Toilet Paper Caught on Ad Critic

clipped from creativity-online.com Sorbent Toilet Paper: Homecoming A young beast-boy returns home to find comforts far from feral.

How often do you see a commercial in which toilet paper moves someone to tears? This is it. Check out some of the other ads while you're on Ad Critic's site.

New Grad: Beatrice of Beatrice's Goat

clipped from www.heifer.org "The Luckiest Girl" New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof discusses the latest chapter in the story of Beatrice Biira, whose life was forever changed by the gift of a Heifer goat. Kristof believes small gifts can make a big difference. Read more. Learn more about Beatrice.

The children's book Beatrice's Goat has become a classic about how a Heifer International donation of a goat helped a family in Uganda afford to send their daughter, Beatrice, to school.

Now Beatrice has graduated from Connecticut College and will go on for grad work in the U.S. Read all about it in The New York Times. A real-life story with a happy ending and a happy feeling for people who support Heifer and similar charities.

Flip License Agreement - Rights Grab? Not Necessarily

I love the Flip video recorder, but I don't love the license agreement that its maker, Pure Digital, wants to impose. If I don't click "I agree," I can't get the firmware upgrade. Take a look at the above section of the license agreement and you'll see that the company wants a non-exclusive, royalty-free license for all time to the rights to my content in some circumstances.

Late in June, I wrote Pure Digital and asked for clarification of this issue. I wrote again but received no answer until August 13th. Here's Flip's reply, which made me feel much better. Thank you, Flip.

Hello Marian,

Please know that this is a standard License Agreement and we will not be using any of your content without first obtaining your written permission. We hope this has addressed your concerns.

Please feel free to contact us with any more questions you may have about our products, services, and policies.

Thank you,
Flip Video Support

Vrooooom - the Harley-Davidson Museum

clipped from www.harley-davidson.com

Just two weeks until the opening of the new Harley-Davidson Museum in Milwaukee. Having owned a couple of motorcycles in my time (OK, my first was a little step-through-frame Yamaha 50 cc bike, followed by a not-so-big Yamaha Twin Jet 100, but still), I'm putting this on my travel list.

From a marketing perspective, I think Harley's hefty multimillion-dollar investment in the museum will pay off in the long run. Lots of people who visit the museum will decide to finally go ahead and buy the Harley of their dreams; current owners will undoubtedly bring non-owners along for the ride and get them hooked on the brand. In the short run, even though summer is cycle season, this year's economic woes could be a drag on museum attendance.

"New" Marketing Definition

clipped from www.marketingpower.com New Definition of Marketing (est. in 2007) Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large. Previous Definition (est. in 2004) Marketing is an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating, and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders. The new definition takes into account input from a broad cross-section of the Association membership. Marketing is regarded as an 'activity' instead of a 'function' and positions marketing as a broader activity in a company/organization, and not just a department. The new definition also positions marketing as providing long term value rather than narrowly as an exchange of money (short-term) for the benefit of the shareholder/organization.

Late last year the American Marketing Association updated its definition of marketing. This clip shows the old definition and the new one, which I think is particularly vague.

The new definition also talks about offerings that have value for "society at large" but applying that part of the definition can get tricky for controversial products such as cigarettes, IMHO.

The AP and Fair Usage vs. The Bloggers

The Associated Press wants to charge bloggers (especially the big-time guys, but also small fry like me) who excerpt and quote 5 or more words of an AP story. Cory Doctorow's Boing Boing blog entry gives the kernel of the story. As an author, I'm all for protecting intellectual property rights but this is ridiculous! AP, you've gone too far.

clipped from boingboing.net Associated Press expects you to pay to license 5-word quotations (and reserves the right to terminate your license) Posted by Cory Doctorow, June 17, 2008 4:55 AM | permalink In the name of "defin[ing] clear standards as to how much of its articles and broadcasts bloggers and Web sites can excerpt" the Associated Press is now selling "quotation licenses" that allow bloggers, journallers, and people who forward quotations from articles to co-workers to quote their articles. The licenses start at $12.50 for quotations of 5-25 words. The licensing system exhorts you to snitch on people who publish without paying the blood-money, offering up to $1 million in reward money (they also think that "fair use" -- the right to copy without permission -- means "Contact the owner of the work to be sure you are covered under fair use.").

Home Depot Eco Options

clipped from www.homedepot.com Home Depot just announced it will accept compact fluorescent bulbs for recycling at all U.S. stores (Canadian Home Depots began doing this late last year). Considering the mercury content in CFLs, free and convenient recycling is a big plus for the environment and for encouraging wider adoption of these bulbs. I've already set aside some bulbs to be recycled--Home Depot, here I come (and while I'm there, my shopping list includes . . . !).

Legalities of Blogging

Lawyer Duncan Calow points out key legal issues related to blogging or commenting on blogs in the United Kingdom, including defamation, infringement, harassment, and incitement (!). Interesting reading for bloggers and blog-readers who like to comment, anywhere in the world.

Goodbye Charter Comm Web Tracking

Last month my local cable company, Charter Communications, announced plans to track the web surfing activities of customers in my community. Its letter explained that this would lead to "an enhanced online experience that is more customized to your interests and activities." The real reason, of course, is so Charter can sell targeted advertising.

To see how Charter explains its program, check out this page:

www.charter.com/onlineadvertising

I'm not opposed to advertising, just to Big Brother-style monitoring of my online activities. How many Charter customers would opt in if we were asked to join the program instead of being forced to opt out? Just asking. And of course I opted out.

June 24 UPDATE: Today Charter "froze" this program (no implementation date as of now). Here's the Wired blog entry plus links to earlier items about the program.

BusinessWeek Branding Primer

BusinessWeek's special report on branding is definitely worth a quick click. From namestorming to building a brand online, the report is full of helpful tips and tricks.

P.S.: Check out BusinessWeek's Blogs for more on business and marketing trends, management issues, investing, and many more timely topics.