Unfortunate news for the world of advertising: The creative mind behind McDonald's "I'm Lovin' It"  ad and the "Dude, You're Gettin' a Dell" campaign  committed suicide this week at age 40:

As the top creative executive at advertising agency DDB's Chicago office, Paul L. Tilley oversaw commercials and campaigns for marquee clients such as Budweiser and McDonald's.

Mr. Tilley was named managing director of creative at DDB in September 2006, nine years after he joined the shop. Over those years, he led creative teams that came up with Dell's "Dude, You're Gettin' a Dell" campaign and advertising in McDonald's "I'm Lovin' It" effort.

Mr. Tilley, 40, died on Friday, Feb. 22. The Wilmette resident apparently jumped from an upper floor of the Fairmont Chicago Hotel Friday, and his death was ruled a suicide by the Cook County medical examiner's office.

"Life is complicated, and Paul was a complicated man," said Mr. Tilley's  wife, Cristina.

Always tragic when someone this young and creative offs himself . . .

>

Source:
Dude, You're Gettin' a Dell   
Trevor Jensen
TRIBUNE STAFF REPORTER, February 26, 2008 
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-hed_tilley_26feb26,1,2832015.story

~~~

Posted at 10:05 AM in Art & Design | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Here are the best Web sites to learn about car safety.

• www.iihs.org Crash test data from insurance industry researchers
• www.safercar.gov Five-star crash rating system from government tests
• www.consumerreports.org Fee-based site with independent safety data

The WSJ:

Car accidents are one of the biggest health risks we face, and this week that risk jumps higher. July Fourth is typically one of the worst days of the year for traffic fatalities.

The best thing you can do to protect yourself in a car is to wear a seatbelt, obey traffic laws and don't drink and drive. What you drive can also make a difference. Now there are a number of Web sites that show just how well your car held up in a crash.

Last fall, a study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) showed that safety improvements in the design of passenger vehicles -- not safer drivers -- are the reason motor vehicle death rates have been improving for the past decade. The study found an "increasingly dangerous traffic environment," and that drivers are actually getting more careless about seatbelts, speeding and driving while intoxicated. In fact, the study showed that if vehicle designs hadn't improved since 1985, traffic death rates would be on the rise.

Although most cars now come with airbags and anti-lock brakes, crash test studies show there's a big difference in safety among cars today. One of the best places to check out your car is www.iihs.org4. Click on "Vehicle Ratings." The IIHS is supported by auto insurers and is viewed as one of the most credible sources for research on car safety. The group publicizes the best performers in crash tests, but many consumers don't know the safety data is free online.

The IIHS vehicle ratings page lists its top picks for 2007, the first year the institute has rated cars for electronic stability control, which helps drivers maintain control in an emergency. Research has shown that ESC features significantly reduce the risk of dying in a car accident.

Source:
Finding Out How Your Car Will Hold Up in a Crash
TARA PARKER-POPE
WSJ, July 3, 2007; Page D1
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118340771329055676.html

Posted at 06:50 AM in Automobiles | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Amusing:

AOL News Presents… Where Are They Now? - video powered by Metacafe

via Club Nosebleed   

Posted at 04:30 PM in Humor, Video | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Anesthesiologist business card:
When you care enough to sleep with the very best.

Sign over a Gynecologist's Office:
"Dr. Jones, at your cervix."

In a Podiatrist's office:
"Time wounds all heels."

At a Proctologist's door:
"To expedite your visit, please back in."

On a Plumber's truck:
"We repair what your husband fixed"

On another Plumber's truck:
"Don't sleep with a drip. Call your plumber.."

On a Church's Billboard:
"7 days without God makes one weak."

At a Tire Shop in Milwaukee:
"Invite us to your next blowout…"

At a Towing company:
"We don't charge an arm and a leg...We want tows."

On an Electrician's truck:
"Let us remove your shorts."

In a Nonsmoking Area:
"If we see smoke, we will assume you are on fire and take appropriate action."

On a Maternity Room door:
"Push. Push. Push."

At an Optometrist's Office:
"If you don't see what you're looking for, you've come to the right place."

On a Taxidermist's window:
"We really know our stuff"

On a Fence:
"Salesmen welcome! Dog food is expensive!"

At a Car Dealership:
"The best way to get back on your feet - miss a car payment."

Outside a Muffler Shop:
"No appointment necessary. We hear you coming."

In a Veterinarian's waiting room:
"Be back in 5 minutes. Sit! Stay!"

At the Electric Company:
"We would be delighted if you send in your payment. However, if you don't,  you will be."

In a Restaurant window:
"Don't stand there and be hungry, Come on in and get fed up."

In the front yard of a Funeral Home:
"Drive carefully. We'll wait."

At a Propane Filling Station:
"Thank heaven for little grills."

And don't forget the sign at a Chicago Radiator Shop:
"Best place in town to take a leak"

