Never Trust a Stranger, Especially the Kind with Long Black Mandibles

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Roaches and termites aren't just pesky. They're sly. And malevolent. And they'll take any opportunity they get to sneak inside your house.

Even deliver you pizza. Or ask to use the phone.

That's why there's the Orkin Man, who isn't so much an exterminator as he is a khaki-clad cowboy who happens to know a lot about bugs.

The spots were put together by The Richards Group in Dallas. We find them feel-goodish and funny.

by Angela Natividad    Apr- 8-08    
Topic: Brands, Commercials, Good, Television



Because All of Moby's Friends Will Be Washing Their Hair that Night

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Moby tests the limits of your self-esteem with this popularity contest for his new album.

Entrants are competing for control of the guestlist for Moby's entire UK launch party. The trick is to "fill the place with 1500 mates, or mates of mates or their mates." To flood the house, UK players get friends to MMS 63333 with a unique guestlist ID. Back on the website, your audience swells as the messages roll in.

Five ambitious promoters will be awarded "party crasher" tickets for punting the fete in the most original way and posting a video on YouTube. Pretty neat campaign. Seems like a helluva lot of work though. Put together by archibald ingall stretton.

by Angela Natividad    Apr- 8-08    
Topic: Campaigns, Celebrity, Events, Games, Online, Promotions



Interactive Milk Campaign Totally Shuts Us Out. Well Then, Soy It is.

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We really love neolithic sentences like "Get more cowbell," which is probably why the agreeably retro Get a Load of Milk site is so endearing, even though it's otherwise useless, because it's PC optimized and we're on a Mac.

At least the new mobile site works all right. Oh wait. No it doesn't. It's optimized for video-friendly phones like the Sony Ericsson K85i Rogers Vision, and our BlackBerry ain't that.

Do the milk men hate us? Come on, guys. We eat cereal too.

by Angela Natividad    Apr- 8-08    
Topic: Bad, Brands, Campaigns, Mobile/Wireless, Online



'Good Lord, What Are You Doing?' Why, Ordering GTA IV, of Course

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It's a teaser for Grand Theft Auto IV! There's girls with thongs, multiethnic gangsters (so Epcot), bloody cops, and one-liners that would make Scorsese shoot a puppy. (What is it about bad dialogue that makes violence funny? Maybe Elmo knows.)

GTA IV comes out on April 29th. And did we mention in-game music will be available for purchase? True story. Earmark the croons you like, in the next car you steal, with a handy-dandy in-game mobile phone. Amazon keeps track. The song in this spot is "Real McKoy" by Mavado.

Ahh, the sweet smell of sex, drugs and urban misery. We have officially wandered out of the Coke side of life.

by Angela Natividad    Apr- 8-08    
Topic: Commercials, Games, Packaging, Promotions, Television, Video



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Witch Uglies Down, Reporters Get Mauled, Public Health Stickers Litter Life

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- Milk makes baby-eating witches insecure about their looks. Dude. Did she just try passing her wart off as a mole?

- Cops with Slingbox and a bullhorn wreak havoc. "Haaands up. COME ON, THREE POINTER!"

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That Hot Chick is Also a Human Being

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With a link like slinkyfoxvideo.com and a red lingerie-clad, girl-next-door hottie like the one in this video, viewership is almost guaranteed. Here at Adrants, we've seen a lot of videos used to promote all sorts of things. A lot of them. Most of them terrible. This, though, is one of the best. One could argue it's just another trashy sex-sells piece of crap but one would be wrong. The content of the video is directly related to what's pitched at the end of the video and it's wonderfully done.

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by Steve Hall    Apr- 8-08    
Topic: Best, Creative Commentary, Racy, Video



Hurtin' for Rhythm? Go Be Dead

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These Raggedy Ann & Andy refugees are characters in a new Zune ad called Piece of Me, Piece of You. Girl bites boy, boy becomes zombie, and together they turn the world into a community of undead extras with jazz hands. Very Tim Burton.

Not as good as the last Zune ad, but still cool. Suddenly these spots are something to look forward to, you know? And it's neat how the whole "sharing" theme always carries over.

