To steal a phrase from Orange County Mayor Richard Crotty, “There are two times you need to advertise, when sales are good and when sales are bad.” Mayor Crotty was addressing a room of business leaders and was clearly bringing a little humor to the room. Selfishly, we agree with him, considering we are in the advertising and marketing world.

The truism “First impressions count” has finally been proven by science. Not only that, but the type of first impression formed has significant implications for the way that brands need to position themselves for consumers.

A recent study published in the journal Nature Neuroscience identified two areas of the brain that show significant activity during the coding of impression-relevant information. The first is the amygdale – which previous research has linked to emotional learning about inanimate objects (read that as “brands” for our purposes) and social evaluations of trust. The second area is the posterior cingulated cortex, which has been linked to economic decision-making and valuation of rewards.

Those who follow advertising can be forgiven for getting the impression that 2009 revolved around smart phones and the wireless networks that support them (with varying degrees of adequacy). Here’s a recap of the year’s epic fails and wins, starring the Palm Pre, Verizon and AT&T:

Palm Pre

Actress Tamara Hope deserved better than being transformed into a disturbing CGI apparition – and Palm deserved better than being taken for a very expensive ride by ad agency Modernista.

As Christmas nears, its time to pour the egg nog and review this year’s holiday commercials.

Target
Not sure what emotional response the self-proclaimed stylish mass-marketer was going for, but triggering anxiety and discomfort in the recipients of gifts from Target seemed to be it. There’s the woman who surprises hubby with an expensive-looking flat-screen TV, which produces back-and-forth sniping about how Santa must not know about the recession. The couple isn’t more direct with each other because their kids are in the room. Yes, and the kids can’t tell that Mommy and Daddy are arguing in front of them, either! Merry Christmas!

Today is the 150th anniversary of the birth of L.L. Zamenhof, a Polish-born linguist who invented Esperanto – an “artificial” language created from basic linguistic elements of several languages. Zamenhof intended Esperanto to serve as an international common language that would play the role of a neutral communication tool among people of different ethnic and linguistic backgrounds, and as such, promote understanding and world peace.