What's that Big Dome? Oh, it's Canada

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With the help of DDB Canada, Inside Live! and Fuse OMD, the Canadian Tourism Commission erected a big dome thingy at the Canary Wharf in London. (Very Epcot.) Egged on by building projections (here and here), online ads and street activities, curious Londoners can step inside the dome and explore Canada.

The campaign lasts four weeks and is an attempt to drive more of the Queen's men and women to Canada on holiday. The dome supposedly showcases four vacation possibilities. Skiing? White water rafting? Olympic swimming? We're not sure. The possibilities hidden in that mysterious rotunda are boundless

by Angela Natividad    Jan-30-08    
Topic: Campaigns, Guerilla, Outdoor, Promotions



Playboy Collects 21 Sexiest Commercials of All Time

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Playboy has collected a treasure trove of sexy commercial and ranked the top 21 in it's February 2008 issue. The 21 finalists are ranked in the printed magazine but online they are still open for voting. Believe it or not, we don't read Playboy but AdFreak's Tim Nudd does and he shares some of the rankings.

more »

by Steve Hall    Jan-30-08    
Topic: Commercials, Magazine, Racy



Because Arturo Fuente Cigars Has So Much to Gain from the Everyday Man

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"Duardo's Brand," which has a UGC feel to it (don't tell Subway!) is Raging Artists' attempt to (possibly) accomplish two things for its client:

1. Associate Arturo Fuente Cigars with the elite Cuban crowd through its choice of talent, Duardo Cantana
2. Put cigars back in the domestic space -- into the mouths of men sitting around playing guitars, and men whose wives batter them senseless for smoking indoors

Or it might be an exercise in irony. Because it's kind of "ha-ha, laugh with this artist who's just like me and you" funny and sort of "ha-ha, laugh at this thrown together wannabe UGC crap" funny.

We don't really know.

by Angela Natividad    Jan-30-08    
Topic: Brands, Celebrity, Online, Video



Svedka Fembot to Launch Presidential Bid on Super Tuesday

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Damn. Everyone's getting in on this presidential election thing. Now we have Svedka Vodka's Svedka_grl (yea, we noticed that screename-style thingy you did) launching a campaign to put a Fembot in the White House. That's all we need. A bunch of hot looking, drunken robots running our country. On second thought, that might not be so bad.

more »

by Steve Hall    Jan-30-08    
Topic: Brands, Political, Promotions



Gap Unveils Nationwide Casting Call Contest Winners

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Get ready for an explosion of cute. Yes, GAP has announced the winners of its casting call contest which selected four kids from a pool of 20 finalists which were selected from a pool of 800,000. The winners, which were determined from 500,000 votes cast by the public, were announced on the Rachael Ray show.

In partnership with Kodak, the GAP launched it casting call back in October 2007. One assumes we'll be seeing a lot of these cuties in the year to come.

by Steve Hall    Jan-30-08    
Topic: Brands, Promotions



YouBama Loves Barak Obama

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If you're into Barak Obama, you owe it to yourself to head over to YouBama and create a video in support of the candidate. On the site, there's hundreds of supportive videos from regular citizen, celebrities like George Clooney and from Obama himself.

Oddly missing are all those supportive Obama Girl videos.

by Steve Hall    Jan-30-08    
Topic: Online, Political, Video



Wendy's Leaves Behind Fun For Food Porn

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Removing every last bit of fun and entertainment of Red Wig dude (love him or hate him) come two new spots (one, two) from Kirshenbaum Bond, its new work on the account. In these commercials, it's all about the product. Yea, we get a bit of the cute Wendy but for the most part, its food porn.

Who knows. Maybe these spot will get Wendy's back on track. At the least, people will know Wendy's sells food.

by Steve Hall    Jan-30-08    
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Commercials



Paulie Walnuts Wants A Real Denny's Breakfast

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If you've ever watched The Sopranos, you'll love this new Denny's commercial featuring the Paulie Walnuts character Tony Sirico. In the ad, Sirico is presented with a fast food breakfast which doesn't meet with his approval. In response, he does his usual thing and refuses to pay for what he says is "not a real breakfast."

There's a second spot in the campaign which isn't near as good as the first one. Here's a bit of Tony Sirico trivia for you. Though he played a mobster on The Sopranos, Sirico was reportedly a real mobster back in the sixties and seventies attached to the Columbo family serving under Carmine Persico.

by Steve Hall    Jan-30-08    
Topic: Campaigns, Celebrity, Commercials, Good



AdBrite Delivers Super Bowl Sized Audience For 20 Percent of the Cost

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Online ad network AdBrite would like the Super Bowl-obsessed advertising industry to know an advertiser, using the company's full page ad unit, could buy 100 million impression for just 20 percent of the cost of a Super Bowl Spot. While AdBrite is clearly aware a buy such as this can't rival all the fanfare and added publicity that goes along with appearing in the Super Bowl but it is indicative of online media's ability to deliver mass messaging along with highly targeted messaging.

As cost efficiently as the math works out on an AdBrite buy, much of what is gleaned (or lost) from a Super Bowl buy is the accompanying press play that is closely wrapped with the package. ALL one has to do is take a look at what GoDaddy does every year in this area.

by Steve Hall    Jan-30-08    
Topic: Good, Online, Super Bowl 2008



eBillme Uses UGC Lawsuit to Promote ... UGC ... Campaigns?

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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."

by Angela Natividad    Jan-29-08    
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Online