Diesel's Five on Fifth: the Rabbit Hole You've Always Wanted

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For better or worse, Diesel knows how to seize attention. ("Pete the Meat Puppet" is STILL stuck in our heads, and there's no way on earth we can ever unwatch "XXX SFW.")

But its gaze-gathering talents aren't strictly 'net-based. To draw mass appeal to the grand opening of its Five on Fifth (Ave.) location, the label balked at the notion of a one-night celebu-fete. Too bland. Not exclusive enough. Instead, it threw together a hodgepodge of quirky personages -- think Mad Hatter's tea party for grownups -- and held multiple dinner parties at its storefront window.

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by Angela Natividad    Mar- 4-09    
Topic: Brands, Events, Good, Guerilla, Promotions



Ad Babe Britney Spears Returns As New Candie's Girl

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For years, we wrote about Britney Spears here on Adrants. It was almost obsessive. Then...she met Kevin Federline and, well, things changed. No longer was she the darling of global marketers but rather fodder for Perez Hilton, Jezebel and The Superficial. It hardly seemed appropriate to mention her antics here on Adrants so we didn't.

Apart from her ill-conceived appearance on the MTV Music Awards and her recent campiagn for her Hidden Fantasy fragrance, Spears has been all but absent from Adrants for three to four years.

While we're not going to label her return as the new face for Candie's Only at Kohl's triumphant, it's nice to see the girl back in the world of advertising. Yes, she never really left but you do have to admit she did take quite a hiatus.

The deal, which puts Spears in Kohl's 2009 print, TV, online and in-store efforts. ties Britney's sponsorship role to her concert tour which kicks off March 3. And there will be all kinds of Candie's pink along for the ride in the form of VIP pink carpets and lounges.

Tonight, Spears' "First Look" tour video will debut exclusively on the Candie's website.

by Steve Hall    Mar- 2-09    
Topic: Brands, Celebrity, Events, Sponsorship



By the Time You Get Those Golden Tickets, They May Be a Bit Weathered

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This year for the Australian Outdoor Awards, the Outdoor Media Association is giving away a grand prize of 10,000 one-dollar stratchies (scratch-to-win lotto tickets) -- all of which are currently being used to wallpaper a billboard over Sydney's Parramatta Rd.

All 10,000 scratchies were sacrificed to form a silhouette of the show's golden pigeon logo. There's an armed guard standing watch 24/7 in the event some yahoo comes bearing a ladder in pursuit of some luck. (Scratchies can yield cash prizes of up to $20,000.)

Billboard conceptualized by The Glue Society. There was also a billboard truck, which drove around the country for 36 days to promote the event.

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by Angela Natividad    Feb-27-09    
Topic: Events, Industry Events, Outdoor, Promotions



There is Nothing SFW About This Image.

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At left is the decidedly safe top corner of "Flesh For Fantasy (Girl #5)", an art print with an anatomical surprise smack-dab in the middle. See the whole thing here (N!S!F!W!).

It's part of an exhibit called Talk Dirty to Me, which is composed of pieces depicting sexual language and/or imagery.

This Hearts on Fire covered news of the exhibit in a manner neither lewd nor naughty, although you've still got the issue of a vagina staring flagrantly back at readers. Glam Media, which sells ad space on the site, didn't take to it and requested that the blog remove the image for the sake of "family brand" advertisers whose names may be sullied by appearing alongside it.

But hell, being in the industry he's in (ours), the author decided that in lieu of taking it down he'd post his entire email exchange with Glam instead. You can see that here, along with another arty sex shot and two more digital copies of the offending lips, just for the hell of it.

Way to stick it to the (ad) man, you stalwart blogger you.

by Angela Natividad    Feb-26-09    
Topic: Events, Opinion, Promotions



Ashton Tweets, S/Urge, Libel Revisited and the ow.ly-Twitter Hustle

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- zOMG: grainy shots of Ashton and Demi! This cinches it: following celebrities on Twitter is almost as rad as following them around in real life. (Diggin' how the NYT actually quotes Kutcher's tweets, as if to prove THIS IS ALL REAL.)

- Gmail went down early this morning, and it's like the universe exploded.

- We actually ate this.

- BrightKit, a management/metrics dashboard for multiple Twitter accounts, changed its name to HootSuite and went pro-bono. (That is, it's no longer trying to charge a fee for services.) To compensate, it's selling display ad space above webpages whose links are shortened via ow.ly (HootSuite's version of tinyURL) -- meaning you could, in theory, make money (or build brand awareness...?) by spreading Twittersphere link-love.

