Tag: advertising

Interesting logic

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

I still remember when Jet.com first launched.  The media and internet touted them as an online retailer that could compete with Amazon.  They had an interesting business model that was along the lines of things get cheaper the more you purchase.  However, the notion of a membership fee was a tremendous turnoff for me, because I don’t really want to pay to have the right to shop.

Regardless, Jet seemed to do well without cheapskates like me supporting them.  To the point where they attracted the eye of the much-reviled Wal-Mart, and ultimately sold to them for $3.3 billion dollars, because they thought that acquiring Jet would help them combat Amazon.

So it sounds like Jet has really hit the big time, but then I saw this commercial recently that makes me wonder just what in the world they’re thinking.  Jet’s been pushing something called the “Careculator” in conjunction with their mobile app, where the thought process is that people can put a price on their friends and family.

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Probably profit from confusion

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Long story short: Coca-Cola experiencing boost in sales on light and zero-calorie soda in international markets after rolling out new can design for Coke products

My knee-jerk hypothesis is that people see all the red that saturates like 82% of these cans that they don’t realize that they’re purchasing Coke Light (Diet Coke) or Coke Zero until it’s too late, and since merchants typically don’t accept returns on opened containers, they’re just kind of boned and have to deal with it.

Maybe that was Coke’s plan all along.

Who really knows what Coke’s plan ultimately is.  There are those who think regular Coke is the devil because they’re solely counting calories.  And then there are those who think Diet and Zero are the devil because of sodium and aspartame.  This new experimental branding that has only been seen in Spain, Mexico and various parts of Europe seems to accomplishing this confusing effect that still retains each brand’s parent colors, but puts a massive Coke-red blob on all the cans.

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HP’s new logo is stupid

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Short story shorter: Hewlett-Packard introduces new logo which will start being on display with HP’s Spectre laptop series.

Here’s the thing, once you know that it’s by HP, it’s easier to visually identify the H and the P, because your brain is basically filling in the gaps for you.  But if you didn’t know that this was HP for Hewlett-Packard, then who’s to say that it’s an H and a P?  It could be a lower-case B, followed by a P, or even a lower-case B, followed by a lower-case R?

Or who says they’re even letters at all?  It’s almost like a hand-symbol like the shocker.  Or maybe it’s claw marks or something, for a company that takes its namesake from a ferocious animal?

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Furiously excited for more Fast logos

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Among some of my guiltiest of guilty pleasures is my general love for The Fast and the Furious film franchise. I mean, when I was a wannabe car tuner who thought everything JDM was god-like, and wanted to do a laundry list of things to the cars that I’ve driven, I watched the first film with that “it’s going to suck, but I’m going to watch it, so I can criticize everything wrong with it,” oblivious to the irony that I was forking over my money to feed the machine regardless.

Eventually, the arrogance and false sense of superiority dissipated AKA I began to grow up, and it turned out that I actually enjoyed these terrible films. Yes, I enjoy them, but there’s little denying the fact that they’re really campy, over-the-top films. My mom would watch it and call it an “엉터리 movie,” which translated literally means “nonsense.” Whatever though, I still enjoy them, and I can admit that I have seen every single one.

Needless to say, I was amused by the announcement by Vin Diesel who used social media to drop the news that not only is the FF franchise continuing for an eighth installment, but there are plans to have a ninth, and a tenth installment of the story, so that the franchise can literally boast ten films in twenty years. Also amusing are their tentative April release dates, so I can probably pull out the birthday card and force mythical girlfriend to go see them with me. hue hue.

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The day Storage Wars jumped the shark

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

I know, it’s very easy to accuse Storage Wars of jumping the shark at numerous other locations, but hear me out.  The show’s undoubtedly campy, and sure there’s at least five different instances where a former show member, or an A&E person, or someone else loosely associated with the show has talked about how fake it is, and how doctored the lockers are, and how there are so many planted items in them.  But I don’t care, I still liked the show, and it was always a great way to kill 22 minutes at a time.

The show then hit a massive speed bump when it became apparent that for whatever reason, show member, Barry Weiss was leaving the fold.  The writing was kind of on the wall at that point, and the show was already beginning to become unraveled with the firing of Dave Hester, and the constant incorporation of other “buyers” like Nabila Haniss, the fat German guy with the dumb-as-a-brick wife with huge tits, and Ivy Calvin, with Barry becoming absent from time to time.  And the season finale episode that was a clear eulogy to Barry’s time on the show had me wondering if the show was ever going to come back, at all.

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When you look at it real fast

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

I was running on the treadmill when I saw this commercial out of the corner of my eye.  Now I know that it says “play hooky at Hooters,” but when I looked at it really fast, the K in “hooky” merges with Hooters, and suddenly it basically says “Play with Hookers.”

It’s hard to say whether or not this was on accident, as given the nature of the tastefully tacky restaurant franchise, they’re definitely not above going low-brow and subliminal in order to stay remembered.  After all, this is the same company that plastered the phrase “THE BIG D” repeatedly when simply referring to the city of Denver, during some promotion where the winner would get a trip to Denver.

Either way, I thought it was funny.  Playing with hookers, or just going to Hooters, both seem like a good time.  Ultimately, this makes me kind of depressed when Hooters had a supposed opening for a graphic designer position that I would have done anything to get, but it was right before the company went into financial straits, declared Chapter 11, and had a hiring freeze.  Seriously, I would have given up a kidney or some other drastic sacrifice to have gotten a job with fucking Hooters corporate.

Where will the chain-hating madness end??

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

I was reading this article about how the Red Lobster brand is being considered to be sold off of or restructured into a bastardized spin-off of its former shell by parent company Darden, and I couldn’t help but feel a little melancholy over the notion that Red Lobster in one way shape or form, is dying.  One, I love lobsters, two, Red Lobster’s periodic endless shrimp offer is among the best things in the world, and three, it should be nothing new for my six readers that I’m a nostalgic kind of person who sure, understands the necessity of change, but at the same time isn’t always the most readily accepting of it.

But the point of me writing this post is questioning the modern defiant trend of people who try their hardest to avoid eating at chain restaurants, like a Red Lobster, Chili’s, Ruby Tuesday or Olive Garden.  Even the article alludes to this notion:

It seems that consumers are turning their noses up at hoity-toity sit-down places like Red Lobster and Olive Garden these days in favor of cheaper chains like Chipotle.

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