Domino's Rips Off CarMax Campaign With YouTube Video Series

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Last October, used car dealer franchise CarMax launched a Boone/Oakley-created television campaign which, among other things, featured a 16 year olf gorl freaking out at her father for buying her a car that was the wrong color. Flash forward to January and a multi-video campaign for Domino's pizza cribs the idea with, yes, a daughter freaking out when her father presents her a car that is not the color she wanted. So much for innovation.

To be fair, the Domino's campaign extended the idea by following the video of the freak out with an apology video from the teen, a video of her explaining she was going to sell the car to someone for $9.99 and - hold your breath - yet another explaining how she got a better deal at Domino's with its Anything Goes Deal.

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by Steve Hall    Jan-25-07    
Topic: Campaigns, Online, Video



Kazaa, Skype Guys Unveil More Strangely-Named Web 2.0 Fodder

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The creative minds between Kazaa and Skype bring us Joost, which, like previous offerings, merits a pronunciation lesson: "yohst," not "juiced," according to AdCritic. We think we liked it better when it was The Venice Project. Then again, the founders' names aren't any easier: Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom.

Joost makes it so you can watch TV on the internet. That's one less excuse for getting out of our cushy desk chairs. Now all we have to do is eliminate the need to walk to the fridge. Friis and Zennstrom, you're working on that, yeah? Try to make the name easy to pronounce. Better yet, make it so we only have to twitch our faces to convey the idea to one another. Once the movement of our limbs becomes totally elective, we'll want to get rid of language next.

Update, 1/26/07: Joost's PR firm just informed us that, contrary to AdCritic's opinion, Joost is pronounced "juiced" and not "yohst." Glad we got that settled once and for all.

by Angela Natividad    Jan-25-07    
Topic: Online



Got Milk Goes Spanish with Gaggle of Giggles

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This Spanish ad for the latest Got Milk? campaign brings us to an island where everyone giggles all day. The laughs and smiles get attributed to milk, toted as a magic salve for strong white teeth.

We were told this ad is funny but mostly we were confused, due no doubt in part to the fact that nobody at Adrants speaks Spanish. We watched it seven times and it didn't get any funnier. In fact, by now we're feeling a little bummed.

We considered getting some milk in order to feel less bummed, because, you know, there's tannin in it, but then we thought, doesn't vodka do almost the same thing?

by Angela Natividad    Jan-25-07    
Topic: Strange, Television, Video



Army, Ad Council Push Merits of Education with Badly Written Manifesto

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The Army/Ad Council Boost Up effort skyrockets in our ratings of deserved abuse with this awkwardly-phrased, melodramatic, grammatically awful and typo-ridden explanation for Boost Up's mission.

We're sure they're sincere in suggesting that inside every one of us is a graduate. But clearly a high school graduate does not a good editor make. Well, guess that's what the military - er, college - is for.

by Angela Natividad    Jan-25-07    
Topic: Campaigns, Online, Worst



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Reckless Driving Campaign Uses Fresh Approach

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In a world where...on wait, that movie trailer dude says that all the time. But, for once, the phrase can be put to good use: In a world where teens are subjected to an onslaught of "don't" ads (drive drunk, do drugs, eat too much, have unprotected sex, make racial slurs), the frequency of which only a creative reviewing a Cannes reel would subject oneself too, it's refreshing to see a different approach. We're thinking the teens are appreciating it too.

Rather than use scare tactics of meaningless pontifications, this Ad Council campaign called UR the Spokesperson uses humor and pokes fun at the overused and now meaningless scare and pontification tactics that teens are now desensitized to. In the ads, the usual teen foolery is going on inside a moving vehicle but rather than the ads ending in a crash or cutting to a stern lecture, a game show-style announcer hops in the car and asks, "How would you like to save your life from an ugly, reckless driving death?" It then goes on infomercial-style with the kids getting all agreeably 50's-style. It's different. It's refreshing. Whether it works, though, is an entirely different subject.

by Steve Hall    Jan-25-07    
Topic: Campaigns, Commercials, Good, Radio, Television



'No-Sweat Girl' Drops Trou as Mitchum Man-o-Meter Climbs

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Everybody likes a virgin-turned-vamp and a chick who undresses while talking. Mitchum takes these patently American communication strategies to colour the Mitchum Man Man-o-Meter, where Nina the "no-sweat" girl gets sillier and sexier as rankings climb.

So you know, Adrants nailed a 95. (Given the choice, don't compare your manliness to Shaq. Nina knows about the genie movie.)

Mitchum also does the usual strip-tease one better with viral outtakes which you can check out here and here. Speaking from the less testosterone-enriched sex, we confess we like Nina 10 times better knowing she laughs at her own lame come-hither jokes and gets snarky with the back-end guys. Nina rocks well, and not just because she strips without giving us that don't-eat-meat insanity.

by Angela Natividad    Jan-25-07    
Topic: Games, Good, Online



Budweiser Super Bowl 2007 Spots Previewed

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Just as we thought, the finished product is always better than the boring B-roll. That's quite evident when you compare the original B-roll of this Dale Earnhardt Jr. Budweiser to a short clip of the finished product. Budweiser is working with MWW Group and the two have released short clips of the ads they plan to run in this year's Super Bowl. There's eight in all and you can view them after the jump. Most seem to have promise.

