Universal sets screenwriters loose on Twitter – helped Ted to gross near $200 million

The teddy bear’s first tweet, from an account called @WhatTedSaid set up by the Universal Pictures marketing department, was “Hello, Twitter. Kindly go f— yourself.” The author of the greeting was Alec Sulkin, co-screenwriter of the R-rated comedy “Ted,” who together with his collaborator Wellesley Wild was paid extra by the studio to build buzz …

San Diego’s Comic-Con is becoming the Sundance/Cannes for television

Think of it as TV’s Comic-Cannes. Since its inception 42 years ago, Comic-Con International has been a celebration of fanboy culture. When geek became the new cool, it also worked as a marketing platform for Hollywood and video game makers. Now, it’s the place where the television industry comes to build buzz for new shows …

How Linkedin gets 20x more money per user than Facebook

Forbes has LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner on the cover—but the professional social network’s business model is the real hero of the story. Here are some of the amazing statistics Forbes’ George Anders reports: LinkedIn users spend an average of 18 minutes a month on the site. Facebook users spend 6.4 hours a month. But LinkedIn gets $1.30 in revenue …

The digital black consumer – leads demographics in mobile data use

Black Americans are consistently the second-highest US consumers of mobile data services by ethnic demographic. And, they are highly active on the Internet and on their mobile devices, watching video, networking with their social connections, and making purchases, according to [pdf] Nielsen’s latest Cross-Platform Report. Nielsen examined the media habits of the digital black consumer in the …

All of Major League Baseball is now on Pinterest

Despite its reputation as a female-dominated social network — or perhaps because of that? — every team in Major League Baseball is now actively using Pinterest. All 30 MLB teams also have official pages on Google+ and officials blogs on Tumblr. And the league itself also has an official presence on all three social networks.     …

Albert Pujols contract with the Angels includes money for marketing and a retirement job

From a report on mlb.com: The deal, which was agreed upon on Dec. 8, is divided into three different agreements. The player deal: a full no-trade clause with a base salary of $240 million through the 10 years (more details on this below). The marketing deal: Pujols will be paid $3 million for accumulating 3,000 hits (he’s …

Milk, it does a body…BAD?

This is a re-post of a piece I wrote last year on Posterous about milk and breaking my addiction to it. I’m reposting it because I’m writing a piece in response to the recent controversy over a PMS milk campaign. — A habit is a behavior pattern acquired by frequent repetition or physiologic exposure that shows itself in …

My first sex tape: The case against bottled water

Maybe you’ve seen SmartWater’s latest video featuring Jennifer Aniston, which they’ve dubbed “The Jennifer Aniston Sex Tape.” Today is World Water Day. I think it’s time to wean ourselves off the teat of the bottled water propaganda machine. I created “The Other Jennifer Aniston Sex Tape” in response to the insanity. Enjoy…