The Walls Don't Just Have Ears; They've Also Got Some Big-Ass Eyes

This is part of a four-sided pullout for Benjamin Moore's line of Aura paints. The first side reads, "Your life is your inspiration." The spread, which is here, reads, "Your walls are your canvas."

That's moving and all, but imagining the incorporeal faces of my ancestors staring out of my walls puts me way out of interior design mode. And more into, well, therapy mode.

But Does It Come with Guerrilla Maintenance?

You've heard of the sometimes-subversive art of guerrilla marketing. But it's got nothin' on guerrilla gardening: One group's valiant attempts to improve public landscapes with illicit cultivation.

Guerrilla Communication says guerrilla gardening -- gardening on someone else's land without permission -- has been going on for centuries. Eco aesthetes are encouraged to take up a spade and alight upon the nearest eyesore with sunflowers at the ready.

Nice. Very Green Samaritan. Now what I could use is a super-awesome guerrilla room-cleaner.

Cause CGM. For Kids! Way to Jump on All the Bandwagons at Once.

By Kids for Kids (BKFK) and DoSomething.org have launched the "Advertise Your Cause Media Challenge." It's geared to kids who feel a burning desire to make a difference. (Collective "awwwww.")

If you live in the US and are under 19, you can participate. Get entries in before 12 noon EST on June 30. Enter here.

The "cleverest, most powerful and most impactful" campaign will be showered with PSA-style media exposure and a $10,000 grand prize. Yeah, that kind of money would make a stoner pro-DARE in a pin-drop.

Apple Sued for Failing to Deliver on 'Millions of Colors'

Apple's getting sued because the marketing material for its new iMac desktop monitor promises people "millions of colours." In actuality, the 20in version only displays 262,144. Those bastards!

(For the record, the iMac 24in screen does display millions of colours. 16.7 million, to be exact, 9.7 million of which human beings apparently can't even see.)

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I Thought It Was the Carnival, But It Was Just DHA Omega-3

Here's a really weird image from Real Simple for Life's DHA, a company that promotes consumption of DHA Omega-3 in products like Yoplait yogurt, Horizon Organic milk and Silk soymilk.

It's clear what they're trying to do with the whole "all stages of life" thing, but seeing this picture at a glance? It was scary. And for reasons I can't immediately explain, I thought of Delicatessen.

Might be the whole dark circus vibe.

Google Might Axe 300 DoubleClick Jobs, Mostly Stateside, and Shafts Performics

With its acquisition of DoubleClick finally secure, Google gets down to the more controversial part of not being evil: axing a shit-ton of jobs.

As of today Google started making with the mass lay-offs. The New York Times says it's possible 300 could go, but the GOOG ain't all bad; it's softening the blow by giving a few chumps "transitional" roles, which means you get to transition-the-hell-out after the two big ships become one.

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Hey Look, Another Riff on the Periodic Table. And with Widgets!

"Get a Happy Face," St. Ives' virgin foray in digital marketing, launched today. Each St. Ives Elements product page includes a cereal surprise: widgets that help improve your life!

These include a weather widget, which tells you what to wear and how much sunblock to smear on; a goal-setting widget; a workout widget; and cavity-sweet extras like Olive You e-cards, encouraging bedtime text messages and a (as in ONE) video of a laughing baby.

Random. But I did like the ghost bib.

The site was put together by EVB/SF and will be promoted via banner ads and in select print pubs. St. Ives is part of the Alberto Culver family, which includes other drug store staples like VO5 and Tresemme.

Boys Can Have Big Booties Too

Hey, women have padded bras. Why shouldn't men be able to enhance their figure with padded undergarments? This ad for padded briefs thinks every man should be able to have a bootylicious ass even if, in what would have to be one incredibly awkward and embarrassing moment, it was revealed he really had no ass at all.

VW Ad Garners Complaints for Depiction of Cowering, Shivering Dog

Once again humor is trumped by those who love to bitch about ads with animals in them. A recent ad for Volkswagen which shows a dog having a great time while rising in a VW and a not so good time when he's not. England's Advertising Standards Authority has received 500 complaints about the ad but were told by the ad's creators the dog in the ad was acting. Still, the organization is "very disappointed that Volkswagen feel it necessary to portray a dog suffering to sell cars.

You can argue this one either way. Have at it in the comment section.

Adland Causes Runny Farts and Will Kill You

This just in!! This "Reuters" story is one day late but apparently adland kills us all and is the cause of 1.6 million deaths each year. Apparently, a "runny farty residue" is one of the initial causes. Reuters reports, "Contact with, or even being in the proximity of adland is known to trigger acute bone liquification disease, chronic restless face syndrome, and a deadly soup of bacteria called gumbo that shoots out of your nostrils."

Hey, "Reuters," if you're gonna do the April Fool Day thing, at least date your articles properly:-) Kidding. Adland dated her story just fine.

