Earlier today, our developer, John Connelly, jumped six feet back from his keyboard.

“What in the world?”

I rolled over to his desk where I was greeted with a Chrome window featuring a blue screen of death and a popup with a lengthy, garbled error message. John unplugged his headphones so we could hear the accompanying audio, read in a pleasing computerized female voice:

“This is an important security message. Please call the number provided as soon as possible. You will be guided for the removal of the adware spyware virus on your computer. Seeing these popups means that you have a virus installed on your computer which puts the security of your personal data at a serious risk. It’s strongly advised that you call the number provided and get your computer fixed before you do any shopping online.”

Even weirder than this web page warning John of this “adware spyware virus” was how he got there. Like many a user, he’d Googled “YouTube” and clicked the top result (in this case, a PPC ad). That redirected him not to YouTube proper, but “www.youtubues.com,” a site undoubtedly created to prey on lazy typers.

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Black Friday is easy to hate for a variety of concrete and abstract reasons.

On one hand, it’s a false consumerist holiday add-on that forces underpaid retail workers to labor Herculean hours so that folks who aren’t savvy enough to use the internet can get slight discounts on electronics already on the cusp of planned obsolescence.

On the other hand, it’s a cipher for all the things we feel guilty about pleasurably participating in: materialism, bargain hunting, camping outside of our local Target.

Despite or perhaps because of these mythic associations, the notoriety of Black Friday has far outgrown actual participation in the shopping event. Think with Google just released some tasty facts about the general public’s participation with Black Friday, and they might surprise you:

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Depaul UK’s new poster campaign is brilliant in its manipulation of many complex affects at once, pivoting primarily on its use of space. It asks the reader for an inordinate amount of attention when considered in relation to most modern forms of advertising, asks them to adopt two wildly different personas and then hits them with a call to action. It’s proof that advertising need not (really, should not) be merely quick, disposable and pleasurable to be effective.

Depaul UK is part of an international charity devoted to fighting homelessness, especially youth homelessness. The ad campaign specifically highlights their Nightstop campaign, which provides emergency transportation and accommodation for homeless youth. Here’s the ad in full:

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Like many businesses, LUMINUS had two Google+ pages for a long time: a Brand page and a Local page. And like many businesses, it took us longer than it should have to figure out to merge both Google pages together.

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Luminus is excited to announce the addition of our new digital marketing director Dan Bauer!

Dan will be steering the ship for all our digital marketing efforts! He’ll be guiding clients through the seas of Search Engine Optimization, Search Advertising, and Content Marketing.

Earlier this year Tim was voted to the Board of Directors for the Advertising Club of Buffalo. In July preparations for the new calendar year (for the club) began and this month starts the launch of the 2015-2016 club calendar. Tim will be helping with AdLab events, Web/Communications, and general club promotion/membership.

In 2007 Mike and I started a journey in the world of creative services. We saw an opportunity to work together and strengthen each other’s talents as well as offer top notch talent to budding and growing local businesses. It was wild, unpredictable, and kept us on our toes.

In 2010 we made it official, registering the joint brand name Luminus Media. We signed on for some shared office space on Elmwood and started promoting ourselves as an official team. We developed some close business relationships and started to acquire more established and recognizable clients. It was really fun!

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Luminus media is excited to announce the addition of our newest designer John P English!

John will be getting very involved in branding, concepting, & print design. Our clients will get to know him very well and we’re super excited about it!

We’re proud to announce that Luminus Media earned a Gold award at the 2015 WNY ADDYs in the Digital Advertising Services category. Our work on the Montante Solar website & online animation stood out from the competition for the 2014 work year.

Award Credits:

• Design: Mike LaDuca, Josh Mullin
• Web Coding & Animation: Tommy Creenan
• Programming: Tim Bouchard
• And everyone else, because we get feedback from our entire team before presenting & releasing work

Needless to say, being our first time entered into the ADDYs, we’re thrilled and can’t wait to make more great work this year that we’ll enter into next year’s show!

Shout out to Christian Campos at T.M. Montane for his enthusiasm and freedom to let us explore creative ways to present the world of solar energy to the world. It certainly paid off!

View the site, starting with the awesome “How Solar Works” page here: http://www.montantesolar.com/how-solar-works

The time is upon us once again – the day after the Super Bowl. Bellies full on nachos, talk about the halftime performance (Missy Elliot, eh?), and the winners and losers of not just the big game but of the commercials as well.

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