Candystand + Facebook; TimeOut Hooks Up; 4Chan vs, the Lord's Chil'ren

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- "The hottest ads on the planet!" Ivan of CreativeBits contemplates the Eternal Mystery: whether sex in advertising sells.

- Candystand leaps aboard Facebook Connect.

- After hurting Toronto's feelings, DraftFCB Coors billboards get pulled.

- TimeOut NY wantsta hook up. Dolla make ya holla? Yeah, baby, yeah.

- More premium Twitter account talk. Some features already in pilot-mode.

- 4Chan attacks the Facebook Christians.

- tweetzi -- another Twitter search site. Results toggling features are pretty saucy though if your eyes ever manage to adjust to thick-ass Courier.

by Angela Natividad    Aug-24-09    
Topic: Agencies, Brands, Campaigns, Social, Strange



K-Mart Sells Small Pool For Big Kids.

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Via Brandflakes For Breakfast and Consumerist comes tales of possible Photoshop shoppery with the Banzai pool. So what to do when The Man screws you? Blog it of course and hope for a social media bump in your Twitter account and a rsponse from the company. (Video below.)

more »

by Bill Green    Aug-12-09    
Topic: Social



Keyword Gayness, NBC Must-Fire TV and Verizon's Crop Art

- Keywords gone wild!

- NBC = Next Big Cutback?

- Digital writers wanted. Earn while you churn!

- Can you see me from space now?

by Bill Green    Aug-10-09    
Topic: Campaigns, Political, Social, Specialty, Strange



Honda's Choir Becomes Hyundai's Mixfest

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OK so Honda did the whole Choir thing which had humans providing the soundtrack for a car commercial. Now we have Hyundai using...um...car sounds to make the soundtrack for a dance mix. What's so special about that? Give it a listen. And oh, there's a social media component to it as well. DJs, music producer or anyone with an inkling of musical ability can download the sounds and make their own mix.

by Steve Hall    Aug- 4-09    
Topic: Social



Tap, Take, Twitter. It's the New New Thing

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If you like websites where random statements float by and change when you click on them, you might like this promotional site for a new camera which will be released August 13. On the site, called Tap and Take, you can ply around with the statements as they move about the screen. You can also add your own statements to he site which can then appear as Tweets of Facebook status updates.

Way to get the word out, social media geniuses.

by Steve Hall    Aug- 3-09    
Topic: Online, Social



Kid Picks Nose, Lessons in Social Media

- Kid makes flu commercial for flu.gov contest. Think he saw the Seinfeld episode?

- So here's the third Westwood College promotional video. Hold onto that sign, dude.

- Lessons in social media management. Which sort of used to be known as public relations.

by Steve Hall    Aug- 3-09    
Topic: Social



Body Parts Candied, Charter Cures Idiocy, Graduation Hijacked

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- Be very wary of the kid who's mastered the art of turning important body parts into Fruit by the Foot.

- Yawn. American Legacy is still recruiting people to work for big tobacco companies.

- We have Charter Communications to internet access but we haven't transformed from an idiot to an employee of the month. Hmm.

- Mullen Creative Director Edward Boches outlines the seven thing Alex Bogusky should blog about.

- So what do you do when you're worried your movie won't be a hit? You pay a high school girl $1,800 to say she loves some guy she doesn't even like during her graduation speech.

- We got this box in the mail too. Didn't write about it at the time. Probably should have. Not a bad stunt.

- When your office building's revolving door doesn't work, don't call maintenance. Call the agency that created the marketing stunt.

by Steve Hall    Jul-29-09    
Topic: Agencies, Commercials, Guerilla, Promotions, Social



Ducks Gone Wild on Beancast

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Bob Knorp's Beancast always pulls together and interesting group of people. On this week's episode were Angela Natividad (yes THAT Angela), George Parker from Adscam and Greg Verdino from Crayon. No sooner had the three got on the phone with Bob before Angela and George managed to devolve the pre-podcast call into a discussion of rapist ducks, the SEO value of Paris Hilton and obscene activities performed on plastic ducks.

The rest of the show is just as great. All kinds of great commentary on Amazon buying Zappos, Target as taste maker, Walmart bludgeoning suppliers for more ad dollars and Twitter ability to generate $48 million worth of media coverage for itself without lifting a finger.

And in classic form, George talks about getting drunk no less than three times in the first 15 minutes.

And poor Bob. The editing must have been pretty difficult editing out all the times George cursed. Oops, you missed one, Bob.

by Steve Hall    Jul-27-09    
Topic: Brands, Podcast, Social



Meatloaf Sings For A1

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So A1 Steak Sauce is having a singing contest. People can submit videos of themselves singing about how much they love A1 Steak Sauce. Even Meatloaf (the singer, not the meat) is in on the act belting out his famous "I Would Do AnyThing For Love." ballad. Except, in this case, he'd do anything for A1.

It's sort of funny. But sad also. We'd love to see Meatloaf return to his Bat Out of Hell glory days but that sort of greatness usually only comes around just once so we'll just have to settle for an A1 commercial.

by Steve Hall    Jul-17-09    
Topic: Celebrity, Promotions, Social, Video



Twitter Testing Contextual Advertising System

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Following leaked revelations Twitter will take in as much as $20 million or so per month by the fourth quarter of 2010, it appears the company is testing a new contextual advertising system that will target ads to people based upon the contents of their tweets.

Saul Hansell of the New York Times tweeted yesterday he's apparently in on the test and will have more to report at a later date.

Inline contextual advertising on Twitter might not be such a bad thing. If it's relevant. If it's not too frequent. And if it actually serves a person's needs. Time and testing will address that but one thing is clear. Either through fees, ad revenue or some other source, Twitter does need to start making money. Even the best services can't live on VC money indefinitely.

Twitter, of course, states all this leaked information is inaccurate and unofficial. But, there may be a reality TV show in the works called Final Tweet. Seriously. That has to be a joke.

by Steve Hall    Jul-16-09    
Topic: Online, Social