- It's the best of this year's Plaid Nation tour! Diggin' the chick who says plaid is God's favorite color.
- Anna Kournikova's still around. I like how her Maxim bio reads, "Before simply being superhot, Anna was a superhot tennis player." Put "simply being superhot" on your resume next time you get shafted, then see who throws sponsorship money at you.
- Naked guy runs across America.
- Last Visa "Go World" spot by TBWA/Chiat/Day. Michael Phelps: he keeps going and going and going and going...
- Check out Google minus Google. Running a search without getting results from YouTube, Blogger, or Knol feels sort of ... fresh.
Imagine if the Coke Happiness Factory got hijacked by dancing Reds that prefer fruity vodka to sugar water. You're probably picturing "Airship," the latest spot for Stoli Blakberi, put together by Publicis/London and production company Stink/Psyop. Music by Prokofiev.
Part of what keeps me drinking Stoli is unwavering affection for its advertising. On TV or in print, it's always got the same feel: over-the-top, cartoony, propagandistic. Disney's "It's a Small World After All" meets the hoarse ballads and frosty grit of Moscow.
Stoli is a proud, heavy-handed romantic, and taking a swig is like surrendering to history: the beautifying dizziness, concrete on your lips, bile in your throat. It's a suffering, and a brand, baptized in nostalgia.
Ever since the movie Empire Records, Liv Tyler (and that not so unknown actress by the name of Renee Zellweger) have served those in need of eye candy quite well. In movies. On the red carpet. And in ads.
Last week, Gap broke a new campaign featuring, among others, Liv Tyler. You can check out all the photoshoot goodness here. She's still looking good.
The other day I was complaining -- or was it more like bitching? -- about how all car ads seem pretty much the same. (If not "the same," then "zealously derivative.") Then Organic busts out with this really weird ad for the Chrysler Town & Country.
It's all words. The narrator's telling this bizarre story, then the words appear in front of you, so you get this tiring but riveting experience of seeing and hearing crunchy nouns like "pocket pony" and "crabapples" at the same time. (Don't ask, just watch.)
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Who knew people still read TV Guide? Apparently enough still do to make it worthwhile for ABC to buy out all the ad space in the August 25 issue in advance of the upcoming fall television season. The network will buy 21 pages in the issue and insert a DVD for New York and Los Angeles subscribers and newsstand sales.
When a movie chooses not to preview for critics, it's almost a foregone conclusion the movie will be bad. Hopefully, that isn't the case with The CW's 90210 which has also decided not to screen the show for advertisers or the media.
"Classic" 90210 was a good show...for the first few years. Over time, it got worse but people kept watching. All the way through the cast's high school years, their college years and the first few years of their "real world" life. The cast became like Twitter friends. No matter how mundane their lives were, you simply couldn't turn of the "weekly update." It was an unhealthy addiction.
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Here's a crappy camera-up-to-the-TV version of the Chevy Traverse ad that keeps playing during the Olympics. (Don't worry, you're not missing much in terms of sound.) I sat through it twice yesterday and didn't really get the correlation between Shirtless Man Lovingly Laundering and Chevy Traverse with Folding Seats.
Twitter's not keen on it either.
Fortunately, there's YouTube. Scroll down to the comments. Past all the complaining about double standards and whatnot, someone explains that both the man and the Traverse are "beautiful, useful, and everything you ever wanted ... and them [sic] some."
Ohhhhh. Suddenly the tagline makes sense.
OMFG! Can you believe it! Is it really possible? Could this really be happening? Could we really be getting this excited and worked up over an agency spoof site and the realization it was created by an ad blogger? Apparently so, given the endless press Adomatica's Robert Gilbreath, creator of Enfartico (now defunct), received following the launch and "leaking" of his Enfatico spoof site.
AgencySpy has full on, breathless coverage in lengthy detail for those who want to wallow in the juicydetails of a fake agency website that's managed to garner almost as much press as the agency itself. That said, it's sad Enfatico couldn't just go along with the joke. It's sad they just officiously shut the site down. It's sad they didn't launch their own CGM/UGC/Web 2.0 response. It could have been fun. Oh well. In this instance, the party line was followed to the letter. No company wants it's brand toyed with but Enfartico was hardly doing harm to Enfatico.
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For client Little Debbie, Marcos Ambrose joins forces with a talking koala. They're so cute together, it's oddly gratifying to see them draw housewives' attention at the supermarket or co-pilot a race while koala eats Zebra Cakes.
"I thought you only ate eucalyptus leaves?" Ambrose demands, slightly miffed, right before he peels out onto the track.
