I’m not talking about the possibility of electing our nation’s first African American president or female vice president. I’m talking about political advertising in video games. As you may have read, The Obama campaign has recently acknowledged purchasing advertisements in select video games, including Madden 09, Guitar Hero, Burnout Paradise, NASCAR 09, NBA Live 09 and several others. The ads are targeted at 18-34 year old (males) in key states: Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Indiana, Montana, North Carolina, New Mexico, Nevada, Ohio and Wisconsin. The ads will be shown in the form of billboards and other in-game signage and will appear in Xbox 360 games that are played online.
What makes this tactic notable is that, politics aside (The McCain campaign was also approached with the same opportunity but declined), the Obama campaign has reached out to a group of voters in a rather unique way.
Video game advertising, in one form or another, has been around for many years. However, blending a static “McDonald’s” on a city wall wall or “Firestone Tires” into a scoreboard often goes consciously unnoticed, as it seems to ad “realism” to the environment, stadium or sporting venue. Read the rest of this entry »
Gordon Gekko, the iconic hero of the Reagan era told us “Greed, for lack of a better word, is good” You can see the context of this quote below if you are unfamiliar with the movie or the character.
The problem with the quote, as is with most things that get quoted and passed along, that it gets simplified and boiled down to the basest idea possible. In this case, the phrase itself was modified and pulled out of context. What we all are left with is “Greed is good” Read the rest of this entry »
If you’re like me at lunch time, you’re probably eager to enhance your intellectual brain power by browsing Webster’s Dictionary, doing crosswords (in pen) or catching up on the most recent edition to Oprah’s book club! (Ok, ok, or sometimes I nap and read People.) Well, today was an “anagram day!” A friend of mine sent me some encrypted anagram messages to sort out and after I had, I stumbled across this gem of a Web site to help me make up some really inventive ones! Check it out and create your own anagram riddles here! Also, don’t forget to explore the anagram hall of fame!
So, what do you think “LARGER KITTEN MOM” really stands for?
For those of you who are not well versed in early-80’s sitcoms, William Katt played Ralph Hinkley, a recently divorced teacher who just happened to wear a superhero costume that granted him amazing powers, including super strength, the ability to fly, invulnerability to projectiles, invisibility and a host of other cool tricks.
The “magic jammies,” as crime fighting partner Bill Maxell (played by Roberty Culp) called them, were given to Hinkley by an alien, under the premise he was to utilize them for the good of mankind. The problem was Hinkely lost the instruction manual to the suit, which meant hilarity insued every time he put on the costume. Flying more like a wounded duck than Superman, Hinkley was forced learn all about his new powers, and limits, through a trial and error process of physical comedy that only the 80’s could provide.
Now, how did we get on this topic in the first pace? Isn’t it kind of random? Well, yes of course it is. We’re Merlot and this is The Water Cooler.
We got here because while discussing Monday night’s season premiere of Heroes, I pointed out that the actor who played the reporter was a hero himself: The Greatest American Hero.
Credit (or blame) my 80’s education for this knowledge. I will take it as a compliment. In fact, in the world of random, insignificant trivia and observation, I’d have to say it was on par with Matt correctly idetifying Meshach Taylor as the man in Designing Women.
So I went to the theater this weekend to watch this movie. Interestingly enough, there was no poster outside the theater for it. As I think about it, I realized I had not seen a commercial for it either. Just the viral marketing video. Hmmm… After paying $10.25 at 3:10 p.m. (isn’t that still matinee time?) I walked into a small theater of 16 people - all women of course.
As I sit through the plot, I’m almost bored to tears because I have seen this movie at least 16 times before. Wife loves husband, husband cheats on wife, wife is the last to know, wife hits rock bottom because she put everything into her husband, wife finds her own voice along with new hairstyle and wardrobe, wife becomes successful on her own terms, wife forgives husband, everyone lives happily ever after. Boooooooooo!
Why is it that only AFTER the man cheats on her, does the woman only then realize how out of control everything was and how out of touch she was with reality? Why is there never a movie where the woman has a mid-life intervention of her own and decides she wants to do better for herself, not because some man/job/(fill in the blank) has let her down? Come on! Women should be smarter than this by now. Or at least you think they would be after seeing this type of movie over and over again.
And with such a stunning cast (Meg Ryan, Annette Bening, Eva Mendes, Debra Messing, Jada Pinkett Smith, Bette Midler, Candice Bergan and a host of others) you think this would have been a very smart film. Apparently, some writers don’t think we are ready for a smart chick flick. Personally I can’t wait any longer, but I don’t have the time to write my own screenplay. It’s 2009 planning season, for goodness sake! So until a smart and intelligent chick flick comes along, I’m sticking to comedies and dramatic thrillers. This way I know I will be on the edge of my seat in anticipation or about to fall out of it from laughter. I think that’s enough said!
It’s the end of the day and I think I speak for everyone when I say that I don’t think I’ll be injesting any sugar for a little while. And this is me (I have a pretty controlling sweet tooth), so you can just imagine how any normal person feels.
It would seem as though Uncle Marxy’s World Famous Chocolate Chip Cookies are now Uncle Marxy’s Award-Winning, World Famous Chocolate Chip Cookies. We don’t know how he does it, but Matt’s won again. He wins everything! Truthfully, those cookies were pretty darn good, but I think we’ll still wait for the indepentdent performance enhancing drug test to come in.
Everything was delicious and the vote was very close. We had a five-way tie until the last vote, so a big congrats to all of our entrants. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I think I’m coming down from my sugar high, so I need a nap.
It’s time for the Merlot Marketing Semi-Annual Bake Off! And the competition is fierce. At noon, we’ll be judging all of the entries and voting for our favorites, so stay tuned because we’ll announce the winner later. The rules for this competition are very simple: Everything must be made from scratch (no boxed mixes), and must have been baked in an oven. The entries don’t have to be sweets. As long as they were baked in an oven, they qualify.
There a lot on the line today. Mostly pride. Although for me, it’s a little more than pride. It’s also my title. I’ve won the last two baking competitions, so a win for me today would mean a hat trick. I’ve never had a hat trick before, so I’m hoping my entry will solidify my place in Merlot baking history.
Hungry? You will be. A list of all of the entries is after the jump…
First off, I’m all for exercising and while this seems like a great way we could all “use our time wisely,” I’m not so sure I’m a big fan of the “Walkstations”. Zsavonne did a post about this sometime ago, but I found this article in the New York Timesand thought it was kind of interesting. According to the NYT article “about 335 Walkstations, have been sold nationwide,” and a social network for the walkstation fans have blossomed: officewalker.ning.com…as of right now it hails about 30 members (hey, you have to start somewhere).
Seriously, could you even imagine Merlot full of Walkstations??? Yeaaaa not so much…
Please note: The opinions and positions expressed within this blog are my own (or of those who contribute) and don't necessarily reflect those of Merlot Marketing, Inc.
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Well, today was an “anagram day!” A friend of mine sent me some encrypted anagram messages to sort out and after I had, I stumbled across this gem of a Web site to help me make up some really inventive ones! Check it out and create your own anagram riddles 
