April 20, 2009

Don't Have a Cow, Man!

Everyone's favorite cartoon family, who have been featured on this blog countless times, are now going to be on postage stamps. Why now? I have no idea. They aren't even dead yet.

simpsons-postage-stamps.jpg

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April 10, 2009

Easter Lips

Thanks to Serious Eats, and our Marketing Coordinator Michael for pointing out that Peeps-flavored lip balm exists. And just in time for Easter! Perhaps it's something we could add to our promotional lip balm selection in the future. And what flavor will be next? Candy corn?peeps-lip-balm.jpg

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March 19, 2009

Promotional Poetry

I was just checking out a blog by one of our competitors, Branders, and I wanted to share a passage of considerable beauty and whimsy:

Baseball caps as promotional allocations are such, within essence. First worn within the morning 20th hundred, they possess since concluded with various panel styles, erected blueprint plans and even finish. And they retain designing, with belief athletic marks composing dry-fit, greatly colorfast and reflective logo caps that would produce Babe Ruth proud. Possibilities? Endless.

Each in our own way, we strive to shine a light on the oft-forgotten corner of human existence that is the promotional products industry. Me, through my observations and writing, which are perhaps more often repetitive and tiresome than illuminating. They, through computer-generated (I hope!) text that, while entirely devoid of meaning, is overflowing with a bright and confusing charm. To work alongside them (it?) truly produce me proud!

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March 7, 2009

Obama: Portrait of a Cereal President

If you just couldn't imagine seeing another product or use for Barack Obama's name or image, here is a portrait of Obama made of cereal. You may also want to check out badpaintingsofbarackobama.com. For more info about the cereal portrait, head here.

obama-in-cereal.jpg

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February 15, 2009

All Beef Padding

I've gotten to the point where this has nothing to do with promotional products anymore. But, hey, it's hamburger bed.

hamburger-bed.jpg

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February 14, 2009

Sushi Pillows

So, if you don't want to imprint your sushi, maybe you'd prefer stuff that looks like sushi.

sushi-pillows.jpg

Oh, and don't forget to watch this three minute commercial for sushi pillows:

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January 28, 2009

Mr. Toilet Passes On

Sim Jae-Duck, founder of the World Toilet Association Assembly (motto: "Toilet is life.") has passed away. In addition to spearheading efforts to improve worldwide sanitation, he also built (and lived in) a giant toilet-shaped house as a way to bring publicity to his cause. According to the AFP, Sim was born in a restroom - in line with then-traditional beliefs that this would bring good luck. (For more on buildings shaped like giant stuff, see the Longaberger Headquarters.)

toilet-house.jpg

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January 27, 2009

Foamvertising Revisited

We've seen flying foam as advertising, and now Krispy Kreme in the UK is doing Obama's image in cappuccino foam.

obama-foam.jpg

And here's our updated list of all things -vertising:


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November 23, 2008

Following-up: Fishvertising Returns

Fishvertising is back.

fish-vertising.jpg

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November 22, 2008

Following-up: It's a Sheep Thing

In 2006, the sheep were wearing little jackets. This time, they've been painted red. Apparently, this was done to amuse motorists traveling from Glasgow to Edinburgh in Scotland. Of course.

red-sheep.jpg

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September 16, 2008

iPhone Cupcakes Win Championship

This is not exactly promotional, but these iPhone icon themed cupcakes won a recent Cupcake Decorating Championship. Although we don't have promotional cupcakes available (I'm guessing they would not ship so well), we do have plenty of promotional cookies.

iphone-cupcakes.jpg

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September 13, 2008

Chernobyl Matryoshka

The matryoshka doll - those nesting Russian dolls - is a well-known phenomenon, sometimes referenced in promotions. In this particular example, the doll is used to make a statement about the radioactive contamination from the Chernobyl disaster.chernobyl-matroshka-doll.jpg

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June 3, 2008

Clever Piano Lessons Flyer

Remember the cool poster of the dog behind bars? The one where you actually removed the bars by taking info about adopting pound puppies? Well, here's a very similar poster for piano lessons!piano-lessons-flyer.jpg

