilton cheese makers came up with their own stink.
From the Telegraph:
The makers of Stilton have come up with a unique way of promoting their pungent blue cheese – a Stilton-scented perfume.
Eau de Stilton will, apparently, “re-create the earthy and fruity aroma of Blue Stilton cheese in an eminently wearable perfume”.
It will feature a “symphony of natural base notes including yarrow, angelica seed, clary sage and valerian”, according to the Stilton Cheese Makers Association (SCMA), who commissioned it.
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No more bananas?
An article from New Scientist:
Virtually all bananas traded internationally are of a single variety, the Cavendish, the genetic roots of which lie in India. Three years ago, New Scientist revealed that the world Cavendish crop was threatened by pandemics of diseases such as that caused by the black sigatoka fungus. The main hope for survival of the Cavendish lies in developing new hybrids resistant to the fungus, but this is a difficult and time-consuming task because the seedless modern fruit does not reproduce sexually and has to be bred from cuttings.
Now the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has warned that wild banana species are rapidly going extinct as Indian forests are destroyed, while many traditional farmers’ varieties are also disappearing. It could take a global effort to save the bananas’ gene pool.
Weak. No more Banilla yogurt.
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PETA does some dumb stuff sometimes.
Now, I’m a vegetarian and all, but I don’t think that PETA’s claim – “Over 50 million cows are slaughtered every year to feed your greed for burgers, bags and lipsticks. So who’s to blame if the cow goes extinct soon: the butcher, or you?” – holds much water.
The ad is great – very cute, and it gets the message across – and there are other ads for whales and elephants that actually make sense. But who actually thinks cows are going to go extinct? I mean really – are they an endangered species or something? A little over the top, though the concept is sound.
(Thanks to Ad Blather)
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Instead, PETA should have done something a little classier – instead of yelling at the top of their lungs, they should have done what BMW did with their Mini ads: given free space to organizations that actually do something.
An awesome idea – Mini uses just a third of the billboard (promoting themselves as effectively as they always have) and the other two-thirds goes to The Nature Conservancy.
Mini is now my new favorite car. In addition, they have the coolest ads and the best website.
(Thanks to AdRants)
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And that’s it. Finally.
Random Steinbeck tomorrow, friends.