Firebrand CEO Laments Company's Demise, Misunderstands Commercials

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Fighting to the end, Firebrand CEO Roman Vinoly shared his frustration over doubters of the ads-as-content concept with AdWeek, pondering, "Isn't it proven every Super Bowl and on lots of Web sites where people go? Isn't it proven by being one of the largest categories uploaded to YouTube? Is it that difficult to conceive that great creative created by great artists with all the money in the world could be compelling to consumers even though it's trying to sell a product?"

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by Steve Hall    Mar- 5-08    
Topic: Online, Opinion, Television, Tools



Divinity Metrics Measures Brands' Online Video Presence

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Divinity Metrics has put together a chart measuring the top 20 brands in online video. It will be updated every week. At first we were gonna compare it to the AdAge Power 150, a measuring stick for the top media and marketing blogs, but it's not really like that. It's more like the Dow Jones.

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by Angela Natividad    Mar- 5-08    
Topic: Good, Online, Research, Trends and Culture, Video



For Kylie Time, Just Dodge the Boss

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Ever fantasize about one-upping your boss? Forget about scoring a machine gun and leaving life in cubicletopia with a parting gift of unhinged chaos. Play Dodge the Boss instead. (For best results, do it on his or her dime.)

The game is simple but delightfully time-consuming. Use your mouse to avoid the boss-men without touching any of the sides. Dodging the boss as long as possible could land you tickets to see the sultry Kylie Minogue in Paris.

How's that for leaving the office in a blaze of glory?!

The game was disseminated by Rubber Republic and put together by Global Radio for Galaxy FM's "Love Music Love March."

by Angela Natividad    Mar- 5-08    
Topic: Campaigns, Celebrity, Games, Online, Promotions



Is There a Heaven for iPods? ... No.

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This is sort of neat. Watch the sped-up drama of your consumption patterns on The Story of Stuff. Very rarely have we been able to sit still for 20 minutes to listen to something educational. Maybe it's narrator Annie Leonard's exciting grade school reading voice ... or the animated stick figures.

Anyway, this is useful information to know if you're an avid consumer of All Things Hype and Now. Everybody with an iPod -- listen up!

by Angela Natividad    Mar- 5-08    
Topic: Good, Online, Research



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Volvo Goes Webisode Way, and ... Ew.

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Make the Logo Bigger just introduced us to Mr. Robinson's Driving School, an online webisode campaign for Volvo that somehow bombs harder (and more expensively?) than when Tide did it.

We would rather watch Charlie Bit Me! 9.8 million times than sit through this working class wannabe-Isaac-Hayes crap even once.

by Angela Natividad    Mar- 5-08    
Topic: Best, Brands, Online, Video



Huge Breasts Are Back. This Time to Sell Lip Gloss

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VH1 Charm School participant Saaphyri (and her hefty breasts) are gratuitously front and center in a new video promoting her line of lip gloss called LipChap. In the video, Saaphyri slithers, coos and teases as the camera glides over her making sure every inch of her curvaceously bootylicious body is admired with the intensity of a 14 year old boy at a wet t-shirt contest.

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by Steve Hall    Mar- 5-08    
Topic: Celebrity, Racy, Strange, Video



A Halfrican Explores Multi-Racial Life in America

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It's nice to see Advertising Age ramp up its coverage of diversity in advertising and in general. We've been supporters of the exploration of diversity (or lack thereof) in the ad business and are glad the industry's number one publication has increased the size of the platform where this conversation can take place.

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by Steve Hall    Mar- 5-08    
Topic: Industry Events, Policy, Political



Scrimpers, Working Class Heroes Valorized in Fifth Third Ad Campaign

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Here's an ad about a middle-aged paperboy working to get braces for his daughter. And here's one about a white collar cog who drives his college beater so he and his pregnant wife can save for their baby.

These spots are part of an ad campaign for Fifth Third Bank called "The Things We Do for Dreams," produced by Anonymous Content for agency OLSON.

We like it. Swimming upstream against a dismal economy, it's nice to see a bank put an optimistic spin on the everyday struggle -- illuminating the decisions we've had to make, and watch our parents make -- rather than distracting us with gimmicky comic relief.

