Fake FAIL: Greenpeace, Yes Men "Arctic Ready" Shell spoof site still hilarious

Shell wants everyone to know how happy they are to be pushing their oil operations further north than ever! Hoping for grassroots Shell fans? ... or something of the like, the world's second-largest company launched an online competition for members of the public to create their own ads. The ads use the campaign catch phrase "Let's Go":

Here at Shell, we’re committed to    online social media. After all,
it’s the fuel that lubricates the engines of internet communication.

In June, thousands of you demonstrated this by explaining,  online, how Arctic energy production will transform the world and possibly provide affordable fuel for  several years.

Even McDonald's says we're working too hard

The New York Times nailed this marketing phenomenon on its head:

"[M]arketers are urging workers to commit small acts of so-called rebellion — like taking a vacation, or going on a lunch break."

Ad campaigns for McDonald's and Las Vegas tourism are apparently picking up on "office burnout." As well as the shrinking lunch break in America. (Surveys and polling suggests that workers in the UK and European countries including Germany, are also increasingly skipping lunches, taking shorter breaks, or having lunches at their desks).

This ad from McDonald's campaign promoting limited availability sandwiches opens with a glum looking office crew and a female member of staff adamantly declaring "I'm going to lunch." A fellow worker moans, "Those days are gone now," while another looms out of an office to warn "Think about what you are doing."

Another co-worker also wants to abandon work for McD's, dramatically stating, "I don't want to be chicken. I want to eat it."

What was once a theme so well articulated by the Occupy movement has now been deployed in ads by savvy marketers aiming to score a few more dollars from the pockets of the already financially squeezed American worker.

crossposted from spin and the media

Maddow points out shoddy reporting in WaPo Romney article

Rachel Maddow spots some sketchy political reporting that recently appeared in the Washington Post. The journalist who wrote the WaPo piece detailed by Maddow has pulled a "repeater," when a reporter passes on the talking points of their sources as reporting.

Fast and Furious fact and fiction: major media organizations bungle story

Operation Fast and Furious and 
the subsequent “fury” that the operation has caused in certain circles in Congress is not new. However, the operation has become a full-blown scandal in recent weeks, with 17 Democrats joining Republicans voting to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in Contempt of Congress. In the meantime, something else has come to light: that all of the charges of “gunwalking” are completely fabricated.


That’s right. Its the phrase you’ve heard over and over again. Gunwalking. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives knowingly allowed guns sold in Arizona to end up across the border as an operational tactic. Unanimously it seems, reporters, relying heavily on the testimony from the GOP-lead Congressional inquiry, got it wrong. One reporter got it right. Katherine Eban, reporting for Fortune, finally set the record straight after an exhaustive six month investigation. ATF agents did not allow guns to be trafficked to Mexico and they did not “lose” guns, as has been widely reported. Phoenix Group VII agents were actually powerless in many cases to intervene and seize guns from straw purchasers due to conflicts with Arizona statutes regarding the “transfer of arms,” a “lack of adequate tools,” cautious senior prosecutors, and a new agency-wide focus on bringing down gun running conspiracies, rather than focusing on low-level straw purchasers. Much of the mass media misreporting on Operation Fast and Furious revolves around three big lies:

1.  The ATF Knowingly or willingly allowed “gunwalking,” resulting in “losing” some 2,000 guns.
2. The Justice Department lied to Congress about the details of the program.
3. The operation was a ploy by the Obama Administration to scare the public into approving an assault weapons ban.

Joe the Plumber uses Holocaust to justify unrestricted gun laws

Cross-posted from Spin and the Media

 

If only the Armenians and Jews had guns, they could have defended themselves from genocide. This is the ridiculous claim Samuel Wurzelbacher makes in his new ad. "Joe the Plumber," made infamous by the McCain campaign and the mainstream media in the 2008 election season, is running as a Republican in Ohio's 9th district. The video reinforces American exceptionalism, uber-Bush-era style patriotism and the idea that Obama wants to "take away our guns."