'Come on Down to Clevelandtown, Everyone!'

"Buy some food that's prepared near the street!"

Just one of the things you can look forward to when you visit Cleveland, according to this hastily made tourist video spoof -- which, incidentally, is generating hundreds of thousands more views than the official Cleveland plug.

Darryl Ohrt at Brand Flakes for Breakfast also points out the video's second in organic results when you search "cleveland, tourism" on Google.

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Stupid Guys And Bikini-Clad Bimbos Need Not Apply

OK, Carlton Draught, maker of The Big Ad, we do love your quirky approach to selling beer. For years, you managed to do it without making guys look like idiots or tantalizing us with bikini-clad bimbos. For that alone you should get some kind of award.

We like your new Drop the Bomb ad. Getting a car to hit a target from 14,000 feet above is more fun than watching two busty babes in bikinis wrestle in the mud. Oh wait. Well, maybe not as much fun but at least your effort required some brain power and skill to pull off.

Yes, you've done the skydiving thing before but tossing a car out of an airplane (yea, that's been done before, too) doesn't require breast implants. Huh? Anyway, it got a girl - who is fully clothed - a new car. How sweet.

Consumer Reports Gets Its Snark On

Consumer Reports is having a lot of fun these days with its online video product reviews. So much so the staid organization is...OMG...copping a 'tude. In it's latest video, Teresa Pinetta examines claims made by ShamWow, a rag-like product that's supposed to whole 20 times its weight in water. In other words, it's the Super Sponge.

Sadly for ShamWow, that's really not the case. CR determined the product holds no more than a typical sponge which costs exponentialy less than a ShamWow.

"It's like a rag!" "Make up your mind, ShamWow!" "So...this work...as opposed to this work...is twice as hard. Gotcha." "Or you could splurge on another ShamWow." You go girl!

Sexist Pots/Pans Spot Upsets Australians

We had to laugh when we saw this spot for Madison Avenue Cookware ("The only thing that cooks better ... is a woman!"), which uses an old-school sexist tenor to push its shiny pots and pans -- the perfect after-hours treat for a tired lady.

The piece aired in Australia after CEO Roger Hudson of Madison Avenue Products concluded the tone "worked very well for us in America."

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When All Else Fails, Hire an Internet Celebrity

Yes! Yes! Yes! Oh, sorry. And no, we weren't just....oh come on! Get your head...no, not that one...out of the gutter. OK, now that we've got the required Adrants Filth for the Day (FFTD?) out of the way, we can tell you that, yes (not that kind of yes), it's time to celebrate yet another brand hooking up with an internet celebrity.

This time the brand is Marshalls and the internet celebrity is Liam Sullivan of Kelly Shoes fame. In the video, What R U Guys Talking About?, Liam just can get..her? his?...whatever...it's look right. His family and and a trio of mean girls trash on him but, in the end, the day is saved by...wait for it...yes (no, not that...oh, we said that already), the new, the hip, the oh-so-very cool...Marshalls? Wait, what? Did What Not to Wear just jump the shark? Wait, what? What are we talking about? Um, we forget. Doesn't matter. It's time to get all hip and shit with Liam and...yes (no, not...oh forget it), Marshalls.

Mr. Youth created the video which has achieved 100,000 views since Monday.

ABSOLUT World Replaces Currency with Kindness

Imagine buying movie tickets with kisses instead of cash, or repaying your local streetside violinist with embraces and not cold change.

ABSOLUT Vodka builds upon its "In an ABSOLUT World" campaign with "Kindness as Currency," a soul-warming snapshot of a parallel universe where human contact is the end, not merely the means.

The charming piece is a jarring departure from past "ABSOLUT World" efforts that depicted Times Square slathered in costly art, or everyone alive winning the lotto.

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Agent Provocateur Delivers Sirens, Pirates, Witches and Virgins

Wait, Sirens? Isn't that Victoria's Secret? Anyway, the sirens we're talking about here are the models in this very strange but very appropriate commercial for Agent Provocateur. We'd expect nothing less from a purveyor of lingerie fixated on sexualizing anything and everything to sell some bras and underwear.

Oh and there is a nipple in this ad so if that offends you or anyone near you, you have been warned. And there's a longer, very stylized version (along with others) at the Agent Provocateur site. It's interactive with asterisks you can click for product information.

Want more Agent Provocateur kinkyness? Have at it.

Carousel Brings Sharp Clarity to a Moment in Crime

Philips Cinema brings us the mildly unsettling "Carousel," where a hospital shootout between the SWAT team and demented clowns is frozen and investigated by a slow-moving camera.

Money flutters through the night sky, the faces of cops are taut with tension; and you can actually see the caked makeup creases on the masks of the tormentors. It's strange and beautiful; we watched wordless from beginning to end.

The online oeuvre was directed by Adam Berg via Stink Digital for Philips' hi-def Cinema Proportion TV. More at Philips Cinema; also see deliciously engaging making-of (shown below).

According to Berg, the secret to a great film is narrative and light. Food for thought, whether you're directing an epic or breathing :30 of life into a brand under your care.

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Mastercard Trots Priceless 'Icons' Back onto the Stage

"Icons," a McCann-Erickson/NY spot that aired during the '05 Super Bowl, is a fond standby of Mastercard's "Priceless" campaign.

Prep for serious warm-fuzzy syndrome: it's composed of brand mascots -- Count Chocula, the Vlasic stork, Jolly Green Giant, Pillsbury Doughboy -- having Soul Food-style dinner as Mr. Clean slaves merrily over the sink. Some of the icons weren't even animated for TV prior to this. (Thank Calabash for bringing them to life.)

Too much good stuff. There's even some illicit Facebooky pokeage between Doughboy and Morton Salt girl. Scandale!

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'Stayin' Alive' Reminds Us that Shoes Make the Man...

...and what that has to do with razors, we're sure we have no idea.

Tiger Woods, Derek Jeter and Roger Federer lend modern swagger to Gillette's "Stayin' Alive" -- or try to, anyway.

The video's a wordless recounting of three down-ass blokes whose confidence -- or lack thereof -- shines through their shoes. We'll leave you to see which athlete busts out with the platforms in chrome.

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