Damn, eBillme jumps fast on a trend. An hour after we heard about the Subway/Quiznos UGC-related lawsuit, eBillme jumped online and wrote a press release about the lawsuit in light of its previous Shopping Confessions contest and upcoming Valentine's Day contest.
Stats on the V-Day contest: submit videos on your best or worst Valentine's Day purchase by Feb 14. Prizes includes a 37-inch Toshiba LCD HDTV.
President and CEO Marwan Forzley, eBillme quickly added, is available to discuss user generated content and "help companies level the playing field," which we guess means "run a successful UGC contest while covering your ass."
It's not often both celebrities in a celebrity marriage are spokespeople for brands, let alone at the same time. It's even less often, if not ever, the two appear side by side in their respective spokesperson roles as do David and Victoria Beckham in Tokyo. In Omotesando Crossing, Victoria appears for Samantha Thavasa and David appears for Giorgio Armani.
In the style of The Onion (except totally lacking in tact), writer Rick Murphy of the Independent's "Low Tidings" column wrote an article called "Why I Should Be Our Next President," credited to Yo Mama Bin Barack. (Can you say collective P.C. wince?)
A tidbit:
Ultimately, if [Hillary Clinton] gets too close, one of my New York advisors has advised me to, 'Bitch slap that ho.' White women, I am told, like that. (Black women, on the other hand, do not. I tried that once on AliBama and she beat the living shit out of me.
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Join us before, during and after the Super Bowl to talk about the ads in the game. Praise Them. Crap on them. Wish you created them.
Click here for a full sized version of the room with a window where you can upload commercials and view those others have uploaded. As they say, join the conversation.
Copyranter caught the ad on the back of this week's AdWeek which features 74 year old Julie Newmar - formerly of the original Batman's Catwoman - who is looking to be a a brand's next corporate spokesperson. The ad promises she hasn't been retouched and we must admit she looks pretty good. It's not often you see a 74 year old dressed in lingerie like this. Kudos, we guess. Who knows. You go, girl.
Now here's an ad that, shall we say, stretches the truth...oh just a wee bit. Not much else to say about it other than it appears on Digg which has had quite a few ads of questionable validity over the past few weeks or so. Bigger image here.
According to The New York Times, Subway is inexplicably (as in pending lawsuit) pissed at Quiznos because of some "derogatory" user-generated videos that depict Subway unfavorably. Must see to believe (scroll down to view the big offender).
Some actual Quiznos ads, depicting people on the street choosing between the two brands, also made it into the lawsuit, but the big stars are the UGC entries from some contest Quiznos ran. Subway is also suing iFilm for running the contest.
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What the hell is going on with the Wall Street Journal? Pity the poor media planner who once was able to make a media buy that pretty much insured they'd reach some financially savvy folks who were reading the Journal for its razor-focused coverage of financial matter. But, then came the Weekend edition with its fluffy entertainment news. And then there was the Personal Journal which covered...who knows...fixing your kitchen sink? Now, thanks to Rupert Murdoch, the paper is getting a sports section.
WTF? The Wall Street Journal writing about sports? WTF? Sure the paper's readers interests beyond financial but how much blandification can a media property take on before it becomes just another daily newspaper that's so broad it appeals to no one and suffers dramatic circulation declines like every other paper in the nation? It makes no sense. But, hey, we're not Rupert Murdoch so we could be wrong.
Tomorrow WhittmanHart Interactive launches American Gladiators, an online homage to the original series, to promote MGM's new American Gladiators.
Old-school fans can find out where their favorite original Gladiators are today. (The revelations will probably be depressing.) Video of best hits and stunts will also be hosted.
American Gladiators did something to our perception of adulthood as kids. We knew if there was even a small chance of wearing leotards and beating the crap out of people with giant batons on TV, there was nothing to fear about growing up.
First Bacardi told us about the mysterious travellers of Murmansk Route. Then it said the mysterious travellers of Murmansk Route have something that will change our lives.
To get it, all we have to do is bid for a locked suitcase on eBay.
Not sold? Watch the video, which actually still won't win you unless you speak Spanish, and even then, odds remain 50/50.
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So here's an intriguing campaign for you transparency lovers. Strawberry Frog crafted a website for Brazilian lingerie company Universo Intimo, filled it with images of impossibly hot models...then added a blog on which a woman writes about how young girls can be demoralizing and create impossible to achieve expectations.Um, nice but huh?
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While we think we've seen this campaign before, the onslaught (yes, even we are subjected to that poor girl's plight) of campaign after campaign after campaign has dulled even our heightened sense of advertising awareness. Then again, you all know, when it comes to a certain style of advertising, our senses are always peaked.
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Who doesn't like a nice stack of pancakes everyone in a while? But does anyone really like the messy prep work that goes into making the batter for that nice stack? OK, it's not that bad but since we live in a world on its way to Idiocracy, it's no surprise someone's come up with a better pancake idea.
The Batter Blaster, which, in a nutshell, is pancake batter in a spray can is, as the tagline explains, the "Breakfaster. Organic Pancakes in an instant." We like simplicity. We like organic. We're just not sure pancakes from a can are going to rival those made in the bowl.
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As part of her trip to the Philippines courtesy of the Philippine Tourism Department, HappySlip is advertising news of her Meet & Greet in Manila at the Mag:net Cafe this February 7. Get on the guest list at happyslip.yehey.com (Yehey! is the Philippine Yahoo!, kind of). The fun and games go down from 11am-3pm.
Seeing as how this is for Philippine tourism and we want to put our best foot forward, it might be a good idea to filter the ads appearing at the end of the videos. Unless FilipinaHeart.com is a proud sponsor...?
Here's an interesting extension of Adidas' Impossible is Nothing mantra. During the Aukland Marathon at the 17 km mark, runners could choose to run through lane which was outfitted with what was called the adiBOOST, a giant fan that would put a 50 knot wind at their backs insuring the impossibility of finishing the marathon would be nothing to be concerned with. Nice idea.
You can look at this Firebrand video promoting its Road to Monday Super Bowl program this week as being somewhat comical in its efforts to portray the insanity in which we all engage regarding Super Bowl ads. Or you can look at it as a lame effort, cheesily produced with the unattainable goal of getting people to actually care about advertising. Of course, if there were any time of year the average Joe would care about advertising, it would be surrounding the Super Bowl.
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To prep us for our own game day (February 3!), SOLdesignfx for Allstate sent us a parable about an undervalued kicker who wins the game. Oh, and you also get to see the Allstate guy with the soothing voice. We haven't seen him since Allstate got all badass.
Sadly, he isn't featured in the other two ads -- "Statue," where two wankers hold their breath for a bronzed Bobby Bowden, and "Diner."
It's the traditional insurance ad premise: the unexpected can happen. Swaddle your peace of mind in the loving arms of Allstate.
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