The hit series Mad Men, about a 1960’s Madison Avenue Advertising Agency just got immortalized by Mattel. The new “Mad Men” collector Barbie dolls will hit the stores in July of 2010 and fans will be able to buy Don Draper, Betty Draper, Roger Sterling and Joan Halloway from the hit TV series.

From the accessories down to their clothes, these have to be the best dressed Barbies Madison Avenue has ever seen.

Press Release:
STYLE ICONS “MAD MEN” AND BARBIE® JOIN FORCES AS LIONSGATE, AMC AND MATTEL LAUNCH EXCLUSIVE BARBIE DOLL COLLECTION

Season 3 DVD Hits Stores March 23; Will Include Collectible Sketch Drawings of “Mad Men” Barbie dolls

Mattel, Inc., Lionsgate® and AMC announced today the launch of four Barbie® Collector “Mad Men” dolls available to consumers July 2010. Designed by Barbie designer Robert Best, the “Mad Men” Barbie doll line features key players from the Sterling Cooper Advertising Agency: creative director and leading man Don Draper; his wife Betty Draper; Sterling Cooper partner Roger Sterling; and bombshell office manager Joan Holloway. Today’s announcement marks the first licensed doll line in the Barbie Fashion Model Collection, a signature silkstone collection within the Barbie brand known for featuring couture quality fashions and accessories.

The “Mad Men” Barbie Collector doll collection embodies the “Mad Men” series’ couture fashions and accessories, and its iconic 1960s style and aesthetic. The series, which is produced by Lionsgate and airs on AMC, has made history with its multiple Emmy and Golden Globe Awards by chronicling the lives of the men and women of Madison Avenue advertising in the 1960s. Season four of “Mad Men” premieres this summer.

Gracefully molded of Silkstone®, a material that resembles the look and weight of porcelain, each doll is stylized in iconic costumes from the series, and comes with accessories true to their show counterparts. Don Draper wears his classic, polished red-lined suit and comes accessorized with a hat, overcoat and brief case; Betty Draper’s classic look is captured with unparalleled detail, from her faux pearl necklace to her pumps; Joan Holloway looks chic in a purple skirt suit and perfectly styled coif with her staple accessory – a pen necklace; and Roger Sterling is looking dapper in his monogrammed shirt.

Fans can get exclusive collectible sketch drawings of the “Mad Men” Barbie Collector dolls when the Season Three DVD hits stores on March 23, 2010 as each DVD set will include one of the four character sketches. The Mad Men: Season Three DVD contains all 13 episodes of the season and is also loaded with hours of special features including extensive commentaries and innovative featurettes that examine the historical events that shaped 1963.

The Barbie® Fashion Model Collection “Mad Men” Barbie® dolls will be available for a suggested retail price of $74.95. Available at BarbieCollector.com, amctv.com and select retailers.

Every day we see millions of ads, but this one was brought to my attention by another blogger as brilliant for getting out your brand name in a very unlikely spot. The bins at the Airport terminal security checkpoint

*Note that this ad is strategically placed to catch people who are paying attention to their shoes as well as giving a simple, straight forward message that is absorbed in less than 20 seconds.

I’m a huge fan of Zappos and for building your business on the customer experience which Zappos continues to do very well at. While I generally think there is a lot of money wasted on advertising that never really hits the audience in the right way, this is just another example of a great marketing strategy.

I will be attending Chris Pirillo’s Social Media conference, Gnomedex on August 20th in Seattle. It’s sure to be an interesting two days accelerating ideas around social media and online communities.

I could have told you it was hot, my thermometer inside the house reads 86 degrees (that is with an air conditioning unit upstairs) but I had no idea that we are having the hottest day on record EVER in the Seattle area. It is currently 102 degrees in Kirkland and Redmond where I live/work.

All the news stations like King5 are covering the “heat wave” like it’s the end of the world.. maybe it is.

Now I just got back from 4 days in Las Vegas where the temperature never reached over 96 degrees the entire time we were there. I feel like I’ve entered the Twilight Zone.. of course there is no global warming.

I’ve become almost blind to my use of Google. Anytime I need to search for something, I use the built-in search tool in either Safari or Firefox that automatically defaults to Google without even thinking about it. Google had certainly succeeded in their search engine being the one and only thing I think about when I need to search.

Trouble is, lately the results in Google have been more of a frustration than anything. Granted the paid ads are sometimes relevant, and the results show mostly targeted sites for what I am searching on, but the breadth of results has narrowed greatly since I first started using Google and I just feel like I’m missing stuff.

Today, I was searching for travel options from Seattle. I have a few trips planned this summer and thinking about adding some more. Of course, the main travel websites all came back with similar offers. I wanted something different. I had a “Bing Moment” where I wondered if Microsoft’s new search engine Bing would give me something different. Continue Reading ->

I’ll be taking a break from technology over the weekend and enjoying some sunshine.

Regardless of the complaints I think I share with many others about politics and laws in our country, we are very fortunate to have it as good as we do considering the plight of many other countries in this current day.

According to the May 2009 Mobile Metrics Report by AdMob, Apple is taking a big bite of the Smartphone market share. In their newly released study, they take a closer look at the iPhone apps within the AdMob network. “It is general knowledge that the top free apps are downloaded millions of times. But with an incredibly crowded App Store, one important question is what happens to the rest of the apps.” view the entire report on the AdMob website including more user statistics and breakdowns of demographics.