I like being in-the-know and being at the begining of the curve when it comes to changes. So while it may have taken me a while to catch on, I am in the begging stages of adapting FourSquare.

At first, I didn’t understand the point. It seemed to me like it was simply people bragging about where they were eating or going out. But then I learned from someone saavier than I, about the tips that FourSquare can offer.

As the person who always orders the one gross thing on the menu, I was excited to use the tips to order with confidence and to know the hottest places to eat brunch or dinner.

The application resembles a game in awarding its participants with badges certain goals such as visiting 10 places are attained and even titles you “Mayor” when you visit a certain location the most.

Sounds fun, right?

I thought so up until the point I read a friend’s article in the Augusta Chronicle and had to think twice. The article mentions the dangers of applications like FourSquare and the stance that www.PleaseRobMe.com takes on the issue.

While the site is currently contemplating their future mission, they began as a source listing the idiotic Twitter posts that blatantly say, “Please Rob Me!”

@Fun4Robots left home and checked in 7 minutes ago:
I’m at Starbucks (1398 Columbia Ave., Lancaster). http://4sq.com/c7h4o5

@ClairWyant left home and checked in 7 minutes ago:
I’m at Desert Diamond Casino (7350 South Nogales Highway, Tucson). http://4sq.com/6VQxTK

Or even…

@LanceWeber left home and checked in 6 minutes ago:
I’m at Denver airport Concouse B (Denver). http://4sq.com/c37a7m

Here is an excerpt from www.PleaseRobMe.com’s “Why” page:

The danger is publicly telling people where you are. This is because it leaves one place you’re definitely not… home. So here we are; on one end we’re leaving lights on when we’re going on a holiday, and on the other we’re telling everybody on the internet we’re not home.

…The goal of this website is to raise some awareness on this issue and have people think about how they use services like Foursquare, Brightkite, Google Buzz etc. Because all this site is, is a dressed up Twitter search page. Everybody can get this information.

Perhaps before I become an early adapter and start racking up badges on FourSquare, I think I will reassess how valuable my personal items are and how risky this business of posting your location can be.

-Jessica V.

No doubt about it, you’ve probably seen Old Navy’s commercials featuring the talking mannequins. I’m not saying they are going to win “commercial of the year” in my book, but I definitely think they are attention-grabbers and sometimes kinda funny.

As an Old Navy customer, I receive weekly emails from the company. Most often I delete them, but the one I got today really caught my attention. Old Navy is on a search to find the next “Supermodelquin” for a chance to win $100,000 and be molded into a mannequin to be cast in the company’s commercials!

Here’s what I like about the contest- to enter the contest, customers go into Old Navy stores all over the country and snap a full-legnth pic posing with one of the stores’ mannequins. Next, you upload the photo onto the website and America gets to vote on their favorite pic. The pic with the most votes wins the prize.

I think this is a great promotion for the company. It’s fun, easy and interactive- the key elements to any good promotion. I’ve learned from experience that promotions have to be simple enough for people to participate in and they need to enjoy doing it. And the online voting aspect gives everyone a chance to be involved which increases brand awareness. Those who have entered the contest will encourage their friends and family to go on the site and vote for their pics. Kudos to Old Navy for a great idea!

There’s only 6 days left to go in the store and take your best pic. Check out the contest at www.iwannabesuper.com.

-Danielle K.

Maybe it is a girl thing. Maybe it is an American pride thing. Or maybe it’s just a great ad. Either way, I almost cried watching this ad -which is a rarity for me. Enjoy – Go USA.

Like every one else watching the Super Bowl last night, I couldn’t wait for the commercial breaks to see this year’s best and worst ads. Although I was not entirely impressed by the line up, I did see a few that I thought deserved some mentioning. Check out a few of my favorites.

Snickers & Betty White

This was definitely my favorite commercial. Maybe because I am huge Golden Girls fan but mainly because this commercial was hilarious. Take a look at  Betty White playing football with the guys and how Snickers shows you how you’re just not yourself when you’re hungry.

Hyundai & Brett Favre

I think we would all agree that Favre is a great player and a legend for sure. But I must admit that I keep wondering how many seasons of football he has left in him. Well Hyundai shows us that he won’t be retiring any time soon.

Audi & The Green Police

Very funny commercial about taking extreme measures to make sure people are environmentally conscious.

Congrats to the Saints for their big win against the Colts! WHO DAT?!?!

-Danielle K.

The Grammy’s stretched their social media reach this year with a presence on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube in addition to an iPhone app, but an article by PRNewser askes, “Was it enough?”

I must say that their Twitter-presence was a great addition. They retweeted celebs reactions like the ones below and up-tp-the-minute coverage of what was happening.

RT @zacbrownband: Wow! Best New Artist & the performance. Thank you, Academy! about 2 hours ago from web

RT @taylorswift13: I will remember this night, this celebration, the screaming and hugging of people I love. The words on cards of hotel … about 2 hours ago from web

RT @jason_mraz: Sitting in the crowd a Grammy winner. Numb in whelm. Grateful for ten years of fan support. Thank you. I’ll follow up w … about 15 hours

RT @britneyspears: On my way to the Grammys. Can’t wait to see all the performances! -Britney

As I followed the #Grammys postings, I would have liked to see them interact with the public though. A response to so many people asking who the female singer with the curl during the Les Paul tribute, how did Ke$ha and Justin Berber get paired together, and what was Kanye’s reaction to Swift’s win.

So what could the Grammy’s learn from their endeavor into social media? PRNewser makes three suggestions. One: offer exclusive content like backstage outtakes or additional musical performances; you could easily take clips from rehearsal or backstage madness that fans would love to peruse. Two: hire prominent bloggers to keep up with the up-to-date content such as Stereogum. Three: Offer celeb tweeters a spot on your website with a Twitter feed or liveblog.

