Nike Viral Video Controversy

They are bored, and live anonymous lives, and are looking for something that would put them on top of the pack for being brave or cool or funny.

-Parry Aftab, cyberspace lawyer

She was talking about teenagers who might get hurt copying a new Nike video posted on YouTube, where Kobe Bryant leaps over a speeding sportscar.

In Kate Mahoney, "Nike Risks Viral Backlash With Kobe Video On YouTube," Mediapost's Marketing Daily, April 25, 2008.

Google Rethinks Search Results Page

The big insight of Google wasn’t text ads; it was that the ads should be conducive to the format. We were doing text-based search that was all textual. Visual ads don’t work in that format. . . . With universal search, something is getting shaken up a bit on the bottom part of the page. The ads on the top part of the page should match.

-Marissa Mayer, Google VP for search products and user experience

In Saul Hansell, "Google Tests Video Ads on Search Results Pages," New York Times, February 15, 2008.

On Nielsen's Cross-Media Ambitions

Today's [Nielsen] communication [to clients] says, 'As the most wide-ranging research and development plan in Nielsen's history, A2/M2 was designed to follow the video across all platforms and keep pace with the evolving ways that people watch television in contemporary society.' It's nice to dream, but Nielsen has a well-earned reputation for producing nightmares; poor judgment, late delivery and shoddy service are an all too persistent theme over time. Nielsen may have a former GE executive at the helm, but never use a jet engine manufactured at 770 Broadway.

-An unnamed Nielsen client

In Joe Mandese, "Nielsen Follows the Video, Sets PC, TV Panel Integration," Media Daily News, February 12, 2008.