There have been a lot of posts about Burning Man and the ticket problem in 2012.   As of now, it is estimated that over 75% of all tickets have been sold to scalpers and ticket companies.  This problem is leaving artists and theme camps at a loss of how to plan (some need over 50 people to set up their camp, their art, or their space).  I like the article below. Burning The Man: Burning Man’s Ticket (& PR) Fiasco FEBRUARY 7, 2012 tags: Burning Man, Burning Man Ticket Fiasco, Crisis PR tips I miss PR. I was good at it. Hell, there was a time when both Fast Company and PR News declared me one of the best. Not because I liked working a billion hours a week, which is what it would have taken to rise to the top of my profession, but because I have some weird instinctual ability to know how people want a story told to them. I particularly love Crisis PR. That’s some fun stuff. It’s the greatest challenge, but can also have the greatest rewards. In the short-attention-span, high-adrenaline way that I like to live, that’s the juice. Last week was a distracting orgy of PR catastrophes. Between Burning Man and Komen,  some smart people were doing really dumb things. But, at my heart, I’m a Burner, and I really want to fix this. I can’t, because it has nothing to do with me. I do have friends who are involved in BMORG (the organizing offices of Burning Man,) and I think the world of them. They are good, smart, well-intentioned people who, collectively, really screwed the pooch on this one. They are feeling, understandably, attacked and therefore defensive. They have been noticeably silent in all the social media hubub about the ticketing fiasco, except to throw the occasional barb on my (and other friends) Facebook walls when we bitch about the new ticketing process. I can’t say I blame them, I’d feel attacked too. But there are ways to fix this. Yes, it started as a disastrous change to how the event is ticketed, but now it is a full-blown PR disaster, and ignoring it will only make it worse. On the upside, the ticket fiasco seems to be taking a back seat. On the downside, distrust, anger and dissolution are now in the driver’s seat. You cannot sit quiet on this one. So, if I were doing PR for my beloved Burning Man (or anyone else in a PR crisis,) here’s what I’d tell you to do. And how. This is good PR advice for anyone, take it. Use it. Really. 1. OWN IT!  So far, all we’ve heard from BMORG is, essentially, “chill, there’s not really a problem.” Well, if the vast majority of your constituents are telling you there is a problem, then there is a problem. And they are telling you what it is. Are you tempted to say, “eh, it’s only a couple hundred people on Facebook?” Generally speaking, it takes 1,000 readers to get 1 comment.  So for every 1 comment you see, there are about 1,000 people who agree with it, but aren’t saying anything. On both sides. When everyone is telling you that there is a problem, and you tell them that there isn’t a problem, you are essentially telling them that you do not trust or value their opinion, and that you know better. That is an especially large problem in this case since your constituents told you, leading up to the change, that there would be problems. This was predicted by your followers, and you told them they were wrong. Now it’s all happening, and you’re telling them it isn’t happening. They are not stupid, and by not acknowledging the reality of the problem, you are telling them that you think they are. You simply have to acknowledge that there is a problem. Fundamentally, you cannot have a dialog with a group of people if you can’t even agree on a starting point for the discussion. That starting point is the foundation of the solution and you MUST go where your constituents are. They are having a problem, you must have it with them. Without that, any solution will fail. It will make the problem worse. Dear Burners, we, the BMORG, really messed this up. We had the best intentions, and it just plain didn’t work. We are as frustrated as you are, as confused as you are, and are really trying to find a way out of this mess. Many of you don’t have tickets, and without you, none of us have a Burning Man. We get it. Yes, we should have seen it coming, it’s not like you didn’t warn us, but we didn’t. It’s kind of like we were over protective parents – we had the best intentions, but we didn’t know what we were doing, we didn’t ask for help, and now we’ve gotten our whole family lost. 2. FEEL THEIR PAIN. Ultimately, you want your users to trust your brand. (And don’t give me this “community” and “family” crap right now. You are a brand, and you are dependent on your users to trust and use your brand. Then, and only then, can you go back to calling us all a community and a family.) You need to show actual empathy for the constituents that are alienated by your current policy decisions. Acknowledge that you know this is more than a vacation, more than a week in the sun, more than some humpity-hump to the wumpity-wump. Acknowledge that you have violated the trust of your users, and that you understand how that makes them feel. So now we have to get us un-lost, and we know that’s going to be extra hard because you don’t trust us anymore.  