Subscribe to RSS

Fame Game Fabricates Fancy Electro-Funk Concoction

famegame.jpg

The Fame Game, an all-online talent show where the talented and not-so-talented vie monthly for money and stars, enlists Cake to create a catchy viral. The result? Kitchen Diaries.

For a good Electro Funk Daddy Superstar Break, a quirky beat-boxing chef throws together a satisfying ingredient list of ripped noises. After creating an awesome break, he recommends nixing the fish (a popular addition) and sticking the mixture in an oven to bake for three years at 700 degrees.

Awesome work and a tasty listen. Take a look at the wannabes who've already jumped on board. We recommend you not skip the Elvis impersonator who beat-boxes on the john. Definitely pimp-throne worthy, yeah?

by Angela Natividad    Jan-23-07   Comments ()    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Games, Good, Online, Strange

Rosie Dances with Tissue Boxes for Kimberly-Clark Sweepstakes

kimberlyclark.jpg

We stood behind Rosie after that Donald Trump nonsense. We like that she stuck by what she said even when the Trumpster threatened to fling a lawsuit in her direction on one of his ninja-star toupees. But this makes us feel funky about her.

Kimberly-Clark hits The View to push their room makeover sweepstakes. Rosie gets exhaustively excited and right when we think she can't look more insane she does a Broadway number complete with dancing K-C products. And that's not something we could have made up even if we tried really, really hard.

Rosie, we hate to be the ones to tell you, but you're not funny anymore. We can't remember whether you ever really were. You're a bit cartoony. And not in a neat Jim Carey way. You're more like, well, that Roger Rabbit villain who tried to kill the other cartoons with Dip.

He gave us the horrors. And these days, you do too.

by Angela Natividad    Jan-22-07   Comments (12)    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Brands, Celebrity, Games, Online, Strange, Television

Candystand Brings Ping Pong to the Detriment of Idle Web Workers

candystand_pingpong.jpg

Considering how often we've moodily blasted them, it's humbling to announce Candystand has put out a game so appealing we've lost half our morning. And you're about to lose the rest of your afternoon. Welcome to their Wrigley's rendition of Ping Pong.

There's also a game called Around the World that's not nearly as much fun but merits checking out because we know how badly you need something to do after lunch.

by Angela Natividad    Jan-19-07   Comments ()    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Brands, Games, Good, Online

Nokia Pits Left Against Right in Push to Start

nokia_pushtostart.jpg

With the help of Toronto-based agency Lowe Roche, Nokia Canada throws together an awesome Atari-esque campaign called Push to Start, where your left and right hands compete arcade-style for dominance.

The idea suggests Nokia's new one-handed push-to-open feature is so fantastic your hands will be fighting over who gets to nail it again and again. There's a wanking joke in this somewhere but we like the campaign too much to make it.

by Angela Natividad    Jan-17-07   Comments (1)    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Agencies, Campaigns, Games, Good, Online

Roto Rooter Pimps Crappers For the Luxe Multi-Tasker

rotorooter_pimpjohn.jpg

We can't imagine anything nicer than sitting on our asses with the right electronics close by. You can only improve on that experience with soothing music and a flusher.

That's why Roto Rooter is trying to make themselves relevant to a new demographic by running a contest for a pimped-out throne of dreams. When you pause and carefully consider the popularity of Pimp My Ride and sitting on your ass, it really makes perfect sense.

Thanks Shedwa for the tip-off. We'd race out of our seats to join the contest but we'd rather just sit here, breathe heavily and sometimes flush.

by Angela Natividad    Jan-16-07   Comments (3)    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Brands, Games, Online, Promotions, Strange

Live on the Fast Lane? Win Immortality in New Book

wife_fastlane.jpg

To promote her new book Wife in the Fast Lane, Karen Quinn is running a contest for fast-lane provocations. Anybody living a zippy life can turn in a video, essay or one-liner. Winners get to be characters in her next novel, which means you'll have something to send to people next Christmas that doubles as both gift and holiday card.

