Charles Saatchi Wife Nigella Lawson 'Has Seduced Millions of Television Viewers with Her Culinary skills' and 'Flirtatious Camera Manner'

Charles Saatchi is the co-founder of the Saatchi & Saatchi advertising agency. His wife Nigella is apparently making quite a name for herself, and it's not hard to see why.

See Telegraph UK, "Charles Saatchi wants wife Nigella Lawson to be 'coveted'":

With her culinary wizadry, melt-in-your mouth voice and Rubenesque figure, Nigella Lawson has made a career out of turning heads.

But while many husbands might resent such flirtatious behaviour, Charles Saatchi yesterday revealed his pleasure at his television chef wife's appeal - declaring "who would want to be married to someone who nobody coveted?"

In extracts from his new book, the outspoken adman turned art collector also described the Ten Commandments as an "overrated lifestyle guide" which only succeed in "making people confused and guilty".

Mr Saatchi, who has been married three times, insisted that the tenth commandment in particular was "obviously a no-hoper" because "coveting is all everyone does, all the time, every day."

He added: "It's what drives the world economy, pushes people to make a go of their lives, so that they can afford the executive model of their Ford Mondeo to park next to their neighbour's standard model. And who would want to be married to someone who nobody coveted?"

Well, perhaps Ms. Lawson will be doing a book tour stateside. She's the Christina Hendricks of the British culinary scene. And come to think of it, if I'm going to scoop Robert Stacy McCain for some newsworthy Rule 5, it'd be hard to find a better subject!

PHOTO CREDIT: Wikipedia.

Sports Illustrated Swimsuit 2012: The Lineup

Well, I think this clip introduces all the SI models for 2012:

And check out this blog, "Who is that hot ad girl?" (Via Glenn Reynolds.)

Websites Cater to 'Discreet' Encounters as Marital Infidelity Becomes the Norm

Folks might have been wondering about my new Blogad at the sidebar, the one that says, "Sex RARELY happens. When it Does, It's Beyond BORING! It's Time for a New Discreet Partner!"

I don't click through, but hovering over shows a link to the website called "Online Affairs." And you know, as much as I like the Rule 5 blogging, I have mixed feelings about these "discreet" dating services, which are basically hookups sites for online cheating.

Blogads can be pre-approved, so I'll update if I change my mind about these. Meanwhile, USA Today has a feature story on this advertising trend in today's paper. See, "Sites like Ashley Madison Cater to 'Discreet' Encounters, Cheating":

Husbands and wives take note: If Valentine's Day expectations aren't met, your mate might soon be looking elsewhere for a little romance and appreciation.

That may sound like a cautionary tale, but for Noel Biderman and others who have founded dating websites for married people, it's a lucrative business.

"The day after Valentine's Day is one of our biggest days of the year," says Biderman, founder and CEO of Ashley Madison, a 10-year-old site that unapologetically caters to "discreet" encounters for the married or otherwise attached. "People are disappointed by their spouses' lack of effort, and they feel especially undervalued when there is a societal expectation of romance. Certain days of the year act as litmus tests for many people in relationships."

Websites designed to facilitate cheating appear to be thriving; some earn tens of millions of dollars a year, and competition is growing. In addition to Toronto-based Ashley Madison, there's a growing crop of copycats that equate affairs with romance, passion and adventure.

Whether these sites promote cheating or just facilitate it is up for debate.

"People are going to cheat regardless of whether Ashley Madison is there or not," says sociologist Diane Kholos Wysocki of the University of Nebraska-Kearney, who has surveyed the site's members for her latest research. "There's a bigger social issue going on — people aren't taking care of their marriages.

"It's not so much that they're going to these cheating websites because the sex is greater or the person is more beautiful. It's because the person is giving them attention they're not getting at home."

Continue reading.

Maybe I'll post a disclaimer for the Blogads, like Betsy Newmark, "Betsy neither necessarily uses nor endorses the products advertised on this site."

'Halftime in America' — Parody

Via Theo Spark:

And the text is at Reason.

My previous comments are here.

Clint Eastwood: 'It's Halftime in America'

The U.S. bailed out Chrysler so this ad about halftime in America is deceptive. Most regular folks can't count on Big Brother to come to the rescue, as much as we love Clint Eastwood's grit and determination. It rings a little hollow in the end.

It went over pretty well, in any case. See CNN, "Chrysler is king of the Super Bowl spots."

And at Instapundit, "CLINT EASTWOOD LOSES RESPECT: “Would Dirty Harry ask for a handout?”"

Favorite Ads of 2011

And not so favorite, at New York Times, "Reliving the Best (and Worst) Ads of 2011."

Mozy Infographic: 'Storing the World's Nuclear Weapons'

This graphic features a functional integration of geographic and tabular information on the distribution of the world's nuclear weapons. Changes in the U.S. nuclear inventory are displayed at the second and third images. The problem of storage facilities is highlighted with attention to the United States at the map at bottom.

Via: Mozy

How Tracking Cookies Work (How to Control Your Privacy Online)

Fascinating piece at WSJ, "On the Web's Cutting Edge, Anonymity in Name Only":

You may not know a company called [x+1] Inc., but it may well know a lot about you.

From a single click on a web site, [x+1] correctly identified Carrie Isaac as a young Colorado Springs parent who lives on about $50,000 a year, shops at Wal-Mart and rents kids' videos. The company deduced that Paul Boulifard, a Nashville architect, is childless, likes to travel and buys used cars. And [x+1] determined that Thomas Burney, a Colorado building contractor, is a skier with a college degree and looks like he has good credit.

The company didn't get every detail correct. But its ability to make snap assessments of individuals is accurate enough that Capital One Financial Corp. uses [x+1]'s calculations to instantly decide which credit cards to show first-time visitors to its website.

In short: Websites are gaining the ability to decide whether or not you'd be a good customer, before you tell them a single thing about yourself.

The technology reaches beyond the personalization familiar on sites like Amazon.com, which uses its own in-house data on its customers to show them new items they might like.

By contrast, firms like [x+1] tap into vast databases of people's online behavior—mainly gathered surreptitiously by tracking technologies that have become ubiquitous on websites across the Internet. They don't have people's names, but cross-reference that data with records of home ownership, family income, marital status and favorite restaurants, among other things. Then, using statistical analysis, they start to make assumptions about the proclivities of individual Web surfers.

"We never don't know anything about someone," says John Nardone, [x+1]'s chief executive.

Capital One says it doesn't use the full array of [x+1]'s targeting technology, and it doesn't prevent people from applying for any card they want. "While we suggest products that we believe will be of interest to our visitors, we do not limit their ability to easily explore all products available," spokeswoman Pam Girardo says ....

Its technology works like this: A visitor lands on Capital One's credit-card page, and [x+1] instantly scans the information passed between the person's computer and the web page, which can be thousands of lines of code containing details on the user's computer. [x+1] also uses a new service from Digital Envoy Inc. that can determine the ZIP code where that computer is physically located. For some clients (but not Capital One), [x+1] also taps additional databases of web-browsing history.

Armed with its data, [x+1] taps consumer researcher Nielsen Co. to assign the visitor to one of 66 demographic groups.

In a fifth of a second, [x+1] says it can access and analyze thousands of pieces of information about a single user. It quickly scans for similar types of Capital One customers to make an educated guess about which credit cards to show the visitor.

And check the interactive page, "How to Control Your Privacy Online."

Old Spice 'Smell Like a Man' Campaign Cleans Up

I guess there's a market for unhindered masculinity, "Old Spice Campaign Smells Like a Sales Success, Too":

HAT TIP: Snark and Boobs.