- Fake Steve Jobs makes "wah" noises over monetizing blogging.

- Coca-Cola's Urge looks suspiciously like Coca-Cola's Surge. Remember the aftertaste on that stuff?

- Wedding the Sex and the City model to kitschy "Cathy": just one more lovechild the universe didn't need. Especially in the name of Baked Lay's.

- "True statements can be libelous if published maliciously." Wait ... what?!

by Angela Natividad    Feb-24-09    
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Celebrity, Events, Online, Social



Sony. Bravia. Zoetrope. (Don't Act Like You Didn't Just Reflexively Twitch Your Cursor.)

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If you've seen one Sony Bravia ad, you've got the blueprint for all of them: seize upon the easiest way to illustrate a product's raison d'etre, then magnify, until the crowd whose attention you so wistfully coveted has been submerged by your idea.

"Zoetrope" is no different -- and just as compelling as its predecessors. (See "Bunnies," see "Thread," see "Bubbles.")

For Sony's Motionflow Bravia TV, Fallon/London built the world's largest zoetrope: a rotating montage of static images viewed through small slits. (See? More fodder for Guinness.)

We got teaser material for the work last December. It was filmed a month prior in Venaria, near Italy's Turin. View the spit-shined final product below.

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by Angela Natividad    Feb-24-09    
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Commercials, Events, Good, Guerilla, Online



This Video Has Been Viewed Every 4 Seconds Since It Went Live.

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It's called "Ken Block Gymkhana Practice." (But what is Gymkhana?, you ask.)

We didn't really get the big deal, but that was before we realized our fingers had burrowed into the glass tabletop. Then Ken Block did donuts around a guy on a Segway, and it was like, "Ohhh."

(It's racer porn. Plenty sexier than that one time you watched two Ford Fiestas tango in London. Even if you're not a speed junkie, the handling depicted in Gymkhana is fit to give you tingles.)

Mad Media put the video together in collaboration with Ken Block, DC Shoes and Subaru. Stats listed below.

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by Angela Natividad    Feb-23-09    
Topic: Brands, Events, Good, Online, Sponsorship, Video, Viral



Yep, NASCAR's Still NASCAR. Next!

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Superfad partnered with The Martin Agency to jazz NASCAR up for the Sprint Cup.

The result of this collabo was "Dogfight," an adrenaline-infused cat/mouse game between two NASCAR drivers. It was cool, it felt intense while still being tame, which is the line NASCAR's always walked.

On the print side is a triage of pieces that look like they were drawn on the binder covers of rice rocket fans. One's at left; see another and another.

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by Angela Natividad    Feb-19-09    
Topic: Brands, Commercials, Events, Television



Diet Coke Grabs Hilary Duff For 'Style Series'

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Hilary who? Oh right. Hilary Duff. Remember her? The child starlet everyone was flipping out over a few years ago for losing so much weight she turned into a skeleton? Well, she's hooked up with Diet Coke (hmm, not a good sign?) and will appear during the brand's third Diet Coke Style Series February 17 at the Reuters Studio in Times Square.

Along with fashion designer Christian Siriano, supermodel Heidi Klum and former Glamour West Coast Editor Rachel Zalis, Style Series will follow Duff, who we dubbed "the new ad babe in town" six years ago," as she makes her way through Mercedes Benz Fashion Week and interview her about her music, fashion and upcoming role as Bonnie in Bonnie & Clyde

Siriano will share his latest fashion with a runway show. Klum will talk about her Heart Truth Red Dress Collection Fashion Show. And Zalis will interview the pair prior to the show.

And here we thought it was Pepsi which was obsessed with celebrities.

by Steve Hall    Feb-13-09    
Topic: Celebrity, Events



Comcast to Luddites: GET READY (for __________).

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A year and a half ago, a survey was taken pegging seniors as among the most likely to be negatively affected by the upcoming digital TV transition. This crucial trivia wiggled its way into last-minute marketing campaigns with understandable urgency; Adrants reader Rebecca reported getting the ad at left in her mailbox.

"Get Ready for the Digital Transition on February 17, 2009, with FREE Basic Cable," it says. For those that weren't paying attention the first time, an eye-catching balloon tactfully adds, "GET READY BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!"

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by Angela Natividad    Feb- 5-09    
Topic: Cable, Direct, Events, Strange