Christmas isn’t over for TV manufacturers and electronics retailers. They hope (as they do every year) that the Super Bowl (now in all of it’s high definition glory) will drive TV sales.

Here’s the problem. 

Every time I see a commercial for the latest, biggest, bestest, newest TV…they show me how good my OLD TV looks (usually using a photo of a butterfly or a sailboat).  I have to admit, in their commercial the picture is FANTASTIC! Beautiful colors…the contrast is nice…WOW (it really is a very pretty butterfly).

In fact…the damn butterfly looks so good, I think I’ll keep my old TV. Now stop making me mock you and put the game back on…

I've heard and read a few reports about Oprah admitting that she currently weighs around 200lbs and is very disappointed with herself for getting back up to that weight.  (I'm not criticizing -  as much as I've yo-yo'd through the years I can't criticize anyone for gaining or losing weight) 

I saw this ad on yahoo today for Oprah's diet and thought that was an odd celebrity to base a diet on right now. Then I remembered that this ad is all over facebook advertising as well. 

Is anchoring a diet to Oprah a good strategy?  Is her name alone enough to drive sales even if she is on the high end of the yo-yo at the moment? 

If she loses weight again and uses another diet do you lose your fad diet credibility?

I thought about all these things and then I clicked the link which took me here. This is a "mom blog" who is linking (via paid referrals I'm sure) to products to sell this stuff. Since it's multi-level she doesn't really have her own brand and is trying to leverage Oprah's name into selling her stuff.  If this mom really exists.

In a time when fake blogs abound – the obvious questions pop out at me – Is there really a Tina Collins, and is she really a mom who lost weight on this diet?

I'm skeptical. This site was started in October, has a bunch of fake looking comments and looks intentionally bad.  I hope I'm wrong.  Regardless if Tina is real or not – Marketing like this makes me feel like I'm being lied to. Good marketing shouldn't do that.

Dear readers – let's all agree to never fake it (no fake blogs, no fake moms, etc.).  I think the industry as a whole will be better for it.

I often watch The West Wing re-runs when I'm working at home and since I'm working I don't use the DVR as quickly as I would if I was actively watching the show. 

Most commercials harmlessly play in the background, however I can't help but nearly jump off the couch as soon Billy Mays starts yelling about Oxi Clean or some other home cleaning product. 

I don't understand why Billy Mays must yell at me every time he is on TV.  Also, why is this an acceptable and popular form of television advertising?

I'm sure he's a nice guy and all.  But please stop yelling at me.

I've been a long time user / supporter of Pandora Internet Radio.  I don't want to be one of those "I used them before anyone knew about it types…", but in this case I think I did.  I stumbled upon their site a long, long time ago and a quick check of the station I listen to most on their shows I created it in 2005…

Anyway, back when I started using Pandora, it barely showed advertising, and when it did, it appeared it was doing so with some cool CSS tricks, but nothing targeted or relevant to me.

Today, I noticed that I was getting served ad content for Fontbonne University.  Impressed, I grabbed a screenshot (click to make large).  Why is this impressive?  Well, Fontbonne is in my hometown of St. Louis.  This could just a coincidence, but I think it's probably using geo-targeted ads.  I hope so.  If so, Pandora has come along way since they were showing Jamieson ads (and from my fuzzy memory – nothing else) back in 2006. 

If you're a regional marketer, I strongly suggest you considered using geotargeting to reach your audience.  It's usually less expensive and more effective.  I think I'm going to have to talk to them about one of my clients and find out.
 

Watching last comic standing and couldn't help but notice the banner ads promoting the mummy movie. The attempts to get ads past the DVR take a new step. Hope this doesn't catch on.