You feel like we let you down, and frankly, we kind of agree. We know that Burning Man is more than a party, it’s a lifestyle. It’s an act of generosity in which you go all-out to create art and others go-all out to appreciate it. We know that, without you, we have nothing. And we know that we’re at risk of losing you. No matter how good our intentions were, we’ve left you, quite literally, out in the cold, all dressed up with nowhere to go. So why would you believe us if we asked you to trust us, and come to our party anyway? 3. BE HUMAN. Right now, by pretending that there isn’t a problem and that you did nothing wrong, you are furthering the rift between you and the community that you are actually trying to serve. The relationship between a brand and it’s consumers is no different between that of two lovers. Imagine that you caught your lover in a lie that caused a great deal of damage to your relationship, and they just looked you in the eye and said, “I’ve done nothing wrong, I know what I’m doing, what are you worried about?”  It would likely end your relationship. This is no different. Instead, be honest and human. Here’s why you should trust us again, or still. We are human. We were faced with incredible change at Burning Man. We sold out for the first time last year, we changed our organizational structure, we increased the size of our board. Really, it was a time of great change for us – and we are just a bunch of people. So, we did what a lot of people do, we put our heads down, shoulders forward and plowed through with brute force. As a result, we didn’t listen as well as we should have, and we didn’t think things through as well as we should have. And although this is a mess, we have realized how much you mean to us, how much our actions impact you, and that really, we are lost without each other. We will fix this, together. We don’t know how, but we know we don’t want to lose you, and it should start with us listening to you. 4. MEET THEM WHERE THEY’RE AT. If your users are bitching on social media, meet them there. Don’t stay in the ivory tower of your own web site and make them find you. If people are having protests in the street, don’t take out print ads. If people are in the South, don’t head for safety in the North. The classic PR example here is British Petroleum’s less than awesome “Beyond Petroleum” ad campaign in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico disaster.  That stunk of green-washing and created backlash. Sadly, y’all are doing that too. They should have been having town halls in the Gulf, feeding the people, cleaning the beaches and literally holding hands. You guys should be on Facebook, engaging in the dialog. You should be really listening, connecting, talking – get yourself back into the community before the rift is so great that it cannot be bridged.  Don’t have enough staff? Get ambassadors, now. Find the people who are being reasonable and engaging in the dialog and reach out to them. You guys have something that most brands don’t have – true love. Use it. To start fixing it, we’re going to find some Burners, people who aren’t part of the BMORG, and are actually part of the pissed off masses, and work with them to be a bridge between BMORG and the rest of the community.  It’s clear that we can’t fix this alone, but we also can’t fix it without some orderly dialog that generates actionable ideas. We’re listening to you, and scrambling to fix this, together. 5. TAKE YOUR CUES FROM YOUR PEOPLE. It’s a mess, right?!  You don’t know how to make the angry masses not be angry, right?!  Wrong. They’re telling you what they want. All you have to do is listen to them. The beauty of that is that not only have they offered you solutions – name / photo linked tickets, single price tickets, more ingress lines with fewer greeter antics – by taking their suggestions, you are showing them that you trust them and are actually in it together. What’s more, you’ll get them to DO THE WORK FOR YOU! There have been countless offers for everything from communications work, system architecture, volunteer committees etc….. Use it. Ask for help! Trust your users. To that end, we are looking into your ticketing suggestions. We think they’re good. Even if we can’t get to it this year, you  have our PROMISE that we will try to do it for next year. We also hear how much you want to be involved in helping us solve this problem. We will be thrilled to work with our community to build new systems that are more efficient, inclusive, and likely to result in the vibrant art and culture that makes us who we are. You can look for those announcements in the next couple weeks. We can’t finish this transformation that quickly, but we can start it. And we appreciate that you’re all in this with us. (Yes, we wish we had done this sooner, but we didn’t, so thanks for being part of it now. ) 6. MAKE ACTUAL CHANGE, CAREFULLY. When people are this pissed off, you have to do something. Before it’s too late. In this case, you have two distinct things that probably need to happen: Change the ticketing system. Deal with the leadership that got you here. The ticketing system was screwed from the get-go, and the results have been worse than even the biggest Chicken Littles amongst