Christmas is a time to get new stuff. New clothes, new bikes, new gadgets. But this year, the ad industry decided to give us something new and something old. Aw shucks, you shouldn’t have. I’m a firm believer in the saying, "If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it" and nothing can be more true in case of Amazon.com’s holiday campaign out of FCB, San Francisco. When I was growing up, we had only had two Christmas albums in our house (yes, it’s sad, I know). The first was Alvin & The Chipmunks and the second was Holiday Sing Along With Mitch. No Christmas was complete without listening to Mitch Miller singing "Frosty The Snowman" in unison with 20 other men. So you can imagine my excitement when Amazon.com rolled out a second year’s worth of sweatered men singing together like well-trained boy scouts. This year the guys are a little spunkier. They dance a bit more, change wardrobe from spot to spot and the sets add extra meaning to the songs. My favorite in the package is "Feel Like A Kid" where the singing troupe, dressed in shorts and knee socks, sing juvenile lyrics such as, "Stop copying me" and "Say it, don’t spray it." On the what’s new front, the Gap played a little trick on us. Did anyone notice? Its ads have a slightly different feel to them this year. That’s because for the first time in a long time the company didn’t conceive its holiday campaign in-house. Modernista!, Boston, did. Pretty sneaky sis. I didn’t think it was possible to beat the Gap holiday ads from years past with all the colorful, kaleidoscopic images and happy sleigh bell sounds. They just made me want to run out and buy a multi-colored sweater and scarf and start dancing around. But Modernista! succeeded in maintaining Gap’s brand identity while giving the ads a sensibility that’s smarter, more mature and in general kick ass. My favorite is "Snowflakes." It features people slowly free-falling backwards (the camera angle is from above, as if perched on a cloud). The look on their faces is bliss as they float down through the air to an undetermined place. The tag is: "No two are alike." People as snowflakes. Brilliant. But Christmas isn’t all about books and clothes. What about those essential office supplies? Yeah, I’m talking about Staples. The thing that I enjoy about Staples’ advertising is that the spots often take place in the store’s environment and show lots of product, yet they’re still interesting and funny. Its latest :30 out of Cliff Freeman and Partners, New York, called "Sno-Bot" debuts a robot who can help customers learn about Staples’ technology products. But the robot nearly short circuits when it falls in love with a printer that someone is trying to buy. Every time the lovesick tin can intones, "You-can’t-take-her-I-love-her," I just crack up. Yup, I love the holidays and working at SHOOT is like celebrating Christmas every day. We get lots of brown paper packages and FedEx envelopes and boxes all filled with reels, reels, reels. Something tasty would be nice.
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More