With just three weeks before the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, the Chinese edition of Sports Illustrated chose not to highlight tennis champ Zheng Jie or basketball sensation Yao Ming, but this pretty white lady who’s been in more Canon television commercials than tennis courts lately.

Wei shen me?(...)
Read the rest of To Usher in the Beijing Olympics, China’s Sports Illustrated Highlights the Least Relevant Athlete of the Moment

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That Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann continue playing both hard news anchor and opinionated talking heads is of no consequence to NBC News president Steve Capus. Responding to taunts from Fox News’ Chris Wallace made earlier this week at the Television Critics Association annual event, Capus told MSNBC’s audience he has no plans to change the formula, where his star power pundits anchor news coverage like elections while going on the air every night to deride the right wing. Says Olbermann: “We know there are different rules for us, and the viewers — I think based on how many of them have turned out — know there are different rules.”

And Capus agrees: “The audience gets it, and that's the single biggest factor that I see.”

Hey, remember when a certain other left-leaning institution thought their audience would “get it”?(...)
Read the rest of MSNBC Sets Its Own Rules for Journalism

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Post tags: Bias, Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann, MSNBC, Steve Capus, Television Critics Assocation

Maybe it’s because a candy like Mars Inc.’s Snickers is so easily associated with “fudge packing” that the chocolate bar’s ad agencies feel the need to release one homophobic ad after another.

A 2007 Super Bowl ad showed two auto mechanics accidentally kissing while gobbling down the same Snickers bar; they pulled away from each other, repulsed. That ad, from TBWA New York, had even worse scenarios in the online version, including one of the mechanics attacking the other with a wrench.

Now, Snicker’s newest ad, from AMV BBDO London, in all its homophobic glory. The spot, shown here, features Mr. T from A-Team attacking what can only be described as a power-walking, butt-wiggling queen; Mr. T. shoots Snickers bars at him from a giant truck-mounted Gatling gun to get his sissy ass running. Walking, of course, is too girly for a manly man. “You a disgrace to the man race!” shouts Mr. T.

And all this follows BBDO Detroit’s Dodge Caliber ad, where a Tinkerbell-esque pixie was on hand to illustrate what’s wrong with buying anything but a macho car.

Now, what do all three of these agencies have in common? They’re all owned by Omnicom. And CEO John Wren is getting a lashing.(...)
Read the rest of The Homophobic Problem Inside Omnicom

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Post tags: Advertising, Bob Garfield, GLBT, Homophobia, Omnicom, Snickers

So maybe Project Runway winners do find success. Christian Siriano, boyfriend of recent gay bashing survivor Brad Walsh, will design a couture collection to be used in the movie Eloise in Paris, based on the children’s book series. The title character is a six-year-old girl who lives on the top floor of the Plaza Hotel with her nanny, and is said to be based on the original hot tranny mess, Liza Minnelli.

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Based on population numbers from 2006, New York City’s six Starbucks closures will affect 1,369,071 per shuttered store. In Los Angeles, it’s 1,924,689. Careful with your math there: The higher the number, the less it’ll impact you.

Poor Orange Grove, Florida, then; three Starbucks are closing in a town of 9,106, or one for every 3,035 people.

So, are you really going to miss your neighborhood latte fix? Slate wants you to write a freakin’ testimonial for it. Indeed, Starbucks obituaries.

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Post tags: NYC, Starbucks

It’s 1999 again! Back before the dot-com bust, with-it companies were all about Aeron chairs, free cafeterias, in-house masseurs, and on-the-clock drinking courtesy the office bar. Now, with multiple ad agencies gloating over their top shelf staff offerings, we’ve officially got a trend on our hands. And perhaps it’s all thanks to AMC’s Mad Men, a throwback to the good old days where 10am didn’t role around without a single malt.(...)
Read the rest of Because It’s Easier to Write Catchy Slogans When You’re Buzzed

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Post tags: Advertising, Alcohol, Mad Men, Workplace

When the writers’ strike left many in Hollywood with little to do except walk in circles holding pieces of paper above their heads, Will Ferrell and Adam McKay moved ahead with FunnyOrDie.com, the insta-hit comedy website that made his daughter a trash-talking star. With a 10 percent stake purchased by HBO, FOD.com was supposed to be a shining example of merging Hollywood comedic talent and the web, while perhaps making a buck. Sad news then: Spin-off site BlueCollarOrDie.com is shutting down after ratcheting up only 20,000 viewers per month. So the site, from Jeff Foxworthy, Larry the Cable Guy, Ron White and Bill Engvall, and originally called MyBlueCollar.com, will be put out to pasture. The Internet audience for redneck jokes? Apparently not as numerous as the Internet audience for Eliot Spitzer sex jokes. Then again, is there an Internet audience of rednecks? [THR]

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Wendy Williams will make herself a huge television star yet. She's already completed the first step in making her readers skyrocket - an ugly on-air fight with a wholly unsympathetic person. On her show yesterday, the infamous-in-NYC Williams said a few choice things about guest Omarosa during her intro, and things just went downhill from there.

CONTINUED »

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Post tags: External, Omarosa, Wendy Williams

Chris Matthews did a fine job infuriating the Hillary Clinton campaign. Now colleague Andrea Mitchell is doing her part to stink things up with Barack Obama. Not that there’s anything wrong with a reporter actually, um, reporting.

Mitchell, who booted Lee Cowan out of the way to trail Obama to the Middle East and Europe this week, made a satellite stop by Hardball last night — and in soundbite-able brevity, slammed Obama for engaging in reporter-free public relations stunts as he makes his way through Iraq and Afghanistan. (And then Matthews had to ask about black people.)(...)
Read the rest of NBC v. Obama: Obama Faking It Till He Makes It

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Post tags: Afghanistan, Andrea Mitchell, Barack Obama, Iraq, NBC

Some magazines get to know their readers by rifling through letters to the editor. Other magazines already know their readers as the guys who like boobies.

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Post tags: Advertising, Maxim