Chevy's Aveo Lives Large Again, Travels to Hollywood

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As a follow up to their Livin' Large in Aveo, Chevy is doing the "this car's so awesome you could live in it" thing again. Chevy is sending Eric Schackne and Filup Molina on a cross-country quest for so-called stardom. The two will travel from Gainesville, Florida to Hollywood, California continue to to see if they can make it big in movie land. Along the way they'll document the people they meet, the experiences they have and the "performances" they deliver in comedy clubs and with improv troupes in cities along their route. Eesh. That oughtta be good. If you aren't lucky enough to be one of their stops on their week-long road trip, the whole thing's being chronicled with videos and a blog.

No one really wants to live in a car but a road trip is a right of passage and we're liking Chevy a lot for helping these two dudes fulfill this important life chapter. We think more automakers should get in on the game too. After all, there ain't much money in the pockets immediately after college.

by Steve Hall    May-10-07    
Topic: Brands, Good, Guerilla, Social, Weblogs



TitleRound Social Network Gets Guy's Heads Out of MySpace Gutter

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Riding the vertical social network trend, TitleRound, a new social networking site for men hopes to offer guys what they can't find on MySpace, Facebook and other broadly focused networks. We're told the site will provide "a centralized area where guys in their twenties, thirties and forties can communicate on a public and personal level about the topics and interests that matter to them, including sports, gear, entertainment, activism, business, sex and health." Probably a good thing. There's only so much time a guy can spend looking at and fantasizing about things he'll never get his hands on. At least with TitleRound a guy can win stuff through the site's Triple Crown baseball promotion.

Not completely ignoring a guy's primary needs, TitleRound also features a baseball hottie contest in which guys can leer at women dressed in baseball uniforms. Some things will never change.

by Steve Hall    May-10-07    
Topic: Games, Online, Promotions, Social



Tootsie Pop Redo, Ageism Wrong, Verizon Tickets, MySpace Photobuckets

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- Classic "How many licks does it take?" Tootsie Pop commercial gets a makeover. not sure we like.

- With rampant ageism in this industry, here's a few reasons why it isn't always such a great idea to cast out over 40s.

- Cynopsis reports, "MySpace agreed to acquire PhotoBucket for a reported $250 million in cash and bonuses. Photobucket, one of the darlings of the Web 2.0 phenomenon, is the web's dominant photo sharing site with 41 million registered users."

- ABC will air Lost three more seasons ending in 2010. That's two seasons too many.

- Do you design movie posters? Do you think they are stupid/ Think you can do better? now you can design your own with Movie Poster Toolbox.

- Verizon and Fergie have teamed to offer mobile phone-based wireless tickets to her upcoming tour.

- MySpace is said to be purchasing Photobucket for $250 million.

- Fewer and fewer people may not be watching your TV ads but if your target audience is kids under 2, you're in luck. Ninety percent watch.



Zwinkys Get Zwinktopia, Fashion Brands to Adorn

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Following the return of Heroes Monday night (which, by the way, packed into one episode what a normal TV drama would have stretched over an entire season making it intensely interesting), the IAC ran a commercial - which has been on YouTube for six months - promoting those cute little traveling Zwinky avatars and the launch of Zwinktopia, a virtual world devoted to the little digital creatures who follow you around wherever you choose use them. Because of the many request IAC has received from users who want to outfit their avatars with actual brand name clothing, the organization is working with brands serve that need thereby creating an ad medium along the way.

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by Steve Hall    May- 2-07    
Topic: Good, Social, Trends and Culture



Digg Gets Dose of Social Media In Action

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Chris from Cogbox tells an interesting story about Digg, its users, digital rights management and the power of social media. In a nutshell, a post appeared on Digg referring to a site that has posted the alphanumeric code that would allow someone to break the digital right management system and copy copy-protected DVDs. Digg removed the story after getting over 15,000 Diggs. People rebelled and posted the code in unrelated stories that were then digged to the front page of Digg. Digg admins banned the accounts of those who posted the code. The AACS, the group that enforces the code, sent cease and desist letters to those posting the code. And, hilariously, the letters sent by the AACS contained the actual code which was buried in the URL of one of the sites the organization was trying to silence.

