Amidst the daily deluge of negative news regarding current business and economic conditions, it is important to look at the big picture: namely the very bright, long-term outlook for business and entrepreneurship in our global, Internet age. A recent interview with Ted Leonsis – the current Chairman of Revolution Money - a new Web 2.0 payment platform and credit-card service and Vice Chairman Emeritus of AOL (and one of the key executives that fueled AOL's Internet rise in the 1990's), drives this point home.

"It's the greatest time to be an entrepreneur," was Ted's core theme at a recent Wharton Entrepreneurship Conference. Leonsis also made a number of prescient points regarding our current "three-screen world" – a world in which entertainment and commerce play out on computer screens, TVs, and mobile phones:

• In this new world, consumer expectations are "off the charts." They want everything "great, fast, and free."


• Today's consumers are a study in contradictions. They have a lot of purchasing power, but little leisure time. They are real estate rich (though increasingly less so), with less cash. Family life is more fractured, and people are overscheduled and on the move. They are watching less TV and living life online more and more. Only 25% of 30-year olds now read newspapers daily. Circulations are in long-term decline at the New York Times, USA Today, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal.


• In contrast, consumers now see the Internet as a "routine and indispensable part of their work and home life, spending 23% of their time hooked up to the Web, compared to seven minutes a day" in 1993.


• North America now accounts for just 16% of worldwide Internet users, down from 35% in 2000. "If you're building products and services just for the U.S. market, you're giving up 80% of the market," Leonsis says.


• Leonsis drives home the point that entrepreneurial opportunity has never been greater than it is right now, but by no means is it easy. "While it's never been easier to launch a new world-class business," investor and marketplace expectations are intense. "If you can't grow 25% month over month, we don't think you know what you're doing." If a startup doesn't take off fast, "you fall behind very, very quickly."

 

Just as significant, Leonsis says, is the "happiness business," which involves "getting out of the I, I and I, and really seeing where you want to fit into the bigger world."

At Growthink, we echo Ted Leonis' sentiments that business and entrepreneurship are and can be the best drivers of positive transformation in the world, and that Internet technologies and the global economy are and will accelerate this transformation to dizzying speed.

For more on Ted Leonsis, click here and here.

Everyone makes mistakes. When big business makes mistakes, however, it’s typically after they’ve spent millions of dollars on marketing campaigns to let us know about their flawed products. Here we present the advertisements for ten of the most infamous product failures in history.

 

Every now and then, a commercial comes along that really makes you stop and take notice. This year we saw a good amount of those, and entertaining ads from companies like Geico and Dove made us smile, laugh, and think about our culture at large. Then there were the commercials that annoyed us. Badly.

Some of the following ad spots were a good laugh the first 400 times we saw them, but then we began to pick them apart. Some of them just stunk from the beginning. Regardless of the reasons, here are the commercials we'll be glad to forget about in the new year.

 

 

12) Burger King - Whopper Freakout

If there is one thing old men, housewives, and emo kids can agree on, it's that the whopper freakin' rocks. This fact, however, didn't stop Burger King from having a little "fun" at the evangelists' expense.

Apparently, their game plan was:

 

1. Cease sales of the flagship product
2. Place hidden cameras to capture the reactions of the most loyal and frustrated customers
3. Use the footage to set up a website and craft a national advertising campaign

 

If that doesn't say "we love our customers," what does?

 

 

 

11) Apple - iPod Nano

Leslie Feist was one of our favorite indie musicians in 2007. For those of you who've been out of the loop, indie songs are supposed to be approximately 50% cool and 50% catchy. That is the balance Apple was looking for when they enlisted "1, 2, 3, 4" to help hawk their new iPod line. Unfortunately, this tune ended up being too catchy, and then, painfully annoying. Now, Feist's microscopic-yet-highly-choreographed prance in tight Canadian spandex is the lone redeeming value to these commercials.

 

 

 

10) Volkswagen - Eos

This is when the otherwise-pleasant Wilco-scored Volkswagen ads jumped the shark. No dude, you are NOT the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.

 

 

 

9) Astelin - Doo Wop Allergens

"Don't let allergens or irritants do you in..." Gee, thanks docs! Oh wait, you're not doctors. You're a barbershop quartet that sings about allergy medication! Hmm, well you do have the Astelin logo unevenly dispersed across your sweaters, so you must know what you're talking about...

 

 

 

8) Coke - Grand Theft Auto Parody

How dare they emasculate Grand Theft Auto with this garbage?

 

 

 

7) Axe - Bom Chika Wah Wah

There were a handful of similar ads from Axe this year, but this one was especially heinous. This girl's mother must be so proud.

 

 

 

6) Target - Hello, Good Buy

Target's commercial featuring the Beatles song "Hello, Goodbye," which repositions the song as "Hello, Good Buy," is the worst thing to happen to John Lennon's music since Yoko Ono. On the other hand, McCartney probably had to make a move to prepare for those gargantuan alimony checks that'll be fueling Heather Mills' checking account: And honestly, who has time to write a song called, "Hello corporate ignorance Licensing Fees, Goodbye Artistic Integrity!"

 

 

 

5) I Know Who Killed Me (Movie)

Um, What? Not only do we not know what's happening in this commercial, we don't want to know what's happening in this movie. Fortunately, neither did the rest of America.

 

 

 

4) Snickers - Super Bowl Commercial

While the goal of a Super Bowl commercial is to grab the attention of the masses, this spot is just slightly less controversial than: "Don't Be Gay. Eat a Snickers."

The agency that put this commercial together did wonders for the Snickers brand, which will now and forever be associated with chest hair antics and mild homophobia. Good job, gang!

 

 

 

3) HP - The Hands of a Seinfeld

Jerry Seinfeld is an American Treasure. There is no amount of celebrity, however, that makes it ok for him to repeatedly drench us in a river of shameless self promotion. Ok, we get it: You're wife has a cookbook and you made an animated movie about bees. You're life is awesome.

All we're saying is, next time Seinfeld is on screen for more than a minute, it better be as part of a Seinfeld reunion show.

 

 

 

2) Redenbacher - Orville returns?

Really? A dead guy with an mp3 player... selling popcorn? That it seemed like a good idea to anyone, let alone a team of people is the surprise of the year. We got chills every time we saw this creepy, creepy ad. To say that it was in poor taste is a gross understatement.

 

 

 

1) Cingular - IDK, My BFF Jill?

Cingular's commercial was pretty funny for a week or two. If we hear one more person say "OMG", "INBD", or "IDK my BFF Jill," though, we just don't know what might happen.

 

 

 

As 2007 draws to a close, we can only hope to say farewell to the Astelins, Whopper withdrawal, and overhyped bodysprays. Who knows what the New Year will hold for us in commercial land? There will undoubtedly be branding faux-paus, moments of poor taste, and scantily-clad attempts to seperate us from our hard earned dollars. Just remember advertisers: we'll be watching.

 

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