Mock commercials have been discussed on this blog before, whether it’s “Saturday Night Live” or others that find creative inspiration from direct response or general advertising. However, a recent independent commercial supporting Obama has blurred the lines of advertising and advocacy. This example is intriguing because it’s a new take on an old, famous Budweiser commercial. It also shows how commercials can at times have the power to transcend into pop culture. The actors from the original, infamous “Whassup” campaign have taken a hard line at McCain in this updated version.

Original Whassup Bud Ad:

Obama Whassup Ad:

This also becomes an issue of branding. Could Budweiser’s brand be somewhat tarnished for Republicans? Did all the references of Teresa Heinz Kerry harm the Heinz brand in 2004? I can tell you this much, my college roommate ordered “W- America’s Ketchup” off the Internet after refusing to buy Heinz products. A lot of Americans wouldn’t buy it, regardless of the fact that her role at the company is limited to philanthropy projects and that her former husband was an admired Republican senator. The same could be true for die-hard democrats that declined to buy Coors products while republican Pete Coors was running for the Senate in Colorado.

According to The Wall Street Journal, “But the video is causing a ripple in industry circles, because Budweiser—which clearly has no interest in backing a presidential candidate—is powerless to stop it. In a departure from normal industry practice, neither Anheuser Busch nor its ad firm, Omnicom’s DDB Chicago, own the Whassup slogan or concept. Instead, the brewer paid Charles Stone III, who created and starred in the ads, roughly $37,000 to license the idea for five years. That deal expired three years ago.”

But, regardless of this particular political ad’s positive or negative impact, it does further prove that advertising campaigns can have a long-standing impact in American culture. Having already received well over 2 million views, they’ve taken something straight from the ad world to create an organic, viral marketing phenomenon.

Pat Cauley is Electronic Retailer magazine’s eMedia editor.

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As part of this year’s ERA Awards Gala, our home shopping obsessed sock monkey reappeared in “Satisfaction (I Can’t Get No).”

The short, created by Rick Petry and Richard Perris, is described thusly on YouTube: “Hilarity ensues when a sock monkey husband turned cuckold tries various infomercial products to win back his sweetie.” Have a look and if you like it, please rate it!

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People always say that sex sells. Perhaps that’s why these two foreign ad campaigns for Burger King and the Fiat Panda heavily incorporate sex/sex appeal. Both were eventually banned in their respective countries. However, they obviously still enjoy viral life on YouTube and through e-mail.

What’s your take on the ads?

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Pat Cauley is Electronic Retailer magazine’s eMedia editor.

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One of the most important dilemmas facing e-commerce merchants today is which shopping-cart solution to choose for their web stores. The sheer number of options can be daunting—a recent Google search on “online shopping cart” turned up 12.7 million hits, many of them offering shopping-cart products of their own. No wonder it’s a tough decision.

A good way to narrow the field is deciding what kind of cart is most appropriate for your needs: open source (available at no cost) or proprietary (available for a fee). There was a time when many in the e-commerce world frowned on open source products. Some said they were difficult to install and configure, while others bemoaned their lack of available features and technical support. Fortunately for online entrepreneurs on a budget, those days are all but gone.

The latest open source shopping carts offer pretty much everything you’d find in a proprietary solution, provided you have the basic technical expertise to install and configure them. Most have become much easier to install than previous offerings and include numerous developer contributions for increased features and customization. Technical support tends to come in the form of user forums, which at least for the most popular products, are heavily trafficked and often yield answers in a matter of minutes.

The grandfather of open source shopping carts and still among the most popular is osCommerce. In operation for more than eight years, it now claims 176,100 storeowners and offers 4,700 free add-ons. osCommerce is compatible with all PHP 4 versions and features automatic browser-based installation and an object oriented backend.

Another popular choice is ZenCart, which was initially based on osCommerce code but has developed dramatically and is a fully independent product. Known for its long list of added features, ZenCart is PHP-based and uses a MySQL database and HTML components. Its frequently praised gift certificate module allows merchants to create, distribute and manage digital coupons.

An alternative to these two somewhat similar options is Ubercart, a shopping cart product built on top of the leading open source content management system, Drupal. Designed to take advantage of Drupal’s core and other contributed systems, Ubercart gets high marks for its flexibility and intuitive layout.

