'Embrace Your Grace': It's Bad, Just Not the Bad it Hoped to Be

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TNT has launched Embrace Your Grace, an online community/promotion for season two of Saving Grace.

From the pressie: Embrace Your Grace "[puts] a frank, edgy spin on the typical online community experience ... women can tap into their unfiltered, unapologetic, inner bad girl."

If any woman is ever misguided enough to think her unfiltered, unapologetic, inner sociopath bad girl can be sated with blogs and online videos, she probably won't turn to a TNT-sponsored destination slathered in trailers, trussed in baby blue and beige, and called Embrace Your Grace.

She'll go to Suicide Girls.

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by Angela Natividad    Jul-11-08    
Topic: Bad, Online, Promotions, Television



Automated Language Translation Can Yield Humorous Results

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No advertisement for a (human-powered) translation service could possibly do a better job than this image of a sign in China that was produced even though, apparently, the automated translation service used failed epically. For those in China who do not speak English, making an error like this is entirely feasible. After all, if the tables were turned, would an\ English speaking person with no knowledge of Chinese language be able to discern the difference between one hieroglyphic-like Chinese symbol over another?

by Steve Hall    Jul-10-08    
Topic: Bad, Outdoor, Tools



Tila Channels Wordsworth, Obama Goes on Tour, 'I Love Money' Strips Down, Google Irks Babies

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- Attention all bleeding hearts: Tila Tequila is now an angst-ridden poet. (Such clever manipulation of iambic pentameter! Such masterful use of "cunt!") See an example without having to visit her MySpace.

- Obama rawks -- online, at least, but also literally (with help from PhotoShop).

- VH1 sent over a clip for its upcoming I Love Money "celebreality" show. It managed to be ghetto, valley and trashy all at once. Two words: naked cartwheels. (Tastefully censored with the Rock of Love logo.)

- What keeps Dungeons & Dragons in cauldron cash? "Part web savvy, part faith and all awesome." Also, there are podcasts.

- Google upsets the children it helped spawn. You kind of have to read it to believe it. Unless you already do believe it, in which case ... go you!

- AOL snags an ex-Googler to head Bebo Europe.

by Angela Natividad    Jul- 8-08    
Topic: Bad, Celebrity, Commercials, Online, Political, Spoofs, Television



Domino's Delivers Pizza to Joker. Fails

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Please! Can we just stop with all these forced movie co-marketing tie-ins that make about as much sense as submitting a real ad to Cannes for a Lion? In this disaster, we have a Domino's delivery boy ... oops ... girl traveling through a Dark Night (get it?) in Gotham City (get it?) to deliver a Gotham City Pizza (get it?) to the Joker (get it?) who owes pizza girl a new car because of his random acts of violence. It all kinda makes good 'ol "price and item" advertising ripe for a comeback.

Please, CP+B! Call Barbarian Group and hook up for another Subservient Chicken. Even SCII would be better than this mess.

by Steve Hall    Jul- 7-08    
Topic: Bad, Commercials, Promotions



Clothing Retailer Misses Word of Mouth Opportunity

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This weekend I took @mariagarcia to Soho to show her one of my favorite shops in the neighborhood. I had discovered it a week ago and wanted to go back with her to capture a few photos I could use in a blog post proclaiming my love for the brand. While we shopped, I snapped a few photos of elements of the in-store experience that stood out to me... until I was interrupted by a store clerk who informed me that "it is against store policy to allow customers to take photos in our store." Although I assured her that I was not some kind of spy sent from a competitor but was a blogger taking photos to show readers (who might not otherwise get to see a store that's only located at the moment in NY, TX and CA and has a rather limited online shopping experience) why I loved it, she told me that I'd need to contact the corporate office and get clearance to do so.

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by Amanda Mooney    Jul- 7-08    
Topic: Bad, Brands, Word of Mouth



Wait! Wait! We Forgot the Viral!

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So the Mullen creative department just finishes presenting their work for the New England Aquarium shark exhibit to the 12 year old AE they are forced to work with because, ya know, it's a pro bono-ish account and the little tyke says, "Well I like it but where's the viral component? Every great campaign has viral, right?"

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by Steve Hall    Jul- 3-08    
Topic: Agencies, Bad, Campaigns, Video, Viral



Coors Could Use a Little Help with that Zany 'Interactive' Concept

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Somebody didn't think this one through.

This banner ad for Coors Light first attracted me with its weird copy: "GRAB A COLD ONE. When the mountains turn blue, it's as cold as the Rockies."

I was like, what?! And then I noticed some other text: "COLD ACTIVATED BOTTLE."

"Awesome!" I said. "I can frost this Coors!" So I started clicking all over the ad to make with the frosting.

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by Angela Natividad    Jul- 3-08    
Topic: Bad, Brands, Campaigns, Online



Ha! Ha! Ha! Now Can We Finally Leave This Concept on the Floor?

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Sort of like fart jokes, the tampon in a pool joke never gets old. That is if you're a 14 year old boy...or a creative director at an ad agency.

by Steve Hall    Jul- 3-08    
Topic: Bad, Commercials



Jet Blue Sports Leather to Regain Respect

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Royale leaps to the aid of JWT, whose "Happy Jetting" campaign for Jet Blue has been poorly received -- and not - just - by - us.

"Jetting" is set to ELO's Mr. Blue Sky and has a poppy feel-good Target vibe -- except, you know, more blue. It's also jam-packed with effortful Jet Blue-isms like "Jetting is decked out in leather," "Jetting means business," "Jetting isn't flying," and "Jetting thinks you deserve a snack."

Aww, Jet Blue gave us a coooookie.

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by Angela Natividad    Jun-30-08    
Topic: Agencies, Bad, Brands, Campaigns, Commercials, Opinion, Television



Technology Advances, Draft Dorks Out, Yellow Pages Take Shot in the Dark

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- On her grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary, a Millennial reflects on how the advancement of technology in the last century have made life different.

- To distract from its increasing irrelevance, the Yellow Pages is engaging in a few guerrilla stunts. Nothing we haven't seen before.

- Draft FCB is a new breed agency with great analytics. It's gonna transform this industry in a modern way -- and that means holistic offerings with a strong Return On Ideas, not to mention rad rock music and awesome whitewash camera tricks. And then we choked on our rapidly-escaping brain cells and died. From George "Fuck Louie, that's some 'Analytics' you've got there!" Parker, via MTLB.

- Some mothers want John McCain to keep their babies out of war. Others are begging him to take theirs. (Via.)

by Angela Natividad    Jun-30-08    
Topic: Agencies, Bad, Guerilla, Political, Spoofs, Video, Worst