by Freddy J. Nager, Founder of Atomic Tango LLC Warning: The following blog post contains full frontal liberal snarking and might not be appropriate for all audiences. If you’re a Republican with a thin skin, please escape now to somewhere you might feel more at home. The way I see it, ridiculing Sarah Palin is [...]
Tags:Al Gore·Apple·branding·Coca-Cola·ethics·John Kerry·Karl Rove·marketing·Microsoft·Pepsi·politics·positioning·publicity·Sarah Palin·social media·Swift Boaters·Walmart
by Freddy J. Nager, the guy at Atomic Tango LLC who calls himself a “Fusion Director” Not since Sarah Palin claimed “executive experience” has anything this silly been uttered about top management…
Tags:brand management·branding·chief marketing officers·CMO·corporate politics·executives·marketing·Microsoft·reputation·Ron Shevlin
by Freddy J. Nager, Founder & Fusion Director, Atomic Tango LLC “Sincerity is everything. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made.” — George Burns The movement du jour amongst us liberal marketers is “authenticity.” It’s the impassioned belief that companies should be open and honest about who they are and what they stand [...]
Tags:Authenticity·branding·business·business ethics·consumers·John Mackey·Karl Rove·liberalism·marketing·Twitter·Whole Foods
by Freddy J. Nager, Founder & Fusion Director, Atomic Tango LLC Previously on Cool Rules Pronto… Pizza Hut became “The Hut,” evoking images of Jabba — or worse. Now word comes that another iconic American brand has likewise simplified: Radio Shack is now “The Shack,” evoking images of a giant basketball player. Their new tagline, [...]
by Freddy J. Nager, Founder & Fusion Director, Atomic Tango LLC I couldn’t resist the bait. A direct marketing guy on LinkedIn posed the following question: “Why don’t most advertising agencies pay as much attention to results as they do to their creative and the awards that they can achieve?… Don’t get me wrong, I [...]
Tags:advertising·Apple·BMW·branding·Coca-Cola·creativity·direct marketing·Pepsi
by Freddy J. Nager, Founder & Fusion Director, Atomic Tango LLC File under “What the Hell Were They Thinking?!” A few days ago, Microsoft leaked a new ad for Internet Explorer 8 — though I’m not sure if “leaked” is the right verb for it. More like spilled, yakked up, upchucked, and Technicolor yawned it. [...]
Tags:advertising·branding·IE8·Internet Explorer·Microsoft·OMGIGP·viral video
by Freddy J. Nager, Founder & Fusion Director, Atomic Tango LLC Talk about truth in advertising: this really is a dream job. Murphy-Goode Winery in Sonoma County, California, is offering one lucky applicant a six-month gig to be their “social media whiz.” The job involves blogging/posting/tweeting/videotaping the winery, its products, the lifestyle and the surrounding [...]
Tags:branding·buzz marketing·careers·contests·jobs·Murphy-Goode·social media·viral marketing·Web 2.0·wine
by Freddy J. Nager, Founder & Fusion Director, Atomic Tango LLC Of course, you already know that Pringles aren’t really potato chips. One bite told you that. You just ate ‘em because they make good midnight munchies. And they come in that cool tube. But the blogosphere buzzed when parent company Proctor & Gamble publicly [...]
Tags:branding·brands·marketing·Pringles·Proctor & Gamble·Wal-Mart
by Freddy J. Nager, Founder & Fusion Director, Atomic Tango LLC So my longtime bank, Washington Mutual (WaMu), recently got taken over by megabank Chase. ‘Twas a sad day for us WaMulians, because for all its faults — and it had a few — WaMu was a friendly place to bank, with everything from chirpy [...]
Intrigued by the Ed Hardy wines at his local Whole Foods, Pulitzer Prize winning writer Dan Neil performed exploratory surgery on that insatiable branding machine Christian Audigier. The resulting L.A. Times article is a brilliant and funny study of branding gone wild…
Tags:branding·Christian Audigier·Dan Neil·Ed Hardy·fashion·marketing·wine·writing
"Common sense is the little man in a gray suit who never makes a mistake at addition, but it's always someone else's money he's adding up."
- Raymond Chandler
Let's hear it for uncommon sense: that inner itch that inspires you to stray from the herd, ditch the training wheels and leap into the fast lane. As we all know, it's the risk takers who get their faces on the cover of Wired magazine and their words on National Public Radio. No one ever remembers who won "honorable mention"...
Cool Rules Pronto celebrates uncommon sense in marketing and media. It's written by Freddy J. Nager, the Founder & Fusion Director of the L.A.-based creative strategy agency Atomic Tango, and marketing instructor at UCLA Extension, the University of Wales, and Antioch University L.A.