us would have guessed. You, simply, have to change it. You haven’t printed tickets yet, so really, you could do it for this year. You can attach a name to the bar code, just like you do for early entry passes….. But if nothing else, do it for next year. But start now. You have also lost a lot of trust in terms of the leadership that got you here. While no one needs to be fired or publicly shamed, you do need to figure out how it happened and tell people that you understand it. Take a lesson from the Komen foundation. Karen Handel is gone, as of today, which is the best thing that could have happened to them. HOWEVER, it may be too little too late, because people are now looking long and hard into the politics and systems of the Komen Foundation. You guys are in the same boat. So you need to start looking for the things that others are going to find. We are also trying to figure out how this really happened in the first place. If it’s “just” because of the changes and being overwhelmed, that might be good news, because it means we’ll get better as we go. However, it’s also possible that we are  tired, or in over our heads, or that some of us have been doing this too long and are too stuck in our ways. That would not be good, and we promise to look at that too. After all, solving a problem is no good if we’re just going to repeat it. We promise, no sacred cows. Or, no sacred pink furry unicorns with fire-horns, as the case may be. Regardless, this will be interesting. I don’t know if this is the end of Burning Man or a new beginning. Maybe this is the dawn of the many regional burns, and the influx of Burner culture into the default world 365 days a year. That would be awesome. What I do know is that the people who are running Burning Man are good people. They are smart, kind, generous, visionary and to call them names and call “conspiracy” is unfair. They also fucked this up, badly, and for them not to admit it is just as unfair. But we will, one way or another, get through this. I, for one, will volunteer to do my part. I’d do just about anything to keep the principles – and event – of Burning Man alive. And I know I’m not alone. But BMORG, you have to do your part. I hope this helps you. But, mostly, I needed to get it off my chest. This is my area of expertise, and seeing it go so badly awry was just distracting the hell out of me. Especially as something I love so much is suffering so badly. And no, I don’t have tickets. I don’t know how I feel about that – it changes on a minute to minute basis. #blackrockcity #burningman #burningman2012 #tickets

You knew this was coming! Viacom Sues Google and YouTube, Seeking $1 Billion (Update1)  By Ted Bunker March 13 (Bloomberg) — Viacom Inc., owner of MTV Networks, sued Google Inc. and its YouTube online video-sharing business, seeking more than $1 billion in damages for copyright violations. The suit, brought in federal court in New York, alleges “massive intentional” copyright infringement, Viacom said today in a statement. The claim escalates a dispute between Google and Viacom, which has complained that YouTube users are posting video clips of Viacom shows without permission. YouTube last month agreed to remove more than 100,000 clips after the companies failed to reach an agreement on compensation for the use of the shows. “After a great deal of unproductive negotiation and remedial efforts by ourselves and other copyright holders, YouTube continues in its unlawful business model,” Viacom said in the statement. “Therefore, we must turn to the courts.” Viacom’s claim says almost 160,000 unauthorized snippets of Viacom shows have been viewed more than 1.5 billion times on YouTube. Viacom also owns Paramount Pictures movie studios and the Nickelodeon cable network. Google spokesman Ricardo Reyes didn’t immediately return an e-mail or phone call placed before normal business hours. Shares of Google fell $4.55, or 1 percent, to $450.20 at 9:32 a.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. They had fallen 1.2 percent this year before today. Viacom’s Class B shares fell 44 cents to $39.13. No Choice The suit was filed less than a week after Google Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt said media companies will have no choice but to put their TV shows and movies on video sites such as YouTube. “The growth of YouTube, the growth of online, is so fundamental that these companies are going to be forced to work with and in the Internet,” Schmidt said in an interview on “Conversations with Judy Woodruff” at Google headquarters in Mountain View, California. News Corp. and a film distributor run by billionaire Mark Cuban both went to court to force Google to identify users who posted TV shows and films without permission on both YouTube and Google Video. Last Updated: March 13, 2007 09:39 EDT

I heard about it but had not checked it out till now. Over 10,000 sq ft of stuff. The licensing folks went nuts!   You have pins, pens, shirts, dispensers, sweatshirts, cups, shot glasses, cups, key chains, purses, mugs, glasses, towels, poker sets, monopoly games, checkers, pillows, stuffed animals, balls, and even candy. It’s big – 2 stories in NYC at corner Broadway and 48th. Reminds me of the Nike store. Go figure.