Collective awwwwwwwww. Don't you just want to rub their tummies and feed them a Devil Square?
The spots went live in tandem with racing season. So far Ambrose isn't doing too terribly, no thanks to his choice of snack food, but a talking marsupial riding shotgun (think of the crumbs!) probably keeps things interesting.
See more of their routine on Little Debbie's Miles of Smiles website, put together by Luckie & Co., which also did the creative.
I got up early this morning to play with the website for Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, a Wackness-meets-Go-type movie featuring Michael Cera and Kat Dennings.
It feels totally inspired by the chaos of Manhattan. You're hit with a trailer, after which you can enter the site, riddled with cardboard cut-outs, frenetic noise (honking horns, sirens) and, under "Music," an Infinite Playlist that's not so infinite. (Two songs so far. Will there be more? Somebody needs to contract this guy.)
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So I woke up this morning and heard on the radio that John McCain's getting sued for using Running on Empty, a song by Jackson Browne, in one of his anti-Obama ads without permission. That McCain, what a maverick.
I doubt he's losing sleep over it though, because another artist, John Rich, actually digs McCain enough to give him his own song. It's called Raisin' McCain, and while it bears a slight satirical resemblance to Raining McCain in name and subject matter, Rich's effort is actually not a joke.
That's some catchy shit right thar. And is it just me, or do sequins give our star-spangled banner a little more oomph?
One-time babykiller Gary Oldman is back on the hunt -- this time, for glory. Following in the footsteps of Rosario Dawson and Neil Patrick Harris, the actor is starring in his own web series, The Gloryhunter.
UPDATE: Looks like Oldman's not in The Gloryhunter after all. (We never got to see it; Silverlight is not our friend.)
Oldman appears in an ad for ITV's live football (that is, soccer) programming. See ad.
So weird seeing Oldman kick soccer balls around after trying to off Natalie Portman in a bathroom. Guess that's the way of things.
- Diggin' these Beijing Olympics-based efforts for Mini Cooper and Samsung. Well, the Samsung one might have confused me if I saw it in person, but the Mini rickshaw thing is pretty dope.
- Should Starbucks engage in latte art? American coffee snobs, a subculture Starbucks helped create, would probably argue yes -- if it's at all serious about maintaining luxury cachet. (Which I increasingly doubt it is.)
- More Michael Phelps ads by Visa. PS -- Phelps scored a perfect eight gold medals in the Olympics this summer. It's so exciting, I'm starting to get spam about it.
- So I guess Verizon is not that into disco.
- Rainbow tribe daddy Brad Pitt is launching a body wash in partnership with Kiehl's. The product will cost $16.50 market, he'll appear in no ads, and 100 percent of profits will go to JPF Eco Systems, a green charity he and Kiehl's started together. How sweeeeet.
Tailor a piece of Americana to your global village!
Coca-Cola's chosen ATTIK to help interpret its brand across a number of events: for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, for Coke's Christmas 2008 effort, and for Ramadan in Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Indonesia, Morocco, Tunisia, and other countries with a great many Muslims.
At left is the official Ramadan packaging, courtesy of ATTIK/Leeds. Tell me that doesn't make you feel more pious.
Who says Twitter is a worthless web 2.0 time waster with absolutely no redeeming value? Were it not for Twitter, USA Network's Burn Notice would have escaped...um...notice thereby depriving many (well, at least one) of its many enjoyable aspects; a local native gone Hollywood, the dude from those horrifically campy Evil Dead movies, Sharon Gless who rocked the 80's with Cagney & Lacey and the adorable-turned-impossibley-hot Gabrielle Anwar. Oh, and then there's the plot which, well, doesn't really matter because these four actors would be good in anything.
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Brandchannel's Brandcameo, which conducts product placement in film studies, found Ford appeared in 57.7% of number one films from 2007 to 2008. This year, Ford won its third brandcameo Award for Overall Product Placement for its consistent presence.
From the study, Brandchannel's panel selected the following winners in an online poll:
Most Mouthwatering, placement most likely to prompt an immediate purchase: Louis Vuitton in Sex and the City
Perfect Fit, best chemistry between a brand and a film: Manolo Blahnik and Sex and the City
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And unlike other cars, which wave their ostentatious extras in your face, you can't even see the excess tooshums. Because you know why? It's made up of service, so says the tagline: "The extra Volkswagen part on every Volkswagen. Volkswagen service."
Nice repetition of brand name!
By production firm Czar, NL and DDB for Volkswagen.
Claussen, which has asked us for years to judge pickles by their snap, takes its chances on online "viral" advertising with this video for its "World's Most Excellent Pickle" campaign.
