-I can admit that I wish I had more info before I write this blog but this is more about wondering
-Depending on what you count I'm on multiple blogging or call them Social Media sites and they aren't all the same
- I've seen plenty of websites that I can't figure out how they make money some of it is from Advertising and I've even seen an ad that I don't know if it is true but that claims if you have Google mail you get ad e-mail before your regular e-mail ?

I'm on Twitter and I think it is a lot of fun.... It is really made to post and sometimes people answer about things that are going on currently much more then facebook So fun to talk about shows that are on live and some people from some shows come on when it is on.... It still feels very new to me and I bet there is stuff I'm missing ...

I'm not sure how they make money though.... I know that on the left of the screen there is where it says what is trending and often the first one is one that it says is promoted so I assume said company pays for that but no idea if it is only one company at a time , if it is more then one what determines what one you see.....

I do follow companies off hand CocaColaBuffalo WWE Lays come to mind real quick . Now do companies pay for their official name and Page ..... The other factor is the @ vs. # . The At symbol is what puts something on a person's or companies page . The Number sign aka Hashtag makes it a topic .. Those aren't just for shows ... Yes it is searchable so say you like #TattooTuesday or #TittyTuesday #ThongThursday or even #BUFvsMIA you will get every post on that name the second one often has pictures along with the #Boobs one..

Now I mention that cause I don't pay a dime but I wonder if or how much companies pay to have a page... Or is there some other way they pay I have no idea.... But there is a built in part of twitter assuming it isn't the mobile version that it makes it at work that when use use the @ and start typing suggestions come up not all are companies but wonder if they pay for that or if it just uses a like what you are spelling ?

It also use to be that you had to know the # or just use your own or what ever .. But recently there was a change where it suggests them as you type them into a post... I wonder do companies pay so that the correct will be used.... As an example the NFL When the Bills play in Miami it would be #BUFvsMIA but if it was Dolphins in Buffalo #MIAvsBUF but some teams it isn't so well known so I wonder if someone pays for the suggestions but I have no idea.....

But the big thing with twitter and I don't know if they will change this but after @ and # numbers alone don't turn blue as topic unless followed by letters also punctuation ends both of them as an example say you wanted to say I bought this chocolate at walgreen's with a hashtag if you used it would end at the n and the place isn't walgreens ..... Now if you know or take the time to look up their page you can use the @ and put it on there page.......

Again I don't have all the details but Twitter went public .... So I assume this means they will want more advertising so stock prices will go up as they make more money......

So what I wonder is as and if Twitter gets bigger... How will company names change.. Say I'm coming out with a new soda or product of some kind.. I don't any thing like Coca-cola or M&M's ? I want a name that under the rules of twitter looks the same everywhere ? So I do wonder if it will have an effect I think it will ?

So Friday and now Thursday is Black Friday ( in metal voice it really sounds cool :P ) . Now I think Saturday is some thing that is supposed to be small businesses ... Oh yeah and then there is also cyber Monday..

Now I don't know if this is the same Holiday but at one point it was started by American Express if they have gotten their name off of it that might be better then advertising it not sure not how wise or how much the public knows.. Yes it is good to go to small places and support them if they have a product someone wants or could use... But there is also an angle and that is what I will get into.....

There are places where you can use credit and debit cards and some places where you can't that is why if you are going to the bar tonight take cash. Nietches as an example doesn't take plastic .. Now they may have there own reasons in terms of how they want to do Business[like the clients don't like it, or they don't want to have pens at the bar?] for there are also business reasons....

In the past it was common for place to take only Visa and or matercard .. Now in terms of credit cards they charge interest when you don't pay it and that is how they make money.. But these came companies have debit cards. and they get a small % of the sales from the store charged to the card... So places have to decide do they want to take a slight cut so people can pay with these cards cause some people that is all they will use... When I had a discover card so many places didn't take it.. I think part of it was people didn't really know them.. Again they worked a little different they didn't use the master card and then say a bank and not sure what the percentage was... But this brings up American Express ... Yes I used to have one it was a pretty blue card it really was...

I don't know what the rates are now.. But back when I had a credit card the % that American Express got if you used their card someplace was a higher rate then the other two... If you except that card you had to give them that rate and a lot of stores it wasn't worth it... So if that was your card you where out of luck.....

So when I first heard about this Movement that was started by American Express or at least their name on it... It seemed like an angle here is a way to get into small shops who often won't take our card cause we take to much from them... Again though I'm not sure but seems like an angle to me.. Maybe the only small shops that get pushed when one looks deeper take their card?

