In a very un-TV network-like manner and in response to freaks like this who are offended any company would dare to promote anything on YouTube, NBC created a video called Bill the Promo Guy in which Bill asks viewers to understand he does the promos because the salary he receives for producing them puts his son through prep school and buys his daughter a horse. NBC has arrived. It gets YouTube. It gets the video response. It gets this groovin' social media thing. Ah fuck it, it's just another ad. But a good one. A really, really good one. Kudos.
Like a scene out of Mallrats, four guys in this commercial for the Alltel Wireless My Circle plan plot a way to stop the "call ten friends for free no matter what plane they are on" feature because, after all, who could possibly have more than ten friends? Created by Campbell-Ewald, the spot is part of the wireless company's second campaign called "Sales Guys" which follows the initial "Icons" launch campaign. Beyond television, the campaign will include radio, print, event marketing, online advertising and webisodes. Be sure to check out the geeks on the Alltel website along with "Chad" who attempts to get in touch with competing wireless company CEO's to tell them about the My Circle plan.
In this Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield campaign created by Publicis & Hal Riney, three sort of funny scenarios or near health harming situations work to convince people of the importance of a good health plan. One spot has a guy toppling backwards in his office chair. Another has a kid explaining the antics he and his Dad went through while Mom was away that caused Dad to check the Anthem website after several "mishaps." A final spot has an injured married guy talking to his dumb, single friend about why he should have good insurance - all while the dumb guy is doing potentially health harming activities.
With this new patented invention from Colin Davies, the marketers vs. DVR ad skippers war continues to heat up. Davies' system allows for full frame, still images to be placed on screen while a person is fast forwarding through ads. This is almost kind of funny. It's so amusing to see what each side of this battle comes up with to usurp the other side's efforts. TiVo already does something similar to this during its fast forward process. Although we don't mind watching a still ad while fast forwarding, sometimes we actually do want to see what we're fast forwarding past so we hope this system allows for some method of accomodating that.
- GM has ended its sponsorship of Survivor which, of course, has nothing to do with the show's recent announcement this year's team would be split by race.
- Over at Dallas agency Dieste Harmel & Partners, Creative Director Mack Simpson tells us ECD Aldo Quevedo has moved up to President and Chief Creative Officer turning the agency into, as he says, an asylum run by the patients.
- Strumpette, the proverbial thorn in the side of the PR industry, has launched a survey to determine "if the profession has the political will to make the necessary changes to move forward."
- When you shop, there's no reason a couple of Hyundais shouldn't follow you up the escalator as they do in this Istanbul mall.
We have no idea how long this has been around but Adrants reader Steve Poland tells us he saw a text ad on Google which read, "Help save the crab. Gil the MySpace crab lost his job. Sign the petition to get him back." The ad linked to SavetheCrab, a site that pleads for people to sign a petition so Gil can get his job back after having been fired for apparently saying "I pinch" too many times in Honda Element commercial which can. of course, be viewed on the accompanying MySpace page. Eesh.
- If you're interested in what other people make for a salary, here's yet another place to find out.
- CBS is piloting several billboards that beam information about its prime-time lineup to Bluetooth-enabled mobile devices.
- Commercial Alert isn't happy with PBS's decision to solicit ads for its kid-focused websites. The group's director, Gary Ruskin says, "This is a betrayal of parents and children across the country. PBS has forgotten its mission, and is selling our children to the highest bidder. PBS President Paula Kerger should be fired immediately."
- Design Observer lauds design guru Helmut Krone.
- Here's an interesting map showing the global domination of the Starbucks and McDonald's brands.
- Japan has un-banned a nude/pregnant poster of Britney Spears from Tokyo's subway system. Officials originally thought it was "too stimulating" for young people.
- Oh please. Can we just stop with the slap a log on the baby's head thing?
Adrants reader Sanj sends us an image of wanted poster wild postings which promote the beginning of the second season of the FOX series Prison Break. It's actually a really good show.
Two Finnish guys, Michael and Maesky, from Make It Real Sports think the 145 million gamers (their number, not ours) the world over, more players than any other sport, should have representation at Cannes MIPCOM and have announced their own call for entries of a sort. They're asking people to send in videos lauding the importance of virtual sports as compared to real sports. They'll take the top four videos and their creators to Cannes MIPCOM, all expenses paid. They're goal is to shop the videos as fodder the creation of a gamer-based television show. English is obviously not their primary language so go easy on them if and when you visit the site.
Because it's hard to believe anyone would be stupid enough to think a sandwich bag filled with fake weed was real on a Prime TV billboard in New Zealand promoting the Showtime series Weeds and try to steal it, this "surveillance" video released on YouTube just seems like another planned social media promotion. Not that that's a bad thing but we just wonder about the intelligence of those in this video. The video shows people trying to pull weed-like substance out of the big bag affixed to the board and ends with "$429 Reward. To the stoner who ruined our Weeds Billboard: please call 021 682526 to return the missing buds. Please." Oh wait, those stupid people are paid social media actors. Silly us. How could we have thought otherwise? Oh wait again. This is supposed to be funny. OK, now we're laughing.
|
@adrants
@stevehall
|
