TV Goes Mobile, Life Dies For Fourth Time, PS3 Gets Weird

uk_ps3_felini.jpg

- Cynopsis reports, "CBS struck a deal to supply Sprint TV with full episodes, live mobicasts and video highlights from several CBS shows. On demand content includes nightly mobicasts of CBS Evening News with Katie Couric, full episodes of Jericho and clips form several popular prime time and late night shows including the three CSIs, Numbers, Survivor and Late Night with David Letterman. The content will be ad supported with short video pre-rolls.

- Life magazine just can't catch a break. Time Inc. has killed the magazine, now a newspaper insert, for a fourth time. Let the thing die in peace, will you?

- Yahoo is launching a mobile ad network and plans to partner with publishers. Initially, Yahoo has deals with MobiTV, Opera and Go2.

- Surveying 3,000 people, Millward Brown found TV commercials inserted into Internet programming work better than their traditional TV counterparts. Attention and awareness are up over 50 percent compared spots viewed on TV.

- Bill thinks this UK OS3 launch trailer is "weird as hell." We'd have to agree.

- Bob Garfield gets a lashing over at Gawker.

by Steve Hall    Mar-27-07    
Topic: Magazine, Mobile/Wireless, Newspaper, Television



Beano Gingerly Cuts Gas in Women's Magazine

beano_cauliflower.jpg

Ever-so-delicately raising the topic of flatulence in the Ladies Home Journal, Copyranter tips us off on these completely weird cauliflower love letter ads for Beano. Check out a break-up variation.

We're totally mystified by the melodramatic soap opera serial vibe of the campaign, set off with wilty illustrations. Why can't we just say it would be nice not to look preggers in our little black dress tonight? Enough of this tiptoeing around the subject with the mopey gas-bestowing veggie. Nobody's writing love letters to vegetables. We're all just trying to keep our stomachs tucked into our jeans.

by Angela Natividad    Mar-20-07    
Topic: Campaigns, Newspaper, Strange



Wilkes University Gives Potential Co-Eds a Very Public, Very Detailed Hello

wilkes_univ.jpg

When you've got serious marketing dollars to throw behind wooing someone, it's a fine line between making them feel like stars and just, well, stalking the dickens out of them.

Philly-based 160over90 assists Wilkes University toward one or the other of these ends. Using mall kiosks, MySpace ads, billboards and whatever other media happened to be standing in a would-be Wilkesian's way, the university gave accepted students a king-sized shout-out.

The campaign makes Mini's "Hey Joe Shmoe" RFID-based billboard idea look piddly - it actually goes into details about the students' activities and ties them into the ad pitch.

more »

by Angela Natividad    Mar-20-07    
Topic: Campaigns, Good, Newspaper, Online, Outdoor



Video Ads Travel, Doritos Invites, Ad Spend Up, Fonts Explode

la_times_fonts.jpg

- Blip.tv has made this possible through a platform called "cross-post advertising" which allows ads to travel with videos wherever they are viewed: on blip.tv, a show's Web site or blog, iTunes and elsewhere throughout the Internet.

- Through March 23, YouTube is accepting entries for its consumer-generated awards contest. Winners will be announced March 26.

- Following its Crash the Super Bowl Contest, Doritos is inviting people to select the name of its product.

- Nielsen has reported ad spend rose 4.6 percent in 2006 to $139.07 billion. Internet led with a 35 percent gain.

- Cagle thinks the recent LA Times redesign is "font salad" with 22 different typefaces on the front page alone.

- Google has added Checkout buttons to its AdWords ads.

by Steve Hall    Mar-19-07    
Topic: Consumer Created, Newspaper, Research, Video



Want Vagina with that Bagel? Hit Boise

bagels_vagina.jpg

Oh, ick. Adfreak points us over to this ad for the River City Bagel and Bakery in Boise, Idaho. Apparently they wanted to get a little clever and tie their product to the Vagina Monologues, which is playing in the area.

