Nebraska Princess's YouTube Debut, Little Big Planet's Qu'ran Faux Pas, Hummer Dummer

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- Make magazine offers Twitter support. Hey, neato.

- Wayne Wang's The Princess of Nebraska premiered on YouTube last Friday. Which brings up the usual "dawn of a new era?" questions.

- Ecast MixMaster helps decide how best to get you trashed.

- O noes, kids and search and porn.

- Little Big Planet alienates Muslims. I would never have guessed.

- The essence of blogging.

- Do you dare mess with someone else's Hummer -- even for love of advertising? Good luck and godspeed.

by Angela Natividad    Oct-20-08    
Topic: Events, Games, Guerilla, Online, Opinion, Outdoor, Promotions, Strange, Video



'Beyond Your Expectations' Ain't Quite Up to Snuff

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Mexico invades Chicago O'Hare in a zealous attempt to show middle Americans it's "Beyond Your Expectations." Curious? Wander through Terminal 3 -- which serves 38 percent of O'Hare's traffic -- for a taste of this technicolor fiasco.

Through October, a Colonial-style kiosk will serve as soapbox for the Mexican Tourism Board. Pretty girls in Nano-chromatic sheaths will pass out flyers and obscure your line of sight with videos of, I don't know, tourists getting drinks made in their mouths. Or possibly pyramids.

Oh wait, this is all supposed to be beyond expectation. God, what a poverty-ridden tagline.

by Angela Natividad    Oct-16-08    
Topic: Bad, Brands, Campaigns, Guerilla



'Goddess of Money' Throws Weight Behind White Collar Lunch Hour

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This may sound improbable, but "goddess of money" Ivanka Trump (don't you love PR people?) gives a damn what you have for lunch at work every day. Enough to blog about it, even.

She's partnering with ConAgra for something called the Lunch Trade. I'm not sure what it entails (Handi-Snacks but bigger? City-wide buffets? Mass sandwich-swap? Anything goes!) but it'll reportedly "impact" 15,000 employees across NYC and Chicago.

Wow. Sounds almost like genocide. Keep reading her blog for more details.

by Angela Natividad    Oct-15-08    
Topic: Campaigns, Celebrity, Events, Guerilla, Promotions



Just Another Square in a Wide-Brimmed Hat.

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Jake of Zoomdoggle is scruffy and cute, so you must love him. Do everything he says. In this case, find the 8000 Indiana Jones hats he and his friends have hidden all over LA, and take pictures of yourself being just as animated and ironic as he is. (Don't forget to tag them!)

Adrants reader Jay notes this apparently casual scavenger hunt was announced the same day Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull came out on DVD, so he's pegged it as a below-the-radar marketing ploy. "Wonder what they're going to do with all the pictures," he ruminates suggestively.

I'm sure we'll all find out.

UPDATE: Cunning's 'fessed to using Jake and Friends as vehicles for an over-arching Indiana Jones promotion. (Not in so many words, but I feel my assumptions are safe -- or if not, they'll be corrected with lightning speed. See comments.)

Nice save.

by Angela Natividad    Oct-15-08    
Topic: Brands, Games, Guerilla, Online, Promotions, Social



Painting Pilot Finishes Off Wordless Billboard

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Air New Zealand's running a new campaign called "Is it just a kiwi thing?", characterized by unusual guerrilla stunts. (See cranial billboards. Yes, the PR woman says, those are real tats. I'm shaking my head right now.)

To promote its launch, a B747 pilot alighted upon an unfinished billboard in London, sporting a paintbrush and some splashy blue paint.

more »

by Angela Natividad    Oct-14-08    
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Guerilla, Promotions



Love Diesel for its Mind, Not Just its Brain*

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Maybe it thought "SFW XXX" gave people the wrong idea. Alongside new buddy the Accompanied Literary Society (which seeks to revive the culture of literary salons), Diesel asked celebrity authors to produce some short stories for its latest outdoor campaign.

The so-called "Flash Fiction" was broadcast on the face of One York Place, NYC, over the course of three days.

Totally falls into the shadow of HBO Voyeur (BBDO/NY). And while I like the idea of reviving the literary salon, I'm inclined to think people -- myself included -- are more receptive to illustrative storytelling. Especially when they have to read them off the side of a building.

By Idealogue and PanOptic Motion.

more »

by Angela Natividad    Oct-14-08    
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Cause, Guerilla, Outdoor



Coral Reefs Become Placeholders for a New Kind of Outdoor

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Coffees of Hawaii put a floating coffee bar on the swim course at Kona during the Ironman Triathlon World Championship. (They did it last year too. See pics.)

To ensure nobody would miss the hype-heavy, espresso-peddling raft bobbing near shore, it targeted swimmers with ads on the sea bed.

Neat idea. Neater still: if the flyers were clues to an undersea treasure hunt, and if, at the end of the hunt, people found -- not dubloons! -- but hazelnut coffee bean samples. Their expressions alone would make the effort worth it.

by Angela Natividad    Oct-14-08    
Topic: Brands, Events, Guerilla, Promotions



Highway Sings For Honda Civic

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While the stunt angered some Lancaster, CA resident, others came to love the "musical road" created by Honda which played the William Tell overture when cars drove over specially designed grooves on Lancaster's West Avenue K. While musical roads have been created before in Japan, it's quite new in America.

more »

by Steve Hall    Oct-13-08    
Topic: Best, Guerilla, Outdoor



It May Not Be as Fast as a Tsunami, But It's Still Coming

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To demonstrate how global warming will one day turn familiar surroundings into aquarium props, Offsetters suspended lifeboats off the side of buildings and lined Vancouver's streets with water safety gear: life vests under park benches, and a life guard, on duty, in the middle of a promenade.

Efforts included clear "offsetters.ca" labeling. See more of the work on the website.

Nice way to get attention, ignite imaginations and play with surroundings instead of cluttering them. By Rethink.

by Angela Natividad    Oct- 6-08    
Topic: Campaigns, Cause, Guerilla



Brandstalkers Proclaim Label Love on the Torsos of Young Bucks

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A guy called James Neate just created a crew, Brandstalkers, whose mission it is to "virally" promote brands it loves -- as opposed to advertising them in conventional ways. (Frankly, "viral" is getting pretty conventional, in use of name if not in outcome. Repeat after me: VIRAL IS AN OUTCOME.) In return, the group takes a small "grant" from the companies it represents.

Its debut effort was for Guzman y Gomez, a Mexican taqueria based in Sydney. It involves half-naked guys and a lot of Sharpies.

Gotta love brand gospel writ on flesh. You can probably gauge the success of the campaign by the number of Japanese tourists it attracted.

by Angela Natividad    Oct- 6-08    
Topic: Agencies, Brands, Events, Guerilla, Human, Trends and Culture, Video