Here are updates to three recent posts:
Post: Tech Companies Rediscover the Value of Advertising
Fox has announced that advertising time on the 2014 Super Bowl is sold out at $4 million for a 30-second spot. For its 2013 broadcast, CBS charged $200,000 less on average: $3.8 million per slot. $4 million is the cost of a one-time ad, of course. Frequent advertisers, like Budweiser, pay much less through volume discounts. That discount is another reason why Frequency beats Reach and those technology companies that are new advertisers should not blow the year’s ad budget on the @2014_superbowl.
So who bought all that expensive time? Expect to see ads for the usual suspects: beer, cars and snack food. We are talking a target audience that’s largely made up of young men. Have you ever looked at the contents of the supermarket cart pushed by the man behind you in the checkout line and known immediately that Mom is out of town?
Post: The Three Concepts Behind the Hunger Games
In Wednesday’s @WSJ, Robert Pondiscio riffed on the civics lessons that can be taught from “The Hunger Games.” His op-ed piece, “The Hunger Games is a Civics Lesson” offers an interesting take on the many messages that can be derived from these books and movies. He’s the only other commentator I have seen who referenced the Theseus story at the foundation of Suzanne Collins’s trilogy. I guess reading Greek mythology as a kid paid off.
@rpondiscio mentions lessons from @TheHungerGames on the role of government, literary precedents and historical examples, civic virtues, and the role played by the media among others. Check it out and see which message you think is the most important.
Post: It’s Green; You Can Go!
Caleb Stewart agreed with my post and went a step further. He tapped the State of Massachusetts website, scanned the law about Texting While Driving and found the relevant section. He says, “It clearly states that if you are in a public roadway you are not to be accessing the Internet no matter if you are moving or, standing still waiting for the light.” Here’s what the law says:
“SECTION 9. Said chapter 90 is hereby further amended by inserting after section 13A the following section:
Section 13B. (a) No operator of a motor vehicle shall use a mobile telephone, or any handheld device capable of accessing the internet, to manually compose, send or read an electronic message while operating a motor vehicle. For the purposes of this section, an operator shall not be considered to be operating a motor vehicle if the vehicle is stationary and not located in a part of the public way intended for travel.”
Thanks to @Calebstewart24 for doing the research and sending this information.
Readers, please pass this along to your friends and family, so they understand precisely what the law prohibits.