Well, like that poor girl trying to rip her racy picture off the high school bulletin board in a recent Ad Council internet safety campaign, the AACS's efforts are fruitless. Once something like this is out of the bottle, there is simply no way to re-cap it. Nearly every story on the front page of Digg yesterday contained the code despite efforts to stop the spread. Chris has an interesting analysis of this as it relates to social media and the role social media enabling sites like Digg play.

by Steve Hall    May- 2-07    
Topic: Social, Strange, Trends and Culture



Ypulse Conference to Explore 'Totally Wired Generation'

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Teen media and marketing blog Ypulse has partnered with conference producer Modern Media to produce 2007 Mashup, a two day event held at San Francisco's Nikko Hotel July 16-17 which will explore today's "totally wired generation."

Explaining the focus of the conference, Ypulse Founder Anastasia Goodstein writes, "This event was born out of almost three years of blogging and building a diverse community of media and marketing professionals who all have something in common: an empathy for youth and a passion for reaching them in an authentic way -- whether that's through a marketing campaign, editorial content, a website or other technology product or face to face. If I've learned anything over the past couple of years blogging about this audience, it's that, yes, they are 'totally wired.' It's not that they write code or can take apart a computer (although some can), it's that this generation has grown up with the internet and cell phones and has integrated technology into their lives as naturally as the air they breath -- they're hyper connected, multi-tasking and incredibly marketing savvy."

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by Steve Hall    May- 1-07    
Topic: Good, Industry Events, Social, Trends and Culture



YouTube's Abbergirl Hooks Up With ShareThis

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Lonelygirl15 isn't the only girl selling out...uh...getting paid to do what she already does. Uber social connector ShareThis hooked up with Digital Influence Group to partner with YouTuber Abbegirl "to create a series of videos on how you share represents who you are." Her first video, Fashionista, has been viewed 37,000 times since its launch April 14 and points people to HowYouShare which explains how ShareThis works.

Purists might disdain this "soiling" of so-called "sacred" ground on which consumer-generated media walks but, like anything, if content is well done, sponsored or not, people will enjoy it. We enjoyed this.

by Steve Hall    May- 1-07    
Topic: Online, Opinion, Social, Video



Despite Hype, Second Life May Be Worthy of Consideration

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For any marketer wishing to birth themselves within Second Life, AdGabber member and Flea Global Creative Director Sunil Shibad has written an article that provides a sweet overview of recent marketer activities in the online world. Mentioning Pontiac's car buff location, Vodafone's Water Cooler, The Alzheimer Society, the CDC and several others, Shibad, while acknowledging SL will not make marketers rich yet, has illustrated through example why a marketer might want to consider having a presence in world. If you're on the fence about Second Life, his article may bring some clarity to your cloudiness.

by Steve Hall    Apr-30-07    
Topic: Online, Opinion, Social



The Hills Are Not Alive with Republican Party's Music

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We thought the Karl Rove ordeal was just a freak incident but apparently menacing music is part of an orchestrated campaign by the Republican party to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Hey, if our ship was sinking we'd probably sing too.

We can't believe we're saying this, but we wish they'd stuck with rap and not dived into the Beach Boys, which is what John McCain did last Wednesday Really, John McCain. Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran? That's not how the song goes.

MoveOn.org, torchbearers of the don't-fuck-with-Iran movement, is naturally a bit upset and raising money to air an anti-McCain campaign ad. Seems like everybody's in a righteous rage these days.

by Angela Natividad    Apr-23-07    
Topic: Bad, Social, Strange, Television



Nike Bitchslaps Imus with Big Fat 'Thank You'

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Ad-love is fickle. Shortly after dropping the slanderous Imus, advertisers decide they want him back.

That is, with the exception of Nike, which happens to be a major sponsor of the Rutgers' men and women's basketball teams. Duncans has an exclusive interview with the talking heads that matter, but essentially what happened is Nike released a print ad thanking Imus for reminding us we've still go a long way to go before ignorance is dead.

Typically the tastemakers for victory, postivisim, etc., Nike demonstrates they do even righteous rage better than most. Nice.

Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, put this bad-boy together.

by Angela Natividad    Apr-22-07    
Topic: Best, Brands, Celebrity, Magazine, Social