The Guild Wins Best Series at YouTube Video Awards

The Guild, an online show written by MMOG gamers for MMOG gamers, got some love at the YouTube Video Awards. Huzzah.

Catch the webisodes at Watch the Guild. Turn the volume down: we thought we were getting all schizophrenic, but it was just that a bunch of them started playing at the same time.

Since closing the window, the room seems quiet. And lonely.

Little Minx Experiments with Exquisite Corpse

...and no, not in the PBS kind of way.

"Exquisite Corpse" is a game where words and images are assembled to make a new whole. Players must adhere to certain rules to keep the game going.

Thus inspired, LittleMinx.tv invited directors Chris Nelson, Josh Miller, Malik Hassan Sayeed and Phillip Van to play "Exquisite Corpse" with short films. Two rules:

o Each must respond to the last line of text from the last director's script, and
o Each film must feature the Little Minx brand somehow

View the results of the game. If you just want a taste, here's a lovely sad one about the death of innocence, which follows this one about a man who cheats at cards. (And that's a really, really short synopsis.*)

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Ew, Gross. It's a Big Shiny GUT.

French company Tefal is promoting a newfangled muscle:fat tracking scale for beachside midlifers that suffer the indignity of sucking it in.

Simple. Relatable.

We've heard the gut-clench is common practice. Not that we'd know. We were born with abs of steel. Because we're robots.

Scion Doesn't Just Speak; It Speaks for You

In keeping with Scion's build-your-own identity, StrawberryFrog launched Scion Speak, where you can create a Scion crest.

The site was developed after the agency interviewed Scion lovers in urban areas like LA and New York. Graffiti artist Tristan Eaton, who designed the options for the coats of arms, called the campaign "one of the most rewarding art projects I've ever created.

"I love that what I've created can be pieced together, in thousands of variations to become something no longer mine, but yours," he added.

We can identify with Eaton. Scion's campaigns aren't just creative; they tirelessly conceive creativity without deviating from Scion's gritty brand feel or relinquishing too much control. And because of that, a car we considered to be ass-ugly is now strangely desirable.

Guinness Mobile Application Speaks Cantonese

OgilvyOne Hong Kong along with XS2TheWorld and the Hyperfactory, in partnership with rugby tournament Sevens, have created, for Guinness, what's being touted as the first Cantonese-speaking mobile guide. The application, Guinness Passport to Greatness, tournament attendees match schedules, stadium information, maps, reviews and a guide to the city. Of course, spots where one can have a Guinness are highlighted.

For those attending the tournament who don't speak Cantonese, the mobile application speaks the language so non-locals don't get lost in the labyrinth of a foreign land. With prerecorded phrases such as "Take me back to the South Stand", "Another round of Guinness please" and "Can you direct me to the nearest ATM machine?", visitors will be well cared for. Well mostly. We're guessing it won't ask, "Where the nearest strip club?"

It's a Flickr Search Tool for Art Directors!

This ... this is amazing.

SF-based junior art director Bryan Denman and designer Ryan Teuscher built a flickr search bar for the advertising community. "It pulls in a flickr feed at speed (w/ some other tricks) so that an AD can quickly scour the site as a source for reference material," he wrote.

Play with it at Compfight.com. The super-fast search bar filters for images licensed by Creative Commons, among other neat tricks.

We queried "hamburger" just for kicks, and got a delicious-looking page loaded with hamburgers, hamburger restaurant signs, Ronald McDonald looking pensive, Paris Hilton eating a hamburger, and one lion.

Toronto Blue Jays Bring Back Tube Socks, 80s Frill

Isn't it fun to look back to the childhood days of your favorite baseball players? Sometimes but not when it involves 1970's-era shorts and tube socks. The Pretty in Pink-inspired 80's stuff we can deal with. Those nasty seventies, not so much.

It's all part of a campaign from Publicis Toronto for the Toronto Blue Jays. Director James Haworth comments on the work saying, "Set in the 70's and 80's and shot in Florida on Color Reversal film, a film stock that was prevalent back in the day, and it gives the viewer a feeling of how things were, visually, in that time - especially in the 70's."

Hmm. Sometimes we'd rather not remember. But if you really want to remember, you can see all three commercials here.

'Circus' Knows How to Make Use of a Bombshell, Among Other Things

Circus is this brilliant boomer lifestyle magazine that describes itself like this:

"Debate, discussion and controversy. Let's talk about the over 50s."

The third page of its February issue featured this gorgeous image of Sophia Loren perched just above the lower margin, drawing plenty of attention to the articles around her (mainly because we were scouring the text going "Who is that girl?!").

We also got to check out the magazine. It includes raunchy boomer poetry, sex and business talk, and spiffy little featurettes like The Ad that Never Ran. (Think Thatcher and Scottish oil. Feeling greasy?)

Anyway, it's refreshing to see a senior publication that's not splattered with AARP messages and bladder control ads. It also looks like an awesome resource for boomer culture.

Here's to hoping they're still around when we're pushing 50 and looking for saucy reading material.

It's a Bird! It's a Plane! It's Plaid Tour '08!

Remember that van that looked like it was dipped into the dyeing vat of a private school uniform purveyor? Last year it motored through the East Coast converting heathens to Web 2.0; this year it's going West.

See tentative dates.

About four months from now, the Plaid van will stop at agencies and companies to preach the gospel of social media. Along with new ideas, they will come bearing Twinkies and shirts. (Email Darryl [at] thinkplaid [dot] com if you'd like them to pop by.)

The roadies need sponsors so if you can pitch in some cash, a hotel room or a new fashion tip for that chocolate ride, they'd be much obliged. (So would we.)

Carlton Draught Follows Big Ad, Flashdance With Skytroopers

There's just something about follow ups to great work that, well, just fall flat. Not that this new Clemenger BBDO-created commercial for Carlton Draught is a bad ad but it's no Big Ad. Clearly, the ad, which brings back the crowd of yellow-dressed men, is trying to recapture that Big Ad feel and it gets some of it but never quite recaptures the originals. Of course, that's why originals are originals and sequels are sequels.

We admit to liking the guy at the end who, sitting on his couch with his wife, comments, "wouldn't make me buy it" after seeing a recap of the skydiving extravaganza on TV just before...well...just watch the commercial to find out.