Several people have figured out that the best way to get a message to President Trump is to do so via a TV program he is likely to watch, but no one has gone to the lengths that John Oliver has to get a television-based message to the president.
On Sunday’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, the first new episode since Trump’s inauguration, Oliver revealed that his show has arranged to run a Trump-targeted ad locally in the Washington D.C. market on all three cable news shows Monday morning, between 8:30 a.m. and 9 a.m.
Oliver made the announcement during a segment on the show called “Trump vs. Truth,” about Trump’s reliance on information gleaned from dubious and often false outlets like Brietbart and Infowars, and his alarming tendency to lie about easily-debunked topics such as his inauguration crowd size, much as he did for a decade about the ratings for his NBC series, Celebrity Apprentice....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
John Oliver is onto an interesting way to reach out to POTUS.
It’s not that often that a billboard is so absurd that it invites widespread mockery and goes viral in the process. But this one has—a full six years after it was made.
The ad, from the Netherlands, was made by a Dutch agency called Etcetera for the Predictor pregnancy-test brand. With a quick glance, it’s clear something isn’t quite right. The man and woman seem extremely surprised by the reading on the pregnancy test....
This Nov. 8, even if you manage to be registered in time and have the right identification, there is something else that could stop you from exercising your right to vote.
The ballot. Specifically, the ballot’s design.
Bad ballot design gained national attention almost 16 years ago when Americans became unwilling experts in butterflies and chads. The now-infamous Palm Beach County butterfly ballot, which interlaced candidate names along a central column of punch holes, was so confusing that many voters accidentally voted for Patrick Buchanan instead of Al Gore....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
Here's a look at why bad design of ballots could impact some votes in the election. I hope Donald Trump isn't reading because he might use it as an excuse for a lawsuit about the "rigged election." ;-)
In September, Hillary Clinton released a devastating attack ad on Donald Trump, in which young girls are seen looking at themselves in the mirror while Trump's offensive remarks about women—in particular, their looks—are heard in the background. The ad, titled "Mirrors," has gotten more than 5 million views on YouTube, and has been hailed by many as one of Clinton's strongest ads of the year.
Barack Obama's 2008 campaign manager, David Plouffe, told Slate last month: "I do think that Clinton will look back, particularly in suburban areas where they will be able to really drive good margins with women, that the ads helped. That ad where they show Trump's words and children listening? That stuff works!"
Now, Kathy Griffin has springboarded off the famous spot with a great parody of it. It's not subtle, but it is hilarious. Check it out below. Note: It features lots of NSFW language....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
Kathy Griffin does a very funny sendup of the Clinton campaign's Trump attack ad and she gives the Donald big shade. Funny and recommended viewing if you like political satire. 9.5/10
Just when you think the Bad Lip Reading videos couldn’t get any funnier, along comes this treatment of the recent Republican presidential primary debate.
In this version, the candidates tackle the issues that really matter, as the scurrilous accusations fly.
And they make some crazy pledges to the voters.
While at least one contender’s nerves seem to get the better of him.
In an innovative tweak to the debate format, the candidates get to make their pitches through the medium of song, just as the Founding Fathers surely intended.…while throwing some funky moves....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
Politics as it should be from Bad Lip Reading. Your Friday Funnies! Recommended viewing! 10/10
Today, however, we’re taking a moment to highlight the entertainers; the people who forego the chance to show off their accomplishments and affinity for craft beer for our utter amusement.
I’ve scoured far and wide and am proud to present to you 38 of the most amusing bios from real people, beloved brands, and fictitious characters that pepper the Twittersphere. Without further ado
Host Whoopi Goldberg brought the funny all evening long at Wednesday's 55th Clio Awards in New York. But it was Jerry Seinfeld who brought down the house with a brilliant, hilarious speech about why he loves advertising—which ended up being a blistering anti-advertising rant that comically eviscerated the business.
"I love advertising because I love lying," Seinfeld began. And he only got more brutally honest from there....
For companies that haven't found a humorous voice on social media, the joke's on them. For those that have, here's how they leverage laughs....
Done well, tweeting can even land you a dream job. Here at Fast Company, our executive editor Noah Robischon even has a framed edict on his office wall: “Stop tweeting boring shit.” But stifling yawn-worthy tweets is one thing, composing a one-line comedic gem for the masses is quite another.
We’ve come to expect it from stand-up comedians such as Megan Amram, the spambot @horse_ebooks that posts bits of context-free hilarity randomly pulled from online texts, and formerly unknown Justin Halpern, who rose to fame tweeting the caustic observations of his father from @shitmydadsays. But brands bringing the funny on Twitter? Not so much.