-Jessica V.

When I start singing- “My bologna has a first name,” more than likely, you can finish the lyric. Oscar Mayer’s iconic jingle has transcended generations and is known worldwide.

So why would their new agency chose to axe the song?

McGarryBowen Agency, a unit of Dentsu Holdings, was awarded the Oscar Mayer account in May adding Oscar Mayer to Dentsu’s growing list of Kraft accounts including Maxwell House, Lunchables, Philadelphia Cream Cheese, Miracle Whip and Kraft singles.

Timothy Scott, managing partner for McGarryBowen, said he wanted to refresh the brand and get away from the product-specific ads.

“There was an opportunity for the brand to get back to that sort of joy and exuberance that I think the brand has used throughout the years,” Mr. Scott said. “It also offered the opportunity, in our minds, to take the entire product portfolio, and was there a way to align it under one idea when they hadn’t done it in forever? What we did not want to do was write jingles. We intentionally stayed away from having them sing about individual products — we didn’t want people singing about hot dogs or bologna, we wanted to capture the spirit of the brand,” Mr. Scott said. “I think those jingles, they’ll still live on in different places and in different touchpoints, but oftentimes certain jingles can hearken back to yesteryear.”

Click here to read the article and hear the song.

When it comes to advertising, sometimes it is not so much about what you say, as where you say it. A smile came across my face when I saw this article about Amtrak’s newest advertising at O’Hare International Airport.

Placed inside the bins used for personal items at screening checkpoints is their advertisement saying, “Wear mismatched socks – we’ll never know.”

Another ad reads- “Upgrade to coach,” comparing the coach environment of the train to the cramped standards of airlines.

“Our goal here is to get a smile from passengers and also get them to think twice about going through the frustration of flying, or driving,” Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said. “Amtrak most often is the most comfortable way to travel. Some would say more civilized.”

The ads are set to run through March and are an effort to push Amtrak’s 50 trains that service Chicago daily.

-Jessica V.

Only the devoted “fans” of Sport’s Illustrated Swimsuit issue would be committed enough to take the virtual leap into the world of barcodes.

Promotional barcodes will begin to appear in late January in Time Inc. titles like Time, People and Fortune as well as on Las Vegas hotel room keys and NYC subway car ads.

Lovers of the swimsuit issue who snap a picture of the barcode will see pictures of this year’s newbie models.

The barcode technology is from JagTag and was tested by SI in June of last year.

JagTag’s most prominent use of this technology to date was for a Nike ad campaign at an extreme sports competition. Fans could scan codes on posters at the event to get athlete videos, pictures, and fan data.

See the MediaWeek article on SI’s Swimsuit Issue here.

-Jessica V.

I love working in advertising. I love pizza. I do not love Dominos pizza. But I do love their new advertising campaign.

Pizza lovers, like myself, tend not to rattle off Dominos on their considered set list. And apparently Dominos recently became painfully aware of this fact. Their new ad campaign centers around taking the negative feedback they received in focus groups, and turning it into constructive criticism. According to the new tv ads, they have reinvented their pizza recipes after being told ‘the crust was like cardboard’ and that ‘the sauce tasted like ketchup’.

First time I saw these commercials I thought they were pretty smart but by the third time I overheard a friend talking about the commercials, I knew Dominos had done something very right. I heard multiple friends say things along the lines of  ’have you seen that new dominos commercial’ and ‘I heard Dominos has changed their pizzas – it’s supposed to be great’.

So what was it that Dominos did right? First it tapped into our common desire to be heard. In the age of facebook and twitter, we demand attention and expect responses. We are getting used to companies responding to our 140 character assaults on their brands, so to see an organization acting on consumer feedback, makes people feel good. (Note on their microsite – www.pizzaturnaround.com – there is a live twitter feed showing comments on the new pizza, both the good and the bad.)

Second they were honest – as far as we know. They were candid about what was bad about the pizza and basically apologized.

Lessons: Listen to customers. Be transparent.
These are the things we love as consumers, and Dominos seems to finally get that.

I think I’ll give this ‘turnaround’ pizza a try.

- libby sexton

It’s the close of another year and of course it’s time for those endless lists of the year’s best/worst. Hopefully, you have already checked out Jessica Vance’s list of her favorite ads this year on our blog.

Well, I’m taking a different approach. I came across a list on adfreak.com of the top 30 freakiest commercials of the year. I have chosen my top 3 freakiest commercials of the year. I chose the 3 videos that I found the most repulsive, scariest and downright weird. And let me warn you….they are not for the weak at heart.

3.  Tabasco’s Singing Pepperonis

This spot I found weird and repulsive. I love pepperoni pizza, but this definitely makes me see pizza in a whole new way. Besides that, it’s a little corny in my opinion.

2. World Wildlife Fund’s Tsunami Spot

According to adfreak, this was the year’s most controversial ad. Using the images from the 9/11 attacks to make a point about the environment was tasteless in my opinion and disturbing to watch.

1.  Pfizer’s Poison

This is absolutely the most repulsive commercial I have ever seen in my life. It was adfreak’s #1 freakiest commercial and after viewing it, it’s definitely #1 on my list as well. ***Warning: extremely gross!***

And here’s a honorable mention. This one didn’t make the freakiest list for me, but I thought it was hilarious!

White Castle’s Exotic Dancer

This commercial was a great way to introduce the world to White Castle’s new pulled pork sandwiches. Check out Ms. Piggy’s performance.

Check out the full list of the Top 30 Freakiest Commericials here.

-Danielle K.