As Long as There are Strangers to Detain, There Will be Wirebreakers

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For its S9 headphones, Motorola's Wirebreakers leap back into the streets, accosting cheerleaders, bus patrons, library-goers and general loiterers with their love of dance.

It's cute and all but we are so tired of the Wirebreakers thing. It must suck to be milling around minding your own business, when some bug-eyed kid pops out and forces you to sit there with a frozen grin on your face until he or she has stopped wilding out in front of you.

Thankfully, behind a monitor we don't have to smile.

by Angela Natividad    Sep- 4-07    
Topic: Brands, Guerilla, Promotions



Harmony-Hunting Lego Brings Esoteric Message to the Dutch

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A giant Lego named Ego Leonard washed ashore on a Dutch beach in early August. According to his accompanying website, he's left his world of fortune-hunters and people drunk with power to find one full of happiness, devoid of rules and limits.

MarketingVox reports that Leonard first appeared at an MTV event. Vox also ruminates on the motives behind Ego Leonard, but according to Martijn at Fresh Creation, Ego is the project of a Dutch artist.

For some reason beyond us, the giant doll has generated a lot of buzz. Maybe it's because he's so good with the ladies.

by Angela Natividad    Sep- 4-07    
Topic: Guerilla



Alaska Airline Revives Paul Revere ... for Boston Flights!

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Adrants reader Will sent us footage of this guerrilla promotion that Alaska Airlines conducted in Portland for its non-stop to Boston service. The statue to the right of the Paul Revere guy is also an actor, though it's unclear what he's there to do besides freak people out.

We're trying to work out how you would gauge how well this converted on a survey. What would you ask people?

How Did You Hear About the Boston Non-Stop Flights?

- Via email
- Through a friend or Alaska Airlines employee
- Internet surfing (enter website)
- Via man dressed like Paul Revere/painted statue guy in Portland square (circle one)

by Angela Natividad    Aug-31-07    
Topic: Brands, Guerilla, Promotions



KFC Fills Offices With Smell of $2.99 Deal Via Mail Carts

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OK, this is just gross. Or maybe not depending upon what sort of food you like. But who wants to walk into the office and have to smell KFC stench wafting about all day long? It seems KFC has affixed it's $2.99 Deal Meal to the mail carts of corporations in Washington, Chicago and Dallas. How can anyone get any work down if all they do is start drooling for KFC? Oh wait, that's exactly what KFC wants! For everyone to drop what their doing, run out and go buy a $2.99 Deal meal. OK, I guess it's brilliant after all.

by Steve Hall    Aug-28-07    
Topic: Bad, Good, Guerilla



Bay 'Booms' Toronto With Fashion Protest

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"We're here. We're Hot. Get used to it." That's the battle cry kicking off a new spot for Toronto-based fashion retailer Bay. Boom is the name of the campaign and it's all about baby boomers reclaiming their fashionista status by staging a fashion protest which looks like some sort of colorized sixties protest.

The campaign's got everything: TV, radio, a contest to win a car, interactive retail windows, transit, guerrilla, fashion shows, in store event and even a "bra burning" promotion.

by Steve Hall    Aug-28-07    
Topic: Events, Good, Guerilla, Outdoor, Point of Purchase, Radio, Television



Shakerboarding Debuts for Pizza Lovers and Self-Deluded Advertisers Alike

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Every once in awhile you run into somebody who asks whether subcultures inspire advertising or advertising inspires subcultures. But worse than that question are the guys who actually try to find out whether they can in fact create a subculture out of astroturf.

Thus prepared, we give you Shakerboarding: the happy (?) marriage of breakdancing and advertising. The sport's headline athlete, Roto, shakerboards outside of CiCi's Pizza in order to draw customers in.

Shakerboarding and Roto were developed by Deutsch LA with the help of Feed Company, the guys responsible for Ray Ban's Never Hide campaign, which was similarly puzzling but perhaps less contrived than inventing a sport. (Unfortunately we can't all be JK Rowling.)

Check Roto out at yoroto.com.

by Angela Natividad    Aug-28-07    
Topic: Guerilla, Promotions



Hanes Gets a Little Racier, but Not by Much

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Maybe Hanes is a little sexier than we thought. The company has enlisted the aid of four relatively cute girls (dubbed The Comfort Force) to ask strange men to change their underpants. Clever. We do that all the time to no positive result, but then again we've never organized ourselves into a coalition.

See campaign site here.

Push the envelope further, Hanes - have said Comfort Force test the aerodynamics of your product at a local concert. We're sure small-time band geeks would appreciate having (clean) panties thrown at them.

by Angela Natividad    Aug-27-07    
Topic: Brands, Guerilla, Promotions



Dear Denver Water: Guerilla Stunts Aren't 'Stunts' if You Tell Everyone Beforehand

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This Sunday in Colorado, director David LaFrance of Denver Water is going to put on a toilet costume and go racing across the Rapids' field when Beckham appears. He'll be wearing a cheesy sign that says "Running toilets waste water." Then he'll be tackled by a dude wearing a sign that says, "Stop running toilets."

This is for a campaign called Use Only What You Need, launched with the help of Sukle Advertising and Design. Sukle calls it "witty." We're sure there are other words for it but we're too lazy to come up with any. We might just put on a sign with something patently insulting printed on it and go running across a field ass-naked.

by Angela Natividad    Aug-24-07    
Topic: Guerilla



Hawaiian Coffee Gets Parachute Treatment

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Starbucks has done it. Microsoft has done it. Why not Coffees of Hawaii? Guerrilla Communications created a "fall from the sky" (sort of) campaign for the coffee maker which draped parachute-wearing packages of coffee throughout neighborhoods, shopping plazas and tourist attractions in and around Atlanta and Chattanooga. Free coffee? What's not to love?

by Steve Hall    Aug- 3-07    
Topic: Good, Guerilla



Supernatural Effects Draw Wandering Eyes to Promo Book

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This guerilla campaign, in which a cup of coffee is stirred by an invisible hand or clairvoyant effort, drew eyes to the book sitting alongside it. We'll let you guess which it was for.

Beware: the quality of the video is grainy, and the content itself is very long and very boring. And we don't know why it is that people, drawn to the stirring cup, touch the book and not the spoon. Is this psychological? Do they imagine there's some recipe locked deep in the hundreds of pages that will help them create their own vicarious stirring effects?

Because if we were curious enough to stop, we would have reached for the spoon (it would be cool if, for those reasons, the spoon also had a bit of an electrical charge - like, you know, a disembodied wrist-slap).

Thanks disruption for the lead.

by Angela Natividad    Jul-30-07    
Topic: Guerilla