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AMP Energy Removes Last Night's Shame

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Kankles! I haven't heard that term in a while. But it's one of the many things uttered during the walk of shame the morning after you've bedded someone who's name you've now completely forgotten and who's clothing you are probably wearing.

Well, thanks to AMP Energy, shame is a thing of the past and we can all now hold our heads high as we march home proudly remembering the prior evenings dalliances with glee and song.

by Steve Hall    May-13-08   Comments (0)    File: Commercials, Good AddThis Social Bookmark Button   

Mom's a Slut. Men Are Free Loading Slobs. Happy Mother's Day

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I will admit I did not "get" this Mother New York-created Mother's Day video at first. I figured it was yet another sappy ode to a holiday that demands men to, in one day, must express their appreciation for the mom in their life with trite ditties such as a card or a meal at a restaurant as opposed to the daily verbal appreciation that truly expresses appreciation.

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by Steve Hall    May-13-08   Comments (0)    File: Agencies, Strange, Video AddThis Social Bookmark Button   

WTF Doesn't Even Come Close to Expressing This Campaign's WTFness

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Um, open your mind? Facial reconstruction? Experience the beauty of music? Be kind to animals? Kill your kid by blowing off his head? Some campaigns occasionally cause a serious case of WTFness. This one from Bilioteq Creative books goes so far beyond WTF that after seeing them maybe, akin to the ads themselves, you'll tear off your face and rip out your brain forever leaving behind any chance you'll ever again have to be faced (ooo...was that a pun?) with the challenge of harming your brain cells interpreting WTFness such as this ad campaign from South Africa's FoxP2.

by Steve Hall    May-13-08   Comments (1)    File: Campaigns, Strange AddThis Social Bookmark Button   
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Adult Swim and Honda Team For Fit-Promoting T-Shirt Contest

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Adult Swin, those crazy folks who bring us Aqua Teen Hunger Force has teamed with Honda for a T-shirt contest to promote the auto maker's Fit. Dubbed Adult Tees, the contents asks viewers to design t-shirts inspired by Adult Swim. The winner of the contest, which runs from May 12 for seven weeks with the sweepstakes portion from June 30 to July 7.

To promote the contest, Adult Swim will air "Fit is Go" themed on-air promotions and :30's which will encourage people to visit adultswim.com to upload their t-shirt designs and to check out other contestant's submissions. Oh, and Honda branding and videos will be all over the Adult Swim website, natch.

Oddly, as of today, there's no mention of the contest on the website yet.

by Steve Hall    May-13-08   Comments (0)    File: Cable, Online, Promotions AddThis Social Bookmark Button   

Billboard Branches, Newscaster F-Bombs, Google Friends

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- A billboard for the eco-friendly Toyota Prius is eco-friendly to the trees behind the board allowing the branches to put through cut outs in the board.

- Newscaster drops angry F bomb on air.

- Alisa Leonard explains Google new Friend Connect service which provides site owners the ability to port in content and members from other social networks.

- PubMatic's AdPrice Index reveals eCPMs for large Web sites dropped 52 percent from 38 cents in March to 18 cents April. Medium Web sites were nearly flat, with monetization dropping from 34 cents in March to 33 cents in April. Small Web sites improved, increasing from $1.18 in March to $1.29 in April.

by Steve Hall    May-13-08   Comments (0)    File: Outdoor, Television AddThis Social Bookmark Button   

Hotel Goes on Tour. There's Something We've Never Heard Before

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Looks like Brian Collins' brand experience manifesto has made converts in the Parisian hospitality industry.

Hotel chain F1 (formerly Formule1), which targets tourists between 18-35, is promoting its "new generation" brand with the Crazy Room Tour. Bearing the slogan "Tu dormiras plus tard!" (roughly: "You'll sleep in!"), the tour will hit 18 cities with branded deejays, video games and group activities.

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by Angela Natividad    May-13-08   Comments (0)    File: Brands, Campaigns, Guerilla, Promotions AddThis Social Bookmark Button   

'She's the Driver?' Oh God.

