It Was Like Woodstock, But Rated PG.

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Half of Adrants is Asian, which means we were irreparably traumatized by karaoke from an early age. But there's a contagious warmth to this effort by T-Mobile -- which can only be described as the Ultimate Karaoke Gangbang.

The mobile/communications firm projected the lyrics to the Beatles' Hey Jude over a billboard, then passed mics out to people on Trafalgar Square. It's neat to watch the faces: people look earnest, but uncertain, and over time they just kinda lose themselves in the na-na-nas and the feel-good Hey Jude-in'.

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by Angela Natividad    May- 4-09    
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Good, Guerilla, Social



Tweet Your Way to Vegas With Heavy.com's Massive Mating Game

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On May 4, Heavy.com will launch the Massive Mating Game, a Twitter-based dating contest. The game, in its third year but its first involving Twitter, will ask people to follow @HEAVYsan. A tweet will announce each time one of the HEAVY girls posts a video a question will be asked about the content of the video.

The first person who answers the question correctly wins a prize and will have a one in forty chance of wining a two night stay in Las Vegas with the girl whose videos are streamed the most.

So yes, over the next eight weeks, horny male ad sluts (well, horny males no matter the industry in which they work) will slather over @HEAVYsan's tweets drooling for the next update. OK, not so much but it is an interesting mental image - of how easily guys can be manipulated.

by Steve Hall    May- 1-09    
Topic: Promotions, Social



Who's In -- and Who's Out -- in the TwitteRFP

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Last week Current.tv launched the first-ever TwitteRFP. That is, it's on the hunt for agencies. And instead of soliciting RFPs the old-fashioned way, it was all, "Post that ish on Twitter."

What's cool about this method is it put both large and small agencies on an equal playing field: that incessant stream-of-consciousness noisebox where we blow 3-4 of our good working hours per day.

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Tweets on Rich Media, Meaty Love Messages, Jobs on the Wire

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- Finish the sentence: "Without advertising..." (LOL at "I'd have a savings account.")

- French agency Pourquoi tu cours (trans: "Why are you running?") is selling itself -- and its services -- via eBay and Facebook. The founder claims bids have exceeded 2,010 euros.

- Following fast in the footsteps of Volvo and Land Rover, Universal Studios will start incorporating live tweets in its rich media ads for certain films. Expect to see them in late June.

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by Angela Natividad    Apr-30-09    
Topic: Agencies, Brands, Campaigns, Guerilla, Online, Packaging, Social



When All Else Fails, Hire an Internet Celebrity

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Yes! Yes! Yes! Oh, sorry. And no, we weren't just....oh come on! Get your head...no, not that one...out of the gutter. OK, now that we've got the required Adrants Filth for the Day (FFTD?) out of the way, we can tell you that, yes (not that kind of yes), it's time to celebrate yet another brand hooking up with an internet celebrity.

This time the brand is Marshalls and the internet celebrity is Liam Sullivan of Kelly Shoes fame. In the video, What R U Guys Talking About?, Liam just can get..her? his?...whatever...it's look right. His family and and a trio of mean girls trash on him but, in the end, the day is saved by...wait for it...yes (no, not that...oh, we said that already), the new, the hip, the oh-so-very cool...Marshalls? Wait, what? Did What Not to Wear just jump the shark? Wait, what? What are we talking about? Um, we forget. Doesn't matter. It's time to get all hip and shit with Liam and...yes (no, not...oh forget it), Marshalls.

Mr. Youth created the video which has achieved 100,000 views since Monday.

by Steve Hall    Apr-29-09    
Topic: Brands, Good, Social, Video



Curation v. Scraping, Oprah Over Twitter, Financial Fortune Smiles on Facebook

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- One man's curation is another man's scraping: more on the ongoing drama between pubs that report and 'net-based pubs that aggregate.

- Oprah over Twitter? Guess that means ... absolutely nothing, now that we think about it.

- Stats on motivations of Twitter users. Features graph intros like "A Large Following Doesn't Equate with Intelligence" and "Mixed Feelings about Reciprocity."

- Perspective on your perspectives on Swine Flu.

- Facebook has plen'y of cash, and expects interactive advertising rev to boost sales 70%, COO Sheryl Sandberg ballsily proclaims.

- Stolichnaya is the premier sponsor of Babelgum, which will air exclusive live concert footage from artists like Franz Ferdinand, Stereophonics and Kaiser Chefs; as well as "Bananaz," a film about the Gorillaz.

- Aerocles deconstructs Dominos' approach to social media.

- Saw the Loud n' Clear infomercial on TV last night. This is why we love America. Hold 'til 1:27 for when Enthusiastic Geriatric shouts, "Bingo!" It don't get any better than that.

by Angela Natividad    Apr-29-09    
Topic: Brands, Celebrity, Opinion, Publishing, Social, Sponsorship



Socials Party, Ludacris Presents, Recession Bridged, Fiesta Moves

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- If you attended ad:tech (or didn't), here are the pictures from The Media Social party held at Roe in San Francisco. If you were there, see if you can find yourself.

- Famed hip hop superstar and Hollywood film star Chris "Ludacris" Bridges will present The One Club's first-ever "Green Pencil" award honoring excellence in the field of environmentally conscious advertising at "The 34th Annual One Show" on May 6th.

- Eric Karjaluoto of smashLAB wrote an insightful article offering up a Bridge Over Troubled Water for the low point we're all in (but don't have to be) right now.

- The Smartphone, Smart Marketing study sponsored by Platform-A concluded that 53% of Smartphone users are clicking on advertisements, 35% request more information and 24% make purchases via their smart phone.

- Jill Hanner tweets, "my goal is to get on the @jimmyfallon show and talk about the ford fiesta! we both tweet and i live in nyc! lets do it!! #fiestamovement"

by Steve Hall    Apr-28-09    
Topic: Industry Events, Research, Social



Road Trip + Twitter = Roadtwip

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Twitter has inspired everything. It's changed the way people communicate. It's become a marketing platform. It's become a direct marketing channel. It's lent credence to the notion "conversations" can actually occur between a brand and a person. And...it's given us Oprah whether we like it or not. So why not a road trip? Or, rather, a Roadtwip.

Oh yes. Much like iPhone's "there's an app for that," there's an app for anything and everything you want to do with Twitter. Why not a road trip app? OK so Roadtwip isn't actually an app, rather a physical road trip during which three people hop in a car and, for two weeks, traverse the country "seeking the emerging future for a new America."

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by Steve Hall    Apr-27-09    
Topic: Events, Social



German brothels, Microbooking, Canadians Who Shave and Stay Off Twitter

- George Parker on German Brothels in hard times like these.

- Microbooking is the new...?

- Social media IS like sex. (For the record, I don't pay for social media.)

- Microsoft blowing up on campus like Google used to.

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by Bill Green    Apr-23-09    




Can't We All Just Get a Blog?

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There's decent amount of back and forth talk about a post Alan Wolk had over at Agency Spy. I came away thinking there are a lot of issues at work there lumped together under the single banner of why are ad people so damn angry. In talking offline with a few creatives about it, even more points were raised. At the risk of continuing the separation of church and state between creatives and the rest of the world, the focus for me becomes:

1) Why are anonymous comments overwhelmingly bitter/negative on ad blogs? (The flipside to why are ad people so damn angry.) Are we talking in the workplace? Or online. Two different things. If I was stuck in a lousy shop, I'd be angry too. I might even go online to vent about it anonymously. What if they're tired of reading fluff pieces about someone they know to be a prick. Sure beats the mall and rifle approach.

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by Bill Green    Apr-22-09