These are just a few of the open source shopping carts available today. All three are free under the GNU General Public License.

Which of these (or other) open source products would be best for a particular merchant’s online store? That depends on individual business needs. Factors like design flexibility, search engine friendliness, reporting and backend functionality are important to weigh when choosing between products. Most product sites include demos and lists of live sites running the software, which can also help differentiate between competitors.

Are you uncomfortable with the technical requirements of setting up a shopping-cart application? It’s possible that open source solutions are not for you. Proprietary programs cost money, but generally offer configuration, design and support services that can take the headache out of launching a store for the less technically inclined. For others—especially smaller merchants with limited startup budgets—open source solutions can provide precious cost savings at a crucial stage of store development.

Erin Kroll is the PR/VAR marketing coordinator e-onlinedata.

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Growing up I consistently had to write thank you notes to my grandparents whenever they would give me gifts or take me back-to-school shopping. My grandfather had a long career as a sports writer for a Pittsburgh newspaper, and he has always believed in the written word. That’s probably part of the reason I went to school for journalism and now work for a magazine. I like to actually hold magazines in my hands and flip through the pages, reading at my leisure. To this day, I still receive and respond to cards and letters from my grandmother.

Many will argue that the web is killing print, whether it’s the daily newspaper or a direct-mail piece. I don’t think that’s entirely the case. There is something uniquely different about receiving something in the postal mail, as opposed to e-mail. Even the mail I throw away holds my attention longer than a spam e-mail I delete. Admit it—you love receiving real mail from friends and family.

The recent New Zealand Post ad campaign speaks to this. These ads are so moving and memorable that they are also a testament to the fact that marketers can truly make powerful, human connections with people in only a minute’s time.

My grandfather actually once said that there’s nothing more respectful than a hand written letter. Whatever your thoughts are on the future of snail mail, these ads certainly demonstrate not only the unique quality of mail, but also the story-telling potential that exists for all creative ad campaigns.

Pat Cauley is Electronic Retailer magazine’s eMedia editor.

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One of the most frequently discussed topics at the recent BlogWorld conference was how bloggers can monetize their blog. A blog is a labor of love for many, but as they pick up steam, bloggers realize that as long as they’re putting in the work, they might as well earn some money too. Many bloggers have found that ad programs such as Google AdSense are good for earning pennies, but ultimately don’t deliver the kind of profits they’re looking for.

The real opportunity in monetizing your blog, discussed at length by several industry experts at BlogWorld, is through affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing is where you place links on your blog for products that relate to your topic. For example, if you write about personal health and wellness, you would choose products such as diet and exercise books to promote on your blog – as your readers would naturally be interested in products that will make them healthier.

When you place a link, you become an “affiliate” of the person selling the product. If someone clicks the link on your blog and then buys the product, you get a commission on that sale. Commissions can be as high as 75 percent of the sale, depending on the product you’re promoting. In general, digital products like ebooks have higher commission rates because they have no manufacturing or inventory costs.

Because affiliate marketing is an Internet-based business, there are literally thousands of people talking about this subject online every day. Take your time to read reviews and comments, and pick which affiliate marketing opportunity is best suited to your needs. Like any other important business decision, doing your homework will pay off in the long run. It will give your blog the best chance to bring in significant cash, as many other bloggers have already discovered.

Bob Dunlap is director of marketing for ClickBank.

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Let’s face it, we’re addicts. We live for the Internet. We can’t function without the Internet. It controls us. But whatever, it’s awesome. We’re all curious by nature, but with the Internet, it breeds a much higher level of curiosity. I love how I can discover ANYTHING with a simple tap of my finger. It just feels so good in the morning when I have a hot cup of coffee and I make that anticipated double click to see what’s going on in the world—and by “world,” I mean Facebook, e-mail and a little CNN. Because of my addiction, I can’t resist a mindless Internet activity. So while browsing a friend’s profile on Facebook the other day, I found a new web obsession for all to enjoy: yearbookyourself.com

I’ve always wanted to know what I would have looked like in the past, especially since there were so many hairstyles that were out of whack. I mean, how could I, Jordan, a girl with curly hair, look good with a short bob? I don’t know how I would have been able to go steady with someone. Anyway, this website made all my dreams come true. It granted my wish of seeing what I’d look like with the popular hairstyles and fashions through the decades. Needless to say, I’m happy with my current look. However, in 10 years, I’ll probably think I looked like a poodle.