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Nothing sells a car like the sight of a meek-looking hottie who drives like she's out of her fucking mind. Just ask the directors of The Fast and the Furious or The Italian Job.

With that lesson learned, here's an Ogilvy spot for the Mercedes Benz SLK.

A slightly crippling accent doesn't hurt either. (Remember orgasmum?) You're sure to win the fetishists. And isn't it cute how she tries to say "Fifteen percent -- up front!" like a bad-ass but just can't?

by Angela Natividad    May-13-08   Comments (2)    File: Brands, Commercials, Television AddThis Social Bookmark Button   

DC Commuters Play Hopscotch for Rail Safety

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I bet subway stations are among the most bountiful wellsprings of suicidal feelings. They are generally ugly, reeking of piss and bad food, and we get stuck at some such place for longer than we'd like, contemplating the person and/or creative career we failed to pursue.

No wonder people fling themselves into the tracks.

Exit10's "Life is Fun" campaign for Washington, DC METRO gives commuters games like hopscotch and I Spy to pass the time. The message: "Life is fun. Keep on living. Use caution around the tracks."

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by Angela Natividad    May-13-08   Comments (0)    File: Cause, Games, Good, Outdoor AddThis Social Bookmark Button   

Jiggling Breasts Yield to Jiggling Bellies in Subaru Commercial

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Well it's about time for some equal time. Why should commercials which involve cars, water and soap suds combined into a slow motion sex-fest be reserved exclusively for hot young women in tiny bikinis that barely cover their pulchritudinous curvaceousness? That's just so...sexist.

Thankfully, Subaru knows this and has left thong-clad females out of it's latest Forrester commercial in favor of...yes...hot, sexy, belly-jiggling sumo wrestlers. What fun! Oh come on. You know a jiggling belly can be just as hot as jiggling breasts, right?

by Steve Hall    May-13-08   Comments (0)    File: Commercials, Good, Racy, Strange AddThis Social Bookmark Button   

Because It's Obligatory for Moms to Be Like, 'No, Don't Get Me Anything'

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I read somewhere that Mother's Day is more important to mothers than any other holiday. And while we may suspect that's true, moms are constantly trying to downplay it -- which is a dirty trick you should never fall for.

Seriously. I fell for the "It's just a day, don't bother" speech two years ago. The next time I saw my mother, she tossed my gift aside and snarled, "I didn't want your presents. I wanted your presence." It was clear she'd been practicing that line for days.

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by Angela Natividad    May-13-08   Comments (2)    File: Good, Spoofs, Video AddThis Social Bookmark Button   

Careful, Miracle-Gro, You're Showing Your Age.

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Maybe because it's not hip to the existence of guerrilla gardening, Miracle-Gro is using '70s pop and a catchy new slogan to staple a sense of cool to its 60-year-old plant food product.

Under the wince-worthy slogan "It's Gro Time," this dated spot jams in print-supported phrases like "dirt manicure" and "tomato mojo" while gardeners jiggle bare midriffs and mist plants to "I Believe in Miracles (You Sexy Thing)."

God, how hopelessly lame. Thanks to ML Rogers, New York for all this quiet angst.

by Angela Natividad    May-13-08   Comments (3)    File: Bad, Brands, Campaigns, Commercials, Magazine, Television AddThis Social Bookmark Button   

Something You Probably Didn't Learn in Poli Sci

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Ads for Recount: The Story of the 2000 Presidential Election, are plastered all over NYC. Here are a few: "swinging chad," "hanging chad" and "pregnant chad."

Each refers to a punch card that ballot machines may have trouble reading. The subtext isn't quite a definition of the phrase; it's more like a description of how political minds saw them in the context of the 2000 election. (Remember Florida?)

Witty.

