Grand Central station today was hijacked... by Westin ads! The hotel company covered S trains with pictures of rainforests, saunas and a coral reef. We sent Nick McGlynn down to survey the scenery and interrogate New Yorkers about their feeeeeeelings.

94 years ago, liar H.K. McCann launched his NYC ad agency with the slogan "Truth Well Told." That was a big fat lie. Advertising copywriter Copyranter brings you instances of advertising lies and the lying liars who sell them.

Hot on the heels of this morning's second quarter earnings report was the Times Co.'s conference call, intended to explain said report. CEO Janet Robinson once again proved that she is a master of the Boston-area retail market. She just loves to bring up the opening of the new Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus in the Natick Mall! And that the Bloomingdales in Chestnut Hill moved to fancy new quarters! And like, that means more ads for the Boston Globe, ya know. But. The Bloomingdales move was completed months ago (as was the turnover of the old store to an "upscale" Macy's, if you can imagine such a thing), and we're just wondering how long she's going to beat this Nordstrom and Neiman's drum. Can those two stores alone save the Boston Globe? And then she made a fatal error. She stumbled onto our turf—thanks to our discount-loving (Jewish!) heritage.

94 years ago, liar H.K. McCann launched his NYC ad agency with the slogan "Truth Well Told." That was a big fat lie. Advertising copywriter Copyranter brings you instances of advertising lies and the lying liars who sell them.

Remember the controversial Google Health blog post that suggested the best
defense against Michael Moore's one-sided Sicko documentary was a targeted ad offensive? Well, it looks like oil giant BP was listening. Faced with strong criticism over a recently won permit that will allow it to dump 54% more ammonia and 35% more solid waste into Lake Michigan, BP is using Google Ads to fight back, targeting Slashdot readers and others with ads that link to the Facts about BP's Whiting Refinery. Unable to participate in the "very democratic and effective public advertising dialogue" envisioned by Google, local leaders settle for an old-school Letter to the Editor.

Even with crappy ratings, the advertisers for pharmaceutical products, packaged goods and high-end autos still believe in CBS News anchor Katie Couric. [Mediaweek]

Congress threatening to hold hearings about Google's planned acquisition of DoubleClick. [New York Times]

I suddenly have an inexplicable urge to shop at American Apparel. [Copyranter]

"A 180ft image of Homer Simpson waving a doughnut aloft has appeared adjacent to the ancient Cerne Abbas giant, the 17th Century chalk fertility symbol in Dorset. Though Homer is drawn in biodegradeable paint, local pagans aren't amused, saying that the proximity of Homer is disrespectful." [Guardian]

94 years ago, liar H.K. McCann launched his NYC ad agency with the slogan "Truth Well Told." That was a big fat lie. Advertising copywriter Copyranter brings you instances of advertising lies and the lying liars who sell them.

Watch out Twitter, here come the marketers... [WSJ]

The sad thing about this explication of the semiotics in this "divorced dad" Corcoran ad is that it's probably exactly what the ad folk were trying to say. [Copyranter]

Today, I don't think Randi Jayne, director of market development at Facebook and sister of CEO Mark Zuckerberg, would sing quite so gleefully about "startups [that] get the rag ... from Valleywag." Because now comes her employer's turn. The Reach Students blog notes that a campaign on Facebook drew a 0.04% click-through rate — a dismal response that's far from uncommon in advertisers' experiences. No wonder the site is scraping the bottom of the barrel to find advertisers. If Zuckerberg is to maintain his site's precious independence, he will have to figure out better ways for his company — and its advertisers — to profit from its rapidly swelling user base. Should he consider placing ads on his sister's show tunes instead? They'd get better click-throughs.

10,000 American troops suffered casualties at Iwo Jima to defend the rights of up-market aviation companies to sell rides on their fancy airplanes. [Copyranter]

You get what you charge for. Facebook Flyers, the social-networking site's cut-rate advertising program, charges a $2 CPM — a rate that amounts to 0.2 cents per person who sees the ad. Those bottom-of-the-barrel prices draw bottom-of-the barrel sponsors: Dan Goodin at sarcastic British tech site The Register calls one ad "crudware." The flyer ad encourages people to join a supposedly free dating network, but clicking on the ad instead launches a pop-up window claiming the user's computer has been infected and pitching antivirus software. Most sites have policies forbidding such ads, but Facebook, desperate for ways to make money off its 30 million users, seems to have no such qualms.

94 years ago, liar H.K. McCann launched his NYC ad agency with the slogan "Truth Well Told." That was a big fat lie. Advertising copywriter Copyranter brings you instances of advertising lies and the lying liars who sell them.

State Supreme Court Justice temporarily bars billboard company from putting up those smiling butt ads in Times Sqaure. We guess you'll have to be content with just seeing them on our site. (Please send your NSFW complaints to our ad king Chris Batty at chris@gawker.com). [AdAge]

94 years ago, liar H.K. McCann launched his NYC ad agency with the slogan "Truth Well Told." That was a big fat lie. Advertising copywriter Copyranter brings you instances of advertising lies and the lying liars who sell them.

Will it sell? How to successfully create a viral internet marketing campaign. [Wall Street Journal]

If you're the kind of patriotic consumer who demands that your ground up bits of cow viscera and labia are purely American cow viscera and labia, you'll rush over to A&W, whose ground up bits of cow viscera and labia are of 100% U.S. origin, as opposed to McDonald's, which gets its ground up bits of cow viscera and labia from all over the world. [NYP]