advertising

For over a hundred years, Campbell's Soup cans have sported the iconic label inspired by Cornell's football uniform and made famous by Andy Warhol. Now, thanks to market research that measured customers' involuntary physiological responses, Campbell's will introduce the most radical can design change in decades.

If you’re even slightly nauseated/hungover/susceptible to vertigo, this clip from a project at the Bartlett School of Architecture in London is not for you. Master’s student Keiichi Matsuda’s vision of a future mash-up of architecture, augmented reality and advertising is absolutely amazing, but viewer beware: it's a bit frightening as well.

Advertising the Chinese origin of a toy can be as successful as saying a watch is "Swiss Made", if the marketing is done right, a Queensland University of Technology researcher says. Professor Brett Martin, from the Faculty of Business, found that promoting a product's country of manufacture could help it to sell, even if it was made in a country associated with lower quality.

While Google's obviously best known for its search, it's the company's advertising model that pays for in-house massage, a critically acclaimed cafeteria, and sky-high stock price. Now, a new patent indicates that Google wants to combine its 21st-century ad savvy with an old-school publicity mainstay -- billboards.

The last few days have seen Google's perceived positition regarding a Google-branded Android phone do an almost complete 180. Contrary to their previously publicized lack of interest in releasing a phone of their own, the Wall Street Journal this weekend reported on details of the Nexus One, a phone to be marketed directly to consumers as the "Google Phone" in the first quarter of 2010.

The Internet has been abuzz since the WSJ's initial story dropped, and more spy shots of the phone itself continue to leak out. But here's why you should care: it could finally make good on a strategy many have assumed was Google's intent with Android all along--a heavily discounted (or even free) ad-supported smartphone that's not tied to any specific carrier.

When most companies promote a new product, they follow a pretty standard formula. Write a press release, tape a demonstration of the device, and maybe send out some schwag. Yawn. To promote its new line of video projectors, Epson kicked it up to the next level, creating a PS3 gaming rig that let's the user play anywhere there's a flat surface.

Last year Esquire rolled out an e-ink cover to celebrate the mag's 75 anniversary and introduced moving pictures (well, scrolling text and flashing images, at least) to the world of print. Next up: talkies. Yesterday, CBS and Time Inc. announced a video ad set to appear in the September 18 issue of Entertainment Weekly.

Last week, a fly-by of the moon showed impressions remaining on the surface from the Apollo 11 landing. That was 40 years ago, and those impressions linger on undisturbed. It's that longevity that one company wants to exploit, carving messages into the surface in the moon for the purpose of selling ad space.

Welcome to another installment of The Grouse's semi-annual lambasting of poor practices on the Web. When I compiled my first list of all things online and terrible six months ago, I thought I'd been fairly comprehensive. CAPTCHAs, tooltip ads, bottomless dropdown menus and audio ads were among the archaic and ill-conceived online "experiences" thrown on the fire. But just six months later, I find myself with a host of new grievances to air.

While most people just use Craigslist for finding roommates and discount furniture, there is an undeniably large segment of users that turn to the site for more erotic reasons. With the killing of a masseuse hired through the site dominating tabloid front pages, Craigslist representatives will meet this week with States Attorney Generals from Missouri, Illinois, and Connecticut to work at reducing the number of illegal services offered on the site.

New Monash University research proves visual clutter around our roads, including prominent advertising, signs or billboards, can be a distraction hazard for drivers - especially older ones.

It found the distractions delay drivers' ability to detect a change around them - such as a vehicle changing lanes - by an average of half a second. Older drivers took the longest to react.

I'm not a big follower of couture fashion, but that might just be because it hasn't been targeted to me. Yeah, that's the reason. But including Lego and video games might change that.

All right, we know the Super Bowl is over, but bear with us for one more article. Last week, we detailed the most scientific method there is to pick the best Super Bowl commercial, now we figure we owed you the results from this year’s testing.

Thanks to the glorious invention of television recording devices, like TiVo and DVR, boob tube connoisseurs can watch their favorite shows and fast-forward through all those pesky commercials (I'm looking at you, Geico). This is great news for everyone, except advertisers. As the popularity of DVR continues to grow, 21st century Mad Men are scrambling to come up with new ways to get people to pay attention to their ads. But a new study by a group of Boston College researchers shows that watching ads in fast-forward can still influence consumer behavior, if done in the right way.