Today I had to work. I didn't want to be there is a lot of work. On wendsday I may get to meet Dave Mira. If it works out that would be awesome. He is supposed to be at the company I work at. He does Adds for Oxy not sure if they are one of his sponers but I do know they Had some adds at the X games. Today on break I was Reading the Paper and found this article in the business section about Cliff Claven aka John Ratzenberger. Hopefully it will increase sales and profits and how much work we have. Hopefully I will have some issues or more interesting things to post about. Maybe I will have a crazzy dream or something.



In the first ad, John Ratzenberger offers advice on Mentholatum's WellPatch to a "canoe guy' with sore muscles.


John Ratzenberger used a WellPatch on his leg after mountain bike riding.

Mentholatum hires 'Cliff Claven'

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'Cheers' actor will wear firm's WellPatch in TV commercials

By MICHELLE KEARNS
News Business Reporter
2/25/2006



A national ad that begins airing on TV stations today features the actor who played postman Cliff Claven in the 1980s sitcom Cheers, a canoeist with a sore arm, medicine made by the local Mentholatum Co. and the creative work of a small Orchard Park firm.
"They let me make up my own lines and they let me have fun, so it was a pleasant experience," said actor John Ratzenberger, whose latest work includes voices for Pixar animated movies and hosting the Travel Channel's "Made in America" show.

In the new commercial, developed by Campbell Associates, Ratzenberger appears driving an RV as he does in the Made in America shows, which are about U.S. made products - including Westfield's Welch's grape juice and Olean's Cutco knives.

In the first ad to debut for Mentholatum's WellPatch - medicine patches that work like nicotine patches - Ratzenberger pulls up to a lake somewhere in the Pacific Northwest. He sees a canoeist rubbing his shoulder and calls out to the "canoe guy," a reference Ratzenberger ad-libbed into the script. "Hey canoe guy, try a little WellPatch relief on those sore muscles," the actor says in the spot.

The script for the ad was written by Bob Campbell, president of Campbell Associates, a four-member ad firm that counts Mentholatum as its chief client. Another Orchard Park firm, Media Pros, arranged for scheduling the commercials.

"They are the largest national ad spenders in Western New York," said Ken Dobmeier, president of Media Pros.

WellPatches come in formulations for muscle aches, arthritis, migraine headaches and coughs and colds. They first came out four years ago. Ratzenberger said he had friends and family try them before he agreed to be spokesman. "They all reported back that this stuff actually works and so I said, "Yes,' " recalled Ratzenberger, who tried one on his leg after a strain from mountain bike riding.

Campbell said the actor was a creative pleasure to work with, improving the commercials with his suggestions. "Every time he added something, he added something that was a keeper," Campbell said.


e-mail: mkearns@buffnews.com

I hope to talk more about advertisng soon. But for right now I will start with one distrubing add for a place called HUSH. there is a new Lunge in Casino Niaigara called Hush. I don't know if it is supposed to be a gay club or gay friendly club. If it isn't then they sure picked a bad model. I can't tell if it is girl or a guy. I don't have any problems with guys who look like girls or vice versa, or gays or transexuals. But that being said I don't understand how that ad could be aimed at stright guys and girls. To me it seems as if they are trying to sell androgeny wich is fine. But I have a fealling that, that was not the attempt. Hopefully I can do a little more reaserch and get more answers. I don't even have time to rant about that creepy burger king who wakes up next to the guy in bed but maybe that will be my next post who knows. Go Redskins, Go Sabres I'm off to watch sports and see if I see any other weird adds.

I admit that I like watching TV and some day I will buy a nice big TV. That way I can see great depth and amazing pictures weather it be concerts or movies. I can't afforid HD TV's or Flat screens. But even if I could I wouldn't but one of those slim flatscreen TV's for one reason alone; their adds. They also show these thin little TV's and how littlespace they take up. But they leave out the fact that to watch a movie you need a cable box, satelite box, VCR, or DVD player. Also in the adds the TVs never plug in either. Those ads really piss me off. The reason is that they are trying to sell you on how the TV looks on a wall and the picture. But the fact is that it dosn't really look like that. They really piss me off with that crap. I have seen some clever ads that I did like but those had to do with the picture its self. On another note I read a good interview of Henery Rollins in artvoice. I'm going to his Spoken word tour. I know a couple other (e:peeps) are going to. I hope to meet them, that would be cool if I did. I wonder what he will talk about. This is my first spoken word tour of anyone I've been to. I have seen comedians but that is differant.

