Smoking Bestows Halos of Doom, Says New Campaign

The Child Health Foundation releases this ad to demonstrate one of the bigger cons of smoking with a very light touch. Copy reads, "Some children get to heaven earlier," and the campaign is by Serviceplan, Germany.

We're feeling a little bummed about it, and we don't even have kids. Or smoke. We wonder if we walked around with little halos on our heads like that and if mommy and daddy just chose to ignore them.

'My Life in Advertising' Puts Handy Lens on Agency Omniverse

Here's something that might prove helpful for the hopefuls attending the Advertising Industry Diversity Job Fair and Leadership Conference taking place next week.

Shedwa points us to My Life in Advertising, a video podcast hosted by Sean McKenna of GSW. McKenna has a gift for portraying our industry pretty well and making it laugh-worthy too (in retrospect, that's probably not hard). Jokes aside, the show lends a decent look inside a typical agency. Apparently it's not all bloody murder.

Check My Life in Advertising out on iTunes.

Seeking Next Drunken Stroke of Genius? Try a Pokemon Car

There's a running Ebay sale for a Dodge Neon covered in over 1500 Pokemon cards from both the first and second generation. With a bid over $600 and seven days left running, we think the guys that did it have a decent chance of meeting their $7000 reserve, particularly if the sip and click trend keeps claiming victims.

"Just think about it," says Hypothetical Drunk Friend #1. "Can't you imagine how fucking awesome it would be to have a Pokemon car? When will we ever have this chance again?!"

"You're right!" exclaims Hypothetical Drunk Friend #2. "There's only 5 minutes left on the auction. Let's do this."

Auction end is met with hysterical giggles. Until the next morning.

Dun dun duuuuun.

Dell Copies Best Buy's Geek Squad With Nerd Buddy

When there's computer difficulties at home, sometimes there's simply no replacement for an actual human skilled in the ways of kicking the crap out of your computer until it works again. Big box retailer Best Buy created its Geek Squad, a cadre of computer techs that travel to people's homes in a customized VW Beetle. Others have followed suit. Now, Dell, without physical retail locations or a human geek squad to assist its customers in need of unsnarling nasty computer bugs, has launched Nerd Buddy. Well, they've actually launched DellConnect by humorously illustrating why it's really not so convenient to have a geek-like Nerd Buddy follow you around all the time to make sure your computer isn't causing you to use it as a projectile out of frustration.

Aside from the fact Best Buy's Geek Squad and other similar services are nothing like the Nerd Buddy Dell so joyously ribs, the computer maker explains its virtual tech support solution, DellConnect is better than having a human geek follow you around. It's all presented in one of those goofy, docu-style videos complete with fake scientists in white lab coats.

Bank Robber Overcome by Teller's Beauty

Here's an ad that acknowledges men for what they truly are: animals on the hunt for whatever sparks their fancy. In this commercial for Belgian men's magazine P-magazine, two men break into a bank, hold everyone at gunpoint and grab the cash. One of the tellers, Belgian model Sylvie De Caluwé, is so stunningly beautiful, one of the robbers can't help but take a break from the action to try and get some action. Cleverly honest. Duval Guillaume Antwerp created the ad.

Condoms Pwn AIDS in Sexless Competition

We're not sure what to say about these ads for MTV entitled Condom v. AIDS, where AIDS and a condom go head-to-head in competitive matches that completely take sex out of the picture. We kind of like the left-of-center feel, considering it's tough to get an AIDS message out there without sliding down familiar pathways: trendy, sexy or deeply moral approaches.

Created by Y&R New York, the campaign is for MTV's HIV awareness movement (okay, that was obvious). Let's hope it does slightly better than the lackluster (red) campaign, as Gap's spoofs grew way more popular than its statement.

It would be hard to spoof a competitive guacamole contest between a walking condom and an AIDS virus, though. What would you do in retaliation - put sex back in the picture? Please. That's just beating the dead horse deader.

GMC Offers Free Valet Parking to Southern Shoppers, Forgets North

With help from Dalla-based AdverTickets, GMC is offering free valet parking to shoppers in eight cities as part of a promotion for the car maker's new Acadia SUVation wagon crossover vehicle. shoppers in LA. Miami, Orlando, Phoenix, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco and Tampa will be given tickets good for free valet parking. Also part of the promotion are Boom-Ads, wraps that cover the gates drivers who choose not to valet park must pass through to get into parking structures.

We think it's all well and good to help a struggling shopper out but hello? It's winter up here in the Northern half! We could certainly use the luxury of valet parking far more than all those warm staters who should enjoy walking from their car to the mall whereas those of us up here have to endure frostbite weather and the pummeling of winter winds. Something's wrong here.

WTF Chuck Bursts Open Secret World of Asst Media Planners

Ever wonder what it's like playing asst. media planner to a set of sadistic self-righteous bigwigs? Find out from people who know. WTF-Chuck brings us Three Horses, a mini-feature on getting saddled at the bottom of the media planning ladder. He calls it bitter but we say there's always a little truth - maybe too much truth - in satire.

At some point in our careers we all get to be human shields. And how about demographic quantification? Few things are funner than making caricatures of whole groups of people while hoping to strike a chord with them.

Well, we don't actually get to do that as much as we'd like. That's what TRU is for.

Cramer-Krasselt Wants Monster.com

In a Talent Zoo podcast interview, Cramer-Krasselt CEO Peter Krivkovich said, among other things including how illogical it was for CareerBuilder to dump the agency because its ads didn't place in the top ten of the USA Today Super Bowl ad poll, now that he's free of CareerBuilder he'd love to take on Monster.com. By all accounts, Cramer-Krasselt has catapulted CareerBuilder to stunning success even besting primary competitor Monster.com in some areas.

Oddly, CareerBuilder has been silent regarding its strange move and has offered no explanation for its sudden dumping of Cramer-Krasselt. Perhaps it's too embarrassed to face the wrath of detractors who've maligned the company for it's irrational decision. Perhaps we'll find out later there's some intriguing nepotism going on between CareerBuilder and the yet to be selected agency. Perhaps we'll never hear anything until next year's Super Bowl when the company, aided by some as yet unnamed agency, trots out another set of commercials. Perhaps no one will care and this will die like the controversy surrounding a certain Wal-Mart marketing executive whose name we no cannot remember.

Simple Messaging Works For Multiple Sclerosis Effort

Sometimes the beauty of simplicity is all that's needed to send a powerful message. This Cummings & Partners-created ambient campaign for Multiple Sclerosis of Australia carries the simple message, "Without your donation, research will stop." That message was affixed to a glass box in which an actual person, dressed like a research scientist would sit, slumped over until a person placed a donation into a slot beneath him. He would then come to life and pretend to so experiments until he felt the money had "run out." He would then slump over again until another donation was made. The effort brought in about $100 per hour and the organization plans to continue the effort.