Short Takes

BUSMAN’S HOLIDAY

So, after a tough week of wading through weird ad campaigns, new branding efforts, and the recycling of old marketing ideas presented as new, what do you like to do to unwind? How about an exciting round of that new branding board game, Brandoodles? Thanks to “Short Takes” fan Mike Y., who forwarded the release, we can now join in the hangman-type game described thusly: “The object of the game is to guess letters of the alphabet that reveal the name on selected clue cards that keep players and onlookers guessing. The game play engages the player in a near pathological connection to the 1000 well-known brands because its content is so strong and memorable to all.” It’s not really our cup of tea, but a visit to the Web site is worth the side trip just to see the faces of the people on the cover of the box. “Pathological” was a good word choice.

WHAT WAS OLD IS NEW AGAIN

“Frogger” was a freestanding video game that was a huge hit when it debuted back in 1981, and then enjoyed a renaissance after it made an appearance on a Seinfeld episode a few years ago. Now parent company Konami Digital Entertainment is launching Frogger 25th Evolution this fall in honor of the game’s 25th anniversary. No longer just an arcade game, Frogger is now available for mobile games and “is still a top-selling franchise and continues to entertain casual and core gamers across the globe.” Or so they say. For those too young to remember, Frogger involved helping a frog cross multiple lanes of busy traffic without getting squashed. Which, in the face of the violence of Grand Theft Auto, Halo and others of that ilk, seems pretty lame in comparison. So who’s buying it? Geezers like us?

AND THE WORST COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE IN THE US IS...

Texas Stadium in Dallas and Jacobs Field in Cleveland. That's according to Hasbro, which placed those two properties where the ultra-low rent Baltic and Mediterranean Avenues used to be, on its just-released Monopoly: Here & Now Edition. The company said the new edition "was designed to answer the question: “What would the most popular board game of all time look like if it were invented today instead of in 1935?” (Well, actually, it was designed to answer the ever-popular question: How do we move more units? But never mind that.) Top spots on the board go to New York’s Times Square, which takes the place of Boardwalk. Coming in second to New York yet again: Boston's Fenway Park, which is Park Place. And not only have the properties been revamped but so have the tokens: the race car is a Toyota Prius, the old shoe is New Balance running shoe, and "the hip labradoodle takes the place of the Scottish terrier," they tell us. The game tokens also include McDonald's French Fries, a Motorola RAZR cell phone, and a generic airplane and laptop computer—which means none of the airlines or computer-makers would cough up a fee for naming rights. Cheap, cheap, cheap. --Constantine von Hoffman