The return of coupons!!

At a time when the economy is less than perfect more and more consumers have gone back to coupon clipping. Something that seemed to be a thing of the past has come back with a bang. Companies are no longer offering just discounts but things for free!! A woman from Philadelphia recently appeared on the Today show as the"coupon diva" explaining to Matt Lauer her reasoning behind using coupons. She'd paid just $11 for her weeks groceries from her original total of $72. The question her is whether or not companies are seeing a measurable return from promotions like those offered at HEB "buy this, get this free." It's one thing if shoppers repeatedly purchase the items after receiving them complimentary but another if not. In the PR aspect of a situation like this companies are able to speak in campaigns about how in a time when people are pinching pennies thier company is giving back to its customers. The question also came up of whether or not taking the time to clip coupons is worth it? For young people like us this just seems out of the question between school, work and life,..but for adults raising families and elders who quite frankly have nothing better to do it saves quite a bit.

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/30134139#30134139

NYT Magazine author "hates her iPhone"

Virginia Hefferernan wrote an article in the April 3, 2009 issue of NY Times Magazine titles "I hate my iPhone." In the article, she does through the various emotions she experienced when she got her iPhone, the first time she used it, the first time she typed on it. She talks about how underwhelmed and annoyed she is by the phone. She talks about how she finds all of the things avid Apple people loves to be annoying. She says "Apple created something to get ahead of the game, offering something cuter, funner and more Appley than anyone else." She then took the iPhone back and got a new BlackBerry. 

I wonder if this very public revolt against Apple will affect their iPhone sales. You always here this and that from random iPhone users who are not head-over-heels in love with their phone, but this is a detailed description of her experience with the phone and an explanation of why she dislikes it so much. It will be interesting to follow the back-lash of her article. 

To read Virginia Heffernans article, go here: 

Courtney Love sued for tweeting

Courtney Love just won the distinction of being the first celebrity sued for tweeting.
In Los Angeles Superior Court, clothes designer Dawn Simorangkir, also known as Boudoir Queen, last Thursday filed suit against Love for defamation, invasion of privacy and infliction of emotional distress for "an extensive rant" on Twitter about how she was billed for custom clothing.
It's hard to be extensive when one is limited to just 140 characters. But if anybody can do it, it's Love, who allegedly wrote grammatically challenged comments like "oi vey don't f--- with my wardrobe or you will end up in a circle of corched eaeth hunted til your dead."
"Whether caused by a drug induced psychosis, a warped understanding of reality, or the belief that her money and fame allow her to disregard the law, Love has embarked (o)n what is nothing short of an obsessive and delusional crusade to terrorize and destroy Simorangkir, Simorangkir's reputation and her livelihood," says the complaint.
Love's spokesman declined to comment on the lawsuit.

Need a Haircut? Six Flags Can Help!

Six Flags, like several other companies, is struggling financially. The SEC told Six Flags to find a way to restructure their debt in order to stay afloat. So, what did they decide to do? Six Flags started a hair salon called Rollercoaster Cuts. It's their hope that the salon will successfully target a specific audience, children, which will in turn help the rollercoasters running at the theme park.

The hair cutting experience is supposed to be a well balanced mix of fun as well as marketing for the theme park. There are eight custom built coaster cars at the hair styling stations, each one is named after a roller coaster and equipped with a flat screen television that shows videos of Six Flags' rides. There are also music stations and video games to distract children while they get their haircut.

I think Six Flags' plan to move into the beauty industry is innovative and will hopefully pay off. The only problem might be that not enough parents will take their children to Six Flags every time they need a haircut considering the haircut prices range from $19.99 up to $45. Afterall, we are in a recession and people are trying to save money anywhere they can. However, Six Flags now has discounted park tickets for salon customers in order to alleviate this financial crunch. Only time will tell how successful Six Flags' Rollercoaster Cuts will be, but let's hope for the sake of all our childhood memories that it works.

