Jim Beam Bimbo Makes Men Happy

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Jim Beam has gone all beer babe on us here with a newish commercial that offers up the perfect girlfriend. She doesn't mind if you are fat or have back hair. She will like you if you watch a lot of football and won't mind if you leave her at home and go out with the guys all the time. She doesn't care if you don't buy her flowers and she has no problem with you going to the strip club. She truly understands your needs. What this has to do with selling bourbon, we have no idea. And, if there were such a girlfriend as this girl, you can believe you would be doing none of the above but rather ravishing her on the couch as she blathers lovable platitudes even as your happy ending is achieved in a paltry 30 seconds..

by Steve Hall    Mar-28-07    
Topic: Commercials, Good, Racy



Hyundai to Give Away Four Elantras in Competition

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In early March, Hyundai began accepting applications for its Mash and Seek Challenge, a game somewhat similar to a game developed for Budget car rental, which will, on April 30, place 16 finalists in teams of four with a single photograph mashed up with the faces of the team members. The first team to find another will win four 200y Hyundai Elantras. Quizes will be administered every two weeks and those that answer correctly will be given clues to the location of other teams. Check it all out here.

by Steve Hall    Mar-28-07    
Topic: Brands, Online, Promotions, Social



Girl in Shorts Says There's Not Enough Girl on Girl Advertising

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Becky C., publisher of Just A Girl In Short Shorts Talking About Whatever (and, yes, she looks good in her short shorts), has written a piece entitled Girl on Girl Advertising which examines advertising that features women with women and may or may not portray a lesbian relationship. She points to ads from Skyy Vodka, Banana Republic, Beefeater, Cartier, Abercrombie & Fitch and several others and wonders why there aren't more positing men would respond to these ads as well as women because, after all, what man doesn't like to see two women together?

She cites a study which finds gay male ads are ten times more prevalent than lesbian focused ads and also posits marketers are missing out on an important point: bi and lesbian girls love to shop just as much as straight girls. She's right. Bring on the girl on girl ads.

UPDATE: Actually, Becky C. seems to be misleading us a bit regarding her appearance. An Adrants reader tells us the Beck C. picture is really actress Andrea Bogart with whom he claims to have gone to school. Well, I guess you can't blame a girl for wanting to look hot is denim shirts.

by Steve Hall    Mar-28-07    
Topic: Campaigns, Opinion, Trends and Culture



Bleeding Coasters Deliver Drunk Driving Message

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The Mumbai Traffic Police, with help from Mumbai agency Contract, have placed coasters with images of faces on tables and bars in the city that start to bleed when they get wet from the condensation of the glass placed on it. A message on the coaster reads, "Just a reminder. Drunken driving kills."

by Steve Hall    Mar-28-07    
Topic: Point of Purchase, Specialty



Onion Goes Audio/Visual, Dewars Foots the Bill, Deep Focus Blogs

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Watch out, world - the Onion, our news source of choice, is leaping from the written word and taking on CNN with its own newscast: ONN, "faster, harder, scarier and all-knowing."

The Onion's Sean Mills gets strangely sober in his effort to explain: "[Comedy Central and Saturday Night Live] are parody shows, and this is serious news," he says. "There's no studio audience, and no one's in on the joke. What we are trying to create is a broadcast-quality newscast on the Internet."

more »

by Angela Natividad    Mar-28-07    
Topic: Agencies, Good, Online, Video



Super Glues, Sorrell Settles, Animax Wins

- In Guatemala, Super Glue is affixing branded boots to car wheels to promote its sticky stuff.

- Advertising Age reports, "Both sides are claiming victory as Martin Sorrell's libel action ended today after several days of debate behind closed doors over new forensic evidence. Mr. Sorrell dropped his claim that Marco Benatti and Marco Tinelli were personally responsible for scurrilous blogs and an e-mailed photo. And the two defendants agreed to payments to the WPP Group chief executive and Daniela Weber, WPP's chief operating officer for Italy, apparently because of evidence that FullSix, the Italian media company Mr. Benatti founded and Mr. Tinelli ran, may have been involved in disseminating the material online."

- Animax Entertainment has been nominated for its second Emmy Award for its work on "Off-Mikes," a weekly original animated series the studio produces for ESPN.com. Last year, Animax and ESPN won the first-ever broadband Emmy for its debut season of "Off-Mikes."

by Steve Hall    Mar-28-07    
Topic: Guerilla, Policy



You Mean MySpace Isn't for Spam?

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Apparently MySpace cracks down on super spammers. And they're damn stern about it, too: "Individuals who try to spam or phish our members are not welcome on MySpace," says chief security officer Hemanshu Nigam.

But we thought that adding madd friends and spamming the crap out of them was how you leveraged your networking potential? Now we're completely confused about what MySpace is for. We can't help but wonder when they'll crack down on provocative profile pictures whose subjects are self-consciously staring just left of the camera. Or 13-year-olds who blow our bulletins section up with surveys. Or weak local bands who tell us about every cocktail party they're strumming for.

Monsieur Wallace, the unlucky phisherman who'll be banned from Web 2.0 mecca and made an example for bulletin whores at large, runs a company called Feeble Minded Productions, which, while possibly not related to his spam game, is just sort of amusing in this context.

by Angela Natividad    Mar-27-07    
Topic: Online, Policy



Meredith Puts 'Child' to Bed

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Bummer. Meredith is shuttering Child magazine. We liked that magazine and used it a lot for clients in its early days buying into its upscale approach to parenting and its decidedly less cluttered and far more easy to read format than Parents or Parenting which, like most women's service books, are flooded with clutter like the automotive section of a daily newspaper. Anyway, the masses love their clutter and cheesiness and Child has lost the battle even though it still has a circulation of 750,000. Mothers primping their five year olds with the latest fashion are crying the world over. It's publisher, Meredith, which following the just axed Premiere and Life, will publish the last issue of Child with the June/July issue.

by Steve Hall    Mar-27-07    
Topic: Magazine



Mirror Ad Appears, Disappears, Appears, Disappears, Appears...

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Here's an interesting combination of vanity and technology in the form of a mirror that displays ads except when you look directly into it. How nice. It's a mirror when it's supposed to be a mirror and it's an ad when it's supposed to be an ad. And it's distracting too. Annoying enough to make you look. Polite enough to let you look.

by Steve Hall    Mar-27-07    
Topic: Good, Outdoor, Poster



Amphibious Creatures Handle Denver's Water Needs

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To explain why Denver Water workers are so adept at handling the Mile High city's water needs, Sukle Advertising & Design went on a reconnaissance mission inside the bowels of Denver's water operation and found the answer. Apparently, Denver Water workers are amphibious creatures and Sukle decided to feature them in a new print campaign. See two more version of the print ads here and here.

by Steve Hall    Mar-27-07    
Topic: Campaigns, Good, Magazine