Celebrity Endorsements Go Dark

When it comes to celebrity endorsement, it appears that as long as the celebrity is big enough the endorsement doesn’t even have to be positive. A billboard in Iceland for the popular Icelandic liquor Opal gives Tarantino’s two cents on the licorice-flavored cordial, which is not atypical of outdoor advertising.

Except Tarantino basically thinks it sucks.

According to Tarantino, his experience with Opal is as follows: "I don't really know what poison tastes like, because if I did I'd be dead, but, if I had to imagine what poison would taste like, it would be this stuff Opal...my gag reflex was doing a decathlon…I never thought I'd ever say: ‘Can I switch to Jagermeister, just for the taste?'"

Doesn’t exactly make me want to get medieval on a bottle.

Twitter and Your Brand

Anyone see the Chronicle spread on Twitter last week? The Tweet Life?

Twitter is going to live. The only question is how to use it for improving brand value. Brands currently using Twitter include the BBC, Southwest Airlines, Fleishman-Hillard, Forrester Research, Honda, the ACLU, NASA, the City of Austin, The Smithsonian Institution, Whole Foods, Sen. Barack Obama, The Roxy Theater and more.

There was a great article in the Chronicle on Sunday about marketing-savvy Rep. John Culberson's use of Twitter: "The Houston Republican has harnessed state-of-the-art electronic devices to break through the Democratic speaker's attempted blackout of the Republicans' unofficial House proceedings, which are aimed at pressuring Pelosi to recall the chamber from a month-long recess to vote on a GOP plan to expand offshore drilling."