September 4, 2008
-
Xanga Advertising Campaign
Above is the header graphic for the Advertising Section of my Cultural Blender website. I've been fascinated with the subject of advertising, and American advertising in particular, since I was a young kid entrhralled with my Texaco service station playset, with the Texaco logo prominently featured. My dad and I used to cut company logos from the yellow pages of the phone book and scrapbook them. I've always been into design, fonts, and slogans, and when employed at Ole's Home Centers in the early 70s, I recorded the weekly advertising bulletins which played on PA systems throughout the chain as the "voice of Ole's". I came up with a slogan for our panel shop at work which was used on flyers in the early 90's, "Every Panel Counts", the first letters of the slogan are also the company initials, Epc. (And that's the first time I've ever mentioned the name of the company for which I work, and I'm linking our website, which, of course is a blatant form of advertising. One of my favorite television series is the AMC show "Mad Men", which deals with the cultural landscape and sexual mores of the early 60s "Kennedy Years" and is set in the world of Madison Avenue.
Below is an idea I've been kicking around. I was trying to think of ways in which our website community, Xanga, is different than other blogging and social networking sites on the internet. Most of us who have been
to Xanga over the years feel that it's not just a website, but a whole world of opportunity and friendship. A phrase kept repeating itself over and over in my head. "Xanga: Not just another Myspace." I pulled out my image editing program, downloaded a few Xanga logos, and am now presenting the following ad campaign. Of course John and the gang at headquarters would never use this. First of all, it isn't popular in advertising to "name" the competition, and second, I prominently feature the logo of my own blog (and a profile pic, although sans dreamcatcher) in the kicker graphic. I just linked the CEO of Xanga in the entry here so will be sure to "tag" him so he can recommend this post. (Nyuk Nyuk.) It would be nice for some popular Xangan like Dan (TheTheologiansCafe) or Norimoto (AvenueToTheReal) to take notice of my blatant Xanga advertising campaign and perhaps recommend it as well. (That should direct about a million Xangans over here. Ain't I shameless.) I haven't had a "featured" entry in a long while. Don't you think a "Xanga Advertising Campaign" deserves to be featured? 
Herewith:
Comments (43)
That's agressive advertising!
more ads on xanga? or perhaps somewhere else? where? myspace? facebook? so we can have all the teenyboppers from those other forums over here leaving messages like, "yr site sux like an anteater"????
:goodjob: ^_^
This is the first blog I've ever recommended.
You skills never cease to amaze me!!!:goodjob:
I'll recommend it! I like it!
very cool and creative.
xanga: my space, facebook, youtube...all rolled into one....advertising is interesting, a career for the devil, but interesting...hahahahaha
You've been recommended and starred.
Michael, :wave:
I love how your mind works! This is fabulous. I would love to see what you would do if threw a bunch of logos from different churches and religions into the Blender!
BE blessed,
Steve :sunny:
Interesting.
Like you said its not a very accepted practice to name the competition even though this site has all of what they offer and more...
:sunny: a nice solution to the very thing i've been whining about lately and have nothing about! love your idea. starred and reccommended of course!
Yup - Xanga has its own niche and its own purpose. Sites like facebook and myspace work because they serve different purposes. I can't stand myspace as a tool (though I have one to keep up with distant cousins who don't blog), and facebook is a time-waster, not somewhere I connect with people with ideas and stories and good stuff like all y'all.
I can see why the people who run Xanga would want to capitalize on multiple markets... but if you try to please everybody, you'll wind up pleasing nobody. Well done.
I remember my parents had Texaco and Firestone Christmas song records. I asked them why they bought them and they said they were free when you either got a complete fill up at Texaco or bought tires at Firestone around Christmas time. Other promos included a 5 lbs bag of sugar with a fill up and you always got full service at 25 cents a gallon. The younger generations may scoff at this sort of stuff but thats the way things really were. You didn't tolerate ads without getting something in return. Much like "free" Xanga has ads but pay the premium and the ads are removed.
I love your campaigns Michael! the profile pic is stunning as well. I really need to catch up here!
