THE VOICES ARE TELLING YOU TO WATCH MORE CABLE TV

ITEM [via Warren Ellis]: A&E has deployed a billboard using technology manufactured by Holosonic that transmits an "audio spotlight" from a rooftop speaker so that the sound is contained within your skull.

The effect being: you think yr hearing strange voices, when in reality yr hearing a commercial being beamed into yr head.

Cleverly, A&E is using this to promote "Paranormal State," a ghost-themed series premiering this week. Not so cleverly, they’re probably freaking a lot of people out.

The tech pitch is actually kind of interesting – apart from the whiz-bang nature of it, the idea is to create marketing gimmicks that don’t generate a lot of noise on the street.

Still, I don’t envision a lot of public support for something like this – not in a marketing ambush context, anyway. Gawker sums it up nicely: "How soon will it be until in addition to the do-not-call list, we'll have a 'do not beam commercial messages into my head' list?"

It’s all in yr head,

This is dF

OH HAI, CAN I PLS BUY SOME MEDIAS?

ITEM: PQ Media says that the 2008 presidential race will rack up about $4.5 billion in advertising media and marketing services. That’s a national record, and over 64% higher than 2004, mainly because there’s no incumbent running this time, and most of the candidates are waiving their right to federal matching funds to avoid caps on individual contributions (i.e. corporate lobbyists).

The breakdown is here, but basically 75% of it will be spent in Iowa, and 70% of that will be Tom Tancredo assuring Iowans that if you don’t elect him, immigrants are coming to their town to kill the men, rape the women and force the survivors to speak Spanish.

Just kidding. Tancredo doesn’t actually have that kind of money.

I’m also guessing that this means no one’s looking to YouTube as a way to save money on distribution costs. Because who bothers counting when it’s not yr money?

Porciones de dinero,

This is dF

DEF XMAS PLAYLIST #5: YOU’VE GOT TO LAUGH IN THE DARK

And just as you don’t want to ignore the classics when assembling yr Christmas playlist, you want to give the new songs a chance, too. For starters, I recommend this nifty new Christmas tune from Scottish artist and former Arab Strap member Malcom Middleton: “We’re All Gonna Die”.

It should be the first song on his MySpace music player.

( Sing along with Malcolm! )

Catchy, no? I think it’s the new “Last Christmas” – only, you know, good.

Okay, so it doesn’t actually mention “Christmas” or “holiday” or “snow” or anything, but it does pretty much sum up how a lot of people (i.e. me) feel this time of year, so close enough. Anyway, some Radio 1 DJs are trying to promote it to the top of the UK Christmas Singles chart this year, so why not? Middleton’s even done a version for Radio 1 with a children’s choir. See that video here. Buy the album here.

Christmas cheer,

This is dF