It sounds like Netflix is halfway open to the idea:

Online movie rental company Netflix Inc has surveyed its subscribers to gauge their interest in streaming movies to their televisions using Microsoft Corp’s Xbox 360, a Netflix spokesman said on Monday.

Netflix spokesman Steve Swasey declined to say whether the survey indicated a soon-to-be announced partnership between the two companies, but said Netflix was interested in getting its movies to consumers’ TVs “in as many ways as possible.”

As a current Netflix subscriber and proud Xbox 360 owner (one of the few MS products that I ride for), this would certainly be a match made in heaven! Unfortunately, I wasn’t surveyed (what’s up with that?), but I’m hoping that those who were did their part to move Netflix in the right direction with this. We’ll find out soon enough, I’m sure.

Link.

Remember when a cell phone was just a cell phone? When things like internet access, camera quality, and IM capabilities didn’t impact your final decision when buying one (since most of these features were limited or nonexistent at the time anyway)? As long as your phone made clear calls, clocked sufficient talk time, and looked fairly decent–LED screen, pull-out antenna and all–you were straight! And you probably held on to the same model for more than a year. That’s hardly the case these days. With features like text messages, mobile web, and IM (among others) now on the scene, the game, as well as consumer demands, have been changed forever.

This article in today’s New York Times takes a look at the steps that a few cell phone manufacturers are taking to appeal to the tastes of today’s design and environmentally conscious consumers.

Like fashion or entertainment, the cellphone industry is increasingly hit-driven, and new models that do not fly off the shelves within weeks of their debut are considered duds. The most gadget-conscious shoppers buy new phones every nine months, twice as fast as they did a few years ago. And teenagers, one of the fastest-growing markets, are especially quick to dump a brand if it loses popular appeal.

Read on.

50 of the world’s most innovative company’s according to Fast Company. It’s a pretty diverse list made up of design firms, internet startups, sportswear giants, and electronics companies, just to name a few. Peep the top 10:

1. Google
2. Apple
3. Facebook
4. GE
5. Ideo
6. Nike
7. Nokia
8. Alibaba
9. Amazon
10. Nintendo

Not many surprises here on the top 10, other than the position of Facebook–coming in 3rd just under Google and Apple. For a social networking site, that’s definitely major.

I’m beginning to think not. The now infamous episode of The Boondocks, entitled ‘The Hunger Strike’, was suddenly yanked from this season’s schedule just weeks after preview clips landed on the web. Without any real explanation, fans were left to assume that BET—whose executives and business practices take quite a pounding in the episode—urged Turner Broadcasting/Cartoon Network to pull the plug on ‘The Hunger Strike’. The idea doesn’t seem too far fetched, but is this really what happened? Or are Cartoon Network and Aaron McGruder (the show’s creator) hiding a larger, clever scheme up their sleeves? Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s a pretty fresh ad spot for the Nike Air Force 1 that I stumbled across earlier this week. It’s directed by Christopher Riggert for Radical Media, and the visual effects are very well done! Peep.

[via Fubiz]

The term “pay as you go” just took on a whole new meaning in New York City, well, sort of. The city has unveiled the first of 20, pay per use, sidewalk restrooms that will be located throughout downtown Manhattan. The stalls, which will cost a mere 25 cents per use, allow visitors up to 15 minutes of “go time”, and best of all, they clean themselves after each individual use. If this pay as you go method means cleaner public restrooms, then I’m for all it! You can peep the full article here.

[photo via Pentagram]

It looks like the retail industry is paying some much needed attention to the recycling, or should I say re-bagging habits of many of its consumers these days. No, this isn’t another case of an industry/company going green, although this would fit the description in more ways than one. Instead, retailers are beginning to put a little extra effort into the design of their shopping bags, as they look to gain a bit of free advertising from consumers that have a tendency to reuse some of the more attractive, high end bags for their own daily purposes (i.e. transporting lunch, gym clothes, etc).

Once a flimsy afterthought in American retailing — used to lug a purchase home from the store, then tossed into the trash — the lowly, free store bag is undergoing a luxurious makeover.

From upscale emporiums to midprice chains, retailers are engaged in a heated competition to make the most durable, fashionable shopping bags. They are investing millions of dollars in new flourishes like plastic-coated paper (Macy’s and Juicy Couture) and heavy fabric cord handles (Abercrombie & Fitch and Scoop).

Behind the battle of the bags is a significant shift in behavior that has turned consumers into walking billboards for stores. In cities like New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, customers have begun treating shopping bags as disposable purses that can be reused for weeks, if not months, to carry laundry to the cleaners, books to the beach or lunch to the office. Peep:

But only the best bags make the cut. So stores, sensing a marketing opportunity, are racing to transform bare-bones bags into lavish, thick ones that will become free advertising.

(via NYT)

The iPhone, Halo 3, Slingbox, Online Gossip, Social Networking…Those are just a few things that made their way onto Business Week’s lists of most important products and trends of 2007.

I’m straying away from the norm a bit here, I know, but I found this story to be quite interesting. In fact, I think I’m going to start posting more about various happenings in the advertising world. Back to the story though. Apparently, if your [Dollars, Euros, Yen] are right, you can turn almost anything into “ad space” these days. Anything…Even report cards, apparently. Yeah, man, Micky D’s is taking their act directly to the school yard these days. Peep…

The Golden Arches picked up the $1,600 cost of printing report-card jackets for the 2007-2008 school year in Seminole County, Fla., in exchange for a Happy Meal coupon on the card’s cover. With 27,000 elementary school kids taking their report-card jackets home to be signed three or four times a year, that’s less than 2 cents per impression.

Children who earn all A’s and B’s, have two or fewer absences or exhibit good behavior are entitled to a free happy meal at a local McDonald’s — so long as they present their report card.

(via Ad Age)