Filed under: Competitive strategy, Marketing and advertising, Abercrombie and Fitch (ANF)

Who can forget the advertising campaign a number of years back that threw social watch dogs into fits over Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE: ANF). That particular advertising foray employed the lithe bodies of teen and preteen boys and girls in a way which, while certainly drawing attention, underscored today’s excessive use of underage sexuality in advertising. Parent groups and child protective agencies were enraged, as well they might be. However, a recent ad campaign launched by Beyonce and her House of Dereon, clothes for girls, makes Abercrombie’s misadventures look about as harmless as a day at the zoo.

A blog post presented by our sister blog Styledash, reveals the shocking truth about the clothing ad campaign, which is the brainchild of Beyonce and her mom, Tina Knowles. Blogger Kristen Seymour espouses the danger in this type of advertising by describing the presentation in the terms of “Go on, baby, and earn your lunch money the old-fashioned way.”

The gallery provided by Styledash is self-explanatory and might serve to turn the stomachs of little girl’s parents everywhere. Certainly, Beyonce and her advertising agency have accomplished what they wanted to. We can also believe that Abercrombie & Fitch shall benefit slightly with a parallel focus to its own questionable advertising strategy. However, we need only to remember the enigmatic fate of JonBenet Ramsey to realize down which road this type of advertising strategy may lead.

(Thanks to Styledash for the tip, Additional thanks to Gawker)

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Filed under: Good news, Products and services, Marketing and advertising, Media World

Privately held EMI Group reported to Billboard this week that the free track offered by Coldplay last week, “Violet Hill,” was downloaded more than 2 million times. The song was made available from the updated Coldplay website on April 29 for one week before being released “commercially” in digital stores Tuesday, and it remains at Coldplay.com as a stream.

EMI had previously reported that the song was downloaded more than 600,000 times in the first 24 hours it was available. More impressively, EMI also told Billboard that the 2 million mark “is four times that of the combined sales of the Official U.K. Charts Co.’s entire Top 40 chart last week.” “Violet Hill” will only be released as a physical single, a 45-rpm vinyl record, via this week’s copy of British music newspaper NME. Coldplay’s new album, Vida la Vida or Death and All His Friends, is released in the UK on June 12 and in the United Says on June 17.

If the free availability and big download of this one track is any indication, EMI is fully embracing digital downloads. More importantly, and coincidentally, EMI has also picked up on the platform former artist Radiohead used last October to market and distribute their seventh album, In Rainbows. Even though the new Coldplay album won’t be released in a similar manner, this method of distribution indicates how promising free music is to marketing new albums. At the end of the day, I have the ability to only hope that more free music will be this exciting.

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