Blackberry Dabbles in Comedy to Snare Fresh Demo

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So, 101 bellybuttons walk into a bar.

This is just one of the cliffhangers you won't revisit after checking out teasers for this Blackberry-sponsored improv troupe.

Add crappy video quality and comedians telling jokes on the phone (isn't that a social faux-pas? If it isn't, it SHOULD BE), and you've got yourself an unbeatable stench.

Ads for the effort were featured on the front page of the Times. Richard at Gawker pointed it out to us. Thanks for engaging us in the angst, Richard.

by Angela Natividad    Feb-11-08    
Topic: Bad, Brands, Events, Mobile/Wireless, Online



Rumors Favor Fallon For Microsoft Win

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Since last December Fallon Minneapolis and Crispin Porter + Bogusky have been battling for the $2-300 million Microsoft consumer products account. The Daily Ad Biz reports rumors are flying Microsoft has chosen Fallon. There's been no confirmation either way but wouldn't it be fun if waning poster boy CP+B took a hit? OK, that's mean. We'd never wish that on anyone. Well, maybe we would but not here. May the best shop (or the one that plays the game the best) win.

by Steve Hall    Feb-11-08    
Topic: Agencies, Brands



Osama Bin Laden Video Promotes Fashion Brand

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We've seen the many directions in which fashion brands travel to promote their wares. We've had Dolce and Gabanna toy with rape. We've had target employ holographs. We've had Nolita use an anorexic French actress to sell its wares. We've had Wrangler spread fashion mannequin around Paris. We've had hottie-wear promoted with voyeuristic videos. We've had former Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev hawking Louis Vuitton. We've had Sisley doing, well, anything and everything that has to do with sex to call attention to its fashions.

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by Steve Hall    Feb-11-08    
Topic: Celebrity, Strange, Video



Will Ferrell's Jackie Moon Shills Bud Light And Old Spice

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Adland makes note of Will Ferrell's appearance in not just that Super Bowl commercial for Bud Light but also a series of commercials for Old Spice in which he plays the same character, Jackie Moon, the character he will play in his upcoming movie Semi-Pro bowing February 29.

There are eight videos which you can view on the Old Spice website promote both Old Spice and Ferrell's Semi-Pro movie. So we've got the King of Beers, the King of consumer packaged goods (Proctor & Gamble which owns Old Spice) and New Line Cinema all hooking up with Will Ferrell to deliver a deliciously hilarious tie in for a beer, a cologne and a movie.

by Steve Hall    Feb-11-08    
Topic: Brands, Celebrity, Good, Promotions



It's the Regulation Eco-Take on Valentine's Day!

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Because no holiday is legitimate until it gets its own eco-spin, feast your eyes on Winterwarm by Superhero (with assistance from photographer Richie Hopson).

The premise: don't use heating this winter; hug gratuitously and NEVER LEAVE BED!

The shirts were donated by American Apparel. We didn't get why they kept changing colour at first but then we read they're supposed to be thermometers. Get it?

And in the event that you actually care, the couple really is a couple. Their names are Angeliki Chatzi and Konstantinos Dagritzikos.

Cute. In a we-don't-live-in-sub-zero-temperatures sort of way.

by Angela Natividad    Feb-11-08    
Topic: Cause, Online, Video



Kit Kat Livens Up Cubicle Workers Depressing Day

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JWT France has created a spectacularly engaging three minute video that encapsulates the life of a lowly cubicle worker, the mocking he receives from his coworkers, the glowering he receives from his boss and the relief he receives when he takes a break to grab a Kit Kat.

In the video, our lowly cubicle worker leaves behind the taunting co-workers, the menacing boss and even the office hottie (who the animators clearly had fun creating) for a life atop his office building which has grown to spacious heights offering a view of a solar system full of, yes, Nestle candy.

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by Steve Hall    Feb-11-08    
Topic: Creative Commentary, Good, Video



For V-Day, Virgin Mobile Brings Sex to Text

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Phone sex too confrontational? Put the work where it belongs -- into your thumbs. Get into "promiscuous text."

Let's Have TXT is Virgin Mobile USA's raunchy rendition of a Valentine's Day mobile campaign. Play the voyeur as a trained professional of your choice -- housewife, plumber, cowboy, nurse or sexbot -- invites you to take part in sweaty handplay on that most seductive of QWERTY keyboards.

That clammy-palms feeling is also viral. Create invites for friends!

Brought to you by McKinney.

by Angela Natividad    Feb-11-08    
Topic: Campaigns, Mobile/Wireless, Online, Racy



UPS Wants to Deliver Body Parts In Continuing Contextual Corrigenda

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Oh how we love contextual advertising. Surely, it's a very effective form of online advertising and does it's thing quite well about 98 percent of the time. That's certainly worth celebrating but it's that other two percent we love so much.

You know it. It's that two percent that give us turpentine ads next to stories about a girl who committed suicide by drinking turpentine. "Card Shark" credit card copy next to an article about a woman killed by a shark. A free dinner for two offer from Olive Garden next to a story about how 250 people fot sick after eating at one of their restaurants.

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by Steve Hall    Feb- 9-08    
Topic: Bad, Online, Strange



Bebe Sports Debuts 2008 Eva Longoria Campaign

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Having moved on from over privileged whiny teen to desperate housewife, Bebe Sports has unveiled its new print campaign featuring Desperate Housewives star Eva Longoria Parker, who, last year, replaced Mischa Barton as the company's celebrity spokesperson. In the campaign, we see Longoria Parker dressed in Bebe Sports sportswear lounging on a surfboard, posing with a bicycle, standing next to a motorcycle and sitting on a car. See it all here.

by Steve Hall    Feb- 9-08    
Topic: Campaigns, Celebrity, Magazine



CareerBuilder Gruntledness Index Highlights Hotpots of Happy

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To cash in on the quiet misery that ornaments cubicle life, CareerBuilder gives us the National Gruntledness Index, which highlights the happiest places to work. Results can be divvied by industry. But if the NGI is any indicator of reality, Oklahoma City is the best place in the nation no matter what you're doing.

Contribute to the index by getting a read on your Personal Gruntedness. The test is longer than it should be, condescending in tone (hey, like your boss!) and set to music like "Brutal Flute" and "Celtic Hip-Hop." All told, it's not dissimilar to water torture or an elective butt-wax.

The average of your money, career and lifestyle comprise your final score. This was ours.

CareerBuilder, why do you want to hurt us when all we did was love you?

by Angela Natividad    Feb- 8-08    
Topic: Brands, Games, Good, Online, Promotions