As entertaining as it is, the real purpose of yearbookyourself.com is to partner with malls around the country to promote their participating stores. Malls like Los Angeles’ popular Beverly Center use yearbookyourself.com to compare and contrast today’s styles and trends with those of the past. Yearbookyourself.com explains what was popular then and what’s popular now to direct the viewers to the participating stores where they can get that style. My favorite is, “Fanny packs were stylish in ’88 (no joke). For today’s more tasteful accessories, head to: Tumi, LeSport Sac, Kipling.” They probably figure that since we get the opportunity to see ourselves in different decades explaining the past and present trends, that it will motivate us to update our wardrobe.

It’s an interesting approach, because yearbookyourself.com invites us to the past to capture our attention. Considering the amount of Facebook profile pictures I’ve seen from the website, I’d say mission accomplished. However, I just don’t know how effective the partnership is because we live in a narcissistic era. People will be paying more attention to themselves rather than what stores they could visit to get a particular style. At least yearbookyourself.com can guarantee traffic and exposure due to the website’s popularity.

So, if you are up for a little photo upload, time traveling and a good laugh, I highly recommend you check it out. If you’re like me, you’ll upload a picture to see yourself as the opposite sex, too. Or maybe I’m just weird. But hey, what can I say? The Internet controls me.

Jordan Sullivan is a marketing director for Chick-fil-A.

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The economic decline is top-of-mind for everyone – especially retailers – as consumers place an even stronger hold on their wallets. In such a volatile marketplace, retailers must employ creative tactics to gain a competitive edge and remain profitable. With escalating gas prices, now more than ever, shoppers are going online which puts multichannel retailers at an advantage. That considered, simply having an online channel is not enough – it’s how you market your site and engage customers that makes the difference.

Here are 10 tips and tricks you can apply to your e-commerce site to survive the recession and boost website sales.

1. Smart Merchandising - Promote Groups of Low-Cost Offers: Find inexpensive, appealing items and bundle them in a creative way as a special promotion that gives shoppers an incentive to fill their carts with many low-cost items.

2. Instant Couponing for Multiple-Category Purchasing: Drive shoppers to buy more by offering them a reasonable discount on items from other categories if they buy immediately.

3. Minimum Purchase Free Shipping: Look at your margins and offer free shipping at a purchase threshold where it makes financial sense. Shoppers will fill the cart for the reward.

4. Personalized Recommendations on the Shopping Cart Page: Personalized product recommendations (PPRs) are a recession hit: they’re important on the category page, on the product detail page and everywhere else on the site you can afford the real estate. Putting them at the point of purchase—on the shopping cart page—is a highly strategic placement that moves shoppers to buy. PPRs are recession-proof because leading vendors like MyBuys offer them on a pay-for-performance basis.

5. Value Exchange (Gift with Purchase): Offer a small gift with a minimum price purchase to help move more product, increase customer loyalty and motivate customers to sample other products to increase cart size.

6. Use E-mail Creatively: Use e-mail alerts to recommend products that shoppers want and while you’re at it, remind them of abandoned shopping cart items, which have high conversion rates.

7. Ratings and Reviews: Create a sense of community and loyalty by adding ratings and reviews to your site. Shoppers trust one another and this functionality is not expensive to implement. Also, highly rated products tend to convert at better rates.

8. Creative Use of Widgets: Make widgets highly accessible from your webpage and your Facebook page. Offer different size choices and make them easy to download. Turn your fans into advertising affiliates by having them add these widgets to their social networking pages or blogs and give them points toward purchase for click-throughs or conversions.

9. Create Special Membership Clubs: Companies like SKECHERS, Clinique and many others have successful clubs for building loyalty and growing their lists. Get shoppers to sign up, become part of your community and give you permission to market to them. Reward them with free shipping, special coupons and discounts.

10. New Customer Programs: Coupons or other incentives to turn people into first-time buyers aren’t expensive to create or manage and once you bring shoppers to your site, you can employ the rest of the tactics mentioned above to bring them back for more.

Robert E. Cell is CEO of MyBuys.

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