~~~

Posted at 05:58 AM in Humor | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Today's amusing musical moment:

Posted at 07:54 PM in Humor, Music | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

READ CAREFULLY. By reading this blog, you agree, on behalf of your employer, to release me from all obligations and waivers arising from any and all NON-NEGOTIATED agreements, licenses, terms-of-service, shrinkwrap, clickwrap, browsewrap, confidentiality, non-disclosure, non-compete and acceptable use policies ("BOGUS AGREEMENTS") that I have entered into with your employer, its partners, licensors, agents and assigns, in perpetuity, without prejudice to my ongoing rights and privileges. You further represent that you have the authority to release me from any BOGUS AGREEMENTS on behalf of your employer.

Posted at 06:11 AM in Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch, who is dying from pancreatic cancer, gave his last lecture at the university Sept. 18, 2007, before a packed McConomy Auditorium.

Posted at 06:19 AM in Philosophy | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Surprisingly explicit print ads from fashion designer Tom Ford:

click for full story on each

Sources:

Tom Fords A Valley
Copyranter
http://copyranter.blogspot.com/2007/09/tom-fords-valley.html


What A Dildo: Designer Tom Ford's Phallic Fragrance   
Jezebel
http://jezebel.com/gossip/rag-trade/what-a-dildo-designer-tom-fords-phallic-fragrance-291216.php

Through advertising, Tom Ford continues to inform heterosexual men that he doesn't want them buying his products.   
Copyranter
http://copyranter.blogspot.com/2008/02/through-advertising-tom-ford-continues.html

Posted at 06:05 AM in Current Affairs, Media, Television | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

This one takes us back in time to a milestone moment in rock history: the day Bob Dylan first smoked up the Beatles. It got weird in that room.

Posted at 09:03 AM in Humor, The Beatles, Video | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

"More than any time in history, mankind faces a crossroad. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness, the other to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly."

-- Woody Allen

Posted at 06:02 AM in Film | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Who ever would have guessed that the Chinese communist controlled media would fake a photograph?

Earlier this week, Xinhua, China's state-run news agency, issued an unusual public apology for publishing a doctored photograph of Tibetan wildlife frolicking near a high-speed train.

The deception -- uncovered by Chinese Internet users who sniffed out a Photoshop scam in the award-winning picture -- has brought on a big debate about media ethics, China's troubled relationship with Tibet, and how pregnant antelope react to noise.

The antelope imbroglio began in the summer of 2006. The Chinese government was celebrating its latest engineering feat, and an enthusiastic wildlife photographer from the Daqing Evening News was camped out on the Tibetan plateau eating energy bars and waiting for antelope to pass.

Front page WSJ:
click for interactive photo

courtesy of WSJ

As published:

courtesy of WSJ

Source:
China Eats Crow Over Faked Photo Of Rare Antelope
They Didn't Truly Run With a Train to Tibet; Xinhua Agency Recants
JANE SPENCER and JULIET YE
WSJ, February 22, 2008; Page A1
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120363429707884255.html

Posted at 09:34 AM in Idiot!, Media, Science | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

via limpfish

Posted at 06:39 AM in Humor, Television | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Click for hours of endless fun!

http://www.flong.com/storage/experience/meshy/index.html

Posted at 05:45 AM in Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

click for larger graphic

Graphic courtesy of NYT

>

See also
Kosovo - Key events 
http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/serbia/kosovo/key_events_en.htm

Kosovo's Final Status: A Key to Stability and Prosperity in the Balkans  http://www.state.gov/p/eur/ci/rb/c13099.htm

