Samsung sponsored this guy Kenton Cool (awesome name) to summit Mount Everest for a ninth time this month. In exchange, the company had him place the first cell phone call ever from the highest point on Earth, to his wife. What a moment.

Although I think BMWs handle better, this Audi commercial entitled “Breaking the spell” is brilliant from a branding perspective. Love it. The black cars are pretty hot too.

In an effort to centralize my online identity, I launched BlakeSnow.com this week. The site features state of the art HTML, some fancy javascript animation, and an enlarged photo of my shapely cranium. I’ll still be blogging under my pseudonym here, and maintain other websites as well, but this will serve as an entry point for people who don’t know me. Plus it makes me look cooler than I really am.

(Thanks, Robert)

At the very least, the team responsible for making the hideous new logo look like a Pepsi-fied version of Strong Sad. Why didn’t the company just refresh their packaging without the logo change? The new cans, and even the “Pepsi” logotype, look slick — I’ll give them that — but they would’ve looked much better with the original, classic logo. Here’s a mock-up I made to prove the point. But what do I care: Coke tastes way better, no?

See also: YouTube: The rebranding of Pepsi

Engadget tells the story: “So last week Deutsche Telekom, owners of the global T-Mobile brand, sent Engadget a late birthday present: a hand-delivered letter direct from their German legal department requesting the prompt discontinuation of the use of the color magenta on Engadget Mobile. Yep, seriously.”

If you read the legalese, the company says it “holds trademark protection for this use of this color in connection with its products and services around the world.”

Since when could you copyright a color, even in connection with a product or service? Ridiculous — otherwise Apple could sue any computer-maker that used the color white (though white’s not really a color, so that opens another can of worms).

Atta way to exploit legal muscle, T-Mobile. Nice form. Really. This totally makes me want to stay with you instead of jumping to AT&T’s iPhone.

IDG News (whom I freelance for) reports: “Microsoft’s brand power has been in sharp decline over the past four years, an indication the company is losing credibility and mindshare with U.S. business users, according to a recent study by market research firm CoreBrand.”

I enjoy seeing fat business cows get a proper market cleansing.

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Brilliant! A picture truly is worth 1000 words. Via Ads of the World. Bonus: Go check out these three crazy ads from years’ past. Blowing smoke in a girl’s face used to be a turn on…? It did in advertising.