Head, Shoulders, Knees, Toes Pull Heart Strings

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You had to go and do it didn't you, Lowe Roche Toronto? Bring us down. Make us feel all emotionally overwrought. Make us feel like we're a loser because we live our happy life without much regard for those who don't have it as fortunate. Force us to watch the lives of others decay in front of our eyes - all within 60 seconds.

To that, we say brilliant. Yes, brilliant. This commercial for the ALS Society of Canada hits hard and dramatically illustrates the life-altering effects of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, more commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease. In the spot, we see the increasingly debilitating effect of ALS and his family. It's not pretty. But then again, neither is the disease. And that's the whole point.

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by Steve Hall    Nov-10-08    
Topic: Best, Cause, Commercials



Longer Lasting Sex A No No. Longer Bonking OK

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AdFreak points to an interesting story about an Australian erectile dysfunction company, Advanced Medical Institute which placed a billboard with the headline "Want Longer-Lasting Sex?" That particular headline didn't sit well with those who believe sex is some sort of disease only to be engaged in for short periods of time and only for the purposes of procreation.

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by Steve Hall    Nov-10-08    
Topic: Good, Outdoor



Woot Places 'Cleverest Adsense Ad Ever'

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blogads Founder Henry Copeland points to what he dubs the "cleverest Adsense ad ever." Without hesitation, we'd have to agree completely. Riffing on Google's stock market woes, Woot placed an ad that reads, "We saw what's over there. Figured you'd look away. So we put our ad here. woot.com." Is that not brilliant placement (and copy) or what?

by Steve Hall    Nov-10-08    
Topic: Best, Online



Card From Business Trip Hottie Delivers Unexpected Shocker

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Upon returning home from a business trip, it's sometimes nice to get a follow up email or card from that special new friend you met while engaged in activities entirely unrelated to business. The recipient in this commercial for Snapily is quite proud of himself when he receives a card from Tiffany, the girl he met on his last trip to New York. Quite proud indeed. That is until his co-worker points out something that could only be described as unexpected. Keta Keta created.

by Steve Hall    Nov-10-08    
Topic: Commercials, Good, Racy, Video



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PomX Advertising, Levi's Plays Dirty, Rebuild the (Grand Old) Party, Saved by Zero Hate Poll

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- You know you wanna browse through Barack Obama's flickr.

- Make the Logo Bigger taps his own top 25 influential bloggers to spit knowledge on Pepsi's blogger outreach effort.

- GOP taps social media to rekindle its fire.

- Levi's to agencies: want our business? We want your internal invoices.

- PomX break room sheep go "What the fu-uuuck?" for "maximum wakey-wakedness!" Via.

- CEOs in ads = company death rattle.

- Rate your hate for "Saved by Zero."

by Angela Natividad    Nov-10-08    
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Commercials, Online, Opinion, Political, Strange



Headvertising 2.0: Air New Zealand Does 'Cranial Advertising'

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Unearthing headvertising as if it were something new, Air New Zealand held a casting call to find 75 men and women who'd be willing to have their heads shaved and a temporary tattoo applied. They even invented a new name for the four year old human advertising tactic: Cranial Advertising. Ooo...sounds sooooo much more official than headvertising, doesn't it?

The promotion was developed to promote the airline's new check in system implemented at Aukland, Christchurch (interesting name for an airport) and Wellington.

Headlines (there's a pun in there somewhere) included "The End of the Domestic Check-in Queue is Coming" and "Need a Change? Head down to New Zealand. airnewzealand.com".

by Steve Hall    Nov-10-08    
Topic: Human



Garfield Dubs Palin An Ignoramus, All-Stars Awarded, ad:tech Revisited

- Meet the new Art Diector's Club president Doug Jaeger in a new Reel Split podcast.

- AdWeek's 23rd Annual Media All-Stars Awards issue is out. Initiative Chairman and CEO Richard Beaven was named Media Executive of the Year.

- Relive (or live for the first time) ad:tech New York by listening to this BeanCast podcast during with AquireWeb President Al Gadbut, The Martin Agency' David Vogeleer, host Bob Knorpp and myself discuss the show's highlights.

- Claiming iCrossing raided staff and clients, Agency.com had filed for damages of $19.5 million against the Omnicom shop.

- Bob Garfield stirs up a shit storm for calling Sarah Palin an ignoramus in his review of the McCain campaign.

by Steve Hall    Nov-10-08    
Topic: Campaigns, Industry Events, Opinion, Podcast



The Revolution Will Be Widgetized! Among other Things

The Next Frontier: Advertising in Applications.

This panel struck me as one of the most relevant to marketers at ad:tech NY this year. Topics included widgets, in-game advertising and in-cloud applications (server-hosted productivity supplements to Word and Excel). A representative from Facebook also discussed what ad models work well for the social network.

Liza Hausman of Gigya introduced the talk on widgets. (See her discuss it, in part, in the video above. Try not to wince when Escourrou, bless his heart, says "marketeers.") She observed people used to spend time on destination sites; now they bring content wherever they go: a social network, a blog, a desktop, their start page.

As a result, widgets present a real opportunity for marketers. "Anything that can be done on a website can be done on a widget," she pointed out. "Most importantly, widgets have to be installed by a user to a page." That's the world's best validation of your value add - and obviously also a huge hurdle.

Half-ass a widget, and it'll never move past your subsite.

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by Angela Natividad    Nov-10-08    
Topic: Industry Events