Xanga should really hire you...these ad designs are excellent material
I like the one with your head shot the best - I mean, what says Xanga better than baldmike2004? Well, perhaps other than TheTheologiansCafe.....
I hope you don't mind I borrowed your image idea. I credited you, but I'll make it more prominent if the idea catches on. It's really your doing, not mine!
@RaVnR - Dear RaVnr, If by image you mean the logo, I didn't draw the logo. I just copy/pasted it from Xanga. It took me a long time to find a font I liked for the copy however. I was disappointed that nobody from Xanga noticed this entry. But that's alright.
lunette oakley homme,Livraison gratuite
Hey There. I found your blog using msn. This is an extremely
well written article. I will make sure to bookmark it
and return to read more of your useful information. Thanks for the post.
I'll certainly comeback.
Hello to every body, it's my first pay a quick visit of this website; this web site
includes amazing and truly excellent data designed for readers.
Now I am going to do my breakfast, later than having my breakfast coming over again to read more news.
I do not even know the way I ended up right here, but I believed this submit used to
be good. I do not understand who you're however
certainly you're going to a famous blogger if you aren't already.
Cheers!
It's genuinely very difficult in this full of activity life to listen news on TV, therefore I just use web for
that reason, and get the hottest news.
Very soon this web site will be famous among all blogging
users, due to it's fastidious articles or reviews
You have made some really good points there.
I checked on the internet for more info about the issue and found most
individuals will go along with your views on this site.
Wow! Finally I got a website from where I know how to really obtain valuable information regarding my study and knowledge.
If some one desires expert view regarding running a blog afterward i advise him/her to visit this blog, Keep
up the fastidious work.
Wonderful article! This is the type of information that should be shared around the net.
Disgrace on the search engines for now not positioning this publish higher!
Come on over and seek advice from my website . Thanks =)
Hello there, I discovered your blog by way of Google whilst searching
for a comparable matter, your site came up, it looks great.
I've bookmarked it in my google bookmarks.
Hi there, simply turned into aware of your blog thru Google, and located
that it's truly informative. I'm gonna be careful for brussels.
I'll appreciate if you continue this in future. Numerous people will probably be benefited from your writing.
Cheers!
I for all time emailed this weblog post page to all my
friends, for the reason that if like to read it afterward my links will too.
Hello there I am so excited I found your weblog, I really found you by accident, while I
was searching on Askjeeve for something else, Anyways I am
here now and would just like to say thank you for a remarkable post
and a all round entertaining blog (I also love the theme/design), I don't have time to go through
it all at the moment but I have bookmarked it and also added your RSS feeds, so when I have time I will be back to read much more, Please do keep up the fantastic work.
For the reason that the admin of this web page is working,
no hesitation very shortly it will be renowned, due to its feature contents.
I know this site gives quality based articles and additional data, is there any other web site which provides these stuff in quality?
Hello There. I discovered your blog using msn. That is a
really smartly written article. I will make sure to bookmark it and come back to read extra of your useful
info. Thanks for the post. I'll certainly return.
With havin so much content and articles do you ever run into any issues of plagorism or copyright violation? My blog has a lot of unique content I've either authored myself or outsourced but it appears a
lot of it is popping it up all over the internet without my permission. Do you
know any solutions to help stop content from being stolen? I'd certainly appreciate it.
Good day! I know this is kinda off topic but I was wondering if you knew where
I could locate a captcha plugin for my comment
form? I'm using the same blog platform as yours
and I'm having problems finding one? Thanks a lot!
What's up colleagues, how is everything, and what you would like
to say concerning this paragraph, in my view its in fact amazing for me.
When some one searches for his vital thing, therefore he/she
desires to be available that in detail, therefore that thing is maintained over here.
I wanjted to thank you for this fantastic read!! I definitely loved every bit of it.
I have got you saved as a favorite to lok at new thingss you
post…
I am not certain the place you are getting your
info, but good topic. I needs to spend some time studying
much more or figuring out more. Thanks for wonderful information I was in search oof
this inf for my mission.