… the Academy, which has asked YouTube to yank clips from the Oscars, yet ought to be thankful that anyone wants to post anything from its four-hour borefest the other night. After all, who needs free advertising? Then again, what do you expect from an Academy that says of the clips on its own site, “the current clips will eventually vanish, to ‘whet people’s appetite for next year’s show.'” Whet people’s appetite?! Yeah, nothing like an absence of content to make me want to see more.

StolenID provides a useful public service: You can find out if your personal information (like a Social Security number or credit card number) has been compromised. A negative result doesn’t mean you’re safe, of course, but a positive result means you better get some wheels in motion.

How long, though, before someone posts a copy of the site somewhere as an unscrupulous way of capturing data? Sadly, it’s probably somewhere out there already.

UPDATE: Maybe that’s why the site isn’t available anymore.

Capitalizing on a big news event, that is. In this case, start with a company called HeadBlade that makes razors for shaving one’s head. Then there’s that Britney Spears thing. Then there’s this clip on YouTube by HeadBlade, which is also on thieir site, featuring a bunch of athletes from something called Fit Expo trying to emulate David Letterman.

Takeaway for marketers: In the wake of the Anna Nicole Smith tragedy, does making fun of another seriously disturbed celebrity seem like smart product positioning? Nah, I don’t think so, either.

… IMDB has redesigned its site.

“Where black and white has never been so colorful” is a tagline being used by Seaworld and a reference, of course, to its star whale, Shamu. Maybe it’s been used for a while, but I just noticed it the other day in a TV spot. It’s inviting, elegant, evocative and many other adjectives. Lots of copywriters get paid lots of money to write lots of advertising, but it’s not often that so much gets said so simply.

Takeaway for marketers: The best copy is often the simplest … but making it look easy is hard work.