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Target Market Cross Reference

Alexis Lloyd has created a mini-database of outdoor advertising in different New York neighborhoods; East Harlem, SoHo, and the Upper East Side.  Adscape is an online inventory of ads appearing in public space in the week she took her survey.  The site provides evidence for all those hunches on how marketers target groups of people.  For example, Alexis found 4 ads for phone cards in Harlem, but the ads in SoHo were for cell phones.  In the financial services category the SoHo ads were for credit cards and East Harlem ads were for money transfer services.  Oddly, (maybe) all the alchohol and tobacco ads were in Harlem. 

ABCs in the ATL

If you've ever passed through Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (an even more unwieldy name than Newark Liberty Fahrvergnügen or whatever it's now called), you probably spent a little time on the automated people mover linking the distant concourses. A mechanized female voice calls out each concourse stop: A, B, C, D, E, or T (Terminal). Probably because speaker distortion puts a strain on the voice's enunciation, the concourse's letter is clarified: "Concourse C...as in Charlie" was the first one I heard on a recent trip. That struck me as a little odd, the "ch" sound not being the clearest indicator of the letter C in my book.

But I soon learned that the system was employing the NATO Phonetic Alphabet, as used by the International Civil Aviation Organization. And why not? This is wartime, kids, and maybe a subtle reminder like this allays the anger caused by putting 3-ounce-or-less gels, liquids, and aerosols in a clear 1-liter-or-less zip-top plastic bag to get through airport security.

On my return flight, I paid close attention at each stop: Tango, Alfa, Bravo, Charlie, David, Echo. Wait a minute…David?!? I'm no Army radio operator, but that sounded wrong. It's supposed to be Delta.

Ah, but it can't be Delta. Because Atlanta is the main hub for Delta Air Lines. And that would be too confusing.

So why use the NATO Alphabet in the first place? It's time to revisit this topic, Hartsfield-Jackson International, and I think I know just the person to help.

Seeking your favorites from SF! magazine

Howdy. If you read our magazine and can suggest a favorite article  or interview that you remember from over the years, please let me know. I'm compiling selections for a "best of Stay Free!" book and am incapable of being objective about such things. You can either comment here or email me directly at temporary181 (at) stayfreemagazine.org. Much thanks!

Prank of the Month: Fake Gucci Ad

A few years back, I bought ad space in magazines for Matador. To place an ad, I'd call an ad rep, reserve the space, and send them artwork. Shortly after the ad came out, they'd send me a copy of the ad along with a bill.

So I was psyched to see someone making creative use of this system: A guy in Switzerland, pretending to be a representative from Gucci, called up a weekly paper and reserved a two-page spread. He then sent in a fake ad of himself naked from the waist up, flanked by a bottle of Gucci fragrance. When the bill went to Gucci as he requested, hilarity ensued.

Now if only we could get away with that to advertise iDump...

(Via Adfreak)

P&G builds a market for eating disorders

Just saw this ad from a new campaign promoting the laxative Metamucil and nearly lost my lunch. Procter & Gamble, which markets Metamucil, has repositioned the brand and is now pitching it with the slogan, "Beautify Your Inside."

Now, I'm not the gambling type but if P&G isn't targeting anorexics, bulimics, and other weight-obsessed women with this campaign, you can have my house. Notice how the ad is clearly directed to a much younger audience than the typical (over 60) user of laxatives. Also, the top two questions on the Metamucil website FAQ (what kind of carbs does the drug contain and how many?) are clearly directed to weight-loss junkies.

Metamucil's desperation is all the more clear in that laxatives have fallen out of favor with some "pro-ana" (that is, pro-anorexia) types, partly because they can cause weight gain. Pro-Ana Nation, for instance, warns:

Don't take laxatives. Laxatives can cause serious medical complications, and you actually gain weight by taking them. There are natural laxatives though, found in foods like prunes and grapes. Also, there are certain sugar-free cough drops and candies that produce a laxative effect because of the sugar substitute used in them.

What does Metamucil's brand manager have to say about the overuse of his product by people with eating disorders?

Mr. Podiak says the company isn't worried because Metamucil isn't a drug but a natural fiber supplement... "There's no long-term negative effect" of taking it, he says.

But according to the Metamucil FAQ:

Metamucil is indicated for treating occasional constipation... We recommend you discuss with your doctor the use of Metamucil as a fiber laxative on a long-term basis.

Of course, you could always just listen to the marketing guy instead.

Gay gaze

Thanks to BoingBoing for pointing us to this amazing study demonstrating that, while both men and women concentrate on faces when looking at pictures of men, men's eyes naturally wander south. This may not be news if the phrase 'my eyes are up here' is running through your head, but that isn't what the study showed. In fact, the truth is farther south. Just a touch below the equator.

 

It turns out that men have a considerable secondary focus on the nads of other men. The researchers also point out that:

Men tend to fixate more on areas of private anatomy on animals as well, as evidenced when users were directed to browse the American Kennel Club site.

Which, sadly, helps explain why men like dogs. Big dogs.

The future of Stay Free!

Dear subscribers, blog readers, and friends: After over a decade of running Stay Free!, I'm sad to say that I've decided to stop publishing the magazine. We're going to do one more issue and then publish more-or-less exclusively on the web.  There are a number of reasons, but the over-arching theme is burnout -- burnout coupled with financial woes.

Selling ads has gotten all but impossible. Indie record labels and small book publishers -- our bread-and-butter -- are in the toilet. Ditto newsstand sales. No one goes to book stores looking for zines anymore; the nerds are all online. And while I once welcomed the challenge of making things work on a tight budget, I just can't bring myself to beg another distributor to pay us the money they owe -- or to beg more local stores to let us leave out free magazines.

Stay Free! has been the world to me; nearly every good friend of mine I have I met through the zine. But I'm no longer a twentysomething eager and willing to spend every waking moment working on projects. I don't know when exactly I got sick of not having a personal life but the weight of constantly working really took it's toll last year. While Stay Free! shall continue on the web (ie the blog), there's not going to be as much of it as there was a couple of years ago.

Obviously, there's the matter of owing subscribers for issues they'll never receive. I'm going to look into handing that money to a similar publication (Punk Planet? Mother Jones? Adbusters?), so you will get something.

The street date for the next and last issue -- architecture and obsolescence -- is still up the air. I was hoping to have it out in April or May, but that's looking unlikely at this point. I will, as always, keep you posted.

More traffic for Park Slope?

Though Stay Free! HQ is no longer based in Park Slope, I was nonetheless troubled to read about new changes that the DOT is proposing to 6th and 7th Avenue. Namely: converting them from two-way into one-way streets.

Why is this a problem? One way streets have a heavier traffic load, so it'll bring more traffic to the Slope. Cars on one-way streets tend to go faster, which helps explain why you don't typically see them on cosy, pedestrian-friendly commercial strips like 7th Avenue. If you want to make it easy for people to visit local shops, you don't design the roads for heavy through-traffic.

Streetsblog is on top of the story, so you can find out more about it here and here. I'll keep you posted about things you can do to help oppose or reform the proposal.

UPDATE (3/13/07): Brooklynites can sign a petition against the Park Slope road changes here.

UPDATE (3/14/07): Watch the Streetfilms video documenting the differences between one- and two way avenues in Park Slope.