The Official Blog of AREA203 Digital

As the candidates for the 2012 Republican nomination enter the heart of primary elections to determine which of them will face President Obama in 2012, [...]

Attending Exact Target’s Connections 2011 conference was an easy decision. ET put on a variety of interesting seminars full of information that I can use [...]

In some ways, I’m the least likely person in this office to write a blog on Steve Jobs’s departure from Apple. I don’t own an [...]

Right or wrong, I’d bet that most consumers treat duct tape as a commodity. I’m sure there are some brands whose tape is stronger or [...]

Memorial Day is a time when we honor those Americans who have given their lives in the course of military service. Sacrifices that these brave [...]

The CDC—yes, the Center for Disease Control—has just published an online article on how to survive a zombie attack. Word of this article drove so [...]

An article posted on May 12 to Adage.com claims that the U.S. military is abusing social media by using it as part of a propaganda/psychological [...]

Noted satirist, cynic, and social critic H.L. Mencken once said, “Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.” Nowhere is Mencken’s aphorism [...]

If an ad falls on deaf ears, does it make a sound? Advertising blogs are universal in praise of Wieden+Kennedy’s Chrysler Super Bowl commercial starring [...]

It’s no surprise to see certain brands have a little fun with their corporate images around Halloween. Google, of course, will alter its logo for [...]

Previously on this blog, I have complained about cat food commercials that completely ignore the reasons people buy cat food. Now, it seems that Arm [...]

One of social media’s key tenets is the need for transparency. Those who represent a company are smart to admit as much up front, rather [...]

Vampires have been the inspiration behind some of the more surprising pop-culture hits of the last decade:  on TV (“Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “True Blood,” [...]

If I have my way, a new piece of business jargon will soon enter the lexicon alongside “low-hanging fruit,” “leverage” as a verb, and all [...]

Those who have seen the advertisements for Sylvester Stallone’s new movie, The Expendables, have probably had one of two reactions.  Some are likely to view [...]

If you’re not familiar with Vigorsol gum, you’re not alone.  It’s an Italian product, and the company website is difficult to find because the brand’s [...]

While making the rounds of advertising blogs, I came across these three gems from  Panda Cheese.  I’m not being sarcastic, for a change; I really [...]

Those of you who don’t live in California may not be aware that the state is currently in the middle of a huge budget crisis.  [...]

Did I hallucinate this weekend, or did Hanes actually air a commercial for its “Lay Flat” collar shirts that celebrates the name’s grammatical error? No, [...]

On May 28, USA Today ran a story on advertising that seems straight out of The Onion. The league has teamed with a company named [...]

In August 2008, Neuromarketing.com blogger, Roger Dooley, wrote a great article on the dangers of giving consumers too many choices. He used Oreo cookies as [...]

In Formula 1 racing, Marlboro has sponsored Ferrari’s team since 1984.  Laws that prevent tobacco advertising in other countries now mean that though the team’s [...]

When I was a senior in high school, I had a job working at a Baskin-Robbins, and I returned to that job over the next [...]

In its next round of advertising, Chevy will try out a new tagline:  “Excellence for all.” This newest line replaces “An American Revolution,” a line [...]

There is a new symbol for fast food gluttony and excess, and it is Kentucky Fried Chicken’s new Double Down sandwich.  Calling the Double Down [...]

The premise of last week’s episode of “South Park” is that all of the kids except for Stan love Facebook. Stan resists using the service, [...]

Mike Judge’s film Idiocracy centers on two very average 20th century Americans (Luke Wilson and Maya Rudolph) who take part in an Army cryogenics experiment.  [...]

One of the more recent films to attain cult status among its fans was 1997’s “The Big Lebowski.”  Each year thousands of fans attend Lebowskifests [...]

Sometimes I think about a grocery store in my old hometown of Ventura, California.  The store was named Noren’s, and it was one of the [...]

All of us have seen TV ads that make us cringe; there’s never a good time to advertise the products that all of us would [...]

If you haven’t seen it yet, get a gander at this commercial for Friskies cat food: Wow!  If that’s what eating Friskies does to you, [...]

Product recalls have been big news in 2010.  Toyota’s assorted recalls have collectively been one of the largest news stories this year, and it seems [...]

Perhaps you’ve seen some of the controversy surrounding the Minnesota billboard that features a picture of President George W. Bush along with the caption “Miss [...]

In 1986, several owners complained that their Audis were prone to unintended acceleration.  The government investigated and found in every case that users were at [...]

It’s all too easy when blogging to focus attention on things we don’t like instead of things we do.  There’s more chaff than wheat, and [...]

It’s no joke.  Ferrari CEO Luca di Montezemolo recently announced that Ferrari will produce a hybrid version of its 599 sports car.  The concept of [...]

Since approximately the end of World War II, all of us have spent an increasing amount of time staring at glowing rectangles.  On my drive [...]

This ad campaign is the strangest I have ever seen. Since I don’t get these ads even a little bit, I’ll assume that makes me [...]

While growing up, there was no cartoon I enjoyed quite as much as Warner Brothers’ Looney Tunes.  No matter that virtually all of these cartoon [...]

On January 11, former baseball slugger Mark McGwire admitted what so many fans were already 99.44% sure about: he took steroids during his major league [...]