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May 15, 2008

Coffin-vertising: Pabst Blue Ribbon Edition

You may find it surprising that, over the years, this blog has covered branded coffins several times. It started with African coffins designed like consumer products, moved on to the Elvis-themed "Return to Sender" coffin, the Kiss Kasket, and even little varmint coffins as a direct mail promotion. Today, we have the story of a man, who like many of us, just wants to be buried in a giant can of Pabst Blue Ribbon. It's a heartwarming tale from Middle America, and he actually improves on your standard branded coffin by converting it into a beer cooler so he can enjoy it before it gets converted back for its ultimate purpose. (via Metafilter)

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April 23, 2008

Pen Spinning Championship

This is basically totally off topic, except that I guess this could be a sponsorship opportunity. However, it is quite cool, if you are not already familiar with the Japanese pen-spinning championships. This year's title went to 16 year-old Ryuki Omura. According to Reuters, "Contestants, performing a 30-second routine in front of a crowd of 400 including journalists and other pen-spinning aficionados, were assessed for technique and artistry."pen-spinning-champion.jpg

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February 29, 2008

Next Stop: Logo Pickles!

Square watermelons? Old news. Heart-shaped cucumbers? Now that's noteworthy! Because, like me, you surely must know more, they are apparently grown by a co-op of nine women in Chiba, which is a Japanese prefecture just outside of Tokyo where my grandma lives. And, while square watermelons are practical (they can be boxed and shipped more easily than round ones), these are better because they're just more fun. Logo pickles can't be that far off. (via Trends in Japan)

heart-shaped-cucumbers.jpg

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January 24, 2008

Bad Smell Poster

Okay, it isn't a promotional product, but it is a clever way to make a poster interactive. The poster is purposely mounted so it droops over itself. When a curious passerby lifts it up, their personal smell is called into question. They get props for being funny, and for making a simple piece of paper into an interactive ad.

bad-smell-poster.jpg

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December 31, 2007

Best of 2007: Best German Mountaintop Promotion

This is a pretty crazy promotion done by Mercedes that was a litte bit artsy, a little bit outdoorsy and pretty unique. Basically, at the tops of mountains in Germany they keep log books, called summit books (or, presumably the German equivalent) that people sign once they've climbed to the top. Mercedes basically made artists climb to the top of various mountains and hand draw artistic Mercedes ads in the books, incorporating views from the actual hike up the mountain. This high altitude campaign resulted in almost 200 test drives for Mercedes. (via Direct Daily)

summit-book-mercedes-ads.jpg

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December 20, 2007

More Urban Camouflage

Here's another entry into our urban camouflage series. This awesome backpack folds out to turn an average schoolchild into a fire extinguisher box. This would actually be a cool backpack even if you weren't a kid and weren't afraid of criminals.fire-extinguisher-backpack.jpg

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December 10, 2007

Emergency Donut

The Anti-ticket Donut isn't actually a promotional product yet, but it does make a good gag. Because, as we all know, donuts make great promos!anti-ticket-donut.jpg

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December 6, 2007

Cook the Books with Unique Annual Report

This isn't a promotional product, but it is nice to see that corporate communications can be influenced by guerrilla marketing. In this case, the annual report for food company Podravka was done with special ink that required baking in order for the text to show up. Let's hope it didn't come out too dry!annual-report-for-baking.jpg

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November 19, 2007

Return to Sender Coffin

So you find the idea behind the Kiss Kasket appealing, but you're really more of an Elvis fan? No worries, it seems customized coffins truly are available for all tastes.

return-to-sender-casket.jpg

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November 17, 2007

Butterfly Car

We've featured some pretty crazy cars here in the past, including a car covered in promotional pens. So why not feature a car covered in butterflies? Ambi Pur produces room fragrancers and it looks like this promotion was done to support the launch of Ambi Pur products for cars. butterfly-car.jpg

