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Monday, November 2, 2009

“Come to Think of It, eBay”–Is That a Killer Ad Motto or a Desperate Plea for Attention? (Plus Old Commericals!)

ebay

BoomTown is not quite sure what to think of another new advertising campaign from an Internet giant–this time by eBay.

With the tagline, “Come to Think of It, eBay,” the print, television and online marketing campaign starts today to “boost its standing as a holiday shopping destination.”

Interestingly, the ads have been crafted by San Francisco-based Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, which has also just nabbed the lead role in the $100 million advertising campaign by Yahoo.

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Monday, December 29, 2008

Naughty and Not-So-Nice: Like “Gossip Girl,” BoomTown’s Tech Ticker Predictions for 2009 and More!

BoomTown is back in the blogosphere from a freezing and nondigital week on the east coast with the family.

Given I am still in Buffalo until Wednesday, still chilling (and not in a good way), let’s start the proceedings slowly, with some videos I did with the ebullient Sarah Lacy for Yahoo’s Tech Ticker site right before the holidays at the All Things Digital HQ (i.e., the cozy cottage behind my house) about what’s up for 2009 in tech.

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Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Finally, Original Online Video Done Right: Andy Samberg’s Lonely Island and “The Guild”

This week, “Saturday Night Live” comic and spoof video impresario Andy Samberg got some ink, because another one of his groin-focused rappish music videos–this one called “J**z in My Pants”–was racking up 6.7 million views on YouTube. But while “My Pants” is very funny in that overgrown teenaged boy sort of way that a lot of Samberg’s videos are, BoomTown is much more intrigued by the short episodic online comedy videos that he is making at his production company–The Lonely Island–with his longtime partners Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone.

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BoomTown Decodes the Apple Dumps Macworld Press Release (The “Yes, Virginia” Version)

Boomtown extends apologies to the late Francis P. Church, who penned the original “Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus” editorial in the New York Sun in 1897. But with a little rejiggering, his eloquent words work perfectly as a translation for Apple’s press release about its withdrawal from Macworld yesterday, which doubtlessly shook the Apple faithful to the core. Oddly enough, it matches up surprisingly–and a little disturbingly–well. Thus, here’s a little holiday inspiration to help those poor souls make it through these darkest of days.

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Monday, December 1, 2008

Here’s Something About Online Retail That Is Not So Gloomy

With all this humbugging about holiday retail online–down? up? sideways?–it would do a person well to think more Tiny Tim than Scrooge these days.

And here are some very clever advertising videos from the fine folks at ChangingThePresent.org, created for the charity nonprofit by StrawberryFrog to help you get there.

They should make you think twice, when you see those dumb buy-more-and-more-and-even-more ads out there.

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Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving From ATD

Our friends at JibJab whipped up another odd video for us for the Thanksgiving holidays.

BoomTown is thankful for our great All Things D staff, as well as our amazing readers. Also this year, for Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang, without whom there would be no news.

We’ll be publishing more lightly after tonight, but there will still be news over the holiday, so keep checking back for posts all weekend long.

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Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Have Yourself a Jerry Little Christmas Now?

Could Facebook Co-Founder and CEO Mark “Cindy Lou Who” Zuckerberg teach Yahoo Co-Founder and CEO Jerry “Grinch” Yang a thing or two about holiday cheer?
You can bet your roast beast he could.
BoomTown has been, we admit it, quite tough on both Zuckerberg and Facebook since we launched the site–about everything from its still unproven business [...]

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About Kara

Kara Swisher started covering digital issues for The Wall Street Journal's San Francisco bureau in 1997 and also wrote the BoomTown column about the sector. With Walt Mossberg, she co-produces and co-hosts D: All Things Digital, a major high-tech and media conference. Read more »

Ethics Statement

Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.

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