Come on. How many people get immortalized in pop fiction?

Guerilla and marketing efforts for the campaign were stealthily conducted by BL Ochman of What's Next Online. She's also to blame for the Up Your Budget treasure hunt of '05 and that funny little American Greetings campaign which niched itself by highlighting quirky twists in our favourite nuclear unit.

by Angela Natividad    Jan-12-07   Comments (2)    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Games, Good, Publishing

Dove Asks Users for Ads. Does This Even Count as Marketing Anymore?

dove_usergen.jpg

Dove hops on the consumer-generated-ad-contest hype (at this point we're trying really hard not to use the word "begging" for the 200,000th time), assisting would-be advertisers with a tutorial on Dove Cream Oil. The winning ad will air during the Academy Awards in February.

Thanks Shawn for the news. Here's hoping another ad person doesn't win this one because the way everybody's beating this "campaign strategy" to death, we're obviously trying really hard to engage consumers here. Like, really, really hard.

by Angela Natividad    Jan-10-07   Comments ()    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Campaigns, Commercials, Games, Online, Television

Soprano's, AE Launch Multimedia Ad Hunt for Suitcase of Cash

sopranos.jpg

The Sopranos and A&E pair up for Suitcase of Cash, an intelligent though slightly labyrinthine campaign that aims both to court interactivity and get people more involved in their advertising (rather than having them turn in a bunch of manic self-aggrandizing homemade videos).

The game coincides with the January 10 premiere of the show and recalls McD's annual Monopoly contest, though it makes better use of multiple media. Users collect game pieces to arrange on a virtual gameboard.

The game pieces are banner, print and outdoor ads, which can be photographed and uploaded, then mailed to an address that uses military face recognition (kind of like MyHeritage?) to ID the piece in the photo. For online ads, users just need to click, which we're sure will generate higher numbers for everybody's media kits this year.

Our heads are spinning but it sounds like fun and a $100,000 grand prize ain't small pickin's. It would be awesomer still if there was an Assassin twist to it - knocking people off and taking their game pieces would be right up our alley and even better for the Soprano's tie-in.

by Angela Natividad    Jan- 9-07   Comments ()    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Games, Good, Magazine, Online, Outdoor

Doritos Begs Customers for Super Bowl Ads

yahoo_superbowl.jpg

Yahoo and Doritos marry up for a consumer-generated-media contest in which the best Doritos video to hit their site by mid-January gets aired on a coveted Super Bowl spot. A crass man at the bottom of the screen repeatedly shouts, "Watch and vote for your favourite Doritos commercial NOW!"

We were really into Doritos for a minute because they had that Japanese nut-crushing thing going on, but then they started littering and now they resort to the all-time laziest but most prevalent campaign style of the web 2.0 world: begging.

We're embarking on a new horizon in which we were supposed to work with consumers, not beg for creative at every open opportunity. Are we just going to hand over our cushy jobs and Foozball-ridden offices like that? Just like that? Come on, guys.

by Angela Natividad    Jan- 5-07   Comments ()    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Bad, Cable, Games, Television, Video

Mono Says Happy New Year with Godlike Feature-Mix Game

monoface.jpg

An odd new year greeting from Mono invited us to play a game of mix-and-match with facial features, a lot like getting to play with Mr. Potato Head without having to buy him.

The site includes a gallery where you can look at all the possibilities thrown together thus far. Apparently there are over 750,000.

Trouble with the site or our computers made it so we could only screw around with the lower part of the face and not the top. This got in the way of our fun-having, and we dislike anything that gets in the way of our fun-having. Oh, well. How much could a Mr. Potato Head possibly be?

Update: The darlings at Mono fixed the bug. We are happy.

by Angela Natividad    Jan- 4-07   Comments (2)    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Games, Online, Strange

follow-us-on-twitter-bird-160.jpg
    @adrants
    @stevehall