First Time Interview

Even though it came out nearly ten months ago, the University of Delaware has decided to put out a press release about a study I co-authored with Samuel D. Bradley of Texas Tech University and Sungkyoung Lee of Indiana University about negative political advertising. The study was published in the Journal of Advertising with the title Psychophysiological and memory effects of negative political ads: Aversive, arousing and well remembered. I guess this was the right time to do it because I had an interview today with an online blogger/columnist for Newsweek.

This interview, which yielded the article titled Expertinent: The Biology of Negative Advertising, was an interesting experience and one that I hope I get the opportunity to do again.

DirectTV - A Little Creepy?

I have actually enjoyed the recent advertising campaign put out by DirectTV. Actors from some of the best known recent films are seen as if they are actually in the film but then begin to talk to the screen about how they should have subscribed to DirectTV. I've liked this campaign and thought that it was an interesting concept.

That is until I saw the most recent advertisement.

The most recent one features actor Craig T. Nelson who played the father in the first two Poltergeist films. These are films that I enjoy and find myself watching anytime they are on TV or my TiVo records them. But this advertisement also features child actor Heather O'Rourke who died back in 1988. While DirectTV isn't the first company to featuring a dead celebrity in an advertising campaign, this still smacks (at least to me) of bad taste.

Here's the ad. See what you think.

Halloween Drinking

Let this picture serve as a reminder to all of you - keep your Jack-O'-Lanterns away from the beer!