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Everyone around here is abuzz about the new Stella Artois billboards in RI and MA: just a glamour shot of the product with the old tagline “Perfection has its price.” The campaign’s been in use for at least six years, since this humorous ad came out in 2001. In some contexts (like on Boston’s Newbury St.) it could almost make sense. But next to a discount store in a low-income neighborhood? That’s inauspicious media placement at best.

While hot internet properties such as Facebook and Youtube undeniably get eyeballs, marketers have been struggling with how to commoditize that traffic. Just throwing up banner ads hasn’t been working out that well, according to a study from Forrester that recommends moving past run-of-site placements to engage users.

Over the weekend, the New York Times reported on a recent JupiterResearch study naming Google as the America’s favorite Internet brand. The search-engine-turned-media-company beat out Yahoo, Amazon, eBay, MySpace, Microsoft and AOL, with 35% of the vote.

As online search has become more efficient and effective, users are spending less time searching and more time enjoying the content they’re searching for. What does this mean to search marketers? We have to be even more creative to get and hold consumers’ attention.

A little red cross goes a long way according Johnson & Johnson. On August 8 the New Brunswick, NJ-based health care company sued the American Red Cross over copyright infringement. The case has been hitting the blogosphere hard because of its high spin potential: “Big Business Slams Pious Non-profit” vs. “Federally-funded Agency Uses Non-profit Status to Flaunt Copyright Laws.”