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November 1, 2007

Starvertizing

No, we're not talking about celebrity endorsements. We're talking about actual stars in the shape of your logo. Or, in this case, a star that kinda, sorta looks like the Apple logo. Not seeing the resemblance? Maybe you just need to be the kind of person who creates and wears a 60-pound iPhone costume for Halloween. And if people aren't this crazy about your brand, go ahead and get your own mascot costumes made. (via James & TUAW)

apple-star.jpg

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October 24, 2007

Heineken Bottle Bricks

So this is a little bit like the Heineken speaker crates, but kind of cooler. These bottles were designed to double as bricks (after being emptied). According to Inhabitat, the bottles were made in 1963 and were referred to as WABO, or world bottles. The project was started by brewer Alfred Heineken after a trip to the Caribbean where he found beaches littered with bottles and a lack of housing. The goal was to promote recycling and provide building materials, one ice-coled Heineken at a time. Although the project was abandoned, there are a couple structures made from the bottles. (via The Adverlab)heineken-wobo.jpg

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September 6, 2007

Absolut Icebar Tokyo

If I were one of the Wonder Twins, specifically the one who takes the form of water, I might be likely to use my Wonder Twin powers to become a bar made entirely out of ice.

absolute-icebar-tokyo.jpg

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September 2, 2007

Bronx Zoo Posters Make the City Come Alive

Sometimes, less is more. That's certainly the case for these posters promoting the Bronx Zoo that use New York City's natural and man-made textures to convey the richness of the Zoo experience.

bronx-zoo-stencils.jpg

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August 13, 2007

New Redesign of London 2012 Olympic Logo

Previously we discussed the new logo for the London 2012 Olympics. We knew that lots of people didn't like it, but man, some people REALLY don't like it. london-2012-redesigned.jpg

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July 27, 2007

Rice Paddy Art

What's cooler than artwork on a grain of rice? How about an entire rice field turned into art? Farmers in Inakadate, in the northern part of the island Honshu in Japan create large scale art by planting different varieties of rice in intricate patterns. Much of the art is based on traditional wood block prints, and the artwork is a popular tourist attraction for the area. (via Pink Tentacle)

rice-paddy-art.jpg

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July 25, 2007

Get Your Logo on a Grain of Rice

Okay, so these aren't actually logos on a grain of rice, but clearly there is plenty of space for your average logo and tagline. Micro artist Andrew Rykovanov has put a great many things on grains of rice. Of course, even if you can get everything you want printed on the rice, your customers may not be able to read it. Your best bet is to also send a logo magnifying glass. rice-grain-art.jpg

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July 19, 2007

Sponsors Get Great Promotional Mileage from Tour de France

There was an article in the New York Times today about the amount of exposure sponsors are able to get from the Tour de France. Having your brand on a top cyclist's jersey can mean your brand is on the air for hours and hours over the course of the race. According to British cyclist Bradly Wiggins, “I had nearly four hours television coverage the other day on my own, which is for free in many respects. If Cofidis [his sponsor] were to buy that advertising space, it would cost them a lot of money.” Bicycle-themed promotional products can probably add to the exposure. And the photo below? I have no idea, except that it is somehow Tour de France related and the mascot is totally crazy.

insane-tour-de-france-masco.jpg

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For Foosball Hooligans, I Guess

Here's some clever environmental advertising from Carlsberg beer. Little plastic foosball men almost turn this handrail into an impromptu foosball table. Unfortunately, there is no table. And no ball. And the handrails probably don't spin. But still it's quite clever.

carlsberg-foosball.jpg

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July 18, 2007

Billboard Baggin'

I guess these are formerly promotional bags, because they're actually made out of recycled vinyl billboards by Alchemy Goods. Perhaps future billboard designers will take this into account when designing billboards. In some ways this is actually very similar to the Saks Fifth Avenue logo redesign that allows the logo to be split into a grid of 64 squares and reshuffled. If you're looking for a recycled bag to put your logo on, we do have plenty of recycled products, including bags. (via the Adverlab)billboard-baggin.jpg

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July 11, 2007

Sumovertising!

