Red Roof Redesigns, Rededicates Itself with Digital Firm

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To promote its fancy new renovated destinations, the Red Roof Inn's gone digital with 360i, its Digital Agency of Record.

360i will be working on Red Roof's online media and creative. We have yet to see either.

In the meantime, we can ooh and ahh at Red Roof's new logo, which comes complete with a casual roofy slant, and a typeface probably modeled after the handwriting of a fresh-faced yachter.

Tell us if we've gone mad, but the logo rubs us wrong. Because isn't it magenta?

Big difference between red (as in Red Roof) and magenta (as in Magenta). Way to make a fresh splash in the pool, Red Roof -- total incongruity between your logo and brand name.

Anywho, the logo has been published on the redesigned and "rededicated" Red Roof website. It will also appear on inns that have recently been renovated. 360i washes its hands of it; the logo, it says, was in place before the agency was contracted.

by Angela Natividad    Feb- 5-08    
Topic: Agencies, Bad, Brands, Online



Bush-ese Interpreted as 'Hell, High Water' by Greenpeace

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We love a little hell and high water on a Super Tuesday morning. Those things, says Greenpeace, will be the only result of Bush's big plans against global warming.

And since Bush has trouble with the "transparency" thing, GP decided to be transparent for him -- all over the Washington Monument during his "Major Economics Meeting" last week.

Politics: a damn serious business. In the same way falling facedown in a sandbox -- and stabbing your eye out with a stick -- can be considered good times.

by Angela Natividad    Feb- 5-08    
Topic: Cause, Guerilla, Outdoor, Political



Olympus Aids Breast-Obsessed Men

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With Super Bowl XLII behind us, we can now turn our attention to more pressing matters in the advertising business: the use of female cleavage and breast-obsessed men to sell stuff. Yea, yea, yea, who wants to read another story about some stupid ad that uses boobs to sell stuff? Oh, you do? OK, let's continue then.

more »

by Steve Hall    Feb- 5-08    
Topic: Good, Magazine, Racy



Super Bowl XLII Most Viewed Game Ever

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While some debate the quality of commercials which appeared during Super Bowl XLII, the game itself was intriguing enough to capture 97.5 million viewers making the game the most viewed Super Bowl of all time according to Nielsen. The next most viewed game was the 1996 Super Bowl which had 94.1 million viewers.

by Steve Hall    Feb- 5-08    
Topic: Research, Super Bowl 2008



Diversity Recruiting Program Travels to Chicago

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Our partnership with Business Development Institute's Diversity conference series will host Advertising and Marketing Experienced Hire Diversity Recruiting Program, otherwise known as AdEx Chicago during the week of March 10 -14 at the Chicago Regent Business Centers.

The goal of the event will be to confidentially match job seekers with hiring companies. This follows the successful initial outing last year in New York during Advertising Week 2007.

For more information, check out the website here.

by Steve Hall    Feb- 5-08    
Topic: Announcements, Industry Events



Obama Wins Love, Loyalty of Pop Stars

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Which means he deserves your love and loyalty, too. *eyebrow raise*

Here's a pro-Obama video produced by will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas. In it, Barack Obama's "Yes We Can" speech is taken up as a kind of musical mantle by images of stars like Nick Cannon, Common, Scarlett Johansson, Tatyana Ali, John Legend ... we could go on.

We like a good-looking, nice sounding guy as much as anybody else, but with Super Tuesday in our faces, we recommend doing homework before voting. Here's one source, and here's some campaign ad analysis from the same non-partisan group.

Let us know if you've got other resources worth looking at.

by Angela Natividad    Feb- 4-08    
Topic: Campaigns, Celebrity, Events, Online, Political, Video



Screw Google and Microsoft; Yahoo Takes the Floor!

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It's hardly been three days, and already the shoving match between Google and Microsoft over this -- not to mention the growing list of greed-sparked suitors for Yahoo's hand -- is really, really old.

To provide comic relief, Luckie & Company's Rethink Everything launched Yahoocrosoft. The site hosts a spoof news article where -- in some insane universe not far from our own -- Yahoo counteroffers to buy Microsoft for $44.7 billion.

We're hoping the article will at some point make way for spoofy cartoons, which can't possibly be far behind.

by Angela Natividad    Feb- 4-08    
Topic: Agencies, Brands, Online, Spoofs



Condescending White Guy Gets Ass Kicked by Asian Girls

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Here's a creepy twist on the American Psycho premise.

You're in the Chinese laundry. Some hotshot white executive walks in and starts heckling the pitiable Asian owner in front of his family. He makes the nasty requisite Pokemon and Hello Kitty jokes, does the grating "oriental" accent. Things are clearly spiraling out of control.

Suddenly, a black dude in the background takes a call on his Jawbone Bluetooth headset. And in a noise-canceling orchestration Bose would be proud of, the world beyond his convo is efficiently muted.

more »

by Angela Natividad    Feb- 4-08    
Topic: Bad, Brands, Online, Racy, Video



Second-Hand Smoke Destroys Gastronomic Experience

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To celebrate the first birthday of Louisiana's Smoke-Free Air Act (Act 815), New Orleans-based Trumpet created this ad, which appeared in newspapers throughout the state.

It features an overturned ashtray with a birthday candle on top. Part of it reads, "For the past year, the Louisiana Smoke-Free Act has increased the flavor and health of Louisiana dishes by removing one toxic ingredient: Secondhand smoke."

We like the unique message (which makes us hungry, actually) and brave use of white space. Happy first birthday, Act 815.

by Angela Natividad    Feb- 4-08    
Topic: Cause, Newspaper, Policy, Poster



Even on AOL, Charlie Brown's Only as Good as Third Place

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AOL just now released its results for the top-ranked ads in its 6th Annual AOL Super Sunday Ad Poll, sponsored by Verizon. Here's the top five:

1. Budweiser Clydesdale/dalmatian ad
2. Bridgestone squirrel spot
3. Coca-Cola's Balloons
4. Life Water's Thriller
5. E-Trade's talking baby spot

"Advertisers bring their 'A' games to the Super Bowl commercials, and Budweiser scored an impressive victory this year as the best of the best," gushed GM Derrick Heggans of AOL Sports. Nothing new there.

Gotta say we're glad the Coke Balloons spot made it into somebody's top five. But what'd we tell you? There's no beating Rocky. Maybe next time, Charlie Brown.