Advertising Career Search Blog

A Copy Writer's Quest

This is something new for me; it's a blog of my search for real work in the advertising field.
To find out more about me, you can check out my EBay Profile or my last personal website.

This is another of
Bemused Berserker's Eclectic Postings

If this is your first visit, you may want to start with
my first entry.

5/25/07 8:15 PM
    Recent advertising developments: Yesterday, I came across an advertising term that was new to me: "disintermediation". That's what happens when you take something out of it's advertising supported context, and repackage the content. Even though I didn't know the term for it, I've noticed this going on with news and editorial content for a while, especially as search engines gobble up news stories from other sources. In my opinion, unless mega-papers band together and find a way to keep the Googles and Yahoos of the world from taking their content for free (and making a profit on their backs) this is going to continue to shrink their circulation numbers.
    Also, I read that Air Asia sold ads in its financial report, so the company turned a hefty profit on a publication that usually costs thousands of dollars to prepare and publish.
    Advertising banners of note: I've been saving catchy banner ads in an attempt to analyze the common elements that entice my eyes. Here are a few:
(FYI - I am not being paid for these links, and I don't know if I'm even authorized to redisplay the content. I make no claim to ownership of these files, but I am hosting them on my own bandwidth.)

    Guilty admissions of the day: The first thing I thought of when I read the term 'hydraulic scarifier' was "Hmm... I can think of a few people that deserve disfiguring scars..."
    Financial developments: I finally got the hang of the XIRR function in Excel. Using it, you can figure out the return on complex investments. For example, if you make multiples deposits to your IRA, you can use XIRR to figure out the average yield. After running the numbers, I've found that I'm making about 3% interest on my stock investments (which means its time to switch to index funds) and about 6% interest on my Prosper investment (which is a bit lower than I'd like).
    Oh, and I this article about shareholder democracy is fascinating. Apparently, the boardroom has a lot of tools that they use to manipulate votes (ie; extending voting deadlines, contacting big shareholders who might not otherwise vote, deciding rules for acceptable/unacceptable ballots, etc). As a result, when a contentious shareholder proposal passes, it usually passes by a huge margin (something that's too big to fight) and when board proposals pass, they usually pass by slim margins. But, shareholder activism is starting to have some serious effects on corporate policy.
    Activism suggestions: I recently red about the use of forced labor in China. In short, China uses prison labor to produce many goods for export, and many of the prisoners are 1) of questionable guilt and 2) working in abusive conditions. With all the hostility towards Chinese trade policies in the news recently, I'm surprised this hasn't gotten more play in the US media. Germany's Parliament is banning the import of goods made in Laogai Camps, and I think that's a good lead to follow.
   On a totally separate track, the next time you buy eggs, I strongly urge you to boycott eggs produced from DeCoster. Maine Contract Farming ( a DeCoster subsidiary) recently fired someone purely based on their religion. In my opinion, the company deserves to lose more than just a wrongful termination lawsuit.
    I'm still on some cool mailing lists from Austin, and I keep hearing about events that I'd like to participate in. I wonder if any of the hip, trendsetting events that thrive down in Austin would work up here in Dallas? For example, I received an invite to the Austin Sustainable Shopper's Ball and another to take part in the Kill-A-Watt Challenge. With the help of Diana and the rest of the North Texas Environmental Meetup, maybe I can get the ball rolling.
    Contest of the moment: EBay is giving away a trip for two to Boston for their conference (it requires an EBay ID, and you'll need to browse to the alternate means of entry in the "official rules").
    Bizarre Prosper listings of the week: Would you rather fund a boob job or a Kawasaki motorcycle purchase?
    If I could go anywhere in the world right now: I'd go on safari in Africa (although, I think I'd bring a camera instead of a gun).

Other projects/causes...
    Get Judge Bradford fired for ethics abuses
    Require my home state to actually spend it's Anti-Tobacco money fighting Tobacco use
    Add Orange Roughy to the Endangered Species List & Stop Commercial Fishing for it
    My quote page (updated 12/4/2005)
    Send Them Back

Things to do online:
    I check these sites out daily:
    Wapsi Square Comic   -yeah, a guy draws this. That's why it's so great!
    Evil Inc Comic   -as an advertising graduate, there's a side of this comic that really cracks me up
    Starslip Crisis Comic   -what, I need a comment for everything?
    Shortpacked Comic   -my roommate worked at Circuit City (another toy store), and this is spot on
    A Blunter World   -one of my friends digital photo comics

Coming soon: RSS feed

If you want to get in contact with me, try sending an e-mail to the_real_berserker3 {a t} yahoo.com