Candie's banks on Britney Spears' comeback for new campaign

Juniors fashion brand Candie's - part of the Iconix Brand Group – recently launched a marketing campaign starring Britney Spears. The campaign icludes an interactive online strategy and traditional media relations, is an effort to boost sales and awareness that Candie's is available exclusively at Kohl's.

Iconix CMO Dari Marder believes that this is the perfect opportunity to break through and do big things for the company because others are pulling back due to the economy.

Candie's is looking to promote the partnership and ride on the buzz surrounding Spears' Circus tour,-Candie's and Kohl's are associate sponsors of the tour - the in-house team posted shareable behind-the-scenes videos from the tour, as well as news about the collaboration, on Candies.com and Spears' Web platforms. Sites include britneyspears.com, Facebook, MySpace, and the Spears' Twitter account that boasts a top ranking among followers.

Other sharable elements include wallpaper and music. In addition, a limited-edition pull-out poster of Spears modeling Candie's will appear in the April 15th issue of US Weekly.

Spears has endorsed other products over her career including Pepsi and Skechers, but Marder noted this was the first time Spears has done an apparel endorsement deal.

Media relations included outreach to regional and national business, entertainment, and lifestyle publications, broadcast outlets – Entertainment Tonight and CNN - and blogs. Candie's will also work with Kohl's on promoting the collaboration via direct mail and e-mail blasts, and will work with Spears on fashion-related programs over the course of the year.

Maria Dolgetta, PR director at Iconix said that they have already recieved a lot of broadcast attention around this current campaign. Marder added that traffic to the site is at an all-time high.

Tweet, Twit, Twat - Whatever you call it, everyone's doing it

Am I the only one who is kinda disturbed by how fast twitter has become a daily word in our conversations; it's like we cant escape it. From the time you wake up and turn on the morning news to the nighttime when you are perusing the internet looking for last minute blog topics, it's there.

There has been so much talk about how great a tool twitter is to any media industry that it is no surprise that the PR industry picked up on it early. Now many top members in the industry are stressing that Twittering become as common as the traditional press release or PSA.

To most this may come as no surprise since we as a class have been using it in its basic sense to communicate upcoming information to followers. In this link however it is suprising to see the age groups who are the ones pushing for this.

Its the older members of the PR industry, the grumblies who worked "back in the day" and had to walk 15 miles to work and wrote 200 press releases on a typewriter a day and liked it and blah blah blah who are pushing this as the next big thing.

I can't help but find humor though in the complete faith our industry has put into a site that manages little over 75 percent uptime. 

As big a breakthrough Twitter may seem, it has a glass jaw and a narrow foundation, once it becomes something everyone is using, no one will want to use it.

I have embraced Twitter as a new tool and soon everyone else will. Yet it seems though it may be a passing fad....who knows though.

For your enjoyment here are some videos from around the net, poking fun at Twitter.

COLBERT has TWATTED

Twitter Cartoon on Current News - as seen in my web design class

Redemption

By: Jody Volet

It is really ridiculous how easy celebrities get out of serious crimes. Once again, what kind of image are they giving to the people who follow and listen to T.I.’s music or anything that deal with his life? In my opinion they are not setting a good example.

Since T.I. did the “Road to Redemption” show he has gotten 1,030 hours of his 1,500 hours of community service out of the way. I don’t think that should be part of his court order community service. I feel that there should be additional community service that he should have to participate in after his jail time. They are making it so easy for celebrities to get away with stuff to where it almost looks like it is ok if you have the image or title.

I also don’t think a year and one day is long enough. I think it should be at least two years where he can really feel the wrath of jail. Plus if he behaves well then they will just let him go anyway. None of it makes any sense to me. It should be harsher punishment, but we all know it won’t be.

If the police force and government really wanted to show people how important it is not to do illegal things then they should use celebrities as examples. They should let people see how wrong it is to have illegal guns in your possession. It is very frustrating to see this type of thing on the news because if it was a regular citizen there outcome would be ten times worse.