I just realized that somehow I never posted about sumovertising. Talk about a huge omission! At any rate, this can definitely be added to the ever expanding -vertising list:

sumovertizing.jpg

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June 9, 2007

Chia Keyboard

Here's another item that isn't actually a promo, but does remind me of a couple promos, including the chia direct mail, jungle book and the logo bean plant. This chia keyboard makes for kind of a cool juxtaposition of high-tech and nature.

chia-keyboard.jpg

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June 8, 2007

Candyfab is Fabulous

This is one of those things that is not exactly promotional product related, but is clearly very awesome. Part 3D printer, part custom candy, 100% awesome, this device can fabricate large candy objects from sugar. Basically, the device uses a focused beam of hot air to melt the printing medium (sugar) in a specific pattern in 2 dimensions, then it moves the level at which the air is focused to do layer after layer until the whole object is created. Basically the same concept as other prototype printers, but tastier. Becasue first you get the sugar, then you get the prototypes, then you get the power. (via Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories)3d-candyfab.jpg

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May 25, 2007

Giant Shoebox Promotes Adidas on the Court

Okay, this isn't a promotional product per se, but I do love my Adidas. Located in Amsterdam, it exists presumably to promote, amuse and perhaps confuse. I would imagine it successfully does all three. (via the Adlab's Billboardom)

adidas-giant-shoebox.jpg

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May 24, 2007

Thoughtvertising: Now We've Gone Too Far

In the fast paced environment where the saturation of advertising and decline of traditional media is forcing us to come up with a new form of -vertising every darn day, I think maybe this goes a little too far. But I will say that given some of the silly stuff we've seen lately, why not just buy pretend advertising? Especially when the imaginary ROI is so incredible. (via The Adverlab)

thoughtvertising.jpg

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May 22, 2007

Giant Toy Promotion Down Under

Normally, people can't be promotional products. Unless the people are imprinted. However, if you dress someone up like a soldier and attach a gigantic hand to their back, then they are, kinda. Of course, the notion of a life-size toy soldier is kind of like land monkeys: they're like sea monkeys, except they're just real monkeys.

giant-toy-promo.jpg

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May 20, 2007

Matchbox Cars vs. Hot Wheels Truck

Here's a clever idea to promote matchbox cars: put giant stickers on parking places to turn regular-sized cars into super-humongous versions of tiny toy cars:

matchbox-stickers.jpg

The tactic is very similar to this giant hot wheels truck:

hot-wheels-truck.jpg

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May 18, 2007

Spiderwebvertising

Yay! One more thing to add to my "-vertising" list:

(This was done by Nina Katchadourian, who has lots of other cool art on her site.)

spider-web-vertising.jpg

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May 15, 2007

Feeling Lucky?

Not a promotional product per se, unless you plan on giving out luggage conveyors, but this casino promotion does make a big impression. In an advertising-saturated world, I guess it was inevitable that someone would take advantage of one of the few times we're left staring at a blank object. Plus, if you're traveling in a group you can place bets on where your bags will land.

casino-luggage-conveyor.jpg

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May 6, 2007

Often the Best Promos Are Plain and Simple

Often the best promos are plain and simple. After all, if you have a well-defined goal and target audience, reaching them doesn't need to be a complicated affair. Hopefully everyone already knows that. At any rate, I just really like this photo. We have lots of promotional hats, but zero promotional gourd hats. We have a pumpkin mask rubber duck, though, and a pumpkin is like a gourd and a mask is like a hat, so it's pretty much almost the same.gourd-farmer.jpg

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May 5, 2007

Bee-utiful Custom Items

With the rise of bee colony collapse disorder, custom items like this vase may become impossible to create even before they reach the promotional marketplace. Although I don't have a ton of info, the basic idea is that a Dutch design group got bees to build a vase-shaped hive. In theory, they could get them to build a hive in the shape of your logo, too!

