In Down Time, Stun Media Dabbles in Music

Stun Media, the people that did the Silver Jeans spec spot we liked so much, just completed a music video for Paul Price's Her Planet.

It was done on a shoestring budget but is actually quite pretty. The money was spent sticking to one theme instead of trying to jam a menagerie of wild ideas into the frame. We think that takes guts and is good for brand recall. (Consider the schizophrenic big-budget alternative.)

TBWA\CHIAT\DAY Sends Us Grammy/Disruptunes Spot. What? WHO?

TBWA\CHIAT\DAY sent us a :15 ad for the Grammys and this thing called the Disruptunes. Watch it here.

The ad, scheduled to air during the event, is for Grammy-fan promotional material. Coffee table books, CDs, that sort of thing.

It also features music from The Generators, a band participating in TBWA's Disruptunes, an internal TBWA thing where artists can upload songs that in turn are used for ads. (The agency describes it thus: "[helping] agency talent express their creativity and bring brilliant music to the world.")

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Rumors Favor Fallon For Microsoft Win

Since last December Fallon Minneapolis and Crispin Porter + Bogusky have been battling for the $2-300 million Microsoft consumer products account. The Daily Ad Biz reports rumors are flying Microsoft has chosen Fallon. There's been no confirmation either way but wouldn't it be fun if waning poster boy CP+B took a hit? OK, that's mean. We'd never wish that on anyone. Well, maybe we would but not here. May the best shop (or the one that plays the game the best) win.

Mullen Copywriter Releases Rap Album, Examines Agency Life

For an ironic peep inside the world of agency life, a new album, Straight Out of Winston, from Mullen Winston-Salem Copywriter "StrataG" (aka Joe Beutel) and others from the agency peers inside the walls of agency life rapper-style. Whether exploring the obsession over awards, the pain of writer's block, the illogic of "creating a viral," the war of art direction or the stupidity of focus groups, the album pokes fun at life as an advertising professional.

If you work in an agency, you will identify completely with the sentiment of this album. If you are a client and work with an agency, you'll get a good look behind

Cilantro Encourages Intimacy with Multi-Flavoured Hispanic Market

When it comes to targeting the elusive Hispanic consumer, Cilantro Animation has this to say: "Be prepared to offer more than just Hola!"

(Though we'd like to point out that strategy worked wonders for Dora the Explorer.)

But Cilantro -- which creates Hispanic cartoons like the one at left -- makes an interesting point. When we hit ad:tech Miami we were overwhelmed with a sense that the Hispanic market remains unimpressed with the way big media has (or hasn't) tried to reach out.

And indeed, a salsa-colored Hola! just doesn't cut it when you consider the range of ethnicities blanketed under what we breezily dub Hispanic: Mexican, Cuban, Peruvian, Venezuelan, Colombian, Ecuadorian, and others -- all with their own cultural customs, jokes and sensitivities.

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Gear Factor: 'Come Fly Away in a Car-Shaped Balloon!'

Check it out -- a car that both flies and wheezes.

Video of the levitating wonder was sent to us by Gear Factor to promote its "flying" brands campaigns. If conditions are right, the balloons can play outside, too. GF calls its work "ambient media." Ooooh.

TBWA\CHIAT\DAY Guys (Maybe) Go AWOL; Launch AWOL Agency

Our enigmatic West Coast resource, who's really good at drumming up touchy rumours about the goings-on at TBWA\CHIAT\DAY, just sent us this Oakley spot by AWOL.

The spot depicts Shaun White's offseason life a lot less sexily than HP did. It's almost funny -- if you're thirsty for schadenfreude.

MORE IMPORTANTLY, the source quickly points out, agency AWOL is composed of Doug Mukai, Scott Wilson and Chris Dutton.

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Red Roof Redesigns, Rededicates Itself with Digital Firm

To promote its fancy new renovated destinations, the Red Roof Inn's gone digital with 360i, its Digital Agency of Record.

360i will be working on Red Roof's online media and creative. We have yet to see either.

In the meantime, we can ooh and ahh at Red Roof's new logo, which comes complete with a casual roofy slant, and a typeface probably modeled after the handwriting of a fresh-faced yachter.

Tell us if we've gone mad, but the logo rubs us wrong. Because isn't it magenta?

Big difference between red (as in Red Roof) and magenta (as in Magenta). Way to make a fresh splash in the pool, Red Roof -- total incongruity between your logo and brand name.

Anywho, the logo has been published on the redesigned and "rededicated" Red Roof website. It will also appear on inns that have recently been renovated. 360i washes its hands of it; the logo, it says, was in place before the agency was contracted.

Screw Google and Microsoft; Yahoo Takes the Floor!

It's hardly been three days, and already the shoving match between Google and Microsoft over this -- not to mention the growing list of greed-sparked suitors for Yahoo's hand -- is really, really old.

To provide comic relief, Luckie & Company's Rethink Everything launched Yahoocrosoft. The site hosts a spoof news article where -- in some insane universe not far from our own -- Yahoo counteroffers to buy Microsoft for $44.7 billion.

We're hoping the article will at some point make way for spoofy cartoons, which can't possibly be far behind.

Tribal DDB Worldwide Scores Global Agency Network of the Year

Advertising Age just named Tribal DDB Worldwide (the Quintippio guys!) Global Agency Network of the Year. This is the first time a digital shop's won over traditional houses.

Congrats, you crazy digital sauce-sipping kids you. As for everyone else? Well, Andy Berndt comes to mind.