I saw a comerical the other day for jeans. I can't remember the nascar drivers name, but he races for budwieser. I started to think he is whereing his bud jacket is this really an add for Bud also. It is a fine line. But then I thought no it really isn't because it is one of his sponsers he dosn't say he actully drinks it. There is a law that basicly says no professional athlete can advertise beer. Once they retire they can do it all they want. A lot of athletes have done that in the past. I wonder who they count, what about monster trucks, nascar and prowrestlers who are in the gray area. I guess that is why it is ok to thank all your sponsers after you win an event if one of them is alcohol because you are saying they sponser you not that you drink it. I think that is a good law. Could you imagine if Micheal Vick did an add where he said after I run for 30 yards and a touchdown I like to relax and cool down with (add you own beer company). Kids would run out to there store in the vick jersy and try to buy it and get it at some stores or pay someone outside to go in and buy it for them. But I wonder is sponsering somebody that much differant? I think it is. I think that we understand that companies pay the guy to race or do what ever sport they do. I don't watch nascar but those cars have tons of adds on them. I belive all the tennis matchs or championships no longer have cigerette names. When I was growing up I thought on of the brands was a real place might have been virgina slims not sure.

On another note. I think some of the best adds I have seen have been for beer. I used to have some really cool free beer poster I got back when they had those food things at the convention center where you could try stuff. That was pre taste of buffalo. I think one had like a beer going over the falls or something. I have to see if I can find those they are truely amazing some of them. There is this one sminorf ad I love. I think the full version of it is very long. I don't know if it is forigen or if it is shot like it is. But in the end this guy opens up his freezer and they are doors that lead outside that he blares his radio with his buddy as they look at the view it is truely amazing in it full version. I think that since beer and alcohol companies have so much money and can come up with great ads. The public has to make sure that their ads arn't aimed at kids. I knew people who drank when they where underage everybody does. I don't think that is the real problem. The problem is that some people don't know how to handle there alcohol. That is why I don't like to have more then 2 drinks. I don't know what kind of ass it will turn me into or will I just trip over you then dance naked or what ever. Not that I went out verry often but I stoped because someone I knew became an ass when they drank, so I was like screw this. Since I lost my train of thought that is the end of my post. I'm sure I'll come back to this topic some other time in the future.

This was an interesting article in The Buffalo News about cig adds at stores. I know when I worked at wilson farms they had lighted adds behind the counter where they kept them all. From what I heard the cigarette companies might have been marlboro pays a good amount of money for those. Before they where covered with shields if you looked to see if the store was open and they where closed you would see the adds. I don't know about in other magazines but in playboy they have some really cool looking cig adds. I do remember seeing a show or documentary where they showed how the adds where at eyelevel for kids. The lady smoking is always single and hot and sexy and caters to what ever neighboorhood the store is in. The same can be said about the alchool ads also.


FOCUS: CIGARETTE CONTROVERSY
No sale, city says, to ads near schools touting tobacco

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Anti-smoking activists applaud crackdown to enforce prohibition on books for many years

By BRIAN MEYER
News Staff Reporter
8/26/2005

Click to view larger picture

Dennis C. Enser/Buffalo News
This ad for Newport cigarettes, on a deli at Amherst and Peter streets, violates city law because the store is near a school, shown in the background. The owner promises to remove it.

Cigarette ads are plastered across the outside of a grocery store on East Ferry Street, just a block from School 53. One sign for Newport urges passers-by to "Pocket the Pleasure." Another promises "Pleasure to Go."
At an Amherst Street delicatessen, posters in the window advertise Kool and Virginia Slims, while a sign on its door touts Newport. Our Lady of Black Rock School is only a block away.

"Cigarettes" is painted in bold red letters on the side of a Hampshire Street grocery store, a block from the Bilingual Education Center.

No one accuses these stores of selling cigarettes to children. Nonetheless, they are breaking a city law that forbids posting outdoor tobacco signs within 1,000 feet of schools, youth centers, playgrounds and day care centers. The law has been on the books for a long time, but the city didn't start enforcing it until this summer.

City officials visited more than 40 food stores on the West Side this month and found every business violating the tobacco ad restrictions.

"In most cases, all the signs were down the same day," said Niagara Council Member Dominic J. Bonifacio Jr., who spearheaded the effort.

Others were given more time to remove cigarette ads that were painted on their buildings.

But the ads can be found in all corners of the city.





20% smoke in high school

The crackdown is winning praise in some arenas.

"They hang these huge cigarette signs outside. It's sometimes just so in-your-face," said Donna Grace of the Supporting and Initiating Community Action Coalition, a group that fights drug and alcohol abuse. "And kids are very observant. Some might look at these signs and say "that's a cool thing to do.' "

City enforcers should "get an award" for the crackdown, said Terry Alford, coordinator of the Erie Niagara Tobacco Free Coalition.

