a darn good idea!

a couple of days ago i was catching up on my celebrity gossip - and the headline was advertising related. being the advertising geek that i sometimes am, i was pretty excited. candie's apparently just paid fergie - female artist formerly of the black eyed peas, now doing her solo thing - $4 million to incorporate the brand into her songs!

i'll admit, i am new to the industry - but i've been paying very close attention to the world of advertising for the last five years, and i've never heard anything like this. blatant, over-the-top product integration by glad and whole foods in top chef? brand-sponsored vehicles? the "verizon wireless call to the bullpen"? i've seen all that.

but candie's - who has been celebrity-endorsed by jenny mccarthy, ashlee simpson, and hilary duff in the past - is paying money to be mentioned in a musician's lyrics. this is brilliant if you think about how many of fergie's songs get extremely popular, get played at parties and bars and a million other places, and get memorized my countless people. i don't want to say it's subliminal because it's not - but girls subconsciously singing 'i put my candie's on, and danced out the door' (or something much better) is what they're paying the $4 mil for.