What must be the sleepiest interview I’ve ever given is up, along with a transcript, here. (Actually, that’s the Google translation, although the YouTube interview is in English. The original Italian page is here.) It was right after my talk at IAB in Milan; I was jetlagged, and I had been rather energetic in the talk itself, in fact a speech coach afterwards volunteered that I might want to amp it down a notch or two.

Anyway, lucky me, I got to spend a day in Milan, and now a day in Parma, which I’ve never been to before. What a beautiful city! It’s quiet, walkable, homey, and Italian. What more could you want? [Tags: marketing iab parma ]

I’m about to give a talk at a conference in Milan on interactive advertising (IAB). Not that I’m taking this personally, but could Facebook have disrupted my talk a little more? Jeez.

I only have a sketchy account of how FB’s “conversational marketing” is going to work, but insofar as it enables me to find who among my friends has bought a digital camera recently, and it enables me to talk with them about what guided their purchase, I like it. Add in knowledge about who is geographically near me and FB could finally make it possible for me to ask my local friends what plumber they like.

Even though Facebook is inviting vendors and merchants in so they can advertise to us, the best thing about asking your friends about what they’re buying is that it is a way of undoing the effects of advertising. (At best and to some degree, of course.) [Tags: facebook advertising marketing ]

Loic Le Meur’s startup, Seesmic, seems to be off to a twittering, buzzing start. Mike Arrington likes it. It’s in a closed alpha, with 150 people in it, and I haven’t seen it, but you seem to be able to record and post videos, with some stuff to make it easy to find videos. Arrington talks about it as a video twitter.

Loic (who is a friend) is recording a video a day, marking the progress of the company’s launch. Overall, this is some fine Web marketing. [Tags: seesmic marketing]

The box of the HP Photosmart R847 digital camera advertises that it’s “A powerful, easy-to-use 8-MP camera with pet-eye fix and slimming feature.”

Yes, the camera removes the “white eye” that steals all our love for our pets, and lets us shave off those extra pounds that steal all our love for our loved ones.

These are the features that sell cameras? We are doomed.

Pretty nice little camera, though.