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'Get Smart' Whored, Mommy Scolds McCain, Man Conceives Soda, Jack Hits the Track

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- matrixx pulls a fast one: to score coverage for a cross-promotion between Vespa, Subway and Get Smart, it produced a write-up for us. "Please do feel free to use or rewrite the whole thing," the matrixx rep said generously. What a nifty guy. And here we were thinking we had jobs to do.

- David and Goliath put together Jack's Track, a racing game that makes the most of Jack Daniel's NASCAR sponsorship.

- MoveOn says this anti-McCain ad is its most effective ad EVAR. It involves a baby. Meh.

- Bun in the oven? Learn how to troubleshoot.

- What a strange way to market a cola. I'm disgusted. But also sold.

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Author Attacks Gawker With Britney Spears Stickers For Book Promotion

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To promote his new book, Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, author Tao Lin has placed stickers around New York which say, simply, Britney Spears. Apparently, his intended hipster audience will make the connection.

Last June, Gawker pretty much trashed Lin's similarly strange promotional tactics for some earlier books by posting some of his creepy emails.

Flash back to this year and Gawker recently found the door to its offices plastered with Britney Spears stickers in an apparent retaliation for Gawker's less than kind (though totally warranted) words.

Hmm...so is Tao Lin an impetuous child or brilliant marketer?

by Steve Hall    Jun-13-08    
Topic: Guerilla, Promotions, Publishing, Strange, Weblogs

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Theatre Ticket Site Brings Broadway to You!

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Did you ever watch the musical episode of Buffy? The one where people randomly leap into choreographed song-and-dance, betraying all their innermost thoughts and secrets, before bursting into flames?

This is kind of like that. Except there aren't any random combustion deaths, and bystanders are offered 50 percent off theatre tickets at LastMinute.com.

more »

by Angela Natividad    Jun-12-08    
Topic: Good, Guerilla, Promotions

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Creative Circus Students Win Future Lions, Host Bake Sales to Fund Travel

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What's a group of poor, starving Creative Circus students to do when they find out they've just won Cannes Future Lions and really, really need to get to France by Monday? They host a bake sale, of course, selling cookies for $500 a pop.

So if there are any altruistic types out there with a spare $6,000 or so laying around to help these winners make their way to Cannes, get in touch with them here. Oh, and if you have any cash left over after than, feel free to send the Adrants crew as well.

by Steve Hall    Jun-12-08    
Topic: Guerilla, Industry Events

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Newsflash! Flash Mobs Return!

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What? Wait? Flash mobs? That's so...four years ago. Oh but wait. We're talking about advertising here. Not exactly the industry that latches onto trendlets in a timely manner. But since the press release also dubs the stunt "performance art," I guess it's OK.

To promote Taco Bell's Fruitista Freeze, Philadelphia's LevLane hired actors costumed in iced-over beachwear with their skin tinted blue who would freeze in position for hours while a support team outside Citizens Bank Park last week during an MLB Phillies home game handed out coupons for the frozen tropical beverage. Also, a flash mob in street clothes would do the same for a few minutes.

Because the stunt was, apparently, so successful and because, it seems, LevLane is so nice, the next day they did another stunt for free. Last Thursday during lunch, all agency employees wore orange t-shirts and walked to Philadelphia's City Hall. On cue, the majority froze in place while a few others handed out more Frutista Freeze coupons. Ten minutes later the mob thawed, walked to nearby Love Park and refroze.

So there you have it. The flash mob lives on. Or is it performance art? Hmm.

by Steve Hall    Jun-11-08    
Topic: Events, Guerilla, Trends and Culture

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Ashanti Copies Dexter With News Story Murder Ploy

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Showtime did it to promote Dexter. Now Universal Motown is doing it to promote Ashanti's new CD. Like the Dexter promotion, which allowed people to send customized messages that appeared to be news reports of the recipient's death by serial murder.

In the Ashanti promotion, a customized news report can be created and sent to a friend. In the report, it's noted recent murders are linked to Ashanti's new single, "The Way That I Love You," which is about how a woman gets revenge on a cheating boyfriend

Yawn. Oh, sorry. There's nothing to yawn about Ashanti. Sorry.

by Steve Hall    Jun-10-08    
Topic: Guerilla, Online, Social

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Is that a Bike Rack, or Are You Just Happy to See Me?

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To promote Tom of Finland, a new manly-man scent from Etat Libre d'Orange, Ogilvy/Paris attached naughty images to protruding public fixtures.

Tom of Finland was a gay comic and erotica artist dedicated to preserving his craft. The Ogilvy street images follow his aesthetic.

About the scent: Antoine Lie, who created the fragrance, says the perfume manifests "a guy coming out of a shower. He's clean, but not fragranced. And he puts on leather pants."

Um, okay then. Onto the ads (with captions thoughtfully imagineered by me):

o Hard-ons on the promenade
o Dent-resistant elephant tusk
o Length isn't everything
o Warholian meter maids. Got a quarter for the big boys?
o Leaning tower of indefatigable self-esteem
o "...I guess I'm just lucky, Tad. As far as I can tell, I'm the only man capable of hugging my best friend."

The campaign started running in San Francisco at the beginning of June. They also appeared in Paris' Marais, a big gay hot-spot, last weekend.

Thanks to in:fluencia for the tip-off, and to Adrants reader Chris for the video of the Parisian wheatpasters (linked above).

by Angela Natividad    Jun- 9-08    
Topic: Brands, Guerilla, Poster, Promotions, Racy

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Tabasco Brings Sizzle, and Possibly Some Confusion, to Antwerp Bus Service

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Antwerp residents: if you're wondering why firetrucks are suddenly ubiquitous, slow-moving and sponsored by Tabasco, it's because those aren't firetrucks.

It's just your local buses, dressed like the life-saving vehicles they never grew up to become.

The bus-as-firetruck campaign was put together by Duval Guillaume, which explained -- slowly, so we could understand -- that "Tabasco is so hot that you need a fire truck to cool down your mouth after you've eaten some."

I wonder if that ladder gets hop-ons.

by Angela Natividad    Jun- 9-08    
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Guerilla, Outdoor, Poster

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Trade Show Booth Gets 'Muralized' During Event

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Who says your trade show booth has to be perfectly complete by the time the first conference attendee walks in? Not online billing service Freshbooks which hired Boston artist Jazz Martin to paint a mural on the booth during the HOW Design show in Boston. It's a bit long, but here's a time-lapsed video of the booth's creation over the course of the conference.

by Steve Hall    Jun- 6-08    
Topic: Events, Guerilla, Poster

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Top Forty Publicity Stunts Highligthed

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Trend Hunter has put together a stellar list of the top 40 publicity stunts. Broken into categories such as Shock, Big Stuff, Web 2.0, celebrity stunts, Fake People and Improv, favorites such as Honda's skydiving escapades, PETA's body parts, Improv Everywhere's blue shirt Best Buy stunt and Papa John's Pizza peep hole thing are featured.

But, but but...where's Cartoon Network Adult Swim's Aqua Teen Hunger Force Boston Bomb Scare stunt? Surely, that's got to top a list such as this one.

by Steve Hall    Jun- 6-08    
Topic: Guerilla, Promotions

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