Yawn. Naked Woman Promotes Magazine

When I think of heading over to Borders or Barnes and Noble to pick up the latest copy of What Mobile Magazine, the first thing on my mind is always, always, always hot, sexy blondes with a Gwyneth Paltrow-ish come-hither look (which, much like Gwyneth herself isn't, though beautiful, all that come hither-ish after all) holding a mobile phone. Seriously. Doesn't everyone have that thought? (Thanks, George)

Girl Pulls Up Miniskirt to Expose Thigh, Sell Drugs

Oh look! It's yet another blah, blah, blah with a mini-skirted girl with blah, blah, blah, hiking up her skirt to blah, blah, blah, so we can see her legs to blah, blah, blah and to see the message on her thigh that blah, blah, blah for Dextro Energy which blah, blah, blah.

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Fiat Messes With Nature to Sell Cars

And now, for the final act, Fiat will pull a rabbit out of a...tortoise shell? Damn. Why do marketers always have to go a mess with magical metaphors just to create strange looking ad campaigns? Oh well. All in good fun. Oh and to sell a few cars as well.

Along with a rabbit shacking up in tortoise shell, the campaign offer an owl sprouting peacock feathers and a spider sporting a beetle shell. Somehow this sells cars. Giovanni + DraftFcb, São Paulo created.

Freeze-Packed Used Condoms Call Attention to Beach Pollution

If you're one of those beach police dudes, you might want to make sure you take your keys out of your little beach cart before you inform a beachgoer they're on a private beach lest you want an angry walrus to drive off with it. That particular scenario is part of a Saatchi & Saatchi LA-created campaign for the beach protection cause group Surfrider.

Along with an amateur-style video with the walrus antics, which, let's be honest, is pretty lame, comes seafood packaging placed in local farmer's markets which don't contain fish, rather various collections of trash collected from the beach. Not exactly the sort of thing you'd want to see when digging through the cooler for that prefect cut of fish.

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A World Without Frogs Would be Creepy

American Shelf Life's Amanda Mooney sent in this ad seen on Ads of the World which she described as "creepy." And creepy it is. Often, nature's delicate balance isn't top of mind; particularly when it has to do with frogs and their affect on the world.

The ad, from Vancouver's TAXI, is for the Vancouver Aquarium and illustrates quite graphically what a world would look like if frogs suddenly disappeared. You see, frogs eat insects. Lot's of them and without frogs, that relaxing evening bath might not be so pleasant.

Say, How About You Bring the Fleshy One a Little Closer.

The Calgary Zoo is running a warped print campaign that depicts how animals must see people -- and their drool-worthy spawn -- from within the steel cages.

Might make you think twice about parading your kid around all the lions, tigers and bears. Ads of the World has more.

National Geographic Wins Three Ellies, Y&R Mails, Social Media Whitepapered

- National Geographic hauled in three Ellies at the National Magazine Awards with The New Yorker and New York each getting one.

- PJA Advertising + Marketing is hosting Portfolio Night in Boston on May 8th at District.

- For some reason, some Y&R types created a Facebook group based on some big "reply all" email chain. Beyond that, it's totally unclear what the hell this is all about or why anyone would care.

- smashLAB has crafted a white paper on social media designed to be a primer for those clients who look at you with a blank stare when you utter the words "social media" in a meeting.

- Want on of those Flip video cameras all the cool kids have? Head over to Budget's Flip for Budget contest. Be sure to check out the rejected videos from Budget employees.

Chatterous Gets You Laid, Spoken Word Promotes Healthcare, Starbucks Points Fingers, Acura Sucks Up

- There's something about spoken word poetry that makes us clench our glutes. You know, like someone about to suffer something unavoidably bad. This spoken word PSA by "MIKE-E" for the American Cancer Society wasn't terrible, but we winced all through it anyway.

- Google Maps, meet GTA IV.

- So Twitter went down for just exactly too long, and in that time frame Jolie O'Dell discovered Chatterous (now in alpha!). It will get you laid.

- New Google killer on the loose. You know what's fun? Googling "Google killer".

- Starbuck's profits fell 28 percent compared to this time last year. Bummer. CEO Schultz says the crappy numbers "reflect the sharp weakening US consumer environment."

- Acura's TSX hopes to endear itself to Millennials by pointing out how we don't sleep. EVER. Printwork by RPA.

If Ever You Sense a Traitor in Your Midst, Here's How to Sniff Her Out

Gift shops aren't exactly hotspots of envy. When I think "gift shop," I think over-expensive cigarettes, travel deodorant and hand-whittled local goods.

But there's this gift shop in St. Louis called Lusso. If its advertising is anything to go by (and when would it ever lie?), objects from Lusso compel people to steal, pick fights, and take back wedding presents.

Maybe it's the handmade gift-wrap service. See acts of insanity here:

o In certain cases, there is no honor among maids.
o Always remember who was absent from the cha-cha line.

All this to tell you Lusso's moved to The Crescent on Carondelet Plaza. Now that you know, go thee forth and wreak havoc. Agency: Rodgers Townsend, St. Louis.

Mobile Phone Replaces Cue Cat in Magazine Interactive Feature

Well, it's better than Cue Cat. Rolling Stone and Men's Health are testing a program whereby readers take pictured of ads and txt them to a number which returns offer information from the advertiser. Technology from SnapTell enables image recognition so snapped images are matched with the correct offers.

Not a bad idea. After all, it's definitely easier to simply take a picture than text a URL for more info. Nice way to track ad viewership as well.

Cue Cat attempted this years ago with a clumsy device that would plug into one computer and be used to scan a bar code in the ad. A web page with product information was returned. With near everyone owning a cell phone these days, there's no need for a separate device such as the Cue Cat.