Sick of looking for a Wii online for your kids? Just use the new Wii Inventory Tracker which automatically checks websites for Wii availability.

The Consumerist pointed out that after 19 days the Walmart Nazi shirts can still be seen in stores.

“I found myself at walmart in Cleveland Heights Ohio the other day [Sunday, Nov 26] picking up a new office chair… (ended up going to office max anyway… but that’s another story) I was kinda surprised to see the totenkopf shirts still on sale there… so I snapped a quick pic with my phone… sorry for the poor quality but the razr isnt anything great for taking photos. Anyway… thought you might like to know that Cleveland walmarts all seem to have ignored any instruction they may have received regarding taking the shirts off the shelves.”

Thanks in part to all the media hype surrounding the “new” Cyber Monday, internet shopping this year resulted in record traffic and sales. For example, WalMart.com reported a 60% boost in traffic on Monday and many websites reported server overload with as much as 4 times normal traffic levels. To find out what everyone was buying we checked out Shopping.com for the scoop.
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Big tobacco saved a ton of money yesterday in a Supreme Court decision when it comes to marketing light and ultra light cigarettes to conusmers.

The Supreme Court on Monday sided with Philip Morris USA, declining to disturb a court ruling that threw out a $10.1 billion verdict over the company’s “light” cigarettes.Â� Last year, the Illinois Supreme Court threw out the massive fraud judgment against Philip Morris, a unit of Altria Group (MO) based in Richmond, Va., in a class-action lawsuit involving “light” cigarettes.

Because the Federal Trade Commission allowed companies to characterize their cigarettes as “light” and “low tar,” Philip Morris could not be held liable under state law even if the terms it used could be found false or misleading, the state court said.

The case involved 1.1 million people who bought “light” cigarettes in Illinois. They said Philip Morris knew when it introduced such cigarettes in 1971 that they were no healthier than regular cigarettes, but hid that information and the fact that light cigarettes actually had a more toxic form of tar.

If you don’t preserve nature by switching off your television who will? In this ad from EDF France, they company is working for electricity conservation by implying that animals and nature are losing to our greed and neglect.

In this NAPCAN, Australia’s National Association For The Prevention Of Child Abuse And Neglect ad spot, we are presented with a thought provoking “Children See and Children Do” theory.

In this Solidarity Award winning ad campaign from the De Standard newspaper, we learn “smoking takes fifteen times more deadly victims than road accidents.” The ad campaign can be seen outdoor, online, and in magazines.

A new poll conducted by AOL Shopping and Zogby International finds that ome 80 percent of U.S. Web users plan to do some of their holiday shopping online this year, while nearly a quarter of the (24 percent) plan to spent most of their holiday budget online.

Looking at the top 20 retail markets reveals that New Yorkers are planning to spend the most online, with an average of $1,483.36—some 70 percent of their holiday budgets—going to online vendors.

Some 58 percent of respondents noted that online shopping saved time, while 32 percent said shopping online simplifies comparing prices. Another 29 percent say they can find gift items online they cannot find in stores, and 17 percent cite online promotions and last-minute shopping as reasons they turn to online retailers. Only 9 percent of respondents cited gasoline costs as a reason to shop online.

What do people prefer to buy online rather than in a store? Books and music (60 %), electronics (35 %), toys/games (31 %), clothing (29 %), and computer software (23 %).

Internet shopping knows no boundaries, not even for products made behind bars.

Maryland Correctional Enterprises, the manufacturing division of the state Division of Correction, has put its 182-page catalog online. Now anyone can see, if not buy, hundreds of items the agency offers for sale to government agencies and Maryland nonprofit organizations.

The products include institutional clothing, bedding, clocks, signs and lots of furniture. Nearly half the pages are filled with furniture, including the Slammer table, designed for correctional environments and named “because they put ‘em in the slammer,” said Jeff Beeson, executive director of Maryland Correctional Enterprises’ board of directors.

Topping the furniture offerings is the Traditional Veneer Line, with prices up to $1,885 for a U-shaped desk. The agency sold $42.8 million worth of goods last year, making it 10th among prison industries in sales in the United States.

Ellegirl is just one in a line of major teen magazines that have recently closed. Celebrity-focused Teen People stopped publishing with its September issue and YM stopped printing in 2005. Do these closures reflect a shift in the way teens are getting the scoop on fashion and celebrities?

“They get it instantly,’’ said Anne Sachs, executive editor of Ellegirl.com, a Web site which now has more interactive content and social-networking opportunities. “It’s hard to keep up with any other medium besides the Web.’’

Popular social-networking Web sites such as MySpace and Facebook enable teens to constantly “do what teens like to do most, which is talk to their friends,’’ said Anastasia Goodstein, a San Francisco-based writer who publishes Ypulse, a blog about Generation Y for media and marketing professionals. Flipping through a magazine is “not the same hyperconnected experience you have when you’re commenting back and forth on your friend’s MySpace page,’’ she said.

The teen magazines that still survive in print are trying to adapt to teen habits by expanding into other media and adding extra incentives to buy their brand.

Cingular Wireless is organizing a series of nationwide texting bees which were designed to educate parents on the basics of text message on cell phones. Cingular hopes the classes will boost sales of handsets and remain the top selling cell phone carrier in the United States. The campaign will begin early 2007 and will hopefully educate parents on how to text thier children while learning the newer generations ‘text slang’ used in cell phone messages and emails.

At my college, my professors constantly complain that we are selfish students for constantly letting stacks of a free copy of the Wall Street Journal pile up. Who could blame them? Yet, something the baby boomer generation doesn’t know is that we are looking to a world a little closer to home.

Mainstream newspapers are dwindling in circulation but college newspapers are spiraling out of control. A recent research showed that 76% of 6 million full time undergrads in the U.S. read their campus newspaper occasionally. These student run newspapers (*cough* consumer generated content) are wildly popular as the Boston Globe points out.

One of the most notable examples of the trend occurred in late summer, when a subsidiary of MTV, one of the country’s best-known youth brands and part of the Viacom entertainment empire, bought College Publisher, a company that runs websites for about 450 college papers. Students “have a massive amount of buying power,” said Jason Bakker, marketing director at Campus Media Group, a Minnesota marketing company that helps ad agencies reach high school and college students

A $15 million advertising campaign by Ameren Corp. and ComEd in Illinois warn residents of the state that they MUST support the increase in utility rates or else they will be faced with blackouts like Califnoria did many years ago. The energy bills are expected to go up from 20 - 50% and that is making many politicans nervous.

I just ran across this Ukranian advertisement from the side of a city transit bus in which the car looks like its coming off the side of the bus and hitting the pavement. Not that impressive, but what can you expect from Russians? (just kidding, I have a lot of Russian friends)

The All-American boys over at Toyota will not be sponsoring the 2007 Super Bowl as the Buffalo News points out. Instead, they will be tooling around in the new Toyota Tundra Pickup Truck to country concerts and high school footbal games. In an effort to connect with the Bass Pro Shoppers and the Lumber Yard Folks, the company will continue its quest with the Nascar fans and MLB fans. You can expect a series of guerilla marketing and event appearences over the coming months from Toyota. Toyota has a steep moutain to climb as 90% of all trucks bought in the U.S. are from Ford, Chevy, Dodge, or Chrysler.