Mom Gets Cold, Kid Yells, Mom Yells, Medicine Advertised

This commercial for Vicks, which appears to come from the U.K, is just weird. For the first half of the commercial, it plays like a normal, boring over the counter cold medication ad. In the second half, it turns into an odd twist on the old kid freaking out in the grocery store theme. Indeed, a strange combination. The word "disjointed" comes to mind but we still get a kick out if it. What do you think?

Chiropractor wins Right to Telemarket Accident Victims

Remember the days when hospitals didn't advertise, lawyers didn't advertise, spamming was unheard of and you just went to whatever doctor your neighbor recommended? Of course you don't because it's been eons since that simple life was the norm. Thanks to one Louisiana chiropractor, you might as well assume your going to get a call from your local chiropractor a day or two after you've had an accident. At least if you live in Louisiana. The Consumerist tells us Dr. Kirtland Speaks has gone to court asking for a repeal of the Louisiana Board of Chiropractic Examiners regulations which prevents doctors from obtaining accident victim's phone numbers from public accident reports.

While a lower court refused to overturn the Boards' regulations, a higher court ruled in his favor so, for the time being as the case continues to wend its way through the legal system, Louisiana resident can expect a call from Dr. Kirtland if they ever find themselves in an accident.

Huge Ass Bike Billboards Hated by Torontoist

Reacting to a Cyclemedia press release which read, in part, "These billboards are impossible to miss and are fully interactive! Get ready for in your face advertising that literally screams from the streets of Toronto," Torontoist wondered, as we do, what the hell is interactive about a bike billboard. Oh, yea, as Torontoist says, it's the eggs that will be thrown at the poor billboard cyclist as he tries to weave his way in and out of pedestrian and automotive traffic on the narrow streets of Toronto.

Newsflash: See the Banned William Lawson Scotch Ad!

Dave Blake sent us, and apparently everyone else in his address book, this old-ish commercial for U.K.-based William Lawson Scotch Whiskey. He tells us it's "never been seen" and that the agency was asked to change the ending to a more politically correct one. Apparently humping....oh...just watch the spot and find out. It's really not even that good. Let's hope this isn't some lame viral revival or something.

Anti-Drug Drug Protocol Campaign to Feature Chris Farley

In a direct to consumer campaign for drug treatment protocol Prometa (how whacked is that? take drugs to get off drugs) the late Chris Farley's face will be seen on billboards and online. The headline is, "It Wasn't All His Fault." Farley's brother Tom approved the former 'SNL' star's appearance in the campaign after having become familiar with Prometa last year. Print and TV will folow later this year. View the billboard here.

Consumer Created Content The New 34DDD

Hearing Joe Jaffe talk about the three C's of consumer created content with Pete Blackshaw and Jackie Huba on his Across the Sound podcast, we were reminded of having once said to a male co-worker in front of a female co-worker in reference to something completely business-related and without regard to the the female co-worker's very curvaceous figure, "three D's are better than one." Needless to say, awkward smirks and giggles followed. Thankfully, that wasn't the case after listening to this week's Across the Sound podcast which discussed the many aspects of consumer created content, consumer generated media, citizen's media or whatever label you want to place on the trend.

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Girl Gets Phone Excited

We thought this "hey it's a hot girl, let's make our product get a hard on" concept was over. Oh, sorry. It'll never be over since, well, sexy women and hard ons will never be over. Forget everything we just said.

McDonald's Lures Snowboarders With Rooftop Ski Slope

Snowboarding makes you hungry so why not, as a marketer, make sure snowboarders have a clear view of your restaurant while they are out getting air. That's exactly what this Quebec McDonald's did by placing a see-through "slope" over the top of its restaurant, albeit a fake restaurant as a commenter corrects. Now, every time a boarder passes over, he's greeted with the view of tables full of McDonald's food.

The Lenovo Tapes Arrive Just in Time to Combat Bad Press

Just in time to combat worries Chinese built Lenovo computers sold to the U.S. government may contain software to spy on government agencies comes this must-be hoax called The Lenovo Tapes, a site with three video showing laptops doing amazing things like sending out holographic images, automatically cleaning up coffee split on the keyboard and even mini rockets that prevent it from hitting the floor too hard if dropped. The guy who apparently wrote the site claims he was leaked the tapes from an acquaintance. The thing that really tells us this is a joke is the cheesy Geocities-like site design. I mean come on. Who would hand code when they could place this all on a blog? Why didn't the guy upload these to a YouTube account? Why is this, while the site's been around for a while, just appearing now, soon after Lenovo gets bad press? Whatever.

Divide Between Marketing And IT Closed With Help From Aquent

In the sort of "can't we all just get along" category and in a nod to the stressed relationship between people who just want to use their computers to get work done and those who want to lord over every little piece of minutia about that computer making it miserable for the person using the computer to actually do any work, professional services firm, Aquent, has announced a new, Kumbaya-like program to help marketing and IT get along.

The new service will be headed by Aquent Co-Founder Steve Kapner and a new video with American Marketing Association VP Nancy Costopulos covers how marketers and IT can work together to leverage customer data to create better marketing programs. And, yes, Aquent advertises on this site.

T-Shirts Says 'Drop Shadows, Not Bombs'

Now here's a t-shirt any peace-loving art director would feel comfortable wearing to work, especially to that meeting with the right-wing, highly conservative, Republican client. "Drop Shadows Not Bombs." Get yours here.

Coffee Shop Launches Ambient Campaign, Starbucks Not Pleased

Draft New Zealand created an ambient campaign for an Aukland coffee cafe, a market segment we're told is filled with many independents alongside giants like Starbucks. Draft created and placed branded trashcans throughout the city that looked like coffee cups including a stir stick. We're also told Starbucks wasn't too happy one was placed outside its own store and several Starbucks employees ripped all the branding off that particular can. Brand wars are alive and well in New Zealand.

Break Dancing Worm Grabs Attention in Visa Check Card Ad

We all know VISA's launched a huge, new campaign with the new tagline, which we like very much, "Life Takes VISA." We all know there's tons of TV spots supporting this campaign but one, which we saw a couple nights ago, just seemed to stand out from the crown. It's called Worm/Recycling and sort of makes you wonder what it is at first as it begins with line drawings of a worm breakdancing to electronica before it becomes obvious it's a commercial for the VISA check card.

The commercial was created by TBWA\Chiat\Day and the nifty special effects work was done by Brickyard VFX which did the special effects on the Comcast Slowskys ad.

McDonalds' McMornings A Let Down

We were optimistic, though we're not sure why, the the McDonald's McMornings might be something special but the first thing we were greeted with was The Excuse Generator 3000, one of those lame, so five years ago, excuse letter generators for people without enough spine to stand up for themselves when their boss asks them why they were late to work. Of course that could all be due to some ingenious use of cookies automatically landing anyone coming to the site after, say, after 9A in a given time zone on that page.

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