You Mean You Don't Go Shopping to Heal?

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Check out "Meet the Denialers" for Mackenzie Investments. Put together by Lowe Roche, Toronto, it tells the story of "a family of four that spends like fourteen."

Creative is spread across print and online without losing the tune: that of a strangely relatable fable. The campaign does a nice job of positioning an investment firm as a natural option for cash-burning families.

Meet Brett, Penny, Simon, Devon and Amanda. The website, BurnRate.ca, includes nifty little tools like a cashflow calculator and a burn rate spending test.

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by Angela Natividad    Feb-12-08    
Topic: Campaigns, Good, Magazine, Online



Toshiba Print Ad Gives Us Salesgenie Deja Vu

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We found this print ad for Toshiba's Smartcard technology in a recent business mag. It features a white executive and a bespectacled Indian IT guy holding the lead on a big dog.

The header copy reads, "Finance & IT: Working Together to Keep the Bad Guys Out."

Supporting text describes how execs will love Smartcard technology because it maintains data integrity and exceeds gov mandates for controlling access. And IT will love it because it "ensures user authentication with an ID card." (We know we get a thrill every time we're digi-frisked.)

Sooo. Is it racist, bad product positioning or right on the (executive!) money?

by Angela Natividad    Feb-12-08    
Topic: Bad, Brands, Magazine



Bob Garfield's Reign Questioned (And Not Just by Us)

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The Daily Ad Biz is going after Advertising Age's Bob Garfield. In a piece entitled "Fire Bob Garfield, First in a Series," the writer examines a recent article by Bob entitled "Just Imagine How Trump Would Have Looked in Wendy's Red Wig." In the The Daily Ad Biz article, Bob is taken to task, sentence by sentence, for his seemingly "out of touch crotchety old man" approach to criticizing advertising.

While some, though not us, trashed the Wendy's Red Wig campaign to one degree or another, when Bob says an ad is bad, he claims (barring a few "horrifying exceptions") he's always right and that the facts are there to back him up. So it was with great interest The Daily Ad Biz shared with us the recently released 2007 full year and Q4 financial figures for Wendy's which, counter to the belief same store sales have been flat, reports same store sales saw a 1.4 percent increase as compared to 2006's 0.6 percent increase.

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by Steve Hall    Feb-12-08    




McCain Gets will.i.am/MoveOn Treatment, Except without the Love

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MoveOn.org is circulating this satire of will.i.am's "Yes We Can" Obama video. This time, the candidate in the spotlight is the apparently war-mongering Maniac McCain.

Nice to know the young, liberal and convicted have learned the art of killing with irony. But okay, McCain was totally asking for it when he went all-out with the "Bomb bomb Iran" song. (WHAT WAS HE THINKING?)

by Angela Natividad    Feb-12-08    
Topic: Cause, Online, Political, Spoofs, Video



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Forget Sandwich Boards; Why Not Wear Video?

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"If you wear it, they will watch." That's the premise behind the concept of wearable video (patent pending).

The business plan is simple enough: just slide a video vest onto "brand ambassadors," a winning euphemism for "leggy girls in bikinis and/or short skirts walking around with audio/visual torsos." Big upgrade on ye olde standby.

Online testimonials included "Hey, cool" and "I was drawn to her."

...Yeah.

by Angela Natividad    Feb-12-08    
Topic: Guerilla, Human, Outdoor, Packaging, Promotions, Video



Anne Summers Delivers Wood For Valentine's Day

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Well we wouldn't expect anything or than full on wood from UK lingerie maker Anne Summers now would we? Of course not. The gentlemen in this commercial are the lucky recipients of hand-delivered wood. Yes, door-to-door, door-to-bed, door-to-office wood courtesy of finely dressed woman sporting Anne Summers lingerie. Now what more could a man ask for on Valentine's Day?

by Steve Hall    Feb-12-08    
Topic: Commercials, Good, Racy



Johnson's Lotion, Blind Adoration Are Key to Mother/Child Bonding

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To promote what it calls its "iconic baby lotion," Johnson launched Touching Bond to encourage moms to get touchier with their babies. Glean advice on making "your touch more touching," massaging your baby, and capturing its giggle.

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by Angela Natividad    Feb-12-08    
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Online



FTD, Download Give Geeky Incentives for Romantic Gestures

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Here's an unlikely combination.

Right now if you buy flowers from FTD.com, you could get free software from Download.com. This is part of a Valentine's Day promotion to wise geeks up to the aphrodisiac merits of floral sharing.

Behind the scenes, TrialPay gleans ad revenue from FTD to pay Download.com for the software you select. Awww. Well, nothing says romance like a classic threesome.

Go to Download.com's Valentine subsite to cash in on all the love.

by Angela Natividad    Feb-12-08    
Topic: Good, Online, Promotions



In Down Time, Stun Media Dabbles in Music

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Stun Media, the people that did the Silver Jeans spec spot we liked so much, just completed a music video for Paul Price's Her Planet.

It was done on a shoestring budget but is actually quite pretty. The money was spent sticking to one theme instead of trying to jam a menagerie of wild ideas into the frame. We think that takes guts and is good for brand recall. (Consider the schizophrenic big-budget alternative.)

by Angela Natividad    Feb-12-08    
Topic: Agencies, Video