We're not prudes about anatomy but the thought of quim over our next lox shmear brings us close to queasy.

by Angela Natividad    Mar-12-07    
Topic: Bad, Newspaper, Strange



Zonite Reeducates Wives on Good Upkeep

zonite.jpg

Think gender pressures in advertising are bad now? Nothing like a good throwback ad to put things in context. This ad for Zonite, a feminine hygiene solution, impresses on good wives the humiliation and loathing they'll experience if hubbies have to deal with their natural aromas.

But that's okay - the text considerately reads, "Is a wife to blame if she doesn't know these intimate physical facts?"

Off-topic, Lysol used to be a douche. Not to be icky, but we don't know how much of an improvement that dead-flower smell is over human musk.

by Angela Natividad    Mar- 8-07    
Topic: Good, Newspaper, Poster



MoveOn: Like Iraqi Contention? You'll Love Pissed-Off Iranians

moveon_iran.jpg

In its ongoing effort to give Americans a different kind of education, MoveOn.org is raising money to air this print ad about what the escalation really means.

We try to antagonize both political parties equally on Adrants, but we have to admit Bush's WMD claim about Iran smacks of something we've heard before.

You know what they say about gullibility: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. "Fool me six billion seven times, call me a Republican senator," Free Republic adds in our heads (out of context, but a catchy ending nonetheless.)

To be fair, Republicans, Democrats and alternative parties alike are sweating bullets about Bush's latest flight of projectile fancy.

by Angela Natividad    Feb-28-07    
Topic: Good, Newspaper, Online, Social



Man Cons Newspaper Into Running Fake Gucci Ad

gucci_con.jpg

When you're a starving model and you're desperate to appear in a fashion ad, what do you do? You create a fake Gucci ad, get it placed in a newspaper and have the bill sent to Gucci, of course. An unknown man placed a call to Swiss weekly SonntagsZeitung, the paper ran the ad and, yes, sent the $50,000 bill to Gucci. Oops. The paper claims the order "came in too late" to be checked to validity.

The man has previously attempted to dupe once pretending to be Puerto Rican singer Chayanne to book concert venues. Does this man need help or is he the industry's answer to guerrilla marketing? He might want to steer clear of Boston if it's the latter.

by Steve Hall    Feb-27-07    
Topic: Newspaper, Strange



Ad Hugs, Bank Babbles, Heineken Spends, Starbucks Wonders, Starcom Wins

australia-post_25.jpg

- Now here's an ad that really reaches out and touches you.

- Oh God. All we need is another meaningless marketing buzzword that capitalizes on yet another new trend.

- Just in time to comment of CareerBuilder's idiotic "firing" of its agency comes this Forrester report which claims marketers love to place blame on agencies but can't back it up with any sort of "failure metrics."

- Heineken has $70 million to spend but it's unclear who they'll spend it with.

- Starbucks' CEO laments some of the streamlining changes he's made and ponders its affect on the brand.

- What? Again? Starcom nabs Advertsing Age's Media Agency of the Year nod.

- Joe Jaffe is finishing his follow-up to "Life after the 30-second spot", titled "Join the Conversation: How to engage marketing-weary consumers with the power of community, dialogue and partnership and he needs your input for a survey he's doing on Conversational Marketing that will be a topic in the upcoming book. He's looking for brand marketers to complete the survey. Lend him a hand.

- Furniture retailer Levitz has signed on as a major sponsor of HomeTeam, the nationally syndicated weekly TV show that helps people become homeowners.

by Steve Hall    Feb-26-07    
Topic: Brands, Good, Newspaper



Perfect Orgasm Not Allowed in Seattle

perfect_orgasm_victoria.jpg

Pity the poor female who, according to the Seattle Times, isn't allowed to pursue the perfect orgasm recently offered by British Columbia's Victoria in its tourism campaign. The city recently submitted an ad with the headline, "Your Search for the Perfect Orgasm is Over," to the Seattle Times' Northwest Life Sunday magazine but the ad was deemed too racy. Ultimately the ad did run but with the much blander headline, "Your lust for fine fare can now be satisfied." The ad is part of a Trapeze Communications-created campaign which created the campaign's theme, "Victoria, B.C, Full of Life."

Come on America! You know need all the relaxation we can get. Let Canada offer up it's fun for all of us to experience.

by Steve Hall    Feb-23-07    
Topic: Magazine, Newspaper, Policy, Racy