Floating Hand Pointer

That’s a cool way to point something out. 

Sort of unexpected sticking out of the wall like that. 

But effective use of visualization. 

The floating hand. 😉

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Holiday SHOULD BE Giving To Children’s Hospital

Thought this was a pretty good display with the Three Bears for holiday donations for Children’s National Hospital. 

While it gets your attention (who sees three pink bears lite up on the street at night?), asking people with a small impersonal sign on the floor to remember to login and make the donation later isn’t very effective. 

People act on the spot, especially when it’s an emotional appeal for charity for sick children that need help.  

The children deserve for there to be a way for would be donors to actually give on the spot–where they can swipe or tap their credit card, write a check, or drop some money in for giving. 

Later, later, later…and unfortunately, it may never happen for the Children. 

Come on–it’s the new roaring 2020s–we can create some urgency and convenience and do better than this!  😉

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

When Do We Get The Replicators

Good advertisement piece for a 3D Printing Class. 

Not sure that we’re nearly there yet in terms of the Star Trek vision for the Replicators that could make food and other items on demand. 

But things are slowly taking shape. 

Someone wake me up when I can order up a pizza from this thing.  😉

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Branding Israel

Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called, “Israel Rebranded.”

For decades, Palestinians terrorists have inflicted on Israelis: stabbings, shootings, vehicular rammings, suicide bombings, terror tunnels, missile attacks, and more. But aside from this overt, violent war of attrition, the Palestinians are simultaneously waging a full-blown “marketing war” against Israel for world opinion. In this war of words and propaganda, the Palestinians get rebranded and so does Israel.

Have faith in the redemption and stand up and speak out against the falsehoods and fake news, so that Israel can have its rightful place among nations and also be a “light unto the nations.”  😉

Advertising Platforms As A REAL Business Model?

So I read in the Wall Street Journal yesterday that 3 major technology companies get over 80% of their revenue from advertising:

These companies and their percentage of advertising revenue are:

Facebook – 98.3%

Twitter — 86.4%

Alphabet (Google) — 86%

It’s a wonderful thing how advertising pays for the wonderful free Internet services. 

Looking back to when I was a kid, I guess that how we got all those marvelous TV shows without having to pay for a cable subscription. 

But what I always wonder in the back of my mind is whether collecting advertising dollars is a REAL business. 

Yeah, sure these companies are mammoth and have made themselves and their shareholders gazillions of dollars.  

But somewhere I keep telling myself this doesn’t quite add up. 

If you make something of value then someone is willing to pay for it. 

If it doesn’t have value then you have to give it away for free. 

If facebook or twitter actually charged money for their service, I can’t imagine anyone would actually pay squat for it.  

Google is another story, but if they started to charge, you’d just go to a service like Explorer or Safari that doesn’t.

So if the only way to provide the service is to shove advertising down your customer’s throats, again I have to ask is that really a business. 

If I can’t see how a company can sell something based on the VALUE they are providing, honestly it’s not something that I can really get myself behind. 

Out of the three companies–Google is perhaps the only one that I can see as a real something. 

As for Facebook and Twitter, despite the Presidential tweets and Russian interference in our elections, I don’t see the underlying greatness. 

Maybe I am way wrong, but if you don’t want to pay for it then what the heck is it really worth! 😉

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Sushi Socks Dating

So this is a novel way to sell socks.

Roll them up and package them like a sushi roll. 

Socks are the colors and textures of various fish.

Not sure why anyone would want socks that mimic sushi…

Unless of course, you feet stink like raw fish!

My wife knows this true story about this one girl that I dated before I met her, and she came over to my parents house and was waiting for me. 

When I got there, she was sitting on the couch and her shoes were off. 

It was after a long day at work apparently, and her feet smelled worse than any fish I could imagine. 

Literally, I think I could’ve passed out right there on the floor. 

Date was over and quick, and I never forget those sushi feet. 😉

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Equality Is Human Rights

I was most impressed recently with the organization (including the marketing and branding) behind the LGBT movement. 

The new bumper sticker with the yellow equal (=) sign.

The people on the street in yellow “Equality” t-shirts wanting to talk and promote themselves.

The tablet computers they are carrying equipped with slide presentation on equal rights (and their association with the larger issue on their website for human rights).  

The on-the-spot electronic sign up for either monthly donations and/or petition for the Equality Act to amend the Civil Rights Act to include sexual orientation. 

Religious beliefs aside, and as long as you don’t hurt others, people are people and should not be discriminated against. 

All people should be treated fairly and protected from disparate or unfair treatment, bullying or worse. 

Equality really is human rights. 😉

(Source Photos: Andy Blumenthal)

Cabs R Colorblind

This was funny when a cab pulls up to the curb in Washington, D.C. 

And some people walk out from the building and get in. 

Call them and they will come.

It’s a black and deep orange vehicle. 

On the side of the cab is the name, “Yellow Cab Company.”

Now why would you paint yourself a (fleet of) orange vehicle(s) and call yourself a yellow cab company?

At least back in New York City, taxis really were yellow–and they were really taxis and had a medallion to prove it!

These days, car ride services like Uber drive around with “U” sticker in the window, where the U is practically closed at the top. 

And Lyft cars have that cute, but ridiculous mustache on the front grill.  

Taxi services are desperate to get a brand that customers will recognize and want to call. 

No more lifting you hand and index (or middle) finger on the street curb to hail one of a blizzard of cabbies racing down Main Street.

Now it push button easy to ride a yellow, blue, red, or orange cab–with or without mustache–anywhere you want to go.

But the more things change, the more they don’t stay the same—Next stop already is driverless cars. 😉

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Burning The Evidence

This is a brillant funny advertisement that was displayed on the Metro in Washington, D.C.

“If I burn the evidence, those donuts never happened.”

This as astute marketing for a fitness facility.  

Burn baby, burn (calories that is)!

But in Washington, D.C. (and at times for fiduicary duty bound Wall Street), where transparency is supposed to rule the day–but often doesn’t as we know–this resonates in a whole other way for a class of political and wealthy elites as well as for a host of criminals. 

Bad things (fraud, waste, abuse, and stupid mistakes)–uh, they never happened if there is no evidence to prove it.  

Like the tree that falls in the woods that no one hears…it’s as if it never fell. 

Also, is there a habit of perhaps punishing the innocent in order to protect those that are really guilty? — That never happens too, right? 

But G-d knows what really happened, and often somehow, someway the truth does get exposed (whether by savy investigative journalists, Congressional or court inquiry, brave innocents that come forward, or some bad people getting caught up in their own jumble of lies and deceit).  

As Judge Judy says, “If it doesn’t make sense, it’s usually not true.” 

Or more in line with the ad, “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.” 😉

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Makeup That Leaves You Wondering

So I was in Macy’s yesterday doing some holiday shopping for the girls. 

And came across these eye-catching advertisements for MAC cosmetics, especially lipstick. 

The one with the mustache lip and the big gap in the front teeth caught attention–like what in the world is that?  

And the poster with twenty-one different lips certainly let you know that there is quite a bit that makeup can do to express your lips and yourself. 

Overall, thought it was quite an effective advertisement, even if the one with the mustache was a little gender confusing. 😉

(Source Photos: Andy Blumenthal)