Travelers' Red Umbrella Makes Triumphant Return

After a goof six years ago which kept the iconic red umbrella with Citigroup as it spun off the Travelers unit, Travelers has won it back and has gone BIG (literally) in a new commercial celebrating the umbrella's return. In the ad, a man carries the gigantic umbrella back home and on his way does what good insurance companies do, helps people when they need helping. OK, so most insurance companies don't a shit other than making money but it's a nice sentiment at least.

Fallon Minneapolis did a nice job with the spot. It's elegant, well-produced an fairy tale-like in that big adventure movie sort of way. It's one of those ads that really doesn't look like it's actually an ad but at the same time, delivers its brand message beautifully.

College Students Ask For $25,000 CGM-Style

Look! Look! Look! It's consumer-generated media! That's right. Step on over to Upromise's Tuition Tales (great name) for a glimpse at videos created by students seeking $25,000 to cover college costs. Over the past 12 weeks, a field of hundreds has been narrowed to ten finalist. The winner will be chosen by public vote. As an incentive, Upromise is offering every person who votes a chance to win a $50 gift certificate to Bed Bath & Beyond.

Now if only Upromise would remove the annoying control bar which floats over the bottom of each video, the fullness of every video could be more pleasingly appreciated.

Infiniti Launch Ads Retooled for Hummer H3

Oh look. It's like the Infiniti launch commercials created by Hill Holliday (I think) with endless shots of flowers, trees, mountain streams, wildlife and other moody images but with a not so small difference. In this new Hummer commercial from Modernista (Hmm. HH and Modernista are both in Boston. Hmm), we also get flowers, trees, mountain streams, wildlife and other moody images but this time they're interspersed with shots of the Hummer...in case we, oh, forgot we were watching a car ad.

CAANZ Calls, Copy Can, VH1 Chats, Woot Wins

- Some guy's hoping for Million Dollar Homepage fame after having fallen prey to a Woot.com April Fool's joke by offering his Woot "bag of crap" to the person who wins a drawing he will hold tomorrow morning. To enter the drawing, people have to donate money.

- Creative Director Laura Sweet responds to David Pogue's article about marketer's adoption of "web 2.0" and offers a few tips.

- CAANZ wants your entries. New Zealand's CAANZ wants your submissions for its media awards and has a little commercial to urge you to do so.

- Copyblogger has the goods on how to create a "rock-solid tagline" that works.

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Dating Site's Hook Ups Based on Love of Similar Brands

Anything launched on April Fool's Day is, by default, suspect which is why Brand-mates, a site on which people can share the brand they love with others, just doesn't seem quite right. A site where brand lovers can create relationships with the brands others love? Sounds like an MBA'd account planner got together with some Web 2.0 type to create this thing. Oh wait, that's exactly what happened!

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Maidenform Backless Bra Too Small For Busty Adrants Interns

Just what is it about guys and bras? It's like the subject comes up and we're in high school all over again, snapping the bra of the cute girl sitting next to us in social studies. Oh yes, breasts make boys (and men) do very stupid things. Sadly (or maybe not), snapping the back of a girl's bra may be a thing of the past if this backless bra from Maidenform takes off.

Created by ABC American Inventor contestant Elaine Cato, the bra is getting a big creative and media push from VIA Group, which will launch campaign "This Feels Right" with the tag "Out with the old, in with the new." Media will consist of women's magazine's, outdoor and online.

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Statistical Fodder for Your Next Creative Brief!

- The Economist takes No.1 in AdweekMedia's Annual Hot List, up from No. 10 last year -- the biggest jump on a list otherwise dominated by women's lifestyle titles.

- 33 percent of iPhone users are cheating on Steve Jobs with other handset makers.

- Advertising affects prescriptions more than science does. Hrm. *Checks medicine cabinet* Yeah.

- The Apple brand makes the biggest impact on global consumers. (Yawn.) Those most in need of brand refurbishing were Microsoft and the United States. Mommy, why does the world hate us?

- More than 90 percent of email is spam. By the way, the term "spam" was coined 15 years and 2 days ago.

- Kids love social networks. O RLY? Thanks for the insight, champs.

- Joffrey's, a coffee hub that launched a "beta" tasting program for bloggers, has released survey results on coffee trends in the blogosphere. More on that.

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True Power Trips are Family Affairs.

That is, according to this new spot for Washington, DC. (Come on, sport. How do you resist two metaphors in one sentence?!)

In the spot, a mom throws open a giant scrap book and invites the audience into family-friendly DC, where power lunches become romantic rendezvous (with your own spouse!) and spy games are left to the kids.

The campaign, entitled "Power Trip," goes live today and replaces the old DC slogan, "An American Experience."

Even with all those tantalizing political euphemisms, I'd still rather see Orlando. Every major American city would be better off with a gigantic Disney theme park.