He predicted the enforcement effort would pay long-term health dividends.

"Studies show that the average smoker tries the first cigarette at the age of 141/2," said Alford, who heads a group based at Roswell Park Cancer Institute.

According to the coalition, one in five high school students in the state smokes. At the middle school level, 7.2 percent of boys and 5.6 percent of girls smoke.

Alford says he is convinced that the $11.2 billion tobacco companies spend on advertising each year affects "impressionable" youngsters.

Arafat Rizek, who owns the Black Rock Food Center at Amherst and Peter streets, said he recently removed cigarette ads placed on his facade by a tobacco distributor and plans on removing other ads. Rizek said he has no problem with the city's new enforcement effort.

Rizek and other deli owners also noted that some cigarette ads inside their stores recently have been taken down.

Anti-smoking activists have been pushing for enforcement of a 1998 agreement aimed at restricting cigarette advertising. They have been targeting tobacco ads that are placed at eye level for youngsters.





Incentives from distributors

Cigarette sales account for more than a third of all sales in many delis. Bonifacio said some tobacco distributors also provide incentives to stores that display signs touting their products.

Still, some grocery store owners said they understand the reasoning behind the city's crackdown.

"I have five kids of my own," Rizek said.

Grace, an anti-drug activist, called City Hall recently to complain about tobacco ads outside a West Side deli near a school.

"Nobody is trying to hurt people's businesses. It's better to have a thriving business than a boarded-up building," said Grace. "But these (store) owners have to follow proper procedures."

Removing tobacco ads shouldn't hurt sales, according to North Council Member Joseph Golombek Jr.

"People know they can buy cigarettes in delis," he said. "You don't need gaudy, ugly posters to tell people there are cigarettes inside."

Golombek submitted legislation this week that aims to close an enforcement loophole. While the law has been on city books for years, Buffalo never established specific fines for the offense. Golombek hopes to change that when lawmakers return from summer break. His resolution calls for imposing $200 fines for first offenses and $350 fines for repeat violations.

Bonifacio, meanwhile, wants to broaden the ban to include liquor advertisements. He also is asking city lawyers to determine whether the city can add churches to the restricted areas.

Tobacco advertising outside delis was widespread in the Niagara District until the recent crackdown, Bonifacio said. Of the 61 food stores in his district, Bonifacio said, all but two are prohibited from displaying cigarette signs outside their establishments.





More stringent licensing rules

When city officials visited delis earlier this month, they also cited some for building code violations, checked fire extinguishers and made sure all stores had proper licenses.

Over the past two years, the city has imposed more stringent procedures for reviewing food store license applications. The actions followed repeated complaints about loitering, unclean conditions and other problems in and around some of the corner stores.

Golombek described enforcing tobacco ad restrictions as another step in the city's effort to improve quality of life in neighborhoods.


e-mail: bmeyer@buffnews.com

I know one of the newest ways of advertising is through Product placement. There is a great joke about it in one of the mike myers movies I can't remember wich one I think it was in one of those spy ones. He is covered with ads for all kinds of stuff. It has been used in all kinds of movies. Take for example superman and that famous Marlboro truck I think it is, what ever the brand that truck dosn't exist in real life they made it for the movie (I forget the brand just remebers he picks it up). I know I noticed it in a motorcycle movie a saw there ways a wall under a bridge with a Mountain dew add and other places it was more suttle like what they where drinking. I know for a fact they do product placement in some reality shows. If someone ones a fridge door on cribs and you see all the brand names of everything there is a chance that some of that is placed there. MTV has been known to edit shirts and hats if they have a brand name so that implies if tehy arn't edited they have either got permision to show it with out having to pay for it or it is product placement. I think product placement is fine as long as it isn't used to alter the story or what you are watching. I have heard and now know for a fact that MTV uses product placement in there reality shows. The company I work for has one of there product lines advertised on MTV and has sent some product to the real world. Will it be shown being used I have no idea. I think it was laguna beach they had a bag of doritos in the back seat and no body ever touched it, it was kinda funny. I was wondering what people think of it and also would Paul ever think of using it as a way to generate funds. Maybe one of the phone companies would give him free service for 2 years and money for the site if all the pictures he posted had there logo on it, of course there would be a clause written in that paul or anyone else could still bash them if they wanted. I'm not saying it is a good idea. I like that there are no ads here. I like that if or anyone talks about a product that it isn't becasue they are getting paid to. Does anyone remember consummer reports they had no adds to make sure all there tests where acurate and unbiased. Don't know if they still are. But if you where going to buy anything they where the magazine to buy. I don't know how they are know or if they are still around.