Marketing industry news, opinion & analysis • Sections •

The rise of eBooks and the myth of affordability

Major drum roll from the guys at Amazon.com for their announcement that “Amazon.com customers now purchase more Kindle books (eBooks) than hardcover books.” The group went on to claim that for every 100 hardcover books sold, it has sold 143 Kindle books.

The statistics given out by the giant online retailer don’t look quite so amazing when put in proper context. In fact, quite a different story emerges that indicates the traditional publishing business is unprepared to embrace the new dynamics eBooks bring to the market.

This gets fucking tired man

The latest anti-BP ‘ad’ to go viral comes from the guys at www.UnFuckTheGulf.com. Some of it is pretty funny. But four fucking minutes of people going fuck you gets fucking lame 40 seconds in. The last time fuck was a ‘dangerous’ word was on the playground in kindergarden. Nothing novel about it. Anger doesn’t come packaged in neatly produced videos. I’m not sure why we pretend it does? Fuck BP. Yeah. You had me at “Birds are fucked…”

When tweeting an opinion is a fireable offence, media loses

The debate sparked by CNN’s firing of Nasr can be found all over the web with some big-name journalists venturing an opinion. Lucky for them, they don’t work for CNN. Many journalism schools still don’t encourage students to form or express opinions. It’s because journalists need to be objective, not takes sides, thus offering the complete story to readers so they can form their own opinion rather than have yours crammed down their throat.

TV’s world cup, but real growth for online too

TV owned the 2010 FIFA World Cup. There, I said it. While the Internet increasingly owns breaking news and the various South African news portals came up with numerous strategies for making their world cup content as engaging as possible, it could not even attempt to mimic the vibe of families, friends, even communities, gathering together in the real world in front of TV screens to follow the main matches.

Cannes report back: Collaboration key to creativity

Cannes report back: Collaboration key to creativity
By Anton Crone, Executive Creative Director, Saatchi & Saatchi Cape Town

Cannes. La Croisette. Locked onto the scent of red carpet we are heading for La Palais du Festival; the Med to our left, the Majestic hotel to our right and leashed chihuahua’s everywhere in between. Like a snail underfoot, except crunchy on the inside, you have to keep your eyes peeled for these guide dogs of the gliteratti, but if they are not trotting along the pavement with their madame in tow, they are taking a well deserved Louise Vuitton bag break, nesting among mascara sticks and bejeweled cell phones.

AfrikaBurn, Coconut-Prawn Curry & frozen Tequila

Andrew Whitehouse, Executive Creative Director at FoxP2, attended the AfrikaBurn (a South African take on the famous Burning Man) event held in the Karoo in April. He took some pictures and jotted down some words exclusively for MarkLives.

Die Taal se award show – flash drive of floppy

In 1994, the year democracy dawned and Afrikaans finally lost its political dominance, a group of Afrikaans media and cultural organisations teamed up to launch the Pendoring Afrikaans Advertising Awards. The awards intended to reward advertising created in Afrikaans

Steri Stumpie launches new social media campaign

teri Stumpie has launched a new phase of its social media campaign called Flavour Nation.

Ad ‘an attack on humour’

Romans Pizza has pulled its Boerizza TV ad featuring a blonde woman playing dumb and common. A viewer complained to the Advertising Standards Authority stating that the ad constituted “an attack on Afrikaans white women who are marginalized. It portrays this group of society as being backward and sex crazed.”

Journalists’ Association backs Zapiro in Muhammad cartoon controversy

The Professional Journalists’ Association supports the court ruling, made late last night, that has allowed the Mail & Guardian to publish a cartoon, drawn by Jonathan Shapiro/Zapiro, depicting Mohammed in today’s edition.