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May
21
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Around this time last year, SEPTA put up a giant billboard on the 1234 Market St. building for Dunkin Donuts. This caused several things: One, it got SEPTA fined a certain amount of money, which was less than the amount of money SEPTA was making from the ad. Two, it made Citizens Bank workers answer queries about where the Dunkin Donuts was in the building. (There isn’t a DD in 1234 Market St.)
SEPTA eventually took the “American runs on Dunkin’” ad down, but has now requested a zoning variance so it can put up a new building wrap ad two stories high. “Something tasteful,” SEPTA spokesman Jim Whitaker said. A tasteful two-story advertisement.
The groups one might think would line up against this — SCRUB, the East of Broad Improvement Association — have indeed lined up against allowing the variance, along with Citizens Bank itself, who doesn’t want a competitor being advertised directly above it. And it appears the ad might not be going up, saving us the trouble of inaccurate donut directions:
Zoning board chairman David L. Auspitz was angered by another delay, and his mood did not improve when Suletta floated the idea of letting SEPTA-Titan put up the building wrap for a “one-year trial.”
“Forget about that,” Auspitz snapped. “What, is it snowing blue outside?”
SEPTA’s giant ad plans [Inquirer]
May 19, 2006: Now We Know Why SEPTA Isn’t Raising Fares
[Photo via Inquirer via SCRUB]
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dmac | 10:59 AM | 0 Comments
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May
10
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You know, Michael Nutter may be leading in the polls now, but if he doesn’t get off people’s homepages on Philly.com, he’s going to start dropping. I like my mayoral campaigning and my news reading separate, thank you very much. What’s next for Nutter: Pop-under ads for spy cameras?
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dmac | 3:17 PM | 2 Comments
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May
8
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The ad Tom Knox got banned from TV last week is back, baby! Only this time it’s on the radio and features a weird meta-discussion of Tom Knox threatening to sue TV stations who aired the ad as well as an extended discussion of the term “credit heroin.”
It’s titled, apparently, “Jaws II.”
So, ah, ha. I love the fadeout at the end. And, hey, see, Tom Knox isn’t a drug dealer! I do think the “loan shark” thing is starting to get a little overplayed, though. Aren’t there any other animals these anti-Knox guys can anthropomorphize and compare Knox too? Maybe a tiger who eats the arms off the poor or something?
If you don’t have audio the transcript/release is after the jump.
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dmac | 12:30 PM | 0 Comments
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May
4
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If you watched the the anti-Tom Knox had he had his lawyers ban from television by threatening to sue, you might be wondering just what, exactly, was wrong with the ad. Nothing in there was a lie.
Well, The Next Mayor Blog got a copy of the letter Knox’s attorneys sent. And this paragraph is pretty much the jist of a majority of the letter:
Therefore, you are herby respectfully on notice that any dissemination of these false, misleading and illegal advertisements, particularly those that state that Candidate Knox is a fraud, or state that Candidate Knox is associated with heroin, could unlawfully jeopardize Mr. Knox’s right to a fair election, and subject your station to legal exposure.
Wait, the ad said Tom Knox does heroin?
Damn, no wonder… er, wait. It said “credit heroin.” As in “[A] predatory loan scheme consumer groups called ‘credit heroin.’” Yes, that really makes me think Knox is doing heroin! Almost as much as that awful Photoshop! And some homeless guy on the street telling me Knox is a heroin addict!
This kind of makes sense, though. Since he doesn’t watch TV or read books, Knox is probably unaware there are ways to refer to things other than their actual names. For example, Tom Knox can be also be called Candidate Thinks He’s Going To Lose The Election And Desperately Trying To Save Hide By Sending Lawyers After TV Stations.
God dammit. I can’t believe Tom Knox made me defend this stupid ad.
Yee-ouch [The Next Mayor Blog]
Earlier today: Tom Knox Got This Ad Banned From TV
[Original image from Kenn Kweder's website. (Of course.) Do you know how hard it is to find an easy-to-crappily Photoshop image of a guy shooting heroin? Harder than you'd think.]
