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Minnesota Lottery Ads Capture Store Clerk Geekism Perfectly

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The sad thing about this new Colle + McVoy-created campaign for the Minnesota State Lottery is that there really are real people in the real world just like the ones depicted in three new commercials. You've met them. They might work at your local convenience store, the local Best Buy or, perhaps, CompUSA. You know the type. The ones who look so goofy you can't believe they don't, themselves, believe they look goofy. Or the ones who say and do things so strange you can't believe they don't, themselves, know they sound and look like an idiot.

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by Steve Hall    Jan-21-08    
Topic: Campaigns, Commercials, Good, Strange

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Student Envisions Future of Interactive Television

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Television has always been the proverbial "lean back" medium with information flowing mostly in a one way direction from the TV to the viewer in a non-interactive manner. That's changed a bit over the years with the arrival of video on demand and other semi-interactive capabilities. However, it's never progressed to the interactivity of the web and it's still unclear whether or not it should aspire to that level of interactivity.

The current passivity of TV hasn't stopped people from attempting to add interactivity to the medium and it hasn't stopped Koen, a student at Working Tomorrow who created this demo of clickable TV whereby a simple click of a product in an ad of product placement brings up information and ordering screens. It's not really new but it's interesting to see how different people execute the same idea. Whether or not TV ever progresses (or should progress) to this stage remains unclear.

by Steve Hall    Jan-21-08    
Topic: Good, Television, Trends and Culture

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Big Agency Idiocy Explained

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In support of his ongoing theory the advertising industry is filled with BDA's aka Big Dumb Agencies, George Parker has unearthed an interesting analogy that involves monkeys and classical conditioning. The net result of this exercise explains perfectly why BDA's (and most other big companies) can never get out of their own way and achieve greatness.

So if you want to laugh and, at the same time, realize that, yes, you too just might be one of those monkeys trapped in a perpetual hell of repetitive behavior without knowing why, give this a read.

by Steve Hall    Jan-20-08    
Topic: Agencies, Good, Trends and Culture

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Sometimes a Profession (First Mangles, then) Chooses You

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A girl named Mandy promised this video would reveal the COOLEST ROBOT EVER! We were skeptical but later decided she was right. Sure it won't shave your balls and get you off, but it will do a silly little dance. And it looks cuddly.

Here's another spot where robotics author Daniel Wilson, the star (and creator) of both videos, gets smack-talked by an automated phone system named Diane. We think it's just a cheesy way for him to represent his alma mater and show off his iPhone.

If you find yourself moved by the Carnegie Mellon alumnus' emotional subservience to robots, check out RoboU. CM's robotics unit could apparently use some new junkies.

by Angela Natividad    Jan-18-08    
Topic: Good, Online, Promotions, Video

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McDonald's Ends Report Card Advertising

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Everyone bitched and McDonald's listened. Under pressure from the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and 2,000 angry parents, the fast food giant haspulled the advertising it had placed on Seminole County, Florida's report cards. Graciously, McDonald's will still pay the cost of printing the report cards, the initial reason given for the ad placement.

by Steve Hall    Jan-18-08    
Topic: Brands, Good, Specialty

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Pocket Geek Game Tests Management Skills

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We really like when business to business advertising leave behind the idiotic metaphors that so pervasively fill their advertising and, instead, opt for something, well, more fun. For power plant and air traffic control software developer QNX, Fuel Industries created The Pocket Geek, an online game whereby the player acts as manager to a developer for a five day project. In the game, a set of management tools helps the manager keep the developer fed and his productivity up. Between each day, there's an IQ quiz. Unfortunately, we blew the pocket geek up after just two days. Guess we suck as a manger. It was fun though.

by Steve Hall    Jan-18-08    
Topic: Games, Good, Online

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Cheetos Gets Really, Really Weird With Orange Underground

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After spending some time with Cheetos' new Orange Underground, a full blown movement "committed to transforming sterile order into messy mayhem," its primary purpose of urging people to do wacky Random Acts of Cheetos that don't involve eating makes perfect sense. After all, Cheetos aren't even food. They're just a bunch of man-made chemicals mixed together and placed in a bag. This campaign is much like the Mentos/Diet Coke thing whereby people were urged to perform all manner of chemical wizardry as opposed to actually consuming the products, both questionable, at best, as to whether or not they, too, are actual foods.

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by Steve Hall    Jan-18-08    
Topic: Good, Online, Poster, Social, Strange, Video, Weblogs

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To Up Bread Sales, Grain Foods Aims for Carnal Appetites

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We like this cute take on a sinister fairytale. Instead of Hansel & Gretel, think gorgeous girl with good shoes. And instead of breadcrumbs in a forest, think breadslices in a well-furnished house.

And instead of running home to a mean woodcutter and bitchy step-mom, think yummy guy, in bed, with sandwich.

The moral of the spot? White bread's rich in folic acid. Folic acid helps make healthy babies. Enjoy.

This is probably the sexiest way of promoting bread -- without offending the everyday mom's senses -- we've ever seen. It comes courtesy of Mullen, on behalf of Grain Foods Foundation.

Realistically, we'd probably be pissed-off and slightly disturbed if our mate tried seducing us with a trail of breadslices. But hey, Grain Foods, you can sell us bread anytime.

by Angela Natividad    Jan-17-08    
Topic: Brands, Commercials, Good

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BFD Takes on New Meaning With Domino's Pizza Builder

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Now please. Are we really supposed to believe the only phrase the oh-so-witty copywriter had in mind when developing the BFD acronym for this Domino's Pizza website was Big Fantastic Deal? Oh to have been a fly on the wall in that concepting session. We can almost hear the high school boy humor through the conference room door as the dudes at Crispin Porter + Bogusky crafted this beauty.

Aside from all that, this pizza builder site is pretty cool. It's simple to use. It gives a great visual representation of the pizza you are creating. And, after you've finished playing around, you can get the thing delivered to your door. Not that that's anything new or anything but it's a whole lot more fun than just selecting from a printed menu.

by Steve Hall    Jan-16-08    
Topic: Good, Online

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Movie Trailer Suddenly Becomes Smirnoff North Commercial

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In what first appears to perhaps be a movie trailer, we see aerial shots of the arctic North complete with dramatic iceberg cliffs, the clear blue sea, under sea ice flows and floating icebergs. It's matched perfectly with a movie preview-style voiceover and continues as such until a giant dagger with blueberries on it smashes into a towering iceberg. As the camera pans in and then back it's revealed the entire scene is a glass of Smirnoff North, a new, berry-flavored vodka. At the same time the scene changes a new voiceover steps in and completes the commercial.

We like the ad's simplicity. It was created by JWT with effects rendered by Version2.

by Steve Hall    Jan-16-08    
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Good

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