Thought this was a great article on how an agency takes an old stogy brand and makes it popular. I checked out the Web site – experienceoldspice.com and found it to be OK, but it did not have a link to the print ads (sad). If P&G/WK are going to spend the time and money to create brilliant ads, then they should make them available. The video editor was cute — but too slow to use. Advertising Old Spice Tries a Dash of Humor to Draw Young Men STUART ELLIOTT Published: January 8, 2007 CAN an agency known for offbeat campaigns that appeal to younger men, for brands like Nike, ESPN and Miller High Life, freshen the stodgy image of the Old Spice line of men’s grooming products? Procter & Gamble, which makes the after-shave lotion that your grandfather might have used, is adopting an irreverent tone to update the image of its line of grooming products, seeking to compete with the rapid success of Unilever’s Axe brand. Ad for Old Spice That is the estimated $100 million question being asked as the agency, Wieden & Kennedy, introduces this week its first work for Old Spice since landing the creative and media accounts for the brand in February 2006. A television, print and online campaign with the theme “Experience is everything” will take a cheeky look at modern masculinity as it seeks to extol the virtues of Old Spice as a brand family as well as to stimulate sales of specific products like deodorants, body washes and fragrances. For example, a Web site (experienceoldspice.com) will provide advice on topics like “Animals you can ride and how to ride them,” “Easy ways to avoid getting picked in a lineup” and “How to talk your way across an African border sans passport.” Print ads will offer wry captions for photographs of subjects like a shepherd (“This man loves sheep”), a woman eating an ice cream cone and a foot-long frankfurter. And commercials will feature a puckish spokesman, the actor Bruce Campbell of the droll “Evil Dead” movies, sending up the concept of taking advice from your elders. The maker of Old Spice, Procter & Gamble, surprised Madison Avenue last year by shifting the assignments for the brand, with spending estimated at $100 million a year, to Wieden & Kennedy from two much larger Procter mainstay agencies, Saatchi & Saatchi and the Starcom MediaVest Group, both part of the Publicis Groupe. Wieden & Kennedy is best known for its assertive ads for Nike (“Just do it”), a series of wacky spots for the “SportsCenter” show on ESPN and the dryly humorous “High Life Man” campaign for Miller High Life beer. The Old Spice account includes sibling products sold under names like High Endurance and Red Zone along with the familiar cologne and after-shave in the buoy-shaped bottles, which date to 1938. Procter has long been famous for earnest, product-oriented campaigns concentrating on the efficacy of its detergents, soaps and shampoos and replete with demonstrations pitting “Brand X” against Procter counterparts. Such straightforward, prosaic approaches have lost favor, however, with the younger consumers that advertisers most covet. Proof of that is the startlingly rapid growth of the Axe line of men’s grooming products sold by a principal Procter rival, Unilever, which now vie for category leadership with Old Spice in sales at drug stores and discount chains. (Old Spice sales have grown, too, but Axe’s have grown at a faster pace.) Axe ads, created by Bartle Bogle Hegarty, take a zany, off-kilter approach as embodied by slogans like “How dirty boys get clean.” Axe campaigns celebrate the sex appeal with which Axe promises to imbue its users rather than how effective the brand is in killing the germs that cause perspiration odor. As a result, Procter began to rethink its creative approach for brands like Old Spice. After many exploratory meetings with Wieden & Kennedy and similar agencies — iconoclastic independents with reputations for rule-breaking ads — Procter finally gave Wieden & Kennedy some work, first the Eukanuba pet-food assignment in 2005 and then Old Spice. “This is part of a significant brand-building experiment at P.