See the actual definitions for these terms. Next time you pass by one of these posters, snicker like you're in the know.

by Angela Natividad    May-12-08   Comments (0)    File: Campaigns, Poster AddThis Social Bookmark Button   

Vespa Wheatpasted, fauxreel Projects, GOP Promotes Panic Drug, and Republican Goes Obama Way

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- Check out the projections on the fauxreel website. Not quite sure what they're all about, but watching people alter billboards at high speed can easily kill about four minutes. Without regrets.

- Dentsu Canada's got fauxreel plastering Vespa Squareheads -- Millennials with headlights and mirrored antennae, essentially -- all over Canada.

- MoveOn has finally tapped a winner for its Obama in 30 Seconds campaign. It lacks the flair of the will.i.am mashup, and it's obvious the video was picked because the subject is a converted Republican. Also, MoveOn wants $200,000 from you to help air it.

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by Angela Natividad    May-12-08   Comments (0)    File: Consumer Created, Guerilla, Outdoor, Political, Spoofs, Strange, Video AddThis Social Bookmark Button   

In a World Gone Soft, Someone's Got to be Hard

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With but ten words, this new campaign for Mike's Hard lemonade says so, so much. It's got the sexual angle. It's got the anti-politically correct angle. It's got the men will be men angle. It's got a vaguely-veiled, mildly homophobic angle (OK, maybe that's a stretch). It's got the geeks are idiots angle.

All of which makes perfect sense because it comes to us courtesy of that agency with the website that is so "over-the-top, too-cool-for-school and testosterone-laden, it makes Mad Men look like an AWNY convention on steroids...uh...progesterone," Amalgamated.

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by Steve Hall    May-12-08   Comments (3)    File: Campaigns, Commercials AddThis Social Bookmark Button   

Yawn. Naked Woman Promotes Magazine

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When I think of heading over to Borders or Barnes and Noble to pick up the latest copy of What Mobile Magazine, the first thing on my mind is always, always, always hot, sexy blondes with a Gwyneth Paltrow-ish come-hither look (which, much like Gwyneth herself isn't, though beautiful, all that come hither-ish after all) holding a mobile phone. Seriously. Doesn't everyone have that thought? (Thanks, George)

by Steve Hall    May-12-08   Comments (2)    File: Bad, Magazine, Racy AddThis Social Bookmark Button   

Video Advocates Creation of Cannes Humanitarian Lion

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About a week ago, a video appeared on YouTube that advocates the creation of the Cannes Humanitarian Lion, an award honoring the agency which submitted the best idea and action plan to solve one of several pre-determined worldwide humanitarian issues. Each agency that submitted work to Cannes for any category would be required to also provide one Humanitarian Lion idea. Finalists would then be selected and have until the next year's Festival to execute the work at which time the work would be judged and the winner awarded the Humanitarian Lion.

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by Steve Hall    May-12-08   Comments (3)    File: Cause, Good, Industry Events, Video AddThis Social Bookmark Button   

Girl Pulls Up Miniskirt to Expose Thigh, Sell Drugs

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Oh look! It's yet another blah, blah, blah with a mini-skirted girl with blah, blah, blah, hiking up her skirt to blah, blah, blah, so we can see her legs to blah, blah, blah and to see the message on her thigh that blah, blah, blah for Dextro Energy which blah, blah, blah.

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by Steve Hall    May-12-08   Comments (0)    File: Magazine, Racy, Strange AddThis Social Bookmark Button   

Newsflash! Jane Goodall Is Not Dead!

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Who knew? She was old when I was a kid but apparently, she's still alive and well and hangin' with the chimps. Or at least helping Green Mountain Coffee Roasters preserve chimpanzee habitats in Tanzania's Gombe National Park. The effort aims to lessen area farmer's economic difficulties and to end the clear cutting or forests. Oh, and to make sure the region can continue to make coffee so Green Mountain can continue to make money.

by Steve Hall    May-12-08   Comments (3)    File: Brands, Cause, Inflight AddThis Social Bookmark Button   

