Billy Idol Got It Right: With This, and Essentially Every Blog Post, I Am Dancing With Myself

Posted on March 7, 2012 by Dennis Ryan

Check out this infographic, swiped from those innovative wags over at mbaonline.com.  It simply serves up widely-available data about our daily web interactions, but viewed in the collective–with pretty pictures–it’s staggering.  Three years ago, I used to blow clients minds with the simple fact that everyday, people upload 9,200 hours of video to YouTube, a figure made more staggering since there are only 8,760 hours in a year.

Today, that number stands at 864,000 hours of video.  Or damn near 100 years worth of kitties and bad karaoke uploaded every day.  The ease of posting from your cell phone makes this inevitable.

On the upside, I guess I don’t have to sweat my punctuation and word choice so much: with two million blog posts launching every day, who’s gonna notice?

Anyway, enjoy.  Or get very scared.  Or, far more likely, go find some other distraction.  The net’s lousy with them…

Dennis Ryan, CCO, Olson, Minneapolis, Chicago

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Not Sure Exactly What This Says But If Nothing Else, It Says “Don’t Call Me A ‘Soccer Mom’”

Posted on March 5, 2012 by Dennis Ryan
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Underground parking lot, Excelsior and Grand Apartments

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Found on Flickr: The Subversive Wit of TrustoCorp

Posted on March 2, 2012 by Dennis Ryan

My friend Jeff Berg was surfing images on Flickr when he came across this gem:

Dennis Ryan, CCO, Olson, Minneapolis, Advertising, Design

This is the work of TrustoCorp–an organization shrouded in mystery but extremely adept at Photoshop and high-end tagging.  Neither of us had ever heard of them before Jeff happened upon their photostream, but a quick Google search showed they have everything from a simple website that provides a slideshow tour of their postings around the island of Manhattan, to a Facebook page and a Twitter feed.

According to their bio on Flickr, “TrustoCorp is a New York based artist (or artists) dedicated to highlighting the hypocrisy and hilarity of human behavior through sarcasm and satire. TrustoCorp targets areas in the public domain typically reserved for messages of trust and authority and subverts them with messages of mayhem and absurdity hijacked from the visual style of our authorities.”

Hey, it’s a Friday so try to find a few minutes to poke around their provocative work.  It will make you laugh and make you mad, perhaps even at the same time.  Artists…

By Dennis Ryan, CCO, Olson

 

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Not All Political Advertising Is Hideous

Posted on February 28, 2012 by Dennis Ryan

Okay, strictly speaking, perhaps this ad isn’t truly political.  Hayley Wade is not some strident polemist but rather a student at the University of Calgary who really wants to be elected their Vice President of Student Life.  She has a well defined platform which addresses issues like making the ONEcard accessible all over campus and improving accessibility for disabled students.  A brief perusal of her Tumblr site shows her to be level headed and well intended.

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But not humorless, god love her.  This is a poster designed specifically for campus men’s rooms.  Great media buy Hayley.  If only American politics operated with such non-divisive, demographic-specific inclusiveness…

By Dennis Ryan, CCO, Olson

 

 

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In My Day, We Called Them “Bottlecaps”

Posted on February 23, 2012 by Dennis Ryan

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“Flavor-Lock Crown”?  Really?  And by that you mean…an air-tight seal?  What makes this news?  What qualifies this as a Unique Selling Proposition™?

Look, I grew up on Vitamin B but sometimes, you gotta tell a friend when their behavior is ridiculous.  And seriously Bud, this is dopey.

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Self-Loathing Fashion

Posted on February 22, 2012 by Dennis Ryan
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Photo Taken At Stoneridge Tubing Park, Nordic Mountain, WI

Or at best, deeply conflicted.  How else to explain the idea of combining hunter safety orange and camouflage?

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Unfortunate Adjacency: The Scourge Of Media Departments Everywhere

Posted on February 20, 2012 by Dennis Ryan

The musically-named Ben Pfutzenreuter, one of our talented younger writers here at Olson, enjoyed a few after work beers last week at Legends Bar & Grill.  And as one will during the course of the evening, he ventured to the men’s room.  And there on a wall, he saw these two ads mounted one above the other.  I’m sure neither advertiser would be particularly happy about it, but their dismay can’t begin to rival Brian Robert, CEO of Comcast.  Must be a hands-on leader…

Dennis Ryan, CCO, Olson, Minneapolis, Advertising, Digital

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Shelf Stable Dairy Products: Everyday Miracle or Terrifying Threat to All That Is Good and Holy?

Posted on February 17, 2012 by Dennis Ryan

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Seriously, Half and Half?  Pulled from a box on a shelf?  How is that even remotely possible when the stuff goes bad in the fridge in less than ten days?

This doesn’t really keep me up at night but it distracted me for a good ten minutes in a meeting this week.

By Dennis Ryan, CCO, Olson

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Bob Brihn Told Me This Yesterday…

Posted on February 16, 2012 by Dennis Ryan


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Better–Or At Least More Interesting–Living Through The Wonders of Extrusion Technology

Posted on February 15, 2012 by Dennis Ryan

Dennis Ryan, Olson, Advertising, DigitalPerhaps someday, you’ll find yourself in this particular circumstance:

  • 1.  You’ll pull into a SuperAmerica for gas.
  • 2.  You’ll feel peckish so you’ll check out the hot dog roller.
  • 3.  Yet you really, really would prefer a cheeseburger…

That will be your lucky day.  Imagine: delicious cheeseburger-ishness rolling back in forth on a perpetual warming grill.  Innovation like THIS is why America leads the world…at least in obesity and cardiac failure.

By Dennis Ryan, CCO, Olson

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