Chinese Coke Billboard Goofy...Or Not

There's something about Chinese culture that makes relatively snark-free advertising like this Coke billboard possible. Of course we have no idea what we're talking about because we've never been to China. But we do know, or at least we're told, there's a bit more innocent goofiness in the culture that makes this stuff possible. Of course, we could be completely wrong about that notion too.

Sony's Street PSP Campaign Getting Tagged, Ragged

While initially it seemed Sony's PSP street chalk drawing campaign in several cities around the U.S. was being well received by some (us), others have dished out a bit of backlash by defacing the drawings and calling for an end to corporations' attempts to co-op the graffiti art form. AdFreak sums up the issue pointing to a rant over at Gothamist, an online petition to stop the practice and street art blog Wooster Collective's collection of PSP street art.

Site Says Cut The Bull, Calls For Respect

Connecticut-based Outhouse Communications has created a site for Operation Respect CT called Cut the Bull, a site that urges respect among kids, teens and everyone while hoping to eliminate bullying. At the website visitors can spread respect in various ways by making a unique, one of a kind custom respect poster, by sending friends respect notes, by downloading ringtones and by purchasing a "No Bull Shirt" T-Shirt. Outhouse is using billboards to promote the site.

Individual's to Appear on 'Person of the Year' Times Square Board

Time Magazine is promoting its Person of the Year issue on the Reuters board in New York's Times Square. As part of the promotion, developed by Fallon, the first 50,000 people who submit their photo will, after review, be shown on the 45 foot tall electronic display at 43rd Street and 7th Avenue. There will also be photographers, who will beam photos of selected people to the board, roaming Times Square from 12 Noon until 3PM each day until December 8. Each headshot will be framed in Time Magazine's Iconic red border on a mock Time Person of the Year cover.

People don't have to actually be in Times Square to see their headshots displayed - a digital camera will snap photos of each new image as it is displayed, and will place these photos in a searchable database online at www.impoy.com. Photos can be emailed, printed and shared with friends and family. 50,000 headshots will rotate through the display along with real Person of the Year candidates such as Lance Armstrong, Condoleezza Rice, George W. Bush, Bono and J.K. Rowling. The display will ask passersby who they would choose to be Time's 2005 Person of the Year.

The promotion, presented by Chrysler, will run for a total of 6,000 minutes from Dec. 1 - Dec. 19 on The Reuters Sign in Times Square. We submitted our photo. You should too.

MangoMoose Wraps Limousines

If you hired a limo, would you ever get into one similar to the one pictured to the left? I didn't think so but a company called MangoMoose Media hopes you will with their introduction of LimoWraps, a new limousine ad medium debuting here in the U.S. and in Canada. While you might not ride, advertisers are buying. Madonna's recent CD release "Confessions On A Dance Floor" incorporated a wrapped stretch Ford Excursion that roamed Toronto streets for 10 days.

The company puts the limos on the road for eight hours per day for a minimum of five days and charges $5,900.

Condom Connotes Complete Coverage

Here's a billboard for former client and much maligned company Tyco which, with this billboard, is promoting the company's security division. The board is located in Zurich Oerlikon near Hallenstadium. While the whole condom thing, while overused, connotes the ability of Tyco to keep what needs to stay in in and what needs to stay out out, the thing looks more like a baby bottle than a condom and baby bottle are far from leak proof. Too bad Tyco's own security products couldn't have prevented former CEO Dennnis Koslowski from bilking the company for millions.

Abstinence Billboard Says 'Wait for the Bling'

Apparently, Iowa has the same underage pregnancy problem that Virginia does and, like Virginia, has launched a billboard campaign to raise awareness of the issue. While Virginia's effort spoke to guys asking, on its billboard, "Isn't she a little young?", Iowa's effort speaks to girls telling them to "Wait for the Bling." Yes, you read that right. Iowa, land of the potato corn, is speaking street. The Iowa billboard popped up a month or so ago and looks much like any billboard you'd see if you ventured 100 miles outside a major city. There's a certain cultural cuteness to these boards as they try to latch onto what they perceive to be big city speak while, at the same time, callling attention to a burning local issue.

Kenneth Cole Billboard Asks 'Wear?'

Kenneth Cole tries its hand at cultural relevance with a new billboard on New York's West Side Highway which carries the headline, "Hurricanes Aren't Ending And Bird Flu in Coming...But Wear?" Uh...OK...funny.

Hunky Dorys Chips Plays Kick the Hottie Outta Bed

Hunky Dorys chips has put the the old saying, "I wouldn't throw her out of bed for (fill in the blank)," to good use in an outdoor campaign which lets passersby text their choice of which hottie to boot. Sadly, there's no choice to throw the chips out of bed.

Chalk Drawings Promote Sony PSP

Street art site Wooster Collective spotted some chalk drawings in New York, and received similar images from a reader in Philadelphia, that are ads for Sony's PSP. The images contain no words, no logos and no product references. It's just a bunch of kids playing with the PSP as if it were a skateboard, puppet, paddle or ice cream bar. The images are intriguing enough to cause attention, at least in our opinion, causing the viewer to realize the thing in the ad is, in fact, a PSP. Good stuff.