The spot, which debuted last night, was written by Three Legged Legs and produced by Green Dot Films for agency 72andSunny. That catchy-ass song is "Fancy Footwork" by Chromeo.

by Angela Natividad    Apr- 8-08    
Topic: Best, Brands, Campaigns, Commercials, Television



OMG! Degree Wants to be Your BFF!

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Ten years after it would have been, perhaps, at least a tiny bit OK, there seems to be a sudden onslaught of marketers becoming BFFs with txt and chat-speak. From McDonald's with its coy use of "R U Ready" copy to AT&T's subtitled conversation between mom and daughter to Frito-Lay's failed gt2kno jack, everyone wants in on teen chat slang.

If that weren't enough, Unilever has launched a campiagn called Degree Girl OMG! featuring Disney Channel's High School Musical star Ashley Tisdale complete with the solicitation of shadenfruede-like OMG moments...which, if the moment is OMG enough, could get you a visit with Tisdale herself.

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by Steve Hall    Apr- 8-08    
Topic: Bad, Good, Online, Social



BMW 1 Launches, Y&R Loses Dr. Pepper, Freelance Priced

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- If you're wondering how BMW will get its 2009 BMW 1-Series to America, this video explains the process. (The video's way more fun than this description)

- Y&R has lost the Dr. Pepper account after having it for almost 40 years. It's going to Deutsch LA. Y&R San Francisco will keep Diet Dr. Pepper and other sub-brands.

- Hilary Clinton's campaign manager, Mark Penn, is getting out while the getting is good.

- An article on Copyblogger explores how to properly price freelance writing services.

by Steve Hall    Apr- 8-08    
Topic: Agencies, Brands



It's Just An Effen T-Shirt. Get Over it!

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From the man whose blog has been dubbed "an island of wit in a country that's had an irony bypass," comes this ad for Goatboy's new t-shirt (insanely expensive, mind you) brand. In the ad, an old lady takes offense to a guy's t-shirt which reads "She's Dead. So get over it." Who's dead? Watch the ad to fund out.

While it's not an easy one to get over, we're sure she'd see and appreciate the humor of it all. After the fact, of course.

by Steve Hall    Apr- 8-08    
Topic: Good, Video



Burger King Becomes Bicentennial Man For Cheesy Commercial

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A bit Logan's Run. A bit AI. A bit Bicentennial Man. A bit The Jetsons. A bit, well, creepy but that's to be expected. After all, this is a commercial featuring the King. In this new Burger King commercial, the King is a robot and, apparently, everyone has one. He's there to make sure all the stereotypically white-clad future people are well fed with BK's Cheesy Bacon BK Wrapper.

by Steve Hall    Apr- 8-08    
Topic: Commercials



Ron Stilanovich Gets Scrappy for Easton Sports

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Omelet has put together some new work for Easton Sports that consists of a series of videos featuring career minor leaguer Ron Stilanovich who offers advice on how to become a "smarter, tougher, and ultimately, better ball player, all-around." If you're into baseball or like testosterone-fueled coach speak, you'll love these videos. Even if you don't, their full of enough humor to please most anyone...if you have the patience to site through a bunch of three minute vids.

by Steve Hall    Apr- 8-08    
Topic: Video



PubMatic Launches Online Ad Network Pricing Service

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Want to know what other advertisers are paying to advertise on websites? As a publisher, want to know how to competitively price your ads? Now you can with PubMatic's AdPrice Index, a new service that gathers eCPM data from 3,000 website on a monthly basis. The index is compiled by independent statisticians Dr. Albert Madansky and Dr. Michele Madansky who found:

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by Steve Hall    Apr- 8-08    
Topic: Online, Research, Tools



90 Spots Scratch Surface of Massachusetts Delights

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The Massachusetts Office of Travel & Tourism went on a $4.5 million spree and produced 90 different ads, shot by Mullen, to illustrate Massachusetts and its uninspired "It's all here" slogan.

Each spot is a quick-and-dirty tour of things in Massachusetts you might want to experience: kayaking, the Mayflower, the Norman Rockwell Museum, the Franklin Park Zoo, Chatham, Provincetown... Geez, naming all this stuff is tiring. See it all live on MassVacation.

You know what would really have spiced this whole thing up? A Mooninite or two, Where's Waldo?-style.

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by Angela Natividad    Apr- 8-08    
Topic: Campaigns, Commercials, Online, Packaging, Promotions