To wit: @ChipotleTweets took to fake hacking its feed to produce a stream of nonsense notes meant to evoke a chaotic mirth similar to that of @horse_ebooks. Though the tactic earned the burrito chain several thousand new followers, Chipotle quickly resumed its regular (not particularly humorous) promotional voice....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
The joke's on brands that fail to use humor effectively. While it can be effective, humor is a dangerous game in marketing. An even bigger issue for brands is using fake hacking as a social media and content marketing strategy. Definitely, doomed to fail.
As you've probably heard by now, what The Onion is apologizing for is a tweet sent during the Academy Awards about the nine-year-old star of "Beasts of the Southern Wild."
... "Miss Wallis, you are young and talented and deserve better,” Onion CEO Steve Hannah wrote, vowing to “take immediate steps to discipline those responsible.” It’s the first time anyone can remember that The Onion has apologized for a joke that offended, and not for want of opportunity.
If The Onion has a rule that children are exempt from outré humor, it must not have been in place when it published “Fun Toy Banned Because Of Three Stupid Dead Kids,” “God Answers Prayers Of Paralyzed Little Boy; ‘No,’ Says God,” “Ex-Pedophiles Share Tips On How To Make Your Kids Less Attractive,” or “Pope Vows To Get Church Pedophilia Down To Acceptable Levels.” Or, to cite a few that riff on real children, this one about Alana “Honey Boo Boo” Thompson, or this one about Suri Cruise, or this other one about Suri Cruise, or this one about JonBenet Ramsey....
Thanks to text messaging and social media sites like Twitter that have reduced much of today’s communication to a mere character count (if not simply a picture), it could be argued that people are growing weary of long-form content...
Well, now there’s a site that helps you find just that. Launched today by the creators of Someecards and HappyPlace, The Gist gives a comedic take on the day’s top news in as few words as possible – usually just a sentence or two! With sections for politics, business, sports, tech, entertainment, nation, world, and big picture news, The Gist seems to have all its bases covered. Both informative and funny, The Gist strikes a winning combination for wannabe news junkies with too little time to get fully caught up on all of the day’s hot topics and who have grown accustomed to the easily-digestible, 140-character Twitter messages.
In a recent conversation with Dave Kornfeld, editor-in-chief of The Gist, he noted that what inspired him most to launch the site was the chance to mimic the hectic pace of the news cycle in a funny, yet highly abbreviated way that people might possibly get real information from..?
As the press secretary for a president who's obsessed with how things play on cable TV, Sean Spicer’s real audience during his daily televised press briefings has always been an audience of one.
And the devastating “Saturday Night Live” caricature of Spicer that aired over the weekend — in which a belligerent Spicer was spoofed by a gum-chomping, super soaker-wielding Melissa McCarthy in drag — did not go over well internally at a White House in which looks matter.
More than being lampooned as a press secretary who makes up facts, it was Spicer’s portrayal by a woman that was most problematic in the president’s eyes, according to sources close to him. And the unflattering send-up by a female comedian was not considered helpful for Spicer’s longevity in the grueling, high-profile job in which he has struggled to strike the right balance between representing an administration that considers the media the "opposition party," and developing a functional relationship with the press....
In 1977, according to the AP style guide I still occasionally refer to, using the acronym “TV” as a noun when writing about television was not advised.
“Acceptable as an adjective or in such constructions as cable TV [italics theirs]. But do not normally use as a noun unless part of a quotation,” counsels the item on “TV” in the 1977 edition of the AP Stylebook -- formerly titled “The Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual.”
Today we use “TV” and “television” more or less interchangeably as nouns, although the former is probably used more now than the latter. One thing the 1977 Stylebook reveals, however, is that “media” -- whether electronic or otherwise -- was not nearly the obsession for news organizations that it is today.
Part of the reason was that the world at large was not nearly as obsessed with media and technology -- and the companies responsible for them -- as we are now. There was so much less of it then too, obviously....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
Adam Buckman looks back at the 1977 AP Stylebook and reminds us how times have changed. Fun read.
The Republican candidate for White House appeared to use an unusual adverb in his debate against Hillary Clinton. Or did he? Jon Kelly investigates.
There was a moment in the first US presidential debate when lots of people asked themselves: "Did Trump just say 'bigly'?" Followed quickly by: "Is that even a word?"
It came during a discussion on fiscal policy, when, Donald Trump told his opponent: "I'm going to cut taxes bigly, and you're going to raise taxes bigly." Or so many thought, anyway....
It suddenly hit me while listening to another Trump tirade. What happened next nearly blew my mind.
Not to give The Donald too much credit for his undisciplined tweeting but suddenly I realized that his entire campaign is built on a foundation of clickbait.
The very same linkbait that drives millions of spam pageviews online daily is also what allowed him to outfox 16 other serious Republican presidential candidates.
And when the presidential campaign debates take place, Hillary won’t have a chance!...
Jeff Domansky's insight:
The Donald's campaign strategy? Clickbait! You read it here first.