bee-vase.jpg

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April 27, 2007

Back to the Future Footware

This is clearly only tangentially related to promotional products, but apparently at least a couple prototypes (below) of Marty McFly's Nike sneakers from the future, as seen in the film Back to the Future (above), were made. Much like children's cartoons and toys, it begs the question, do the sneakers promote the movie or vice versa? It would also perhaps be the first time product placement in a movie was done 20 years before the product existed. Of course, if the sneakers were made in 1987, people would have probably started disappearing from photos or something. Or maybe sneakers would have started disappearing from photos.back-to-the-future-shoes-ni.jpg

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April 26, 2007

Man's Best Friend-vertising

We've lived through headvertising, sheepvertising, eggvertising, bugvertising, thumbvertising, nutvertising and even childvertising, so dogvertising should come as no surprise to anyone.dogvertising.jpg

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April 23, 2007

Emissions Awareness Balloon Promotes Sustainability

This powerful demonstration of the magnitude of automobile exhaust from even a single vehicle was done by the World Wildlife Fund in Beijing. With its rapid economic growth and increased demand for automobiles, China is the target for the Fund's 20to20 mini-site that features 20 tips for sustainable development. When it comes to making a statement about sustainability, it seems balloons and tailpipes are a classic combination. At ePromos, we're happy to help our customers raise awareness about environmental issues, and even find environmentally-friendly promotional products.

wwf-black-cloud-balloon.jpg

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Hello Air! Branding in the Sky

Why brand just a pen or mug, when you can brand a whole airplane? Eva Air, a Taiwanese airline, has Hello Kitty-fied and entire Airbus 330, inside and out. The product of two years of negotiation between the airline and Sanrio, the company who owns the character, the plane is primarily used for flights between Taiwan and Japan. We feature plenty of promotional airplanes, but alas, none of them are full-size. Next up, battle between Hello Kitty plane and Wonder balloon.

hello-kitty-air.jpg

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April 20, 2007

I Get Busy!

They didn't call me on my cell phone, they just sent the goods. I got my homestar runner figurines today, plus this awesome t-shirt. They even threw in a promotional keychain.

homestar-runner-schwag.jpg

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April 14, 2007

Briefly: Imprinting Accuracy - Avoiding Chi-Tonw

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, when it comes to promotional products, imprinting matters. After all, you don't want a Chi-Tonw incident. You may wonder what the heck I'm talking about, so let me explain. In April of 2005, a Chicago tattoo artist accidentally tattooed an unlucky client's chest with the word "Chi-tonw" instead of "Chi-town." chi-tonw.jpg
According to an article in the Chicago Tribune, both the artist and the customer overlooked the misspelling when approving the stencil that was to be used:

"I was looking at each letter like an individual work of art, not at the spelling," he said. "I guess he wasn't either. I showed him the drawing, he said it was perfect. Then he paid me. I stenciled it onto him, he checked it in the mirror and he said, 'Let's do it.'"

As a show of solidarity, over the past couple years at least several other people have purposely gotten "Chi-tonw" tattoos. I know what you're thinking, but hey, it's their skin. Anyhow, the moral of the story is, when you're imprinting merchandise with your logo and message, make sure you're working with someone you can trust. And check your proof carefully before you approve it.

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November 14, 2006

CitiField: Stadium-sized Promo

The Strategic Name Development blog has some interesting analysis of the recent announcement that the Mets' new stadium will be called CitiField. While it's a huge branding opportunity for Citibank - a promotional product the exact size and shape of an actual stadium! - many fans lament the loss of the Shea Stadium name. Why? Well, probably not because William A. Shea was a lawyer, but because he was responsible for bringing National League baseball back to New York in 1962 (the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants left in 1957). Right now it looks like we have until 2009 before we start getting CitiField baseball promos.

citifield.jpg

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November 6, 2006

Ads...in...spaaaaace!

