Turned off by Chrysler’s “Dr. Z Speaks” campaign to reverse their 17% slide in sales? You’re not alone. Despite a $225-mil effort to prod buyers to the showrooms, DaimlerChrysler head Dieter Zetsche won precious few converts. Lots of speculation; from my perspective, the darn things were just too goofy.

Speaking of branding, which company remains atop the global recognition survey? Time’s up – if you just ordered a Coke with those fries, you’re correct. In a perpetual slugfest with Pepsi for share, the brand remains an icon throughout the planet per the latest Interbrand and Business Week surveys.

While you’re watching replays as the NFL takes to the airwaves for another season tonight, consider this: Motorola, in case you were thinking of slapping on your very own intercom headset to wear around the house, just reupped for five more years of sponsorship.

Price to play? $250 million. That’s so millions of viewers can subconsciously savor the electronics manufacturer’s logo as determined coaches pace the sidelines.

The lesson? How much do you spend promoting your logo?

Motorcycle Product News re-launched their web site today to the sound of cheers and loud applause all around. No, it’s not Coke On A Hilltop, but it loads quickly, has a clean look and is easy to navigate. Columns are right up front and one click away, as are product focus highlights.

My favorite feature? No cheap, cheesy heavy metal generic loops in the background.

This month industry sage Robin Hartfiel takes a couple of big hitters to task — Polaris and Kawasaki — over what it means to be a dealer these days. Change is a’comin’.

Having already decided I was spending too much time in front of the computer, it was only natural I’d figure out a way to flog my uncomplaining G4 from yet another direction.

To say blogs are all the rage misses the point. The skeptic in me assumes this is all just training against the day when the ozone layer’s totally fried and to avoid the same fate we take to caves, where we blog, podcast, e-mail and in general record every waking moment of every person’s time on earth.

On the other hand — and there’s always another hand — as long as we’re busily e-mailing to and fro anyway, why not try and improve the efficiency ROI?

Here’s what I’ve learned. All blogs are web pages, but not all web pages are blogs. If a web page is a more formal, one-way communique, a blog (if I understand things correctly) assumes the informal, spontaneous, and somewhat limited in terms of function role.

The primary goal’s to take mainstream advertising, marketing and public relations bits and pieces and compare them to their powersports counterparts. That’s in general, and we’ll see where it goes. Beyond that rather broad undertaking we’ll post content that can, regardless of stretch, be connected to the powersports market.

We’ll avoid screaming matches, believing as we do in the solid entertainment value of, say, an exploding gator-eating python over run-of-the-mill politics and religion.

Let’s see how things work out.