& G.,” said Carl Stealey, Old Spice brand manager at Procter in Cincinnati. “We are a product-based company,” he added. “As the men’s grooming category explodes and new entrants come in, we’ve had to evolve and refine our positioning.” “Wieden has tremendous capability and expertise in reaching the young target, talking with them as opposed to at them,” Mr. Stealey said, referring to campaigns for ESPN and Nike that are aimed at the same audience as Old Spice, generally males ages 12 to 34. Research aimed at the target consumer found something unexpected: the Old Spice brand’s legacy was a benefit rather than a burden. The reason was that younger consumers tend to seek out venerable products they perceive as cool because they are authentic; examples include Converse sneakers and Lee jeans. “Previous generations loved Old Spice and had a more emotional attachment to it,” said Monica Taylor, an art director at Wieden & Kennedy who is one of two creative directors on the account. “I remember my dad using it; it was such a deep, rich brand.” Mark Fitzloff, a copywriter at Wieden & Kennedy who is the other creative director on the account, chimed in: “If you put Nikes on your feet, you’re making a statement. If you’re using Old Spice, you’re not. Procter wanted to see if they could change that.” “Our timing was good because this is a moment when everyone appreciates authenticity, when retro is not necessarily a bad word,” Mr. Fitzloff said. “So we can say, ‘You can either be authentic or trendy.’ ” That also helps Old Spice, which has been around for decades, to sharpen its differentiation from Axe, which Unilever introduced in the United States only four years ago. “They have a clean slate,” Ms. Taylor said of the Axe products, which also include fragrances, deodorants and body washes, “but they have had to invent a personality.” To underscore authenticity for Old Spice, the campaign gives a prominent role to the brand’s original trappings and trade dress, including the cursive script logo, the clipper ship from the fragrance bottles and the vintage whistled commercial jingle. But they are treated playfully rather than reverentially, in a manner Ms. Taylor described as an “inside-the-joke feeling.” For example, a print ad for Old Spice fragrance, featuring a 1968 photograph of the actress Faye Dunaway sprawled out before a roaring fire, declares, “If your grandfather hadn’t worn it, you wouldn’t exist.” And the commercials with Mr. Campbell make a visual jest by showing him passing a painting of the clipper ship as he walks across a room. The joke comes when viewers realize the painting runs the length of the room and the ship has scores of sails and masts. “The tone does have, I would say, a self-awareness,” Mr. Stealey said, “a sort of wink about it that by and large is lacking in the category.” “We’re looking forward to the results,” he added. The theme of “Experience is everything” is meant to convey “that with our heritage and history, Old Spice is uniquely positioned to get you that experience,” Mr. Stealey said, adding: “For years, we’ve been counseled to drop the ‘Old’ from ‘Old Spice.’ I’m here to say we will not do that.” Too bad that it is probably too late for General Motors to bring back Oldsmobile.