>
Source:
Kosovo Declares Its Independence From Serbia 
DAN BILEFSKY   
NYT, February 18, 2008   
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/18/world/europe/18kosovo.html

Posted at 07:47 AM in Current Affairs, Politics, War/Defense | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Via Katherine Gates' book, Deviant Desires: Incredibly Strange Sex, comes this chart of various Fetishes. Compelling and bizarre:

click for jumbo flowchart

Posted at 09:13 AM in Books, Science | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

The Beatles first hit Love Me Do:

Posted at 07:46 AM in Music, The Beatles | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

via The Atlantic

Posted at 06:47 AM in Humor, Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Since its Friday, let's have some fun.

This is hysterical piece of financial wit has been circulating round Wall Street trading desks for a few days now . . .

click for slide show

Posted at 11:03 AM in Humor | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Amusing, via Mark My Words   

Posted at 06:59 AM in Humor, Philosophy, Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Hysterical:

Posted at 05:57 AM in Humor, Idiot! | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Tom Toles via Yahoo

Posted at 04:00 PM in Finance, Idiot!, Shopping | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Click for hours of endless fun!

http://www.flong.com/storage/experience/floccus/

Posted at 06:39 AM in Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Here it is in all its glory! The entire Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition, on line.

I met this model backstage at CNBC -- but she was wearing clothes.

In this photo, she is naked -- that's not a bathing suit, its body paint!

Posted at 04:58 PM in Art & Design | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

The George W Bush Presidential Library is now in the planning stages. You'll want to be the first at your corporation to make a contribution to this great man's legacy.

The Library will include:

The Hurricane Katrina Room, which is still under construction.

The Alberto Gonzales Room, where you can't remember anything.

The Texas Air National Guard Room, where you don't even have to show up.

The Walter Reed Hospital Room, where they don't let you in.

The Guantanamo Bay Room, where they don't let you out.

The Weapons of Mass Destruction Room (which no one has been able to find).

The Iraq War Room. After you complete your first tour, they make you to go back for a second, third, fourth, and sometimes fifth tour.

The Dick Cheney Room, in the famous undisclosed location, complete with shooting gallery.

The K-Street Project Gift Shop  where you can buy (or just steal) an election.

The Airport Men's Room, where you can meet some of your favorite Republican Senators.

Posted at 05:47 AM in Humor, Idiot!, Politics | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Our pre-Valentine's Day song

"All You Need Is Love" is a song written by John Lennon with contributions from Paul McCartney and credited to Lennon/McCartney. It was first performed by The Beatles on Our World, the first ever live global television link. Broadcast to 26 countries and watched by 350 million people, the programme was broadcast via satellite on June 25, 1967. The BBC had commissioned The Beatles to write a song for the UK's contribution and this was the result.

Posted at 07:33 AM in Music, The Beatles | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Wicked cool:

via kottke

Posted at 06:04 AM in Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Crude, but amusing:

Posted at 06:17 AM in Humor, Television, Video | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Once upon a time in a village, a man appeared and announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10 each. The villagers, seeing that there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest, and started catching them. The man bought thousands at $10 and as supply started to diminish, the villagers stopped their effort.

He further announced that he would now buy at $20. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again. Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back  to their farms.

The offer increased to $25 each and the supply of monkeys became so little that it was an effort to even see a monkey, let alone catch it!

The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at $50! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would now buy on behalf of him. In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers. "Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has collected. I will sell them to you at $35 and when the man returns from the city, you can sell them to him for $50 each."

The villagers rounded up with all their savings and bought all the monkeys. Then they never saw the man nor his assistant, only monkeys everywhere!

Now you have an understanding of how the stock market works.

Posted at 06:11 AM in Finance, Humor | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Pretty wild:

Via Art Department

Posted at 06:55 AM in Art & Design, Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Very interesting:

Posted at 06:30 AM in Finance, Philosophy | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

I was doing some prep work for my panel appearance on this week's MoneyTech conference, when I came across David Armano (Critical Mass) and his neat illustration below.

He created this after reading Clive Thompson's "Un-Tipping Point."

David's supposition? While the Tipping point may be an overstatement, there are many different levels of influencers -- A-listers, Mainstream Media, ordinary bloggers -- but each can influence the other, as well as the general public.

