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Aw, Second-Lifers Can't Run Amock Anymore

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The moment we heard somebody actually made money on Second Life, we knew it was only a matter of time before the smut trades came barging in, followed by regulations galore.

Linden Lab cracks down on casinos, and a source tells us their stock market's pretty much gone to bust.

Second Life is starting to sound a lot like first life. Nix the laggage and cool costumes, of course. The debate over which is actually worth living remains a personal preference.

by Angela Natividad    Apr-10-07   Comments ()    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Games, Online

PROMO Launches Advergame for Advertisers

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Inspired by the menagerie of ad-smothered games, someone took it upon himself to go, "By gad - we should make ad games for advertisers!" This dangerous stream of thought yielded the PROMO Marketer's Challenge, a drably-coloured trivia challenge on the ad industry -- complete, of course, with ads.

The purpose of the game is to get talk out about PROMO magazine, which covers promotions and integrated marketing and is prepping for a relaunch. Redesign teasers are interspersed not-so-subtly throughout; in fact, we've played enough times to merit a free subscription CPM-wise. Are you listening, PROMO? Your SPREADS are engraved behind our EYELIDS.

by Angela Natividad    Apr- 9-07   Comments ()    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Campaigns, Games, Online

Mentos Uses Poke-and-Pop Reflex to Boost Gum Sales

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The sad horse at left is the fruit of a Mentos Gum campaign that brings literal meaning to "pop art," leveraging the delicious feeling we get when we poke holes through bubble wrap - or, in this case, gum out of tinfoil.

We dragged our cursor around for awhile before artistic inclination failed us. An Adrants reader notes, and we agree, that it leaves one wanting for a satisfying noise. Although granted the sound of tearing tinfoil is not as exciting as a momentous bubble wrap pop.

by Angela Natividad    Apr- 4-07   Comments ()    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Games, Online

Lynx Mynxes Head to Miami For Bom Chica Wah Wah Rally

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Following its long running strategy of attracting men with the most powerful aphrodisiac, women, and its latest Bom Chica Wah Wah theme, Lynx, with help from the Lynx Mynxes, has launched Lynx Players and the Bom Chicka Wah Wah Rally - some kind of flirting contest. Anyway, it's all about bodacious babes and Florida sunshine. Oh, and, apparently, some deodorant gets sold along the way.

by Steve Hall    Apr- 4-07   Comments ()    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Events, Games, Good, Online, Video

You Mean Global Warming Is Still a Problem?

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Advertising educates for better or worse, and per the CGM trend we're finding everybody wants to be an advertiser. With this formula in mind, UK-based Cake Group and climate change charity Global Cool throw together Scene Won, a user-generated video competition with a global warming theme. The contest closes on June 30, and the winner nails £5k.

The videos are the usual fare but what's interesting is the discussion they spark. Is global warming really a problem? Opposing views butt heads for the same marketing space.

If we were Scene Won we'd give the £5k to one of the no-global-warming groups for purely aesthetic reasons just to throw people off-balance. Then you'd have a discussion.

by Angela Natividad    Apr- 4-07   Comments (1)    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Campaigns, Games, Social, Video

Sunsilk Advances Women's Cause With Hair Color Showdown

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Hmm. Let's think. How can we launch a campaign that celebrates the advancement of women and their transformation from refrigerator advertisement decoration to glass-ceiling breaking CEOs and Presidential hopefuls? Ooo. Ooo...we got it! A campaign that rests solely on hair color and pits blondes against brunettes in an intelligence challenge. Now that's sure to remove any doubt we'd be positioning women as objects of desire, right? Sunsilk thinks so.

by Steve Hall    Apr- 2-07   Comments (6)    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Games, Online

Northwestern Mutual Eliminates Worries. 'Bob Garfield' Comments

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An Adrants reader sums up this Northwestern Mutual site perfectly, writing, "It won't make me buy their financial products but it's fun." Visit Wreck Your Worries, type in a worry and choose from four tools you can then use to destroy your worries. It was very theraputic but we'd agree with the reader. After we finished hammering away all our daily worries, we just left. Yup, we didn't buy any life insurance. Not a bit.

Looking over our shoulder as we wrote, our blowup Bob Garfield doll, standing stoically but mildly deflated from all the darts we've tossed while in the corner of our office, was heard saying, "Oh shut up Adrants! You guys are idiots! I know what you're all about! You'll do anything to piss people off with your lame-ass commentary!" OK. Sorry, Bob. We promise we'll read your Chaos Theory piece now. [Ed. To be clear, the real Bob Garfield didn't say this. He gets mad when you put words in his mouth so we thought we'd be clear on that point. OK? Good.]

by Steve Hall    Apr- 2-07   Comments (2)    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Games, Online

3D Orbit Ball Rolls Circles Around Our Spare Time

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We have a love/hate relationship with Candystand, whom we've reviewed so often we ought to be on their payroll.

We think they know it.

To fully leverage our weakness for time-wasting single-person games and sell us candy at the same time, they've come out with yet another such offering called Orbit Spherez. (Guess what candy they're pushing.) It merits a NSFW rating. Be careful.

Our only big beef: what's up with the laggage? We are not fans of laggage.

by Angela Natividad    Apr- 1-07   Comments (6)    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Games, Good

Milwaukee's Best Brings Us Closer to Technology than We Ever Wanted

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We're completely weirded-out by the T-Scan 2000 for Milwaukee's Best Light.

The TScan scans your tongue to gauge which beer is right for you. Because we're sharp as tacks, we didn't actually put our tongues on the screens, just clicked through the scanning process to the very end. But the system rejected us because it lacked sufficient tongue information. Okay, whatever. So we clicked through again. Again, insufficient tongue information, and could we please add pressure too?

OMGWTF, we said. So, ever so gingerly, we put our tongues on the monitor.

And still yielded no results.

And now our screen is wet.

We feel so douchey.

by Angela Natividad    Mar-29-07   Comments (5)    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Brands, Games, Online

Win an Xbox 360 for Spying on Neighbors and Making a Montage

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Apparently even movies want in on CGM. Paramount gets together with Eyespot to push a video mash-up contest for the Disney-fied Rear Window-esque film Disturbia starring Shia LaBeouf.

The promotions put heat on how well you know your neighbors and encourages a sensory mix of audio, visual effects and whatever else you can weave out of Final Cut Pro. Contest winners get an Xbox 360 because everybody already has an iPod and only spammy banners give iPhones away.

by Angela Natividad    Mar-23-07   Comments ()    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Games, Online, Promotions

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