Never Trust a Stranger, Especially the Kind with Long Black Mandibles

Roaches and termites aren't just pesky. They're sly. And malevolent. And they'll take any opportunity they get to sneak inside your house.

Even deliver you pizza. Or ask to use the phone.

That's why there's the Orkin Man, who isn't so much an exterminator as he is a khaki-clad cowboy who happens to know a lot about bugs.

The spots were put together by The Richards Group in Dallas. We find them feel-goodish and funny.

OMG! Degree Wants to be Your BFF!

Ten years after it would have been, perhaps, at least a tiny bit OK, there seems to be a sudden onslaught of marketers becoming BFFs with txt and chat-speak. From McDonald's with its coy use of "R U Ready" copy to AT&T's subtitled conversation between mom and daughter to Frito-Lay's failed gt2kno jack, everyone wants in on teen chat slang.

If that weren't enough, Unilever has launched a campiagn called Degree Girl OMG! featuring Disney Channel's High School Musical star Ashley Tisdale complete with the solicitation of shadenfruede-like OMG moments...which, if the moment is OMG enough, could get you a visit with Tisdale herself.

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It's Just An Effen T-Shirt. Get Over it!

From the man whose blog has been dubbed "an island of wit in a country that's had an irony bypass," comes this ad for Goatboy's new t-shirt (insanely expensive, mind you) brand. In the ad, an old lady takes offense to a guy's t-shirt which reads "She's Dead. So get over it." Who's dead? Watch the ad to fund out.

While it's not an easy one to get over, we're sure she'd see and appreciate the humor of it all. After the fact, of course.

Sony Bravia Embraces Blogs, Blank Palettes and Bubbles

Sony's PR people sent The Bottom Rung some teaser shots for the 2008 Bravia campaign. Instead of deluging us with color like in previous ads (yarn pyramid, technicolor bunnies), looks like Bravia's gone soapy, sudsy, foamy white.

Magically delicious. Where childproof fantasy places are concerned, a bubble bath world is right up there with a bubble wrap city.

Once You Go Black, You Go Jeff Dahmer. Wait, What?!

That probably generated traffic trouble.

The sex-and-candy action took place last month in Sao Paulo, when 40 panty-clad girls stood eating chocolate body parts in public places. Pics appeared on Irresistivel.net, which pinpointed their locations and Orkut profiles via Google Maps.

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47 Minute Movie of Surfer Babes A Commercial for Roxy Clothing

There simply aren't 47 minutes in a day which can be allocated to watching a video simply to appreciate the fact, so we're told, the whole thing's a commercial for clothing brand Roxy. Even if it is, who really cares? The parts of the video that were viewed were enjoyable enough and, hey, who doesn't like to watch girls in bikinis surf, pose and frolic on the beach?

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Male VIA Creatives Model Maidenform Backless Bra

Oh. My. God. Sometimes there are things you just shouldn't see. After writing about VIA's work for Maidenform's new backless bra, we were promised photos of VIA chief creative officer and creative director modeling the product. Well, we got more than that. We got a room full of male VIS creatives mid-concepting session wearing the backless bra and, well, you really don't want to see these pictures.

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Seven Reasons Why Twitter is a Great Social Media Resource

One of the students who attended our Social Media panel at Boston's Emerson College Tuesday, April 2, Pamela Sieple wrote a wonderfully concise article about Twitter and why it's a great resource. She's right. Twitter goes far beyond its "What are you doing?" roots as anyone who uses it will tell you.

Pamela says Twitter is a great resource for the latest news, feedback on immediate thoughts or needs, a basis for networking, a channel through which live news coverage can be had and, of course, a bit of self-promotion. Give it a read and forward it to everyone you know who's jaded about the purpose and benefits of Twitter.

Here is an Ad About Struggle

"Soul Soldiers" is a reminder about the black guys who fought for America in Vietnam, even as they struggled against racist beliefs at home.

The ad is for the Senator John Heinz History Center and it ran through '07. It got an award for cultural awareness at the ADDYs last month.

New Balance Gets Running

Here's something we can identify with: the love/hate relationship with running. "Every day with running is a question of your commitment," this New Balance ad observes. "And running is not afraid to ask."

It's cheesy in some respects, but on the whole it reads like a motivating anthem for those that do tear themselves out of Sleepy Time Station to wrestle concrete, icy air and reluctant limbs. The work/play, love/hate balance is played up to make way for the tagline: This is the New Balance. Gotta love a well-situated pun.

Put together by BBDO/NY. Much cooler than the desperate-to-please NB Zips thing that New Balance did last year.