Here in the United States of Hackmerica (everyone wave to the NSA and give your pin numbers to Target!), at least some companies are guaranteeing the security of their customers.
Sort of.
Exhibits A and B: These full-page ads in the New York Times.
First, let’s give a standing O to MasterCard.
Notice the asterisk attached to the zero liability program: *Does not apply to MasterCard PIN debit transactions or corporate cards. Restrictions apply.
We’ll bet they do.
Next up, VISA’s got you covered.
Hey, look – VISA also has a zero liability policy, also with an asterisk: *Covers U.S.-issued cards only. Does not apply to ATM transactions, certain commercial card transactions, PIN or other transactions not processed by VISA.
The New York Times featured a piece by Jon Pareles the other day noting the revival of ex-Byrds singer/songwriter Gene Clark and his neglected masterwork No Other.
The reputation of Gene Clark’s 1974 album “No Other” — which was initially spurned by its record company and dismissed by critics as overproduced — has been steadily ascending, particularly since an expanded European reissue on CD in 2003. On Saturday and Sunday, “No Other” is to be performed live at Music Hall of Williamsburg, in as close a replica of the original arrangements as 14 musicians and singers can create onstage. It’s the New York City finale of the “No Other” mini-tour organized by Alex Scally of Beach House.
Which got the hardwaxing staff to recall our own musical odyssey back in the ’60s.
Start with Clark as the main songwriter on the Byrds’ Eight Miles High.
From there Clark went on to record the fantastic Fantastic Expedition of Dillard & Clark, with the indelible tracks Out on the Side, She Darked the Sun, and Train Leaves Here This Mornin’.
And then, No Other.
Which got us to thinking about another Byrds spinoff – The Flying Burrito Brothers, which Gene Clark was not a member of, but which produced one of the hardwaxing staff’s favorite songs.
And one of our favorite song lyrics:
And though I tried so hard to please her
There must be something more to know
Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh
There’s always something more to know, yes?
Like this correction that ran in yesterday’s Times:
First it was the death of Nelson Mandela. Then Chris Christie’s marathon presser in the George Washington Bridge rumpus. Now it’s Chet Curtis, rest his soul.
What do they have in common? All were missed by the Boston Herald’s Press Party, all because the Wayne’s World webcast is produced on Thursday instead of when it should be – on Friday.
This week’s entirely beside-the-point installment:
Geez, guys – just rename the show DePress Party and be done with it, yeah?
UPDATE: Crosstown, WGBH’s Beat the Press featured a lovely tribute to Curtis Friday night.
Herself, of course, worked with Curtis for many years at WCVB, and she started her remembrance this way: “I’ve said this over the last couple of days, there is no one who was better at the ad lib than Chet Curtis, whether it was the Tall Ships or a ten-hour snowstorm or whatever it was . . . ”
That agility shone through in the Boston Globe’s memorials as well.
To WGBH-TV and radio host Emily Rooney, a former news director at WCVB, the respect Mr. Curtis commanded among camera operators and studio crew “speaks volumes” about his professionalism. Beyond his personal likability, Rooney wrote in an e-mail, “There is no single human being in the world, Peter Jennings included, who was better at the ad lib than Chet.”
And here in the same piece:
[A] Globe profile called him “a solid reporter who could think on his feet, ad lib, and handle most any surprise that came across the desk.”
Back in the day – say, 1984 – Super Bowl ads were an excellent surprise.
That classic Apple commercial launched the Golden Age of Adstravaganzas, with the spots reaching for new levels of creativity and impact.
And surprise.
Nowadays, though, Super Bowl ads are more like the booby prize, thanks to all the pre-game hype and the hyper-analysis attached to the Super Bawling.
This piece by New York Times ad columnist Stuart Elliott, which examines the return of H&M (and David Beckham) to the Big Game after a year’s absence, illustrates some of the microscopic attention Super Bowl ads are now getting.
Several surveys released this week suggest little anticipation among consumers for another H&M commercial. For example, the 12th annual Super Bowl Engagement Survey by Brand Keys, a research consultancy in New York, described H&M as among the “ad underdogs” because it was one of eight sponsors with low engagement, which includes interest, among respondents.
And then there’s this:
Also, H&M is not among the top 10 Super Bowl advertisers being talked about before the game, according to data from Blab, a Seattle company that monitors social media in real time.
In a relatively new twist, more and more of the SB ads are getting their own ads – teasers that lead up to the Big Game spot, such as this one for Bud Light.
