'I Think We're In A Viral'

Hilarious! And finally! Viral breaks the fourth wall and spoofs in this Mini viral that's not a viral that, well, may actually turn out to be viral after all. This rocks. Isn't it about time we crapped on all the fake videos out there from the likes of RayBan and Levis? Yes, indeed, it is time. And this one does it superbly.

Celebs Go Foreign, Rubicon Saves Newspapers, Ad Club Drinks

- While Japander has been highlighting this stuff for years, you can never get enough of the idiocy that is American celebrities doing overseas commercials.

- Rubicon the last best hope for newspapers?

- On Tuesday April 7 from 5:30PM - 7:30PM at SideBar (120 E 15th at Irving Place), the New York Advertising Club will host a networking cocktail hour. Details here. RSVP by April 3.

Vincent Gallo Sleeps Around

From blow jobs to vodka mass retail? My Vincent Gallo does have quite a range. Yes, you can now find him in H&M's new commercial along with Eva Herzigova.

My, my, that's a lot of red? Are we sure this isn't a Target ad?

Havaianas Blooms, Kevin Spacey for AA, ATL Goes Intramural

- Ex-Ofsted chief proposes that kids learn social media skills -- Wikipedia, blogging, podcasting, Twitter -- in primary school, alongside other communication skills like handwriting and keyboarding.

- How far would you go for some glacier-fresh Kokanee? As far as the dudes in this spec ad? (Gotta say: the premise is cheesy, but production is clean.)

- Pretty spiffy ATL ad.

- Havaianas footwear in full bloom around Paris. Almost too pretty to stand.

- Fallon Skimmer.

- Take it straight: we fucking hate this execution.

- Kevin Spacey to do Michel Gondry-directed ad for American Airlines.

- Killed Idea alert: "the following ad for Krystal Hamburgers created by the Johnson Group in Chattanooga was killed for fear of 'clown retribution.'" Ever read Jpod? This sorta reminds us of that.

Playboy TV (Somewhat Feebly) Aims to Improve on Reality

It's hard! times! for Hugh Hefner, the world's most recognizable epicure of biped bunnies. With that in mind, Playboy TV's tapped zig/Chicago to help launch its first-ever programming promo campaign.

Under the tagline "A better reality awaits," each ad depicts a formulaic reality TV trope that could do with a little bit of Hef-style debauchery. For some reason though, they feel less party-at-the-mansion and more like Wild On.

I know Playboy needs to walk that line between cutting-edge and soft porn, but it's doing more brand-tarnishing than brand-polishing here. Random party shots of the Mansion in Entourage and Sex and the City probably do more for the company image than these knee-jerk knockoffs of network TV.

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Gate Worldwide Pulls a 'Professional' on Sacred Cows

To promote its own agency merits, The Gate Worldwide produced a Hit List of Sacred Cows (pdf) it will happily execute on your behalf.

Irksome ethical heifers include "Marketing should be judged by sales," "Teams create the best solutions," "Success breeds success," and -- our personal favourite -- "The customer is always right." (We'd kill that shit ourselves. With a rusty scimitar.*)

The Hit List is going out to CMOs, along with the following message: "If any of these sacred cows are roaming your office, don't worry. The Gate Worldwide will help you kill them" -- followed by a name and a direct line you can call. Nice touch.

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'It's Called Earth Hour. And it Promises to Be One of the Hugest Turn-Offs Imaginable.'

Janeane Garofalo, who's cool in a dicey sort of way, lends her spokeswoman clout to the World Wildlife Federation's Big Turn Off.

The sitch: this Saturday at 8:30 pm local time (wherever you live), people around the world are committing to switch their lights off for one hour.

As noted above, Garofalo vows this'll be one of the hugest turn-offs imaginable. More of a turn-off than watching her say all this while she paints watercolours with her armpit hair. (And speaking of, who decided lengthy underarm locks should be the awkward fist bump of 2009?)

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Twitter Rolls Out Ads. Still Not Making Money.

This decade's "It Startup," Twitter, has finally incorporated ads on the pages of its website. The rather unobtrusive text ads are cutely marked up as dictionary entries and appear in a sidebar below a user's stats and above their thumbnail mosaic of followed users. Currently, the ads are not present on mobile or desktop Twitter apps...yet.

The ad space first appeared on March 16 (right in the middle of South by Southwest Interactive) containing promotions for Twitter's search function and branded widget; however, by March 23, the space contained ads for third-party apps: Tweetie (an iPhone app), Twittervision, and ExecTweets.

The marketing community breathed a collective sigh of relief heard the blogosphere 'round: At long last, the Twitter team had settled on a business model.

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Under Armour Brings Drug-Free Drama Back to Baseball

New York Mets base-grabber Jose Reyes makes an appearance in "Instinct Fast," a new spot for sports label Under Armour.

Put together direct-to-client by Shilo, the piece is sober, slow-moving and taut. Its objective is to promote the Heater lightweight cleat to aficionados of baseball, a word we never hear independently of "steroids" anymore.

Under Armour's carved a niche for itself as the athletic label with a flair for the theatrical, but bon mots from Shilo creative Noah Conopask suggest the vibe's infectious: "We wanted it to feel like a battle, where Jose and the pitcher both had their fingers on the trigger. We wanted you to see it in their eyes, in their body language, and we wanted to subtract everything out of the world they were in, no bleachers, no fans, no scoreboard, only the moment..."

Heavy.

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