Let's take a spin around the internet today, to see how one company presents itself in different parts of the world.

Go to pepsi.com. Notice how the site is big, bright, and flashy, with multiple windows being shown at once. You can scroll across different windows by using the arrow keys on your keyboard. (You may have to click on an empty space in the background of the site for the arrow keys to work.) Despite having the obligatory Rock Band and NFL tie-ins, they're also trying to make themselves look like a very post-material company -- they have some kind of Goodworks campaign, an "Eco Challenge," a link to the DoSomething and City Year websites, and an ad campaign geared towards deaf people. Also note the emphasis on social networking: they have a Facebook page, twitter account, and Youtube channel. Pretty much every current trend on one webpage.

Pepsi's Canadian page is almost identical in style, but it lacks the charitable parts and swaps our favorite sport for theirs. This pretty much encompases the interests of our hockey-stick wielding Neanderthals to the north, so no surprises there. But, the Canadian website keeps the links to Pepsi's social networking sites. (Fun fact: Neanderthal tweets limited to four characters.)

The UK page has a darker motif (matches the food and weather), but it's still very flashy and shooting for the eighteen to thirty-five age range. Heavy on the sports and music tie-ins. Though it uses a different style, Pepsi's Mexican site has a similar focus: strictly sports and music.

Now let's go for a swim and see their Australian website. They've gone in a completely new direction here. The website has a much different style, and the only things prominently displayed on the front page are their oddball commercials. Here they seem to be making themselves out to be the crazy, young person's soda. Strangely, no mention of Facebook or the others.

Let's contrast that to their German page. Notice how the content is aligned with straight lines. Definitely nothing crazy about this soda, it's just for people that like football. Er...futbol.

Last stop is Japan. Remember how the buttons on the German site barely flashed when you put the cursor on them? Check out how the rectangle icons move on the Japanese site. That seems pretty standard for Japanese websites. For example, compare sega.com to sega.jp. The japanese site has more vivid colors and attention-grabbing graphics.

Phew! So there you have it. Just showing how companies cater their appearance to different tastes. Now, I need to find somewhere to park the Mobile Advertisement Business (or MADBUS, as I've taken to calling it). You wouldn't believe how hard it is to find places with unprotected Wifi.

What's that commercial saying?

So apparently the advertising world is always evolving. In the 90's, you may have noticed a very "in your face style" of commercials, featuring voice-overs that yell at you, explosions, and awesome rock jingles. (You're welcome, you're welcome, and you're welcome.) From what I can see, though, today things are more subdued. Looks people got tired of all that, and now minimalist ads lead to maximalist sales. And, in a commercial with less noise and visual action, there's more room for things to be in the background.

For instance, you may have seen this KFC commercial. There's a dollar bill hidden edited into the lettuce of the sandwich. That's a smart move by KFC -- they want you to associate a dollar bill with their sandwich. That way, every time you notice there's a dollar in your wallet, even though you don't realize it, you subconsciously think of KFC. Kudos, colonel.

Here's another example. It's an Orbitz commercial. Unlike the KFC one, though, I don't think there's a positive association here. Many groups are upset about this, and I understand why. From my perspective, it's just a bad marketing move. Check it out below and see if you can catch it.

Did you see it? Don't feel bad if you aren't as keen as me. I'll break it down for you. Here's a screen capture at fourteen seconds in.

Bang! Right there, plain as day, on the right guy's polo shirt, is a blue square with a yellow equal sign. You know what that symbolizes?

MATH.

Now, no one likes math. No one. Why would a travel site -- which is supposed to take the number-crunching out of things -- want you to associate them with math? Everything else is right on: the palm trees, the golf course, and the hovercraft. They're all good things. Unless you've got a thing against argyle sweaters, there are some really solid positive associations here. But math? I don't know. It seems like math has recieved a boost in the last few years, though. In fact, it's everywhere.





In this videogame, you play as a pie chart.

As if hospitals weren't depressing enough already, this one has a plus sign.

These frat guys probably don't even know that an irrational number is right outside their house.









Why Orbitz wanted to sneak math in their commercial, I don't know. But the point is, you have to know how to keep your product on people's minds and get them to associate your brand with something.

OK, here I am in the blogosphere. Gotta market myself now, but fortunately for me, I know how to do just that. Before you know it, I'll be back in the game.

I guess I should fill you in on my condition right now. Despite hitting a rough patch, which I'm not afraid to admit that I have, my living situation hasn't changed much. When I was on top of the world, cerca 1996, I had a home, an office, and a vehicle. Then business started to head downwards, and I had to ditch the office location. So then I worked from my home-office, and I still had a vehicle. Business slid a little further after that, though, so now I'm all set up in a home-office-vehicle.

My integrated living situation.

Just to show that I can still get an Eskimo to buy an air conditioner, I'll be showing some examples of ads that are just doing it wrong, so you can see why the industry needs the Mustang back.