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by Steve Hall    Jan-25-07    
Topic: Brands, Commercials, Good, Super Bowl 2007



Pizza Hut MySpace Effort Not Consumption-Friendly

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You know when you watch a friend do something so stupid you wish you were never born so you could never have seen it? That's the feeling that flooded us when we saw Pizza Hut's latest social networking snafu: the uncool-but-cool pizza delivery guy.

Even if you forgive the use of Incubus' Drive, the pretentious article-preceding-name ("The Ted" - why not go all the way and call him The Tedster?) and the awkward "Who I'd like to meat?" joke, you have yet to account for gratuitous use of words like "babe-licious" and "par-tay."

Let's not forget the use of seedy come-ons like "In a court of girls, I'm the prisoner, not the judge ... and I've been very, very bad." The page in general is so wince-worthy that the very thought of pizza afterward made us throw up in our mouths. Way to go, imc2!

by Angela Natividad    Jan-25-07    
Topic: Bad, Brands, Guerilla, Online



I Wear A Wonderbra And I Don't Read 'The Economist'

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What exactly is this ad saying? I have breasts so I'm not smart enough to read The Economist? I show a lot of cleavage so I don't have to be smart to get what I want? I wear a Wonderbra so every man is at my beck and call? I'm a stupid female that thinks my breasts are more powerful than my brain? OK, maybe that last one's kinda true for some but still. Perhaps Linda Foster is just so cool for wearing a Wonderbra that intelligence like The Economist are just beneath her. Maybe the Wonderbra is so effective it makes her breasts so huge see can't see over them to read the magazine. Please. Explain this ad to us.

by Steve Hall    Jan-25-07    
Topic: Magazine, Strange



Nike Puts Slick Spin on Consumer-Gen Ad Craze

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For a marketing trend to be legit, Nike jumps on board and makes it legit, letting everybody else make mistakes before it swoops in with its gigantor marketing team and victorious hear-me-roar worldview.

To illustrate, they improved on Dove's decent but docile Real Beauty campaign, not just representing imperfections but embracing them with manic ferocity, even writing little manifestos about the merits of thunder thighs - which would be crazy-lame if done by anybody else but Nike.

So it's apt that they call their take on consumer-generated ads The Second Coming. And instead of begging for whatever you can pull out of your ass (a method yielding only ironic or lackluster results), they've wrapped an iron fist around the potential outcomes.

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by Angela Natividad    Jan-25-07    
Topic: Brands, Consumer Created, Good, Online



Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon Becomes Charity Promotion

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Either Kevin Bacon has a great sense of humor or he finally got sick of the whole "six degrees of Kevin Bacon" and decided to cash in. Adland received a promotional email from "Kevin Bacon" promoting a program called Six Degrees which "makes it easy for you to raise awareness and support for a charity that's important to you." The email urges recipients to make their own Six Degrees AIM page to highlight charity an individual is interested in and promises to help the individual raise money for that charity. It's a social networking play that's a nod to the "six degrees of separation" thing that was, itself, social networking before it was called social networking.

As Adland properly states, the choice of Kevin Bacon is the "best choice of celebrity spokesperson for 2007." We'd have to agree.

by Steve Hall    Jan-25-07    
Topic: Celebrity, Good, Online, Social



Geeks Offended by Traveler's Insurance Geek Ad

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Copyranter points us to Joel Spolsky, a self-professed geek, who was miffed by a recent Traveler's Insurance ad that was headlined, "To catch a geek, you have to think like a geek" and went on to say, "Fashion sense aside, today's high-tech criminals are evolving constantly... Give your independent agent a call, and spend your time taking your business to the next level. Instead of worrying about a crook in ill-fitting pants."

Joel argues it's wrong for Traveler's to view geeks as some sort of security-related insurance risk and the whole geek versus non-geek thing is so high school. He continues by questioning whether insurance agents are really any more capable than geeks to protect a company's security and that the ad attacks the very people whose job it is to implement sais protection.

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by Steve Hall    Jan-25-07    
Topic: Bad, Magazine



Jeweler Says Intelligence Isn't Everything

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Now here's an ad that made Adrants reader Stacy initially go, "Huh?" The headline reads, "I found it's nice being noticed for something other than my intelligence," which caused Stacy to ask, "What the f#@??!!" While there was concern for a moment that advertising had returned to the classic days of woman-as-homemaker-in-front-of-the-refrigerator, a visit to the web address (screen shot) in the ad explained the woman was simply happy to be noticed for something other than her less-than-glamorous nursing scrubs look when she wore a Silpada necklace to work one day and then decided to sell the stuff, resulting in her quitting her job and making tons of money. The moral of the story? "Get noticed for your brains and your beauty." Oh, and sell lots of Silpada jewelry too.

by Steve Hall    Jan-25-07    
Topic: Good, Magazine



Campaign Says Exposure to Other's Work Yields Great Creativity

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Following its belief that exposing oneself to great ads from other advertising professionals will better one's own creativity, Ad of the World, with help from JWT Bangkok, has launched a promotional campaign that highlights how copying...uh...acknowledging others great creative will results in great creative of one's own.

To be fair, inspiration is a powerful motivator that fuels creativity. knowing what others have done and why helps align one's own creative thinking and, ideally, fosters new, original creativity along the way. The campaign visually illustrates how exposure to, and mashup of, great creative can produce interesting results. We're not sure about that twisted pig, though. See the entire campaign here.

by Steve Hall    Jan-25-07    
Topic: Campaigns, Good, Magazine, Online