The Life Cube Project was recently featured in a music video released by Kristine W, an icon within the gay and lesbian community. The song, titled “Love Come Home,” was inspired by the singer’s reflection on troops currently fighting overseas. She chose to film part of her music video at the Downtown Las Vegas Life Cube as it promoted growth, prosperity, community, and creativity; which brought people together and inspired them well after the Cube was gone. “I traveled the country on tour this summer and I couldn’t help but notice how people are getting back to basics,” she says. “They’re valuing home and family more than ever before.” It’s why she chose to include her daughter, Elizabeth, in the song’s music video. Elizabeth is seen in the beginning, writing her wishes for the future on a piece of paper and placing it in The Life Cube, an art installation created by Scott Cohen, one of the forces behind the Burning Man event, who also makes a cameo in the music video. A cube is built in a run-down area of town. The idea is for people in the community to visit the cube, paint and draw on it and place wishes into the slots cut into the side of the cube. After a year, the cube is burnt to the ground and a new cube is built in another dilapidated area that needs love. “The cube in the ‘Love Come Home’ video was built in an old parking lot on the far eastside of Freemont Street in Las Vegas,” Kristine W says. “We shot the ‘So Close To Me’ video in the same lot right before the cube appeared. At the time, there were crumbling buildings all around and garbage piled high. A year and a half later, the area is flourishing with activity once again, all thanks to the cube.” Read the full article here. #thelifecubeproject #downtownlasvegas #TheLifeCube #lgbtq #musicvideo #music #lgbt #downtownlasvegas #LasVegas #sandiegogayandlesbiannews #dtlv #LV #sandiego #thelifecubeproject #lifecube #lifecube #kristinew #TheLifeCube

Jun 25, 2009, 4:33 p.m. EST – Source MarketWatch IAB Elects New Chair, David J. Moore, Chairman & Founder, 24/7 Real Media, and Vice Chair, Neil Ashe, President, CBS Interactive Edward F. (Ted) West, President and CEO of LookSmart, Also Elected to IAB’s Board of Directors NEW YORK, Jun 25, 2009 (BUSINESS WIRE) — The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) announced today that its Board of Directors has elected a new Chairman, David J. Moore, Chairman & Founder of 24/7 Real Media, and Vice Chairman, Neil Ashe, President of CBS Interactive. Moore, who has served on the IAB’s Board of Directors and its Executive Committee since 2001, was elected Vice Chairman in June 2008. He became Acting Chair after Wenda Harris Millard resigned in April 2009, who had the role of Chair since February 2008. Ashe, who has served on the IAB Board of Directors since April 2007, assumes the role of Vice Chairman, previously held by Moore. The IAB also announced the election of Edward F. (Ted) West, President & CEO of LookSmart, Ltd., to its Board of Directors. West was one of the founding members of the IAB in 1996. "We are thrilled that David and Neil have taken these leadership positions as Chair and Vice Chair of our Board," said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO of the IAB. "Dave is eminently qualified after demonstrating a profound commitment to the interactive ecosystem and the IAB as leader and entrepreneur. Neil has unparalleled expertise as a publisher of some of the Web’s best-loved media brands. We welcome their expert contributions and diverse voices." "I look forward to continuing to serve the interactive industry with my esteemed colleagues and am honored to be the new Chairman of the IAB," said David J. Moore, Chairman and Founder of 24/7 Real Media. With these recent additions, the IAB’s Board of Directors is now comprised of interactive organizations from across the breadth of platforms and technologies, reflecting the industry’s enormous growth and consumers’ increased appetite for and adoption of interactive media. Interactive advertising revenues exceeded $23 billion in 2008, according to research by the IAB and PricewaterhouseCoopers. The IAB Board of Directors 2009 Tim Armstrong*, AOL LLC. Neil Ashe*, CBS Interactive (Vice-Chairman) John Battelle, Federated Media Jeff Berman, Fox Interactive Media/MySpace Bob Carrigan, IDG Communications, Inc. Sarah Chubb*, Conde Nast Digital Kevin Conroy, Univision Interactive Media Greg D'Alba, CNN Mitch Golub, Cars.com Bruce Gordon*, Walt Disney Internet Group, (ex-officio,Treasurer) Jack