PatrickPretty.com

Category: Writing And Branding

  • EDITORIAL: Arons Retracts Statements On Friedman

    Jack Arons, a Florida man sued for libel and slander last week by Dallas attorney Larry Friedman, announced today that he is retracting statements he made about Friedman on the Internet. “As far as Larry Friedman and his Law Firm is concerned I retract all statements made against them,” Arons said. He posted the retraction…

  • Surf’s Up Deletion Raises Quid Pro Quo Questions

    UPDATED 1:22 P.M. EST (U.S.A.) Earlier this month a photo of Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps holding a bong sparked a firestorm, which ultimately led to a public apology from the celebrated gold medalist. Phelps subsequently was fired by Kellogg Co. because it cherished its brand and didn’t want the cereal- and snack-eating children of America…

  • Genesis Of The Utah ‘Indian’ Cases And Why They Could Spell Bad News For ASD Members Who Are Seeking Refunds

    Meet Curtis Richmond and the so-called “Arby’s Indians.” This stupefying drama actually started almost a decade before the fabled meeting inside an Arby’s restaurant in Provo, Utah, on April 18, 2003. The birth of Wampanoag Nation, Tribe of Grayhead, Wolf Band — a sham Utah “Indian” tribe not to be confused with a legitimate Massachusetts…

  • Bowdoin/Madoff Comparison: Is It Fair?

    Last night we received a note from a reader who had a bone to pick: He advised us, seemingly politely, that ASD was not an “autosurf.”  Rather, he said, it was a “manual surf.” There was a whiff of passive-aggressiveness in the note: He informed us that he did not desire to “address your blog”…

  • Follow-Up: No Autosurf Cure For Struggling Newspapers

    Our site has been serving more pages, fueled in large measure by readers’ interest in the AdSurfDaily case and our reports on Ponzi fraud and securities fraud. We got a mention in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer last week (and later on Google News, which picked up the P-I column) in response to our column on whether…

  • Seattle Post-Intelligencer Imperiled: Could It Use The Autosurf Model To Save Itself?

    Yesterday we wrote about the U.S. unemployment rate surging to 7.2 percent, the highest since 1993. Today we’ll start with the news that the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, one of America’s great newspapers, has been put up for sale by Hearst. Our purpose for this post is twofold: To send our respect to staff members who may…

  • Prosecutors Turn Up The Heat On Madoff

    Ponzi schemes almost always have insiders, and sometimes the insiders may not even know they’re insiders. In an extraordinary revelation, federal prosecutors said this afternoon that Bernard Madoff took overt steps to distribute bonuses to preferred family,  friends and employees after he realized the Ponzi he created was crashing down around him “[When] the defendant’s…

  • Blagojevich Subject Of Debut RateMyVanity.com Poll

    He’s the governor who won’t go away, despite allegations he tried to sell the Senate seat vacated by President-Elect Obama. Gov. Rod Blagojevich of Illinois is the subject of the debut poll on RateMyVanity.com. So, if you’ve been following the Blagojevich saga and have a few minutes, visit the site and cast your vote. You’ll…

  • AdViewGlobal, AdGateWorld Brands Leveraged To Sell Cash-Gifting, Other Programs; Pitches Also Use Tony Robbins’ Name

    It’s hard to imagine that motivational speaker Anthony Robbins would be pleased to learn his carefully cultivated brand name is being leveraged to sell highly questionable online-income opportunities such as cash-gifting programs. Robbins, however, has company — and it’s the sort of company that adds an extra layer of dubiousness to the drip-drop dilution of…

  • Enjoy WordPress Blogging? Try Elegant Themes

    If you enjoy WordPress blogging and are looking for ways to expand your online presence in 2009 while implementing a clean, fresh look, ElegantThemes may be a choice suited for you. First, though, let’s get you qualified: Elegant Themes is a membership site that provides attractive WordPress themes. You’ll need a core understanding of WordPress.…

  • RateMyVanity.com, Inspired By Madoff Attire, Coming Soon; Readers Will Rate Newsmakers’ Vanity

    RateMyVanity.com covers news from the worlds of entertainment, media, politics, business and sports, asking readers to rate how they perceive the vanity of newsmakers. Select stories will include a vanity poll. Read the News Release. The site was inspired by the Bernard Madoff case, particulary the garb he selected on the date of one of…