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dmac | 3:00 PM | 3 Comments
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May
4
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Economic Justice Coalition for Truth, a 527 group, attempted to put this ad on TV. Ha ha, get it! Mastercard! Only about eight years after that joke became old! And sharks, too! Tommy the Loan Shark!
I’m not quite sure what’s wrong with this ad — the statements it makes are, as far as I know, true — but Knox’s lawyers managed to get the TV stations to pass on the ad.
Knox’s latest ad, of course, cites a headline from the Daily News, insinuating the DN said Knox’s opponents’ attacks were “fishy.” Which they did, but as a pun because there was a giant anthropomorphic shark there.
2 stations pass on Knox ads [Daily News]
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dmac | 11:53 AM | 1 Comment
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May
4
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You can click to enlarge.
The above is a special pullout only for today in The Philadelphia Inquirer. Not only did the paper project pigs onto the side of the building last night, but in today’s Inky there is a four-page special section complete with charts, graphs and man-on-the-street interviews.
Oh, and seven articles about the Inquirer’s circulation going up and how pigs do indeed fly. One of which quotes a person using the phrase, “Well, I’ll be damned,” which would probably be cut out of the regular paper (”[darned]“) had an individual in a story said it.
My favorite part is the chart on the front page. After losing 40,000 readers the past two years, this year circ has gone up just over 2,000.
A note on Page 2 of the pullout notes: “While the information in this edition regarding The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Philadelphia Daily News and the newspaper industry is accurate, all other information (including but not limited to stories, graphics, artwork and photographs) in this edition is fictitious and satirical. All references to individuals are fictitious, and not intended to refer to any natural persons, whether living or dead. No pigs were harmed in the production of this work.” Yeah.
Now, the section, as you can see, looks exactly like a real news section except it says “ADVERTISEMENT” at the top. We people are a stupid bunch, but I don’t see how someone could see this section as real. But I’m not going to overestimate the intelligence of the average Inquirer reader — especially a new subscriber!
But, ah, really? Wow. Just wow. My brain just exploded even harder than it did while reading that Kevin Michael piece. I’ll try to do a little round up of the inside pages later today if I recover.
Earlier today: Japanimation Fighting Pigs On Side Of Inquirer Building
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dmac | 11:07 AM | 1 Comment
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May
1
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I really can’t say how much I love this ad. Not only does it have Philly’s inspector general personally creeping up on corrupt employees in the middle of the night, it also reveals no-bid contracts are apparently given out in shady elevator deals. Oh, and, yes, it features the destruction of City Hall by either God or a giant, leading to the deaths of lots of people who apparently work in the building’s tower for some reason.
Oh, and it does pack a lot of information into 30 seconds, but whatever, who cares about that.
More awesome ads after the jump.
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dmac | 1:41 PM | 6 Comments
2007 Mayoral Race, Ads, Bill Clinton, Bob Brady, Chaka Fattah, Cops, Dwight Evans, Mascots, Michael Nutter, Monty Python, Muzak, Neo-Soul, Safe Driving, Tom Knox
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Apr
27
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The above is a commercial for Phillies blog Beerleaguer, run by the Reading Eagle’s Jason Weitzel. It will be airing on Channel 69 (WFMZ-TV). On TV!
“The spot includes overlays of all the praise the site has received over the years, a shot of me at a bar with a laptop and some dynamic screen captures of the blog,” Weitzel writes on his blog. “[I]nstead of that shot of me in a bar, a more realistic depiction would include a shot of me in boxer shorts sitting in a dark office, hunched over a laptop and a ham sandwich, shaking with anger.”
Fortunately, there is no praise from Philadelphia Will Do/Philadelphia Weekly included in the ad, because such an event would probably cause the entire Philadelphia blogosphere to implode and shower the Internet with pieces of jaded comedy, incomplete thoughts and pictures of Kerri-Lee Halkett.
Commercial makes Beerleaguer sound friendly, sexy [Beerleaguer]
Feb. 16: Beerleaguer Previews Spring Training
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dmac | 12:36 PM | 2 Comments
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