Via Darmano

Posted at 06:53 AM in Finance, Weblogs | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

From The Beatles movie, A Hard Day's Night.

Posted at 08:27 AM in Music, The Beatles | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Chicago Cubs outfielder Andre Dawson on being a role model: 'I wan'all dem kids to do what I do, to look up to me. I wan' all the kids to copulate me.'

'New Orleans Saint RB George Rogers when asked about the upcoming season: 'I want to rush for 1,000 or 1,500 yards, whichever comes first.'

And, upon hearing Joe Jacobi of the 'Skins say: 'I'd run over my own mother to win the Super Bowl, 'Matt Millen of the Raiders said: 'To win, I'd run over Joe's Mom, too.'

Torrin Polk,  University of  Houston receiver, on his coach, John Jenkins: 'He treats us like men. He lets us wear earrings.'

Football commentator and former player Joe Theismann in 1996: 'Nobody in football should be called a genius. A genius is a guy like Norman Einstein.'

Senior basketball player at the  University of  Pittsburgh : 'I'm going to graduate ontime, no matter how long it takes.'

Bill Peterson, a  Florida  State football coach: 'You guys line up alphabetically by height.' And, 'You guys pair up in groups of three, then line up in a circle.

'Boxing promoter Dan Duva on Mike Tyson hooking up again with promoter Don King: 'Why would anyone expect him to come out smarter?  He went to prison for three years, not  Princeton ' (This one is clever.)

Stu Grimson, Chicago Blackhawks left wing, explaining why he keeps a color photo of himself above his locker: 'That's so when I forget how to spell my name, I can still find my clothes.'

Lou Duva, veteran boxing trainer, on the Spartan training regime of heavyweight Andrew Golota: 'He's a guy who gets up at six o'clock in the morning regardless of what time it is.'

Chuck Nevitt,  North Carolina  State basketball player, explaining to Coach Jim Valvano why he appeared nervous at practice: 'My sister's expecting a baby, and I don't know if I'm going to be an uncle or an aunt.'

Frank Layden, Utah Jazz president, on a former player: 'I told him, 'Son, what is it with you? Is it ignorance or apathy?' He said, 'Coach, I don't know and I don't care.' (A favorite)

Shelby Metcalf, basketball coach at Texas A&M, recounting what he told a player who received four F's and one D: 'Son, looks to me like you're spending too much time on one subject.'
(Probably one of the best one-liners ever, but completely wasted on the player in question.)

Amarillo  High School and Oiler coach Bum Phillips when asked by Bob Costas why he takes his wife on all the road trips, Phillips responded: 'Because she is too ugly to kiss  good-bye.'




via email

Posted at 05:55 AM in Sports | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Mark Morford, on the proliferation of idiotic surveys:

Question No. 1 (please be as specific as possible): Exactly how much of an idiot are you? More to the point: How arrogant and ignorant and out of touch with your body, your heart, your mind, your divine sense of self do you feel you are on a day to day basis? Are you, in short, a moron? How much of a moron? Too much of a moron to actually understand this paragraph? Please check the little box on the right. No, the other right. Thank you.

From what I have gleaned from glancing through a whole slew of recent studies, these are, apparently, the questions we most need answered. These are the questions that plague us and torment us and, oh my God, if we only had the answers to these questions and the many, many other urgent queries like them, such as: Is sunlight necessary? Is breathing compulsory? Is having a dog around sort of nice? If you eat less crap, will you feel better? Sleep: Who cares? Should humans move? God: WTF? — we might just figure out how to live long enough to, you know, accidentally stab ourselves in the eye with a fork and bleed to death.

Which is perhaps an overly snarky way of saying: Many of these studies are getting dangerously inane. And insulting. And actually harmful. Because if you believe many of these deceptive factoids that fill our newspapers and magazines and universities, if you take them as they're meant to be taken, as helpful guidelines for behavior or even as some sort of serious demarcation of human understanding, well, we are doomed indeed.

Go read the whole thing . .  .

>

Source:
Study says many studies suck
Mark Morford
SF Gate, Friday, February 1, 2008
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2008/02/01/notes020108.DTL

Posted at 07:50 AM in Humor, Idiot!, Philosophy | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack