Marketing

Haute Links: When Blogs Become Ads

Mysterious Suitors: OkCupid's Latest Venture Might be a Ruse

Loser Pudding: Jell-O Celebrates 49ers' Loss

Supermarkets No Longer Treat Generics as the Shame of the Cart

​Grocery chains have been rebranding their generic store brands for a decade or two now with flashier packaging and better names -- Whole Foods' 365, Safeway's O Organics -- but a new story from Bloomberg Business Week/SF Chronicle reports that the chains are now initiating large-scale marketing ... More >>

Claim: Limewire's Shutdown Reduced Music Piracy by 7 Percent

​The nationally-recognized market research nerds NPD Group just released their latest poll, which suggests the shutdown of the file-sharing application Limewire this past October reduced peer-to-peer-based music piracy in the U.S. by a significant 7 percent. Wait, that many of you were still ... More >>

Blight Might Make Right

Joe Nice: Show Preview

Zynga-Hired Advertiser to Pay City $45,000 for Illegal Guerrilla Marketing

Meyer Lansky would not be impressed.​The company hired by San Francisco-based social game developer Zynga to promote one of its games has agreed to pay the city $45,000 in fines for illegal marketing tactics, City Attorney Dennis Herrera announced today.Back in August, the city attorney's office w ... More >>

Zynga Off the Hook for Mafia Wars Vandalism, S.F. City Attorney Says

​It looks like Zynga is not going to face legal or financial consequences for alleged sidewalk vandalism carried out as part of a marketing campaign for the San Francisco-based company's new online game, Mafia Wars: Las Vegas.Instead, according to Matt Dorsey, spokesman for San Francisco City Atto ... More >>

Zynga in Hot Water with San Francisco City Attorney Over 'Mafia Wars' Marketing

Dennis Herrera is taking off the gloves over Zynga's 'Mafia Wars'​The San Francisco City Attorney's office is going after social-gaming company Zynga -- maker of such popular Facebook applications as FarmVille and Mafia Wars -- for what it calls an "illegal and actionable" marketing campaign to pr ... More >>

Fast Company Influence Project Pisses Off Online Influencers

You can add another entry to the annals of botched social media campaigns; Fast Company and San Francisco based digital marketing agency Mekanism turned Fast Company readers into digital guinea pigs this morning with The Influence Project, an ornate marketing rickroll where users had to register the ... More >>

Tourism Board on Odd Juxtaposition of Words 'County' and 'Country': We Meant to Do That!

Is Sonoma Country a constitutional monarchy? Or do its kings still rule by divine right? ​You receive odd things when you work at a newspaper. A job candidate signifying he or she was ready to "hit the ground running" sent us some baby shoes (we gave them to a baby). An even more deranged candidat ... More >>

Career optimization: Being a journalist in the Internet age

When No One Loves You, Corporate Email is There

In the realm of manipulative marketing tactics, it doesn't get much better than a love letter. "Do you love J.Crew?" the email wants to know. But before you have time to think about it, the subject line assumes your devotion to the brand and announces, "We love you too."​  Is there anything m ... More >>

Making a Buck off San Francisco's Misery or an Honest Corporation Concerned About Our Welfare? Either Way, Flaming Outhouses Make For Great Publicity.

Somewhere, in his personal Fortress of Ultimate Darkness, the Outhouse Arsonist has to be burning up. His -- and we're assuming this one is a man, sorry -- little crusade to protest rampant construction in well-heeled Russian Hill/protest consumerism/kick sand in the face of capitalist society/burn ... More >>

Garrison Keillor: The Man on the Radio in the Red Shoes

Note to the Privately Insured: St. Luke's Wants You!

By Lauren Smiley Billboards have popped up around the city this month in a new ad campaign from California Pacific Medical Center reading, "Rediscover St. Luke's....the SoMa gateway to California Pacific Medical Center. We're here to stay!" It sounds a tad bit defiant, but marketers figure th ... More >>

It's the economy, a$$hole

A swanky hotel chain's four-letter ad campaign.

Is Yelp Extorting San Fran Businesses for Good Reviews?

By Bonnie Ruberg For anybody who’s new to the Bay Area, or who just wants to check up on a business before stepping foot in the door, Yelp.com is invaluable. With 25,000 listings in San Francisco alone, the site lets customers post public reviews of everything from the restaurants they love to t ... More >>

TV's 'Apprentice' Uses Product Placement to Combat TiVo's Fast-Forward Button

So Does That Mean Weeklies Were Ahead Of Their Time? Shit, They've Always Been Free

Blood Feast

Lotus Vodka Filled with Life-Giving Vitamins ... and Cirrhosis-Causing Alcohol!

Dear Emily

$50K on Anti-Drinking Ads: Yeah, That'll Make a Dent

Letters to the Editor

July 5, 2006

Sloganeering

For years the city has been using racy ads to sell HIV prevention. Do they work?

The Smoking Gun

A treasure trove of damning evidence against Big Tobacco has been unearthed at UCSF

Real to Reel

Jesse Kipp's job in the emerging field of commercial ethnography could make you the star of your very own advertisement

Under the Gun

Why the Army thinks a 30-year-old college-educated California bull rider will help it recruit soldiers during wartime

Sold American

It's the reel thing: Coke and other brands in a funny montage of product placements

Gift of the Magus

It's nice to think the right presents could make this a merry holiday season. Nice, but not particularly wise.

Read It, Hug It

The new Chron may not be better, but it is more emotionally available

Crushed

A successful, prolific inventor reveals how not to create a new product

Porn to Sell

Product placement comes to adult videos...hey, watch where you put that thing!

The House of Tudor

Reel World

Unspun

Letters

Dialing for AIDS Dollars

National group soaks donors for telemarketing scheme as Republicans seize Capitol Hill