Thumbnails Reduce Checkout Anxiety, Gatorade's Mysterious G Spots

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- If you can make sense of this Digitas video "created to showcase the [Indian] office team" during the company's Global Team Meeting in June, you're smarter than we are.

- Writing on Elastic Path's Get Elastic blog, Linda Bustos suggests one of the best ways to reduce anxiety during online check out is to show thumbnails of selected items order summary pages.

- Omnicom has snapped up Arnold VP of Multicultural Programs and Community Outreach Tiffany Warren to head Omnicom Group's diversity efforts. Her title? CDO? Yes. Chief Diversity Officer. Seriously.

- Leo Burnett has agreed to pay the United States $15.5 million to settle a suit which claimed the agency mis-billed the U.S. Army when it handled the account from 2000 to 2005.

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by Steve Hall    Jan- 7-09    
Topic: Agencies, Online



New England Aquarium Invites You to See Turtles ... EVERYWHERE.

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The New England Aquarium's "See Turtles" campaign is an appealing exception to the no-pun rule. (Also, we like an effort that doubles as justification to take hallucinogens.)

Variants include Droplet, Water Tower and Rooftop, which will appear in magazines and newspapers.

Online banner ads -- which are also cute, if a little Clip-Arty -- include Snowman, Cocoa and Car. (Forgive us if these links break; they're hosted by Mullen.) These are slightly different from their print counterparts: in them, ordinary things take the shape of turtles over time, taking advantage of the 'net's ability to seize roving eyes. Frankly, the print stuff is better.

Work by Mullen/Wenham, MA. There's also radio material, which we didn't get to hear.



Digital Neighborhood Comes to the Aid of Abused Woman

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If you ever thought for one minute social media is just another stupid new trend dreamt up by a bunch of buzzword-happy people who do nothing but "consult" and hang out on Twitter espousing bite sized chunks of wisdom in 140 characters, you seriously need to re-adjust your thinking.

Take David Armano. He lives in Chicago. He works in the advertising business. He publishes a blog. He's active on Twitter. But this isn't about him. It's about a woman named Daniela who left her husband because she was abused and how a community came to her aid.

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by Steve Hall    Jan- 7-09    
Topic: Good, Opinion, Social



Not to Be Rude, But This Cupcake Tastes Suspiciously Like a Wi-Fi Hotspot

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After setting up its first-ever 4G wireless broadband network in Portland, Clearwire tapped Secret Weapon Marketing to promote its merits: better internet speeds, broader coverage.

The result was a series of irreverent prints -- and "Sprinkles," a TV ad that compares wireless coverage to cupcake sprinkles. (Rivals are represented by a stingy sprinkling; meanwhile, Clearwire's coverage deluges the bakery with diabetes-inducing hail.)

"Welcome to the future," the narrator says smugly.

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Buy Better Bulbs; WWF Will Do the Heavy Lifting

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The industrial pollutants in the World Wildlife Federation's "Light Bulb" ad are only tired toys. But these miniatures -- small things we can easily control -- still convey the helplessness environmentalists feel when faced with oversized, eco-negligent businesses.

"Light Bulb" concludes with a male doll holding an energy-efficient light bulb. "You're doing your part," the ad assures us. "It's our job to help government & industry do theirs."

This message of gentle aggression is fast replaced by the image of a panda, an animal known to unfailingly melt hearts -- or in extreme conditions, cause brain explosions.

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by Angela Natividad    Jan- 7-09    
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Cause, Commercials, Magazine, Online, Television



Make Love, or Don't.

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Sunil Shibad, the brains behind this whole debacle, just linked us to his new year greeting card.

Illustrated by the image of a gun barrel loaded with a single, heart-shaped bullet, the card reads, "Make love not war. Make love get AIDS. Either way you die."

We're still uncertain what to make of it ... but we're pret-ty sure that logic could use some retooling.

by Angela Natividad    Jan- 7-09    
Topic: Online, Strange



Mommy Cow Bloggers to Unite Against Ray-Ban

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Dear Chuck McBride,

Assuming you had a hand in its creation, we just watched your Cow Gives Birth to a Guy commercial in which, yes, a cow gives birth to a guy...wearing Ray-Bans and we're, well, disgusted. No wait, freaked out. No wait, astonished. No wait, horrified. No wait, laughing out loud. No wait, what? We have no idea.

Fake sunglass tossing videos are one thing. This thing falls into an entirley different category. OMFG, we're calling the SPCA. Or is it PETA? Or is it NICFA? NDFA? ADA? DFA?

Surely someone's gonna have a problem with a 6'2" guy getting extricated from a mommy cow! Oh wait, that's it. The manure storm is about to hit! Mommy Cow Bloggers are gonna be all over your ass about this one!

by Steve Hall    Jan- 7-09    
Topic: Agencies, Brands, Good, Strange, Video



Because Who's NOT Trying to Get into a Disco Queen's Pants?

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For its Grease-tacular Disco Pant, American Apparel slays another guileless chick on its altar of unrepentantly exploitative ad banners. Meet Shermine, who loves! disco!

Like our compromised heroine at 2AM, the ad dramatically blacks out with the closing sell: LE DISCO PANT.

American Apparel: sure, it's seedy as all hell. But if you've followed it as long as we have, then you must admire its unwavering loyalty to a single brand persona: rain or shine, in sickness and in health, in grayscale or by low-budget lamplight.

Even Microsoft can't be that consistent.

by Angela Natividad    Jan- 7-09    
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Online, Trends and Culture



Primordial Ooze Becomes Winter X Games Athlete

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So what happens when an illustrator and an extreme sports athlete get together? Strange snow swimming creatures are created which morph like the proverbial fish that emerged from the sea and grew legs.

In this new Martin Agency-created, Superfad-produced, Pierce Gibson-illustrated commercial for ESPN's Winter X Games "live-action, 3D, illustration, and stop-motion ... track the evolution of a trick from its inception in the snow to its thrilling culmination on the course."

Seriously, anything can be a sport these days.

by Steve Hall    Jan- 7-09    
Topic: Commercials, Good



How to Be An Idiot In Three Steps by Mountain Dew

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1. Open a can of the caffeine-fueled stuff and down it.

2. Strap on a snowboard/skateboard.

3. Film yourself being pulled behind a train until...

by Steve Hall    Jan- 7-09    
Topic: Commercials, Strange



Madonna Spreads Wide for Marc Jacobs and LV

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Jeremy Dante -- a human repository of unbearably fashionable things -- sent us more imagery from the ongoing Madonna for Marc Jacobs/Louis Vuitton campaign.

These shots are decidedly more burlesque and pushy than the last ones, which pushed the aesthetic envelope but still maintained a semblance of cool grace and timeless decadence, yada-yada.

Hear me out. Madonna rocks hard and all, but she's past the point where we're willing to see her deep-throat lollies or -- heaven forbid! -- give us a youthfully woozy crotch shot in her Diamond Dog undyroos.

Diggin' this naughty spread of her draped over the chairs, though. It's so Virgin meets the New Wave.

by Angela Natividad    Jan- 7-09    
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Celebrity, Magazine, Poster