Optical Allusions Amuse, Confuse, Promote Non-Existent Site

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This
was probably fun to film but, um, huh? OK, so it's kind of fun but to promote a new phone, the Samsung Soul? Two minutes later, you don't even care what it's for. Oh the not so minor detail the Song site is down doesn't help.

by Steve Hall    May-12-08   Comments (0)    File: Bad, Online, Video AddThis Social Bookmark Button   

Numa Numa Dude Blocks iJustine From Chat

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You know her from that iPhone bill video. You love her for all the weirdly wacky videos she's made since. Justine Ezarik a.k.a iJustine, famous for, well, being internet famous, in another weirdly wacky video takes on, Gary Brolsma a.k.a. Numa Numa for booting her out of a chat room.

Apparently, Gary didn't like what Justine had to say in the chat room so she was slapped with the message "ijustine was blocked from the chat for inappropriate behavior." Ouch.

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by Steve Hall    May-12-08   Comments (1)    File: Games, Social, Strange, Video AddThis Social Bookmark Button   

One Reason to Make Your Subsite Sing: the After Party

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When I was told I'd get ringside seats at One Show Interactive Ceremony on Friday night, I didn't realize they actually meant ringside.

What a spectacle. Amidst agency eccentrics and exhausted One Club employees, wrestlers ran across the floor, occasionally lay things to waste, and vanished again. (The podium had to be replaced at least twice.)

There was also some Pulp Fiction-style Meet the Gimp action.

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by Angela Natividad    May-12-08   Comments (0)    File: Industry Events AddThis Social Bookmark Button   

Converting the Converted, and Other Tricks of the Light

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On Wednesday at the One Show Festival, design guru Brian Collins illustrated the power of branding with a history lesson about pirates.

Or rather, just their flag.

Back in 1748, if you had the misfortune of being a single bobbing ship at sea when a tattered vessel with a skull and crossbones crossed your path, you knew instantly what to expect.

"You're fucked." (Collins, verbatim.)

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by Angela Natividad    May-12-08   Comments (3)    File: Brands, Creative Commentary, Industry Events, Opinion AddThis Social Bookmark Button   

If You Don't Like an Ad, Call Your Lawyer. It's the American Way

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Oh for fuck's sake. Get over yourselves! You want to sue because a marketer pokes fun at your business? Can we just kill all the lawyers now? Or, rather, the stupid laws that enable them to file lawsuits for the most ridiculous reasons?

OK, so no lawsuit has yet been filed but Rico Gerardo, owner of the San Francisco restaurant Taqueria, wants to talk to his lawyer because Comcast SportsNet has placed an as near his restaurant which reads, "I don't know where a good burrito is, but I know where the A's are"

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by Steve Hall    May- 9-08   Comments (4)    File: Strange, Worst AddThis Social Bookmark Button   

Salacious Nudity the Obvious Choice to Market Liquor

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This Cabana Cachaca campaign with shots of a naked woman juxtaposed with a liquor bottle has been covered everywhere. So why would Adrants cover it now? For the sake of completeness and journalistic integrity, of course. Oh, and to fulfill the required daily quota of hot, barely dressed woman who appear in advertising for no apparent reason. Enjoy

by Steve Hall    May- 9-08   Comments (5)    File: Good, Racy, Strange AddThis Social Bookmark Button   

Pearle Vision Helps Mothers With Adoption

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Well, damn! Who knew choosing an eyeglass retailer had anything to do with adoption? With nothing more than a black and white still over which the camera pans and the tagline, "we want you to see more," Arnold explains Pearle Vision is now the place to go if you're considering adoption.

To be fair, it's all part of Pearle's ongoing campaign as Arnold's Meredith Vellines explains, "The 'I have seen' campaign has been running since July 2007 and illustrates how Pearle Vision values the importance of sight and improves people's lives by helping them see the world better. All of the creative elements, including the television, are shot in black-and-white by famed fashion and art photographer, Donald Graham, whose work is in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the International Center of Photography."

by Steve Hall    May- 9-08   Comments (0)    File: Commercials, Strange AddThis Social Bookmark Button   
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