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Arms, Legs, Ears, Feet, Fingers For Sale In Workers' Comp Campiagn

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Acknowledging nothing could be more boring than the topic of workers' compensation, the Workers' Compensation Board of Nova Scotia has launched a site that calls attention to the 4,754 bodily injuries that occur each year to workers by displaying "lost" body parts in a retail store setting. The store comes complete with the usual displays but these displays contain legs, arms, feet, fingers, ears, backs and a friendly sales person with witty comments to assist you with your shopping. Created by Halifax-based Extreme Group, the site offers safety tips to young workers, how to handle workers' compensation issues and how to return to work.

by Steve Hall    Jun-29-06    
Topic: Good, Online, Strange

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Ford Finally makes Bold Move

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If the premise of Ford's new Bold Moves documentary, which promises to rip the bullshit out of the company, holds true, the company may actually live up to the promise of its new "Bold Moves" ad campaign. The online documentary series promises an unfettered look inside the company and how it plans to return to profitability by 2008. The first episode of the series recounts Ford's glory days but very quickly admits its tenuous position in the face of superior foreign automotive companies which continue to take more and more market share. With the documentary, Ford promises to tell the honest story of how it will engineer its own comeback.

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by Steve Hall    Jun-29-06    
Topic: Brands, Good, Online, RSS, Weblogs

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NBC Gets Less Stupid, Partners With YouTube

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While YouTube wanted to partner all along, NBC saw the existence of its content on YouTube as some sort of horrific abuse of copyright law and forced the video site to remove various NBC clips such as the famed "Lazy Sunday." Now, the net has reversed its line of thinking, realizing that keeping content off YouTube is similar to telling a 13 year old she can't use MySpace. In a deal between the two, NBC will have a branded area on YouTube where various network programming clips will be uploaded on a weekly basis insuring far better reach and distribution than the net using just its own site. NBC will also promote the partnership on-air including a contest which calls for people to submit their own promotional spots for The Office. The winner will get their submission aired in August during the show.

by Steve Hall    Jun-28-06    
Topic: Consumer Created, Good, Online, Television

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Ordinary Animals Jealous of Zoo Animals

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Not that any animal in their right mind would actually want to live in a zoo if they had the choice but these commercials for the Toronto Zoo would have us believe so. OK, so that statement was tinged with tree-hugging liberalism but would you want to live in a cage if you didn't have to? Anyway, there's three spots and they're sort of funny. There's also a website at which you can here other animals plea for a life in the zoo. They were created by Lowe Roche.

by Steve Hall    Jun-28-06    
Topic: Commercials, Good, Online, Television

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Hey, I Was Expecting A Hooker, Not A Papa Johns Pizza Guy

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When you travel a lot and sometimes find yourself peering out that tiny little fish eye hole in your hotel room door, you don't usually expect to see the Papa Johns pizza delivery man staring you back in the face. It's a little off putting especially if you don't expect it but that's exactly what Saatchi & Saatchi dod for Papa Johns and they got an awards for in at Cannes. Nice work.

by Steve Hall    Jun-27-06    
Topic: Good, Guerilla

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Inc.com Poster Campaign Just Tells It

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Inc.com has launched a new outdoor campaign in New York City which will run through August 20th. The company tells us the campaign is intended to target business owners and C-level executives at privately held companies. The ads will appear on 20 public telephone kiosks located throughout the midtown Manhattan business district and will feature copy and artwork explaining what's available on Inc.com. Let's

by Steve Hall    Jun-27-06    
Topic: Campaigns, Good, Online, Outdoor

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Elephant And Martial Artist Glamorize Bombay Saphire Gin

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Here's some visual beauty for all you creative types. For the first time in the U.S., Bombay Saphire gin is advertising itself as a gin and tonic ingredient on television. The campaign includes two spots. One features a martial artist carving a glass out of a block of ice to hold the gin and a second spot has an elephant gingerly stepping over and around martini glasses until she sniffs out the glass holding the Bombay. Oh sure, both are an art director's visual orgasm but they fit the brand perfectly in our humble, gin-drinking opinion. We'd buy the stuff even though recent entrants to the gin club, Hendricks and Q, are a bit more exciting to the pallet.

Oh, and just so we all understand it's not just spoiled celebs that cause "issues" on the set, Maya, the elephant in the spot, needed to have her sidekick, Methusalem, an aging camel with her at all times, .

by Steve Hall    Jun-27-06    
Topic: Campaigns, Commercials, Creative Commentary, Good, Television

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America Does Run On Dunkin

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Each morning after my three mile excuse for a workout, I head over to the local Dunkin Donuts to pick up an iced latte. Hey, I know it doesn't sound very manly but it just seems to taste a lot better than regular coffee. Anyway, each day I look at my Dunkin Donuts cup, branded with the new tagline "America Runs on Dunkin," and think, finally, an agency and a company that hit on a message which actually means something. Recently, there's been loser taglines like "Bold Moves" and "Leap Ahead" so it's refreshing to see Hill Holiday, Dunkin Donuts' agency, come up with a winner in "America Runs on Dunkin."

I love the tagline because it speaks directly to the "fuel" that many Americans depend on to get going in the morning. Just like re-fueling a car, that morning stop at the local Dunkin Donuts fills the tank with energy to keep one running all day long. While a 2003 research study found taglines not very effective, "America Runs on Dunkin" just feels right as well as actually says something, an admirable accomplishment in comparison to most meaningless taglines littering the current advertising landscape.

by Steve Hall    Jun-27-06    
Topic: Agencies, Brands, Campaigns, Good, Opinion

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TJ From Sonic Wants You to Make His Favorite Drink

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For you Sonic lovers, here's a website you can spend hours with trying to guess the favorite drink of TJ, one of the guys from the Two Guys campaign.. The site let's you mix various flavors with a possible 168,894 combinations. If you guess which on is the favorite, prizes abound. Well, at least a coupon to use at Sonic. We whipped up a few but TJ didn't like. Kansas city based Barkley Evergreen & Partners did the work.

by Steve Hall    Jun-26-06    
Topic: Games, Good, Online

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Barber Brigade Says Get Sharp

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Those oddballs over at Wexley School for Girl (an agency, not a private school with plaid pleated mini-skirt wearing girls roaming around, silly) have created another weird site, this time for Sharps, a line of mens grooming products. The agency created Barber Brigade, a cheeky site designed old school barber shop style with lots of 'tude and wit. Honestly, we never new personal hygiene was such an involved process. Perhaps that's why we work at home.

Oh but wait. Lest we forget the most important aspects of this and seemingly every other recent campaign, the Barber Brigage have MySpace pages. (1, 2, 3, 4) Hmm. How original.

by Steve Hall    Jun-26-06    
Topic: Good, Online

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