Advertising Week Event to Advance Diversity in Advertising

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Continuing our quest to open the advertising industry to a more diverse group of people, Adrants along with Business Development Institute and the organizers of Advertising Week 2007 will host Experienced Hire Diversity Recruiting Program during Advertising Week September 25-28, 2007. The event, unlike our two previous diversity in advertising events, will "focus solely on advancing the presence of mid to senior level diversity leaders in the communication industries by offering individual companies the opportunity to exclusively recruit top level experienced professionals through private one and half hour recruiting sessions."

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by Steve Hall    Jun-29-07    
Topic: Events, Trends and Culture



Expedia Celebrates First Day of Summer With Blue Sky Day

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Expedia UK with help from Cake Group celebrated the longest day of the year (in some parts of the world) by hosting Blue Sky Day painting events in Edinburgh, Cornwall, Brighton, Liverpool and London. In London, the event was in partnership with The National Gallery and London's Trafalgar Square and was set up with 200 easels for aspiring artists, with three pieces being selected for the organization's gallery. All of the work can be seen here.

Miraculously, there was actually quite a bit of blue sky in London today.

by Steve Hall    Jun-21-07    
Topic: Events, Good



Altoids Does Gay Pride in Second Life ... Oh Yeah, and in Three Real Cities

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It's kind of weird how aspects of Second Life do, and don't, mirror real life. (Someday we expect it won't be PC to call that other life "real.")

In any case, for all of June, Altoids, with the assistance of The WDDG in coordination with Electric Sheep, will be running "Gay Pride Month @ L-Word Island" in everybody's favourite virtual world. Events include a carnival, a date auction, gay prom and two massive parades that sync with the LA, New York and SF ones on our side of reality.

Check out the parade photos, which include LA and SF (NY takes place on the 24th and 25th). The virtual version looks a lot like parades we've been to (check out the jeans so casually posed under the Altoids container!), except easier on the eyes.

Wondering who's behind all the avatars must be something akin to asking how much somebody weighs. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

by Angela Natividad    Jun-13-07    
Topic: Brands, Events



IKEA Makes Good with GBLT Community

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The Commercial Closet Association has selected the winners for its third annual Images in Advertising Awards. IKEA nailed the gold for outstanding commercial with this peppy little spot; the rest of the winners can be seen here.

To note, the CCA gave out a ton of awards but didn't give any out for Ad Agency of the Year or Turnaround Mainstream Advertiser. This was due to a lack of worthy candidates. Youch. Better luck next year, guys.

by Angela Natividad    Jun-13-07    
Topic: Events



Just Think of SIFF as eHarmony for Film

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For the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF), which runs till June 17, SIFF and WONGDOODY join forces to launch Find True Film, a marketing effort that pairs users up with ideal genres.

See the campaign ads. They are kind of cute but also very MTV, which takes the edge off. We do dig the retro feel, though.

* Coquettish Medusa

* Chivalrous Grim

* Ramen (because nothing says "I love you" like false premises and consequent ingestion)

Find True Film suggested Adrants take a laxative and sit for an action flick, so now it's time for Fight Club and Ex-Lax. We'll tell you whether it's a winner.

by Angela Natividad    May-30-07    
Topic: Commercials, Events, Good



Text-Rich Ads Promote A/V Orgy

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We thought this campaign, developed by JWT, Dubai for Pause & Play International Film Festival, was neat.

The theme, "Tired of watching the same Hollywood cliches," corresponds to the tagline, "Not the usual fare." We were pretty surprised by the number of cliches the copywriters were able to find; then again, they forgot a big favourite: the improbable pair always gets together.

Each poster relies entirely on text to draw interest to the film event. Not an easy thing to do. Whatever happened to good typography? Oh right, CGM. Okay, no, Cappiello definitely hammered in the first nail. But by no means was CGM far behind, give or take a few decades.

by Angela Natividad    May-23-07    
Topic: Events, Good, Poster



Sony Slaughters Goat for Gods of War II

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Even though this happened last month, it seems to have slipped undetected under our radar though we're not sure how given our unique propensity for all things wacky and wierd. Sony, in a not so twisted effort to illustrate the gruesome nature of its just launched God of War II PlayStation2 game, thought a slaughtered, beheaded and gutted previously live goat would do the trick. The goat was central to a party the gamer held in the UK which also featured an offal-eating contest, knife throwing, snake biting and topless waitresses with painted on tops.

Predictably, the International Fund for Animal Welfare was not pleased calling the stunt "outrageous. The organization's spokesman said, "We are always opposed to any senseless killing of an animal and this sounds like a gruesome death. We condemn Sony's actions. It is stupid and completely unjustified."

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by Steve Hall    Apr-29-07    
Topic: Events, Promotions, Racy, Strange



On Beer and Big Balls

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I popped into a session at the recent ad:tech in San Francisco that covered Anheuser-Busch's Here's to Beer campaign and Verb, an active attempt to bring play back to the kiddies.

ad:tech is quite possibly the only place where beer marketing and children can be discussed in one forum.

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by Angela Natividad    Apr-28-07    
Topic: Campaigns, Events



Old Warriors Descend from On High

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"You're born, you take shit. You get out in the world, you take more shit. You climb a little higher, you take less shit. Till one day you're up in the rarefied atmosphere and you've forgotten what shit even looks like. Welcome to the layer cake, son." - Eddie Temple, Layer Cake

ad:tech's Wednesday evening keynote, entitled Old Warriors Don't Die!, gave war-hardy industry executives a rare opportunity to reflect on the early state of online communication. Moderator Tony Perkins of AlwaysOn Network moved discourse saltily between the following panelists: founder Jonathan Nelson of Organic, founder Kevin O'Connor of O'Connor Ventures, managing general partner Bob Davis of Highland Capital, and co-founder Gene DeRose of House Party, Inc.

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by Angela Natividad    Apr-28-07    
Topic: Events



Paloozaheads Proliferate Internet for Lollapalooza

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Lollapalooza kicks off August 3-5 with an awesome line-up including Modest Mouse, Lupe Fiasco, Pearl Jam, Daft Punk, Interpol and others.

Heavily sponsored by AT&T, which wants really badly to shake its rotary vibe in favour of something more Cingular, the event courts Palooza enthusiasts by inviting one and all to "tell us what you'd like to see, hear, eat, feel, drink, buy or hug." (Because it's not just any Lollapalooza, it's your Lollapalooza.)

To whet the appetite, throw together a PaloozaHead, an animated widget that features your face or a mash-up of favourite band members. Yes, it's creepy but no creepier than anything else already out there. (That Mel Gibson menorah still gives us the shakes.)

Watch for the laggage, though. We checked the backs of our computers at least four times to see if someone had wedded us back to 56K as some sort of nasty joke.

by Angela Natividad    Apr-16-07    
Topic: Events, Good, Online