The smiley face is completely dead, but now so is the hyphen and the 'battleship' blue color scheme.

According to Clusterstock:

Now that Wal-Mart (WMT) is everyone's favorite stock pick (including Jim Cramer's), the company will try to shed its dowdy image with this new logo.

The news first came out when a Shelby, Tennessee store builder blabbed that he was instructed to affix Wal-Mart's new logo to a recently built chain outside Memphis.

Wal-Mart has yet to 'officially' announce the move to the new look, but sources in the Wall Street Journal article are saying it will be made public later this week.

The big change will consist of Wal-Mart dropping the hyphen/star and becoming a one-word brand. The color scheme, formerly described as 'battleship blue' (does it get more patriotic than that?), will now be 'burnt orange' with a sunburst logo at the end.

(Wal-Mart in its current incarnation)

I love the quote that the WSJ used from Chip Saliba, the Tennessee planning and development manager who blabbed about the new logo:

"They have had the most dull, boring signs for 30 years," Mr. Saliba said. "The new one is kind of funky looking, but I like it," he added.

Setting aside the fact that the old boring design featured a large yellow, 70s-style 'peace and love' smiley face, I'm pretty sure going from blue to 'burnt orange' doesn't constitute funky at all. Neon pink and psychedelic Magic Eye posters would be more conducive to the phrase.

But what about the hyphen? Was it slowing people down too much? In this age of instant gratification and lightning-fast internet connections, was stopping to pause in the middle of Wal . . . Mart too much of a drain on up-beat, ultra-thrifty consumers? I really hope some enterprising reporter takes the 'Wal to task on this issue in the upcoming new logo press conference.

These are the issues the American people are concerned with.

WSJ: Wal-Mart Plans New Logo To Update Image, June 28, 2008

Clusterstock: Wal-Mart Sick of Boring Logo, Loses Hyphen Adds Exciting Sunburst, June 30, 2008

What’s the big deal? It’s two things guys like -condoms and beer- merging together to make the perfect cross promotional marketing scheme. Great idea, right? Wrong.

The story goes, one guy was polishing off a brew at his local watering hole and looked down to see the distinctive Trojan logo sitting at the bottom of his glass. Upon further inspection it turns out it wasn’t a condom or a condom wrapper at all, merely a sticker slapped on the base of the glass peering up at him. On the reverse side is the image of a pig’s snout.

It’s all part of Trojan’s ‘evolve’ ad campaign aimed at painting condomless ‘bare-back’ lovers as pig-like sexual deviants. It seems to be a pretty effective TV commercial, although whenever I see it I can’t help but notice the ‘pigs’ look like they are having a really good time.

But as a sticker advertisement on the bottom of my drink? It grosses me out way too much. The Consumerist points out that it feels an awful lot like drinking Stifler’s bedroom beer in the original American Pie movie. I’m not sure I would go that far, but it does make me think twice about that frothy last sip of backwash in my glass.

Holy Juan: A Condom In My Beer, June 10, 2008 via Consumerist

This image was posted yesterday at 1-2 Knockout, titled "The Apple Ad That, uh, Never Quite Made It".

Are things really that bad out there right now?

The Playlist:
1. ) Tom Petty - "Learning To Fly"
2.) Steve Miller Band - "Fly Like An Eagle"
3.) Sugar Ray - "Fly"
4.) Fat Joe ft. Lil Wayne - "Make It Rain"
5.) Third Eye Blind - "Jumper"
6.) Beck - "Loser"
7.) Pink Floyd - "Goodbye Cruel World"
8.) Starship - "We Built This City" (because it's awesome)

Any more?

1-2 Knockout: The Apple Ad That, uh, Never Quite Made It, June 17, 2008

Rockstar Games' biggest franchise, Grand Theft Auto IV, breaks all the rules with an April release and more death, destruction, and hookers than ever before.

The highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto IV is expected to sell 6 million copies within the first week, and 9 million by year's end. Unsurprisingly pre-order sales have been the driving force behind these estimates. Sites like play.com stopped issuing pre-order vouchers earlier this month because due to the sheer volume of orders they could no longer guarantee fulfilling them.

The interesting tactic behind GTA IV is its release 4 months after the peak of video game season. This is usually defined as the months leading up to the Winter holidays, where Mom and Dad are more likely to crack open their purses for a $60 game or $300 system. This new marketing technique will be taking video games out of the cool Christmas present novelty and into the everyday purchase realm.

The cool bundle packaging of the game with a duffel bag, artbook, lockbox and soundtrack makes the special edition an even sweeter deal at $90.

This seems like a reasonable technique because the holidays are becoming an increasingly cramped time to release a game while all the other new releases are coming out. Games released during this period constantly have to vie for advertising space in the gaming magazines and put up with expensive tv ad slots.

Many comparisons are being made to the movie business, where the main season attraction is the summer blockbuster that captivates the time (and wallets) of students on spring break. If content is strong enough to drive sales during thoff-peak months, then the brand will continue to be successful. As with Grand Theft Auto IV, a well known and much anticipated game is making its debut during an off-peak time period and relishing the breathing room from competition.

The game was originally scheduled to be released in October of 2007, but suffered some major setbacks. A few bugs and technical errors arose that needed fixing.

According to the article in Portfolio.com, Take-Two Interactive, the owner of Rockstar Games has also encountered some non-technical problems:

In the past 12 months Take-Two lost key staff, weathered a S.E.C. investigation of stock-option issuing, and has been fighting a hostile takeover by behemoth Electronic Arts.

You may know Electronic Arts (EA) as the makers of such popular games as Madden and the upcoming Monopoly game. And conventional wisdom said when they wanted something, the got it. That hasn't been the case and Take-Two has defended well.