If space-related promos are not enough to satisfy your branding needs, perhaps you should get your logo on this small, unmanned spacecraft. Billed as "America's most ambitious student satellite," the students are trying to get funding by selling advertising on it, for as little as $35/square centimeter. If you're on a budget, they're nice enough to send your name into space for free. (via the advertising lab)

ad-space.jpg

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October 28, 2006

Weinermobile Turns 70 This Year

Familiar with my weinerwhistle obsession, my friend David sent me a link to this public radio piece about the Weinermobile turning 70 this year. My favorite quote: "When Carl Mayer first proposed the idea of a 13-foot metal wiener on wheels, no one knew just how popular it would become." Ain't that the truth!weinermobile.jpg

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October 17, 2006

Platypus T-shirt

I saw this in a screen capture posted by someone who was testing Google's GDrive product. Giving away t-shirts is a great way of rewarding the testers that inevitably contribute to the launch of any successful product, so I think it makes sense. I do wonder, though, how many of these developers actually own a platypus. Totally unrelated note: apparently there is no officially accepted plural for platypus, but some options include platypuses, platypoda and platypi.

platypus-tshirt.jpg

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August 8, 2006

Schwag Trends

Google Trends allows users to view relative trends in search popularity for different terms. I was trying it out on the term "schwag" and it generated this graph:

schwag-trends.jpg

My guess would be that the increase in searches for the term schwag coincided with the launch of Valley Schwag.

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July 13, 2006

Wacky Packs Are Back

James, who manages our Art Department tipped me off about the fact that Wacky Packages are back after a hiatus. They were a sensation in the '70s, combining irreverent humor and popular product packaging. Get 'em before they're gone again, and find out more about the classic wacky packs or Norm Saunders, the artist responsible for most fo the artwork in the original series. What does this have to do with promotional products? Well, nothing exactly, but they are a unique take on branding.

reaganettes.jpg

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June 15, 2006

Tattoo for Food Program

An oldie (1999) but a goodie, Casa Sanchez in San Francisco gives free food for life to people who get their logo tatooed on themselves. Probably custom temporary tattoos are going to appeal to more people, but Casa Sanchez does have a cool logo!tatoo-for-food.jpg

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June 10, 2006

The Disposable Era

I was just reading an interesting article about the beginnings of our "throwaway culture," which actually happened at the end of the 1900s as raw materials became cheaper and manufacturing more efficient. One example cited was an early imprinted promotional product:

"In the 1880s Waterbury produced pocket watches at such low cost that they became promotional giveaways to department store customers who bought expensive winter coats. "

Back then, it was pretty revolutionary to have a $1 watch that could be used as a giveaway when most watches cost at least $10. (In the 1880s, you could probably get a meal for a nickel and had to walk 40 miles to school uphill both ways). Over 100 years later, promotional watches are still a popular giveaway item.

Posted by mark at 6:22 PM. Permalink: The Disposable Era | Comments (0)

April 24, 2006

If we start with sheep, then next it's the cows and horses...

Promotional sheep are causing outrage in the Netherlands, while generating brand awareness for hotels.nl, a Dutch hotel reservervations company. The sheep allegedly violate a ban on roadside advertising in the town of Skarsterlan, which is fining hotels.nl (but not the sheep themselves) 1,000 euros a day. The project manager at Easy Green Promotions who came up with the promotion hopes to expand to 25,000 sheep. File under: sheepvertising. (Via the New York Times)

sheep-billboards.jpg

Posted by mark at 2:03 PM. Permalink: If we start with sheep, then next it's the cows and horses... | Comments (1)

April 13, 2006

Custom Signage

The Flatbush Pavillion doesn't do half-price movies on Wednesdays anymore, but since it's closed someone has been customizing their marquee for them. My friends and I used to do this in high school, so I have a special appreciation for this type of thing.

custom-sign.jpg

Posted by mark at 11:25 AM. Permalink: Custom Signage | Comments (0)

April 9, 2006

One 'G' Short

Aside from the fact that it would be called schwag if it had a 'g' on the end, this post has nothing to do with promos. However, schwa is a terrific restaurant, and if you're ever in Chicago, you should eat there. It's very small, but people in Chicago seem to eat dinner earlier than we do in New York, so if you show up at nine, you'll probably get a table. All the food was creative and delicious, but definitely order the quail egg ravioli. Words cannot even begin to describe how tasty they are.

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Posted by mark at 9:49 AM. Permalink: One 'G' Short | Comments (0)


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