Reporter Jonathan Pie thinks politicians should just answer the fucking question. To use this video in a commercial player or in broadcasts, please emai
Jeff Domansky's insight:
Always-funny, pseudo-reporter Jonathan Pie goes ballistic about British politicians who don't answer questions without a sound bite. I'd love to see him go after Trump.
Although the Oxford English Dictionary editors get the final say, they actually look to us to dictate whether a word should be added. In other words, we have no one but ourselves to blame for all the weird words that make the cut every year.
But we can at least share the blame with technology. None of us would be saying "srsly" if we hadn't felt the urge to shorten words for text messages and emails. We wouldn't be voting anyone off the island if not for the television series Survivor. And, perhaps most importantly, there would be no need for the word "meatspace" without the existence of the virtual world. (One could argue there is still no need.)
Want to see what weird words were added to the OED thanks to internet slang and technology? Read on....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
Screenagers? Meatspace? Check out this list of the weirdest words added to the dictionary thanks to internet slang and technology.
Jesus Christ pulled off some pretty impressive brand stunts in his day: turning water into wine; healing the blind; feeding the multitude with the loaves and fishes. But when it came to one of the biggest stunts of His career, He turned to Montreal's 1one Production—at least, according to this "never-before-seen original footage" of Christ and his marketing team from a couple thousand years ago...
One of the hottest new apps set to debut this week at SXSW, that annual intermingling of tenuous ideas and easy money, was LIVR, a social network exclusively for drunk people. Media and investors alike lined up to laud it....
"I've worked closely enough with media, and I've done enough of this sort of thing before, to know that the media would blindly jump at it. I was more surprised when people did reach out to me; I can count on one hand the number of outlets that bothered to call me up.
The media in a way allows this to happen to themselves... The media will just jump at a juicy story and not look deeper into it. I think it's because a lot of people working at these blogs and media outlets are overworked and underpaid. Especially around an event at SXSW, they need to crank out story after story. So it's kind of like this cheapening journalism. I don't know if they can even be called journalists anymore; it's more media as a mouthpiece for the companies that want to get a message out."...
Jeff Domansky's insight:
What the world of technology and new app launches has come to: bullshit as a service.
When a veteran stand-up comic is also funny on Twitter, it doesn’t exactly come as a shock. When an unknown phenom makes you physically choke on guffaws, though, it’s a revelation and also something of an extended audition.
...After catching the attention of the comedy cognoscenti in 2010, the then recent Harvard graduate soon got jobs writing on the Oscars and Disney’sA.N.T. Farm., before moving to a staff writer position at NBC’s ensemble sitcom Parks and Recreation. (The show was just renewed for a sixth season.) The in-demand writer is also an accomplished poet who’s writing asatirical guide to science for ladies.
Megan Amram’s frothy blend of dark humor and smart, surreal silliness has found more than 356,000 followers on Twitter so far. Although not everybody trying to generate laughs online is doing so for the same reasons, or with the same twisted flair, Amram’s consistent comedic quality is enviable for anyone trying to make their mark with brief bursts of humor. The multidiscipline writer recently spoke with Co.Create about puns, poetry, and how to be funny on Twitter altogether....
Google Glass secret development lab It's a secret lab. More than eight miles underground in Mountain View, California. There are no signs at the entrance to the ground level elevator. Just retinal scans and armed guards checking employee ID cards.
Here, Google Glass engineers are working furiously against impossible technology hurdles, formidable deadlines and potential competitors.
A secret document was leaked to us today by one of the engineers working on a stealth Google Glass project. He’s a friend of a friend’s cousin’s uncle....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
Fascinating April 1st look inside Google Glass secret lab.
A company called Powerful Yogurt is now selling what it calls "the first yogurt in the U.S. designed for a man's health and nutrition needs." The Sandwich Monday gang gives it a very manly taste test.
Last week on Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me, we talked about a new yogurt for men, or brogurt, from a company called Powerful Yogurt. Here's what our panelist, comedian Jessi Klein, had to say about it:
"If male yogurt marketing is anywhere near as annoying as female yogurt marketing, you are in for a treat. Every female yogurt commercial is basically like women in a wedding dress just petting a kitten and eating yogurt."
Powerful sent us a crate of the stuff this week. It arrived as all manly products do, carried by a Navy Seal who then punches it into your face....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
And in marketing news, this just in...
Brogurt...
Yogurt for men.
Imagine. NFL Sundays with carrot sticks and brogurt dip? Or not! Doh!
Are PR pros in danger of becoming PR zombies? We may have reached a tipping point caused by Ataxic Neurodegenerative Satiety Deficiency Syndrome.
Seriously. I’m no longer surprised by others attacking the PR zombies among us. Just look at The Economist, the Bad Pitch Blog and any recent examples of airhead public relations, Bad PR, PR Fails and social media snafus.
Here are 13 sure signs you’re a PR zombie suffering from this contagion...
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John Oliver is onto an interesting way to reach out to POTUS.