Alex Woodruff Biz Buzz

I’ve criticised the use of QR codes on posters before, and have to do it again. This ad is from the sunny island of Ibiza. It’s for a restaurant, apparently: Foster’s Hollywood (already challenging enough for me – the brand name sounds like Crocodile Dundee stuck on Sunset Boulevard). Anyway, what do I do when [...]

I’ve written a number of posts recently about Web 2.0 and marketing’s attempts to involve the online community in campaigns. We’ve had customers overruling marketing departments and getting them to reverse a logo redesign – Gap. Then we had the web communities basically mocking marketeers by suggesting weird product ideas and names: Barbie and Marmite. [...]

This latest marketing mishap is, frankly, embarrassing. The company concerned sells posters for retail outlets. It’s a clever idea. If you’re a small bakery and need a poster, log in to plakatshop.de and order one online. apostrophe catastrophe As a bakery I visited did. Only I don’t think they spotted the typo. Any student of [...]

Holidays always uncover marketing mishaps for me, probably because I can never switch off in a world brimming with unexpected marketing treats. But I find so many, I’m still catching up on the painful examples from last year. Here’s an unfortunate menu translation I discovered last July in Germany. I guess the restaurant wants you [...]

I frequently criticise logos, though it’s harder when people explain their rationale, as with memorex. Another design success? With this confusing logo, I didn’t bother walking into the shop in a wet and unusually cold town in Bavaria, the logo was enough warning to steer well clear. But I would like to know what it [...]

Hot off the press: Stuttgart – which like any other modern city, has to market itself – has unveiled a new logo to compete against “Barcelona, New York and Oberammergau” (quote kessel.tv). The new logo adorns the possible new brochures… My instant reaction was: Fancy an ice cream?!? Kessel.tv, from whom these images are sourced, [...]

Not much to say about this latest marketing gaffe, apart from: doh. The screenshot comes from Markus, who, quite rightly points out that English people looking for a job may have problems relating to “Motorrad”. If you’re not German, this means motorbike, but don’t ask me what it’s doing on an English website. I can [...]

Saying it in style. Source: M Walsh If you’re going to name your P for Product in English, do your homework. How about this new canine grooming centre in the town of Erlangen, north of Nuremberg: Doggy Style. Oh dear. Of course with the English having such smutty minds, this was bound to be rude [...]

Sniff this, or sniff the food? I was taught by one boss NEVER to put a negative image in an ad. I was working in foods at the time, so he said no insects, no animals (especially cows, as this was a dairy food, and he thought cows come from smelly farms), no men with [...]

I recently started comparing two own label diet/low fat brands that reminded me of the Memorex relaunch. X marks the confusion Ignoring the naff names (especially “Well you” – sounds to an Englishman like you’re about to be told off), they both use a symbol within the letters to signal an active and healthy person, [...]