Another interesting item from the Portfolio article is this:

However, the loosing of the holiday ties also lies with the consumer. According to the 2007 Electronic Software Association report, the average videogamer is a 33-year-old male. It seems the teenagers who grew up with old Nintendo systems are still playing—and don’t need to beg their parents to put a $60 videogame under the Christmas tree. “We don’t need freaking Santa Claus to deliver it,” Hickey says. “There are adults playing this thing now.”

I find this slightly surprising, but it makes sense. Due to the graphic nature (NSFW) of these games, the content continues to push edgier and older. Good thing they have the buyers who can support the brand in spite of all the backlash from parent and moral values groups.

Portfolio: Spring Gaming, April 29, 2008

A major ad-campaign on the web, TV and billboards for a fake TV show turns out to be a big ad for new LG flat-screen televisions.

The ads for 'Scarlet' were popping up on Gawker, Variety, and E!, and they all featured smokin' hot model-actress Natassia Malthe kicking-ass and blowing stuff up. Even the website, plugged in the ads, didn't give any inkling that this wasn't really a new TV series, but actually a 'series of new TVs'.

According to the Associated Press (AP), it was all revealed to a group of insider-Hollywood-types last night at 'the premiere' at the Pacific Design Center. Even Lindsay Lohan got all dolled up and attended the premiere. But it doesn't sound like the press in attendance were happy about being duped. As the ploy of a clever marketing campaign, many were disappointed and not amused by the deception.

The series was also hyped as being a new creation by director David Nutter, the man behind 'The Sopranos" and "Smallville", which probably increased the attention given to it.

The strange part about the whole campaign is that there is no reference or depiction of a new product in the ads. The website promoting the new series features trailers, behind the scenes videos, and interviews with the director and cast. Once you're aware of the rouse, going back and watching the promotional clips is bizarre. There are all these tongue in cheek references to 'this new TV star', 'nothing we've seen before', 'will change the face of TV as we know it'.

It's kind of like all those cool secret websites and finds for stuff like Lost and Cloverfield. But the guys at LG capitalized on all that hype and inserted a fake TV show to promote a new product.

I'm a little disappointed, because surprisingly 'the show' looked pretty cool. Reminded me a lot of that crappy 'Elektra' move with Jennifer Garner, but might have been worth a viewing.

When interviewing Tim Alessi, LG director of product development and advertising, the AP reports:

The company won't say how much they've spent on the global campaign, although Alessi confirms it was millions more than a typical product launch in the U.S.

Well was it all really worth it? I hope David Nutter got paid a huge amount, because I don't know if anyone can take him seriously after this. Once you go over that edge, what will your fans think?

On LG's end, it's pretty brilliant. They got all this attention on both ends. Hype leading up the fake launch, and then on the other end with backlash (meaning: more hype) on the product after the big reveal.

Can't wait to see what sales are like on this thing. Let us know what you think of this campaign in the comments section.

AP: 'Secret' of 'Scarlet' revealed, April 29, 2008

Pocket-lint: LG tricks press with 'Scarlet' TV series premier, April 29, 2008

Miley Cyrus, 15-year-old Pop sensation and Disney Channel TV star, was photographed in some controversial photos for the upcoming issue of Vanity Fair magazine. Could this jeopardize her tour, earnings, Disney contract, or public appearance?

Although the photos seems pretty innocuous, much has been made about this story because of Cyrus' squeaky clean image. Her tour has been sold out for months at many of the country's major arenas and her Disney TV show, Hannah Montana is driving the channel's ratings. Many parents saw Miley as a breath of fresh air in stark contrast to the sex tape selling, nude posing, bad girls of Paris Hilton, Jamie-Lynn And Britney Spears, and Lindsay Lohan. All of that may be coming to an end.

Lin Burress, a writer from a popular good values parenting blog, called for a public burning of all of Miley's stuff in response to another good girl biting the dust:

I’ve got a suggestion for parents of what should be done with all the Hanna Montana crap that parents have bought for their kids. Bonfire anyone?

Retail sales for the Hannah franchise are expected to total about $1 billion in 2008. A motion picture is in the works for 2009 and Miley recently signed a seven-figure book deal with the Disney Book Group. Also, don't forget that more than 3 million viewers regularly watch “Hannah Montana,” most of them age 6 to 14.

A Disney spokeswoman, Patti McTeague, attacked Vanity Fair for the photo in a comment in the New York Times article. “Unfortunately, as the article suggests, a situation was created to deliberately manipulate a 15-year-old in order to sell magazines,” she said.

The accompanying article in the upcoming June issue of Vanity Fair quotes Miley as saying, “Annie took, like, a beautiful shot, and I thought it was really cool. That’s what she wanted me to do, and you can’t say no to Annie.” She also said of the photo, “I think it’s really artsy. It wasn’t in a skanky way.”

Good thing it wasn't in a skanky way indeed. To be fair, this really isn't a bad photo at all. Although she does look kind of creepy and Goth in this thing. But apparently both her parents (including her father Billy Ray's achy breaky heart and mullet) were presiding over the shoot. There's even a few shots of her and dad on a motorcycle (both have their shirts on though, phew!). Is anyone thinking about Bobby Kennedy's feelings being involved in this?! I mean come on, he's on the cover and I'm sure his legacy with the 6-14-year-old audience is being hurt by association as well.

Could this controversy cost Miley all those big potential tween moneys? Let us know in the comments if this is as blown out of proportion as we think it is.

New York Times: Revealing Photo Threatens a Major Disney Franchise, April 28, 2008