Chanel Goes Interactive With Window Dressing

Who wants boring retail window dressing complete with lifeless mannequins overdressed as if the catwalk is the sidewalk when you can have an interactive window front at which you can brush about the Chanel logo? Oh, an apparently, you get to see Keira Knightley too. Well, a mannequin of her at least.

Ass Dragging Dog Horrifies Mom, Amuses Kid, Stanley Steemer Handles

If you're a dog owner, surely you've seen this freakishly odd behavior a dog exhibits from time to time when he feels he's...oh...in need of some toilet paper just like us humans. Usually, this sort of behavior is harmlessly exhibited outside. When it's exhibited inside, kids think it's funny and moms are horrified. Stanley Steemer just shows up to take care of the problem. Thanks, AdFreak.

VerticalResponse Reprises Its App Thang Rap

If there's any segment of advertising that's boring and droll but intensely more challenging than other segments, it would be B to B high tech advertising. We did a stint in the segment back in the dot com days. We learned more than we'd ever care to know about business intelligence, Ethernet switching, network management, IT outsourcing, knowledge management, ecommerce, message management, document management, wireless integration and countless other overly buzzword-filled non-sense.

Thankfully, all high tech marketers aren't so boring as indicated by this Vertical Response video sent to us by Adrants reader Rick Bruner. In the video, Furious ALF & 2Fein rap about "the app thang." All kinds of snide comments can be made about rappers but in this case it just seems to work. Maybe it's because we have a close affiliation with particular area of advertising. Maybe this thing is actually that good. You decide.

American eagle Attacked by American Vulture Counter Marketing Effort

Continuing its campaign to boycott American Eagle, Unite Here, which claims American Eagle Outfitters fails to enforce its Code of Conduct at one of its Canadian shipping Warehouses has launched a Counter Marketing Contest as part of its American Vulture cause. The contest seeks video submissions from people which comment on, parody or satirize the retailer's current marketing efforts.

It began it's quest in New York's Union Square back in July with rally outside one of the chain's stores with its version of the American Eagle, the American Vulture.

Gorilla Waits For His Cadbury Moment

Every once in a while, some agency creates a piece of work that causes one to react with equal parts "WTF?" and "Damn, that was good!" This :90 from Fallon and A Glass and a Half Full Productions for Cadbury Dairy Milk is one such piece of work. With a gorilla, a drum set and Phil Collins' In the Air Tonight, an intriguingly pensive and and anticipatory mood is set as the gorilla waits for his moment to shine. The work comes from Juan Cabral who worked on Sony's Paint and Balls.

UPDATE: Check out the eerily similar commercial Adland found for the ABC comedy Carpoolers.

Heroes Can READ! - Mostly Children's Books, Though.

The Czech Republic's BOOKS has launched a well-rendered ad campaign to raise literacy among the masses. Watch while Catwoman sifts through the pages of "All About Doggie and Pussycat" by Josef Lada. And here, Spiderman reads "Beetles," written by Jan Karafiat.

The campaign was put together by Publicis, Prague. Text reads, "No Inspiration. No Future." It could also read, "It is never too late to scour the children's section for cues on why your life took this odd turn." But that was probably too long.

With Mac, Every Cubicle Slacker Can Be a Closet Cubist

For those seeking another reason (besides Facebook) to screw around at work, just ask for a Mac.

The Art of Office brings Mac users back to Apple's roots as a graphic design darling. Here, artists can upload stuff they've created on the Mac Office suite (Word, Powerpoint, Excel) for creative critique in the vocal cult of Mac elitists.

Some (well, most) seem promising but are kind of a letdown. Like this. We expected an all-singing, all-dancing extravaganza, but all we got were a bunch of gigantic eyes staring at us.

Then again, we didn't think Office allowed for much creativity along this vein, so it's impressive even while it disappoints.

Miss South Carolina Sparks Online Cartography Craze

A few days ago we watched this (subtitled!) video for the Miss Teen America pageant, in which Miss South Carolina is asked (by a girl named Aimee Teegarden! Who finds these people and how do beauty pageants get so many of them?) why 1/5 of Americans can't locate the US on a map.

Her response was curious at best, but the point she made was that too few Americans have maps, and we also need to help South Africans and the people in the Iraq.

This on its own is probably not worthy of rantage, but this - inspired by Miss South Carolina's epiphany - kind of is.

more »

Elle Gets Intimate with Trick-Performing Models and Videocams

It's always nice to see a model with a sense of humor. For her Intimates collection, Elle Macpherson put together a funny little set of ads that 1) look completely home made, 2) have a quality of the impossible and 3) are still sexy.

Check out Drummer Girl and Bubble Girl. (We really liked Bubble Girl.) Others include Balloon Girl, Saucer Girl, Tuba Girl, Bomber Girl and Joke rGirl.

The Glue Society directed the spots, with help from The Names Agency.

Inc 500 Multiplies by 10! Online, Anyway

Inc., a magazine that covers topics of interest to entrepreneurs (which means mainly profiles of each other), has just expanded its yearly Inc. 500 to 5000. Kind of. To save on glossy paper, the magazine is only doing the standard 500; the full monty appears online.

This probably started out as some sort of office bet:

"Stop joshing, Stan. There are not 5,000 companies worth mentioning out there. And even if there were, it would be killer to get all those copywriters to dredge up a profile for each one."

Or else a financial analyst was really hurting for something to do.

Anyway, check out the Inc. 5000 here. MarketingVox pointed out that Red Ventures, Charlotte and HydraMedia, Beverly Hills topped the Marketing and Advertising Top 100.

We don't know a ton about either company, probably because they're private-sector, but we do know HydraMedia is home to a classier set of chicks than most. A strange slant for this industry. Maybe they were onto something after all.