Playful Hospital Room Delivers Serious Message

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We're late getting to these but these Ministry of Health in Portugal ads created by McCann Portugal are great. The imagery is fun and playful but the message is very serious: don't screw around with your health. Be sure to monitor your blood pressure and cholesterol level before it's too late.

In one ad, we see a huge teddy bear dressed as a doctor with a inflatable giraffe/nurse in a doll room attending a sick woman. In the other one, a man is alone at night in an emergency room made with Lego. See both ads here and here.

by Steve Hall    Mar-29-07    
Topic: Campaigns, Good, Magazine



Lack Talent? Have Hair

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While it doesn't answer the question of how American Idol survived beyond its first season, our current theory, that lots of hair can keep you buoyant despite any other merits you may lack, is the reason we think the unlikely Sanjaya Malakar remains in the musical running.

See his audition here.

His singing ain't fantastic but the whole seven ponytails ("For good luck!") shtick he recently pulled off is endearing to somebody. Many somebodies.

Even Simon is at a loss for words, noting if America likes him then it doesn't matter what he says. The defeated attitude wears badly on our judge of choice.

more »

by Angela Natividad    Mar-29-07    
Topic: Bad, Television



Wanted: Writers, Bloggers for ad:tech San Francisco

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Four times a year Adrants, along with MarketingVOX, produces the ad:tech weblog, a site that provides in-depth coverage of the ad:tech conferences. During each show, we report on topics discussed during conference panels and keynote speeches along with memes and trends that arise from the show. We also walk the exhibit hall floor to discover the latest and greatest the industry has to offer as well as scour the party scene to see who's hip and who isn't. It's a fun gig and we like to share the fun.

We're looking for a few well-versed people in the ad industry who'd like to join our team to cover the ad:tech show in San Francisco April 24-26. ad:tech focuses on interactive and online marketing so you should have a good understanding of that space and be able to write intelligently about it as well as offer opinion and insight. If you already write or blog about the industry, that's a plus.

The compensation isn't stellar. In fact, there really isn't any to be honest other than free entry to the conference (about $1,000 depending upon when you sign up) and the chance to schmooze with the industry's best. Oh, and then there's the parties. So, if you're interested in joining the team, please contact me, Steve Hall at adtech@adrants.com.

by Steve Hall    Mar-29-07    
Topic: Industry Events



Karl Rove Enthusiastically Molests Hip-Hop

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We don't know what Mr. Rove was thinking at the Radio Television Correspondents' Association Dinner, but if hip-hop wasn't dead before he just shot it in the face. We'll never again be able to purge the memory of him jerking his hands from side to side and whipping out his cell-phone with knees bouncing.

Well, if we were part of the Administration we too would run with the strange, liberating sensation that comes with having nothing left to lose.

by Angela Natividad    Mar-29-07    
Topic: Bad, Events, Strange, Television



Men Speak Blunt Truth in Book Campaign

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The Silly Girl points to a set of hilarious videos which promote the Harper Collins book The Average American Male by Chad Kultgen. In the videos, the usual scenes between male an female take place (woman tells man she loves him, man shocked at dinner bill, man put in awkward position when girlfriend's Dad wonders when he will propose to his daughter) but rather than the men in the videos responding as one might expect, they respond more truthfully than many might like to think.

by Steve Hall    Mar-29-07    
Topic: Good, Online, Video



ad:tech Announces Bigger, Better Awards Ceremony

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ad:tech San Francisco is on the way. Yes, we go. Yes, we promote it. This year ad:tech is hosting a newer, bigger, better Awards Show. The biggest yet, the event will judge work in 24 categories from best B to B website to best campaign optimization to best mobile campaign to best overlay ad to best consumer campaign and more. Finalists include AKQA, T3, Mullen, Sharpe Partners, Deep Focus, Ogilvy, Draft/FCB, R/GA, Spacedog and others.

The judging will be done by 80 members of the advertising community along with an executive panel of 16 including FedEx's Steve Pacheco, Denuo's Scott Witt, Organic's Mark Kingdon and Real Girls Media Network's Kate Everett-Thorpe. And that's just the formal stuff.

more »

by Steve Hall    Mar-29-07    
Topic: Industry Events



Cougar Moms: Jesus Loves You More than You Will Know

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Because 50-something Beverly Hills slingback-trollers need constant reminding about their divine responsibility to unwind the threads of age, Restylane releases this viral hopeful about the dangers inherent to having a cougar mom.

Do you really need to get work done to inspire a giddy 20-something to make out with you? Boys have harbored MILF and teacher fantasies since the beginning of time. It's not like little Bennie needed much convincing to fall into the arms of the sultry (and conventionally deformed) Mrs. Robinson.

If 50 is the new 22, does that make 40 the new 16? And if so, where does that put actual 20-somethings? Are they competing with fetuses?

by Angela Natividad    Mar-29-07    
Topic: Online, Video



Ogilvy Canada Goes Old School For HoneyComb Cereal

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With a mid-nineties style, Geocities-like site, Ogilvy Toronto has embarked upon a quirky journey for Kraft Canada HoneyComb Cereal. They've created a site called Bee Boy which follows the research of Barbara Sommerville as she explores Jane Goodall-style a boy who has seemingly been raised by bees. Awkward encounters with vibrating cell phones ensue.

We're inclined to say the use of decades-plus old design tries a bit too hard. Beside, it's been done many times before. It's not like Ogilvy is hiding the fact they're behind the project but with the available publishing tools at people's disposal today, it's near impossible to create a site like this unless you know raw HTML. Doing to just screams, "This was done by an an agency trying to make it look like it wasn't!" Perhaps creating a faux blog would have been a more timely approach. Having said that, the videos on the site are amusing enough and worth a look.

by Steve Hall    Mar-29-07    
Topic: Online, Strange



Ad Display No Match for Bouncing Boobs

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We already know that Wonderbra likes playing with the space between magazine pages, and they've taken that concept outdoors. This scrolling display can't seem to do its job because of all the, uh, baggage on Wonderbra's well-endowed model. Clever. Maybe Viagra or even Aussiebum should start paying attention, considering this isn't the first of the bra company's campaigns that can go both ways.

Do you know what kind of bra ad would really catch our eye? A dramatic expansion, a violent pop, and mass hysteria. Are you paying attention, Wonderbra?

by Angela Natividad    Mar-29-07    
Topic: Brands, Good, Outdoor



Milwaukee's Best Brings Us Closer to Technology than We Ever Wanted

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We're completely weirded-out by the T-Scan 2000 for Milwaukee's Best Light.

The TScan scans your tongue to gauge which beer is right for you. Because we're sharp as tacks, we didn't actually put our tongues on the screens, just clicked through the scanning process to the very end. But the system rejected us because it lacked sufficient tongue information. Okay, whatever. So we clicked through again. Again, insufficient tongue information, and could we please add pressure too?

OMGWTF, we said. So, ever so gingerly, we put our tongues on the monitor.

And still yielded no results.

And now our screen is wet.

We feel so douchey.

by Angela Natividad    Mar-29-07    
Topic: Brands, Games, Online