Gwen Stefani Plugs HP

March 4th, 2008, 4 Comments »

I know this is a recurring theme on this site, but rest assured I don’t post here every time I see an artist exploiting their fame to promote products. I know I’m tilting at windmills, but I find it deeply distasteful and, often, an unprincipled decision by the artist. I’ll spare you the usual Neil Young citation.

The latest example is Gwen Stefani shilling for HP:

I wonder if she dreamed of pimping printers back when she was in a little Anaheim ska band? Did visions of glossy paper float through her head when she slept in the back of the van? I found this quote from Ms. Stefani, from back in March, 2005:

“Y’know someone one time called me a cheerleader, negatively, and I’ve never been a cheerleader. So I was, like, ‘OK, fuck you. You want me to be a cheerleader? Well, I will be one then. And I’ll rule the whole world, just you watch me.’”

She’s ruling the world, one colour laser jet at a time. I wonder how much she makes for this campaign? And does she really need the money?

As a side note, I saw this ad on TSN’s video site. This is probably a secondary broadcast medium for the ad, but it’s interesting to think about whether the Gwen Stefani + HP Printers + TSN equation makes sense. Particularly when, strangely, they’re promoting Stefani-themed paper dolls. Bizarre.

4 Comments »

Any Western Canadian Bloggers Want to Test Drive a Printer?

November 7th, 2007, 15 Comments »

We’re doing some online marketing for Brother Canada, helping to spread the word on their new line o’ colour laser printers. I’ve contacted some local bloggers (using a slightly unorthodox but apparently effective strategy), but we’ve still got a couple of slots available in the, uh, program.

Here’s the deal: You’re a blogger who lives in western Canada. We ship you your choice of these printers (there’s also one of those print-scan-fax-make breakfast multi-function devices) and you try it out for two months. We’ll include a printer cartridge and some paper. You check it out, write, shoot or record a review in any form, tone and medium you like. Then you ship it back to Brother (we’ll cover the cost of shipping both ways, obviously).

If you’re interested, drop me a line with:

  • Your choice of printers
  • The URL of your blog
  • Your full name, snail mail address and phone number.

UPDATE: Wow, I didn’t anticipate that much interest in printers. We’ve filled the remaining slots.

15 Comments »