“[A] word used to describe how good something is“:

[C]ouncilman [Mike Polensek] is demanding that a Seagram’s billboard that has the phrase, “I bring dope style and laughs, what do you bring to the party,” be removed from its East 185th Street location because it makes people think of drugs. When asked what he brings to the party the councilman looked down at his feet and responded in a hushed voice, “Wet blankets.”

If you’re going to start taking down billboards, why stop there? There’s a ton of other clearchannel billboards in the neighborhood. Take down that Miller beer ad a couple blocks up from my corner…

MyFriendCleveland » Blog Archive » Rain? Haven’t Seen That In A While

For a while, there’s only been an MTB Ad Network Ad here on BFD. Well, I’ve finally gotten around to adding some space back. Thanks to HMon for hosting BFD and various related sites. Make sure you check out their services. Also, Bloggapalooza is coming up. This year, we’ve infiltrated the Waterloo Arts Festival and since I’m a resident and on the Board of Arts Collinwood, I’m using it to point out the opportunity for artists and sustainable businesses to have a booth there.

I found the following about “Brandjacking” in today’s MarketingVOX rather timely:

The “Brandjacking Index,” a four-week survey by MarkMonitor, found that cybersquatting, in which illegal sites pirate popular trademarks via phishing, clickfraud and similar tactics, runs rampant online.

Brands abusers serve as dangers not merely for consumers, but also for the brands themselves. They are often better web marketers (emphasis added by me…see addendum below), with media and Internet companies the most attractive targets, accounting for 31 percent of the abuse.

I bet the powers that be never thought they’d be “Brandjacked.” And come to think of it I wonder why the Cleveland+ and Cleveland+ Business websites each don’t have a blog, podcast and/or social network incorporated into them?

Report: ‘Brandjacking’ Intensifies - MarketingVOX

Addendum: I decided to enter a handful of keywords in Google to see if the Cleveland+ Marketing Alliance was doing any keyword advertising. Unfortunately it doesn’t appear as if they are as nothing came up linking back to their websites. But when I Googled “GCP” the following came up as the third paid search listing:

Wasting $8.5 MM
fCleveland+
A response to Cleveland+
www.fclevelandplus.com

Silly me. I thought journalists were supposed to be objective? At least that’s what I learned at the KSU School of Journalism.

ABOARD CONTINENTAL FLIGHT 9017 - There are no city-limit signs in the skies above Northeast Ohio. Some 2,300 feet above the rooftops, all that’s obvious are the ties that bind.

The roads and highways that weave an uninterrupted thread through diverse neighborhoods. The unbroken shoreline of the lake that gave birth to a shared industrial heritage. The sports stadiums that funnel widespread differences into a single passion.

And that was the point of an event Thursday that was more poetry than news conference.

Beacon Journal | 04/27/2007 | Regional campaign uses simple equation

“I can’t bear the thought of yet another arsine marketing program costing tens (hundreds?) of thousands of real dollars designed to turn our region around.”

How do you feel about it?

CLEVELAND+… SIGH…

Not sure what the brand promise is for Cleveland+ so maybe some of you can enlighten me. Do you think people in Akron, Canton and Youngstown will be happy with Cleveland taking the lead? I think it is interesting that The Funders all appear to be Cleveland based organizations. I guess time will tell in terms of what kind of regional buy-in there is.

To measure the campaign’s success, the alliance will keep track of prospective development in the pipeline, inquiries from meeting planners and business owners, hotel nights booked, national media attention, and other factors.

PD/Cleveland.com: Cleveland+ chosen as ‘brand’ for region

Crain’s Cleveland Business: Regional branding effort ready to roll