Griffin, Meredith Corporation Peter Horan, Goodmail Systems, Inc Scott Howe, Microsoft Advertising Randy Kilgore, Tremor Media Rich LeFurgy, Archer Advisors, (ex-officio) Leon Levitt, Cox Newspapers Chris Ma, The Washington Post Company Dave Madden, WildTangent Greg McCastle, AT&T Converged Services Riley McDonough, Thomson Reuters Gordon McLeod, Wall Street Journal Digital Network David J. Moore*, 24/7 Real Media, Inc. (Chairman) Dave Morgan*, Simulmedia Inc. Peter Naylor, NBC Universal Martin Nisenholtz*, New York Times Company Joe Rosenbaum*, Reed Smith, LLP, (ex-officio, Secretary) Randall Rothenberg*, Interactive Advertising Bureau (President & CEO) Warren Schlichting, Comcast Spotlight Vivek Shah, Time Inc. Tina Sharkey, BabyCenter Tad Smith, Reed Business Information Jim Spanfeller*, Forbes.com Nada Stirratt, MTV Networks Bill Todd, ValueClick, Inc. Steve Wadsworth*, Walt Disney Internet Group Mike Walrath, Yahoo! Jeff Webber, USATODAY.com Edward F. (Ted) West, LookSmart, Ltd. Matt Wise, Q Interactive Dennis Woodside*, Google *Member of Executive Committee About the IAB: The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is comprised of more than 375 leading media and technology companies who are responsible for selling 86% of online advertising in the United States. On behalf of its members, the IAB is dedicated to the growth of the interactive advertising marketplace, of interactive’s share of total marketing spend, and of its members’ share of total marketing spend. The IAB educates marketers, agencies, media companies and the wider business community about the value of interactive advertising. Working with its member companies, the IAB evaluates and recommends standards and practices and fields critical research on interactive advertising. Founded in 1996, the IAB is headquartered in New York City with a Public Policy office in Washington, D.C. For more information, please visit www.iab.net. Biographies of IAB board members highlighted within this news announcement: DAVID J. MOORE David J. Moore is Chairman & Founder of 24/7 Real Media, Inc., a leading global digital marketing company that offers award-winning ad serving, targeting, tracking, and analytics platforms, along with powerful search marketing technology and a global network of Web sites. As Chairman of 24/7 Real Media, Mr. Moore focuses on strengthening the company’s industry position, strategic relationships, recruitment and business development. Mr. Moore also works closely with WPP Digital to support the development and implementation of WPP’s digital initiatives. NEIL ASHE Neil Ashe serves as President of CBS Interactive. In this role, he is responsible for overseeing CBS Interactive’s business strategy and vision, including sales, marketing, product development, and international operations. Previously, Ashe served as Chief Executive Officer of CNET Networks, Inc. until the company was acquired by CBS Corporation in May 2008. Ashe joined CNET Networks in 2002 as Senior Vice-President, Corporate Strategy and Development. In 2005, he assumed the role of Executive Vice-President and his responsibilities expanded to include day-to-day management of the Community and Lifestyle, Business, Channel and International divisions. EDWARD F. (TED) WEST Edward F. West has served as a director of LookSmart since November 2001 and was the Chair of the board from June 2005 through July 2008. In August 200, Mr. West was appointed interim Chief Executive Officer and President of the Company and named the Chief Executive Officer and President in January 2008. LookSmart specializes in non-proprietary search advertising networks. Since 2003, Mr. West has served as Managing Director of Sage Partners LLC, an advisory services firm in venture development. Mr. West had served as a director for Memetrics, a global provider of testing and optimization solutions for marketers located in San Francisco, from January 2006 until the company was sold to Accenture in January 2008; and for Advanced Ticketing Systems located in London from April 2006 until it was sold to Ticketmaster in March 2008. SOURCE: The Interactive Advertising Bureau IAB: Marla Aaron, 212-380-4714 Director, Marketing Communications marla@iab.net

I am proud to announce Dimestore Media (www.dimestore.com) will launch the new Website this week.  I’m at CES and will be moderating a panel on video advertising.  Please check out the new site.  VideoAdGames (www.videoadgames.com) will become an example of the dimestore technology platform.

