While the first ads featured the Galaxy S II phone, a direct competitor of the iPhone 4S, this one is for the Galaxy Note. With its huge screen and pen, it’s both an anti-iPhone and one of the most distinctive phones on the market. So the gag feels a little muffled, and the Note doesn’t get enough explanation.

I’m still curious how the Galaxy Note will do–it strikes me as neat, but a niche. But the fact that Samsung plowed money into a Super Bowl spot presumably means that it thinks the phone can be a mainstream hit.

So Eastman Kodak has declared bankruptcy. Right now, Twitter is like a wake for this most beloved of American companies. I refuse to speak of Kodak in the past tense, though: bankruptcy protection is not a death sentence, and when it says, as it does in its press release, that it intends to ”emerge a lean, world-class, digital imaging and materials science company,” I’m rooting for it to do exactly that.

But like everyone else who grew up shooting Kodak film–often in a Kodak camera–I’m feeling wistful about the brand and what it’s meant to me and the world. How about watching a few vintage commercials, including two versions of the once-famous tear-jerker “Turn Around” and ones starring the Nelsons, the cast of Bewitched, Michael Landon, and Bill Cosby?

If you’re in the mood for even more Kodak moments, check out some of the ads which the company ran in Life magazine for decades.

As I explain below, I think that the possibility of skewed search results was only one iffy aspect of this campaign, but it's good to see Google hold itself accountable.]

Yesterday, Aaron Wall and Danny Sullivan reported on an odd Google marketing campaign–okay, a troubling one–that apparently involved Google paying bloggers to publish posts that embedded a Google video featuring Vermont flour maker King Arthur Flour. The effort got mentions of Chrome onto hundreds of blogs–albeit hasty, lame references in at least some cases–and also looked like it might have been designed to juice Chrome’s Google rankings.

Today, Google is disowning the campaign, which it says was conducted without its knowledge by a company with the apt name Unruly Media. Unruly says that it didn’t intend to affect search rankings. But even if it didn’t, the notion of Google products being promoted through subsidized blog posts–abysmal subsidized blog posts–is painfully cheesy.

(It reminds me of Ogilvy’s plans to pay bloggers to write about LG Electronics, which I wrote about recently.)

As Danny points out, the video ad itself is also a tad peculiar. It’s for Chrome, and seems to suggest that Google helped King Arthur get online, perhaps at some point in the recent past. But the company has been selling flour online since 1999, when Google was just a start-up search engine. It may love Chrome today, but it’s an old pro at this Web thing.

Really, the whole thing is a mess. I don’t just hope that it causes Google to be ultra-cautious about sketchy Web campaigns in the future; I hope that other companies pay attention to this embarrassing episode and do likewise.

Side note: The mess did inspire me to go to King Arthur’s site, which has a great gallery of old ads, including a series (from the 1940s?) in which King Arthur himself goes around annoying people by flacking for his namesake flour:

The result of seven years of research, the Selectric went on to become one of the best-selling office devices ever. It’s been so archaic for so long that it’s tough to remember just how remarkable it was in its day–and there’s no better time than right now to give it its due.

Microsoft is calling them “NuAds,” and has walked through a few examples on the Microsoft Advertising blog. During an ad for Coke, for example, the user can say “Xbox Tweet” to share the ad on Twitter. An ad for Toyota might allow the user to say “Xbox Near Me” and find nearby dealerships, and an ad for another TV broadcast might let the user schedule a calendar reminder by saying “Xbox Schedule.”

Don’t worry, you’re not the only one who feels queasy at the sight of more intrusive ads in the name of “audience engagement” and “social advocacy,” but there is a silver lining here: If this is what helps Microsoft lure advertisers — and by extension content providers — to Internet television, then it’s all good.

During E3, Microsoft announced that it wants the Xbox 360 to host live, streaming television, including sports, news and local channels. But only one partnership was announced, with mixed martial arts company UFC, suggesting that many content providers aren’t so eager to experiment with a potential cable killer.

But with Kinect, Microsoft can convince advertisers that they’ll get more for their money on the Xbox 360. Where the advertising money goes, I’m guessing the content will follow. With over 10 million Kinect units sold to date, Microsoft might be onto something.

Getting people to post about a Coke ad on Twitter might be a stretch, though.

Amazon’s Kindle with Special Offers, an e-reader that shows advertisements and discounts on its home screen, is now available with a 3G connection. Like the Wi-Fi model, the 3G Kindle with Special Offers is $25 cheaper than its ad-free counterpart, selling for $164. The Wi-Fi version sells for $114.

There’s not much more to say about the actual device, but Amazon’s press release does a bit of boasting to prove that the ad- and offer-supported idea took off. After five weeks on the market, the Kindle with Special Offers became the best-selling model. The addition of a 3G version was “in response to customer requests,” Kindle Director Jay Marine said. In other words, this idea isn’t going away.

So why stop there? Given that the ad-supported Kindles include some lucrative deals — $10 for a $20 Amazon gift card, for instance — I’m sure there are some existing Kindle owners who’d like to opt in. And although Amazon has pooh-poohed the idea of ad-supported e-books, I still think it’s something customers would like.

One other open question: Now that Kindle with Special Offers has proven itself, how long until Barnes & Noble or Kobo try to figure out something similar?

The microblogging service has been experimenting with various methods of making money, most recently through its “Promoted Tweets,” which allowed advertisers to leapfrog to the top of the Trends list to feature a product or service through a tweet of their own. It also was reportedly considering promoting accounts themselves, although nothing much has come of that.

I hope that Twitter is mindful that the advertising they place on the site does not become disruptive to the experience itself. I’m starting to think it now may only be a matter of time before ads begin appearing in our feeds.

I also ask that Twitter considers clearly identifying ads as ads — it’s the right thing to do.

(Image from Tech Inspiration)

But my favorite you-can’t-be-serious example of Microsoft marketing–and one which reminds me of the vibe of Samsung’s video–is the 2009 video explaining how to hold a Windows 7 launch party at your home. I don’t think Microsoft intended anyone to believe that its Windows 7 fans were anything but paid performers, but I’m pretty sure that Samsung’s Joan Hess and Joe Kolinski live the same planned community as these people…