The premise: a series of "pickle fitness" tests were conducted. The footage was boring, so two comedians were tapped to ad-lib over it, Mystery Science Theater 3000-style. It is not funny, and the sight of pickles being systematically snapped by the accordion-looking machine only left us with a dull, empty ache in our chests: is this our lives?
Yeah. Yeah, it is.
And I like how on YouTube, the video is disseminated by "funnystuff75." Way to be obvious, Mister Obvious.
Imposed on us (and now YOU!) by Draft FCB.
What's the best way to get attention and promote Australia's Queensland as a winter vacation destination? The same way you'd get attention or just about anything else: hot guys and girls in swimwear flashing passersby on the street. It's simple. It's low budget. It catches attention. It's fun. Why over engineer when you don't have to? And who doesn't like to ogle a hottie in the morning?
Like full on spam, this email screamed, "Catastrophe hits live during the broadcast of a Direct Insurance commercial." After quickly checking Twitter (what? that's where all the news is these days, people) to make sure there was no actual catastrophe, it became apparent this was yet another ploy for publicity.
The release continued, "During a live broadcast of the Israeli 'American Idol' show, a Direct Insurance commercial for catastrophe coverage burnt up before the eyes of avid viewers. After burning, a simple slide appeared: We apologize for the technical difficulties but catastrophes can happen to anyone".
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OK so Matt Maxwell isn't the world's greatest singer but his five songs about Flash, design and web technology are a decidedly different self-promotional tact. Singing about one of the biggest of pet peeves around here, Maxwell croons:
And-it's-been-a long preloader
And there's reason to believe
Before-its-finished I will certainly be dead
I can't believe a web designer could be so heartless
Making something that's so bloated for the web
Yea, it's a little rough around the edges but the sentiment is there.
Video ad firm Husky Media has decided to ride against the tide, offering advertisers big-ass ads instead of feeble pre-rolls and teeny ticker tape text. View the demo video, which makes the proposition look sane: videos flanked on either side by gigantor ad messages. It's about as offensive as Coverflow.
"At Husky Media, we believe bigger is better and will never succumb to the shrink ray," boasts Co-CEO David Carson of Husky. "We've been seeing it everywhere this summer, from the size of a cup of yogurt to dog food to cheese wheels to 'staycations' to 14 oz. pints of beer. Isn't a pint supposed to be 16 oz.? This is one summer trend we will not let idly pass. Last I heard WE LIVE IN AMERICA."
That's officially the Best PR Quote Ever. Bonus points if he starts appearing in public with a cowboy hat.
To honor the legacy of John Lennon, Ben & Jerry's have launched Imagine Whirled Peace, an ice cream flavor loaded with toffee cookies and fudge peace signs.
Upload shots of yourself in a peace mosaic at the Imagine subsite. (You know, like the song. Note Lennon specs on twitchy cow.) The ice cream company also partnered with The Lennon Estate and Peace One Day to host a bed-in, nodding to Lennon and Yoko Ono's lavishly-covered bed-in for peace -- a golden opportunity to lie around all day, preach peace, and play King and Queen Meet Lowly Serfs with scandalized reporters and photographers.
More here about how Ben & Jerry's poaches the Baby Boomers by canonizing idols with frozen treats. Frankly though, I've always been the Phish Food kind.
It's clear, Enfatico is the industry's current whipping boy, whether or not anything for which we are whipping the boy is true or not. This industry can't live without a continual dose of ego-boosting schadenfreude and the security it offers allowing us to say, "At least we aren't as screwed up as those fuckers over at Enfatico!" As long as someone else is screwing up, it's all good.
AgencySpy is having a field day on this one lambasting Dell VP Casey Jones and claiming he's on probation for "lackluster performance" in his creation of the Enfatico machine. Unsurprisingly, there's bound to be some strife when a giant brand attempts to consolidate its work from 800 agencies to one. It's to be expected.
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- It's targeted you with limited-edition designer bottles and luxury facial sprays. Now Evian wants your kids. Introducing Evian Les Petits!
- Greenwich aspires to seize the spotlight as soon as it's off Beijing.
- Microsoft UK's Multimap uses pigeons to promote its "bird's eye view" feature. Created by digital agency LBi, it marks the first time Multimap has used cartoons to advertise.
- Check out the Word Clock typographic screensaver, which one Bos AD thinks is the "coolest screensaver EVER." It's pretty cool. Kind of like UNIQLOCK without the girls, or the music, or the colors.
- If you're following HBO's online campaign for True Blood, you should catch this 3-minute Ad Age video about virals. True Blood premieres September 7. Dude, sometimes it sucks to not have cable.
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