I saw it when visiting Natasha in Boston – you can see a short movie on YouTube – (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aG4QVwOJ9R8) not the best video quality (so I will need to make my own) — Other facts from the Citgoi Website.  Who knew? You already know it as the brightest beacon on the Boston skyline. But here are a few things you might not know about the familiar CITGO sign. The sign was built over a Cities Service divisional office in 1940. Said to be the largest sign in New England, the CITGO sign is double-faced and measures 60 feet by 60 feet. The computer-operated sign illuminates the night from dusk till midnight. In early 2005, the CITGO sign went through a major restoration and technology upgrade from using neon tubes to LEDs. It has withstood five hurricanes, all packing winds over 80 mph. The sign was deemed an "Object d’ Heart" by Time magazine, photographed in a 1983 Life magazine and featured in the New York Times. In 1968, the critically acclaimed short film "Go, Go CITGO" captured honors at the Yale Film Festival. The flick featured the sign along with music by the Monkees and Indian sitarist Ravi Shankar. In 1987, an animated film was made by a local artist to immortalize Kenmore Square’s "neon god." Inspired by Simon & Garfunkel’s "The Sound of Silence," the three-minute film "CITGO Dance" won an award from the Artists Foundation’s Massachusetts Artists Fellowship Program. Every time a baseball player hits a home run over the left field wall at Boston’s Fenway Park, CITGO is seen by thousands of fans at the stadium and on television.

I tweeted most of my thoughts about the Super Bowl commercials this year as part of my annual review, but also participating in John Durham’s SF Marketing Class assignment (twiiter @Dimestore). Though the best commercial was actually aired at half-time so it did not count as a “super bowl  commercial” — but here it is .  Powerful and well done! #clinteastwoodchryslersuperbowlcommercial

We had someone who was supposed to design this years wish sticks, but called and said he couldn’t. I need to get artwork to the printer Monday. Anyone wanting to help, please let me know. Need a logo and design for the front, and then the back is where people write down their goals, ambitions, dreams, and wishes. #TheLifeCube #thelifecubeprojectlifecubeproject #brc2013 #BM2013 #brc #playaart #LifeCubewishsticks #blackrockcity #BurningMan

Designed by Dan Hosek. Huge appreciation for Dan offering to create the most amazing wish sticks to The Life Cube at Burning Man 2013. #TheLifeCube #wishsticks #wishsticks #BM2013 #brc #lifecubeproject #lifecubeproject #danhosek #brc13 #blackrockcity #lifecube #thelifecubeprojectlifecubeprojectartatburningman #lifecube #TheLifeCube #BurningMan

Niobe Burden of Niobe Burden Fine Art Photography volunteered her time and professional expertise to work with photographers that donated their amazing photos of Black Rock City, going all the way back to the first Burning Man, including Scott London, Tomas Loewy, Stewart Harvey, George Post, Barb Traub, Tom ONeill, Kim Roseberry, and Matt Freedman Photography, plus some of Niobe’s own fantastic work. And thanks also go out to Mayumi Elegado from Moonshine Ink, who helped organize and lay out the photos for the RB Technologies the printer of the photo-boards.  Click on image to see each of the 24 boards. #burningman @lifecube #thelifecube #niobeburden #ScottLondon, #TomasLoewy, #StewartHarvey, #GeorgePost, #BarbTraub, #TomONeill, #KimRoseberry, #MattFreedman, #photography #blackrockcity #art #KimRoseberry #TomasLoewy #thelifecubeprojectlifecubeprojectburningmanlifecubethelifecubeniobeburdenScottLondon #TomONeill #thelifecubeprojectlifecubeprojectBarbTraub #rbtechnologiesskeeterphotographyblackrockcityart #StewartHarvey #lifecubeGeorgePost #MattFreedman