Volkswagen makes fun of the whole scientific approach to the Super Spots in its own teaser.
As the Times piece points out, the Holy Grail is the USA Today Super Bowl Ad Meter that runs the next day. At one time, Anheuser-Busch would produce dozens of TV spots, convene a focus group with the same essential makeup as the USA Today panel, and see which ads tested best. Those were the ones A-B would run on the Super Bowl broadcast. (Not sure if the beermaker still does that, but would’t be surprised.)
Regardless, the whole exercise is becoming more of a test-tube experiment than a marketing adventure. Maybe that’s why a recent study by the research group Communicus found that only one in five Super Bowl ads actually sells products. They’re far too busy selling the ads for something as mundane as that.
Richard Tisei (R-JustMissed) is ready for Round 2 with 6th district Rep. John Tierney (D-Won’t Be Missed). And the Democrats are picking up right where they left off in 2012.
DCCC HITS TISEI AS HE ANNOUNCES BID: Former Massachusetts Republican state Sen. Richard Tisei, who narrowly lost to Rep. John Tierney in 2012, will announce today that he’s seeking a rematch—and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is welcoming him to the race with a web video tying him to the tea party. “Massachusetts voters rejected Richard Tisei in 2012: maybe it’s because he called the Tea Party a ‘God-send,’” the video says, showing photos of Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich.
Here’s the video, titled “The Tea Party Hasn’t Change, Neither Has Richard Tisei.”
The attacks haven’t changed either: The video is remarkably similar to an ad Tierney ran in 2012.
The Boston Globe’s Stephanie Ebbert labeled similar claims in another Tierney ad misleading.
With a recent poll showing him trailing his opponent, US Representative John F. Tierney has launched a scathing new television ad that tries to tar his moderate prochoice Republican challenger as a conservative who wants to restrict access to abortion and birth control.
The ad says Richard R. Tisei “defended the Tea Party Republican platform,” with a constitutional amendment banning abortion, even in cases of rape or incest or a threat to the life of the mother.
As evidence, the ad points to Tisei’s comment about the GOP platform in August: “It is what it is.”
But those comments are incomplete, and, like other elements of the ad, misleading.
Of course, leading with misleading is very much in the Tierney tradition. This is gonna get even nastier than the first round.
As former Sen. Scott Brown (R-Elsewhere) Hamlets the Granite State, the New Hampshire Democratic Party has cooked up a little something to help voters make up their minds.
The New Hampshire Democratic Party, seizing on the fact that Scott Brown’s website is currently under construction, has created a fake website for him with all the reasons he wouldn’t be a good candidate: http://scottbrownnotfornh.com/
Here’s how it looks:
The NH Dems also have a Twitter feed with four followers (no, we’re not one of them) and no tweets.
As you splendid readers of this thing might remember, last month the hardworking staff wondered about this full-page ad that ran – twice – in the New York Times.
What we wondered, specifically, was whether outgoing New York mayor Michael Bloomberg himself had paid for the ad.
(The website Snarker – sorry, Gawker – wondered the same thing.)
So we emailed the “Appreciative New Yorkers” credited for buying the ad and asked if they were, in fact, a front group for Michael Bloomberg.
And, a month later, they’ve responded thusly:
Thank you for your comment. We are an independent group of private donors that wanted to thank the Mayor and his administration for his 12 years of service to the City of New York.
The Great Boston MediaWatch Dogfight this week provides another episode in our long-running One Town, Two Different Places mediadrama.
Boston Herald’s underdog Press Party featured this:
On Press Party this week we talk about why the media’s attention was so focused on Chris Christie’s “Bridgegate” when they should have turned their heads to look at a different kind of watergate.
The national media mostly ignored the West Virginia water crisis that left 300,000 people without clean water. Boston Herald Radio’s Adriana Cohen points out that if there was a chemical spill in Concord, residents would be out of luck because water bottles are banned.
The media fail of the week also comes from West Virginia when a local paper printed a description of a suspect and said he was “described as a black male.” This did not go over well with City Councilor TIto Jackson who says many times black suspect’s pictures are larger than white suspects and news organizations need to look at that as an ethical issue as well.
Wayne’s World webcast here:
Crosstown at big dog WGBH’s Beat the Press, it was a whole different stories.
The Beatniks discussed his ‘n’ her columns by Bill and Emma Keller about cancer victims, Gabriel Sherman’s new book about Fox Newshound Roger Ailes, and NESN reporter Jenny Dell’s romantic link to Red Sox third baseman Will Middlebrooks.
Campaign Outsider 