It lends the sense that Fifth Third understands what it's like to do things that aren't fun out of a sense of hope. That's nice. And strangely rare.

by Angela Natividad    Mar- 5-08    
Topic: Campaigns, Commercials, Good, Television



Screw the Drama. It's Dance-Off Time!

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Dance2DC is a new game by Shift Control for Barely Political. (Visit the site to play it and/or watch the video that inspired the madness.)

We don't know much about it aside from that Hillary is a disco fever inferno and Edwards channels John Travolta. Then it hit us: wouldn't life be better if we banished ballots and decided everything with sudden death dance-offs?

You can fake a smile, but you can't fake the funk.

by Angela Natividad    Mar- 5-08    
Topic: Games, Online, Political



MySpace Head Doctors Invest Blogging with Holistic Properties

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A report from Melbourne's Swinburne University of Technology finds bloggers are less isolated, more connected to a community and more satisfied with friendships. (Dude. That's because, if not for blogging, we would have no friends.)

The study was conducted on MySpace (WTF?). 134 MySpace users completed a questionnaire from the researchers -- likely bulletin-spamming all their friends in the process -- with 84 intending to blog and 50 not blogging.

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by Angela Natividad    Mar- 5-08    
Topic: Online, Opinion, Research, Strange



Lettuce, Peaches and Now Beer Bottles Create Outdoor Advertising

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Leo Burnett gave us the lettuce garden billboard. Ella Bache skincare gave us a giant "naked" lady made out of peaches in Sydney's First Fleet Park. Now, Carlsberg beer has given us a billboard made out of beer bottles to introduce its new, yes, bottle.

We wonder who got to drink all the beer before all those bottles went up. Perhaps the creators of the board, Duval Guillaume in Antwerp could let us know.

by Steve Hall    Mar- 5-08    
Topic: Good, Outdoor



Leather Faced Keith Richards Sells Leather For Louis Vuitton

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Leave it to high fashion and Annie Leibowitz to give us a Louis Vuitton ad featuring Keith Richards. Created by Ogilvy & Mather, Richards appears sitting in a hotel room transformed as only Richards could complete with black scarves and skulls.

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by Steve Hall    Mar- 5-08    
Topic: Celebrity, Magazine



Domino's Pizza Gets All CGM/Web 2.0/Social Media-ish

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Havas' BLM Quantum has unleashed a make-your-own-video (remember when we had simpler names for things?) contest on MySpace in the United Kingdom called Think Outside the Box which urges people to "get green" and recycle their pizza boxes into ingenious new uses.

Have at it CGM (oops, we mean make-your-own-video) fans.

by Steve Hall    Mar- 5-08    
Topic: Consumer Created, Online, Social



Ripped Porn Star Buffs Up Bluelithium Founder Gurbaksh Chahal

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We've written about ad network company Blulithium and its founder Gurbaksh Chahal several times before but we never thought we'd be telling you, according to ValleyWag, he's been buffing up his body by training with San Jose-based bodybuilder Tom Austin, star of several gay porn flicks such as Minute Man 24. But it all makes sense. You can't be a porn star unless you have a six pack, bulging chest, massive biceps and a bulging package to go along with all that super human manliness. Austin has all that. So it's just logical Austin would know how to buff up Chahal who has acting aspirations of his own.

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by Steve Hall    Mar- 5-08    
Topic: Online, Racy



Toyota Highlights, ACDelco Moves, Airborne Pays, Facebook Poked

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- This Canadian spot for Toyota's Matrix has fun envisioning a day full of potential as highlighted by the vehicle's headlights.

- While this happened back in late January, we thought we'd share the news that as part of an agency consolidation, GM has opted to move its ACDelco account, with Campbell-Ewald since 1917, to Publicis Groupe on May 1.

- Facebook gets poked! Right. Facebook backlash YouTube-style.

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by Steve Hall    Mar- 5-08    
Topic: Agencies, Brands, Commercials, Policy, Social, Spoofs, Video



Questions Raised Over Whether Hillary Darkened Obama's Pigment

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For all her noxious crying and whatnot, Hillary Clinton is a well-honed jungle predator. "Winning. Winning, winning, that's my measure of success -- winning," she barked recently.

Having demonstrated yesterday that she's still a viable contender for the presidency, the question arises: what does it take to win, win, win like Hillary?

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by Angela Natividad    Mar- 5-08    
Topic: Campaigns, Commercials, Political, Television, Worst