Ads:
Postini just released a few updates that include contextual email security. If your email, or an attachment to it, has a social security or credit card number in it, the message will be automatically gobbledy-gooked as it wizzes through the tubes.
If this all doesn't go to shit, Google will probably debut Postini-esque security offerings for wikis, blogs and instant messages, says Google rep Adam Swidler to Internet News.
We know Google's really married to this "contextual" thing but we just wanted to point out "contextual" can give rise to both appropriate and inappropriate algorithmic activities. Observe the dumb-fuckery resulting from bad (or maybe just inopportune?) contextual advertising: 1, 2, 3, 4 (and we could go on).
New ad for Zune Arts: Masks, which follows the "don't fight; sharing is caring!" trail that this one started. Imagine the Care Bears and Disney jumping Tim Burton on William Wallace Avenue. Add a dash of Bravia bunny. Now we're in business.
The work was directed by Jonathan Garin and Naomi Nishimura of PandaPanther, NYC; produced by 72andSunny. The track is Young Men Dead by The Black Angels.
This was the last time we liked a Zune ad.
The new Zune Arts website also launched today with help from 72andSunny. According to the PR people, it's "bigger, faster, stronger." Yeah, we've heard that one before.
This one does look faster, though. But what does it mean to be "bigger" and "stronger"?
Absolut Vodka and American Express are receiving AdRespect honors for appealing to the gay community in their ad efforts for about 40 years, combined.
Commercial Closet, which is bestowing the honors, is debuting the "AdRespect scores," which is a new industry standard for judging LGBT corporate marketing efforts. Scores go from 0-100 in terms of how well, and how often, a firm advertises to the gay community.
Honors go out at 8PM on November 15th at the TheTimesCenter in NYC. The New York Times will be hosting the event.
Check out spots by Absolut and American Express in the Commercial Closet archives. The print effort at left isn't an official Absolut ad, but it's also in the archives as a representation of the brand's longstanding friendliness toward the community.
It would seem at the rate CoverGirl plows through celebrities for its ad campaigns there'd be none left to fill the company's ravenous appetite for new faces. Not that Drew Barrymore is a new face but she's the latest to step into the CoverGirl campaign and, thankfully, one that doesn't seem as fake as the parade of supermodels CoverGirl and other fashion brands have used in the past.
In the spot, which is very simple but visually very beautiful, Drew dances around for the photographer in what was supposed to be a teaser trailer to show the client. The client liked it so much they went with it. Created by Erricson Fina, produced by HSI and edited by Version2, the post is airing now.
Now here's a campaign that knows how to have fun. There's not many products you can slam while at the same time touting them as superior but that's what Florida's Natural is doing with its Orange Diaries. On a blog and in videos farmers Dave and Gus find all sorts of uses for imported (read, bad) oranges from using them as knee pads, ear muffs, pencil holders and a yo-yo. Simple. Amusing. Different.
We continue to feel confused about Svedka Vodka's interpretations of the future. But confusion from arm's length is way better than getting dragged headlong into Svedka's Fem-bot world, which is exactly they're trying to do with Find Your Future You, a bewildering new marketing effort.
Grow Interactive, the interactive agency that put the site together, said we can upload our pictures and find out what we'll look like in the future. Our future selves can also send us witty text messages lending insight on what all's going down beyond the realms of trackable time.
Messages include the following example: "Hey It's Gender Bender You, mostly we date republican senators and televangelists now."
WTF, Svedka?
Anyway, we were having a little trouble finding pictures that matched the criteria for the site so we have no examples to show you. But the agency guy did send us this future-shot of a person called Chrystal.
Eric over at Ideas on Ideas wrote a detailed post about how Microsoft could reposition itself to appear less stodgy and scary for the consumers of tomorrow -- er, today. (Or yesterday?)
A few key points include positioning around power, cutting the crap and embracing the consumer, which are everyday proverbs we should all know by heart at this point.
The piece also includes some notes for Steve Ballmer.
Here's our advice: stop scaring us, Ballmer! This is the kind of crap that lost Howard Dean his bid for president.
Also, maybe Microsoft could learn a little about loosening up by examining its fan spoofs.
Maybe sensing that Mini Me appealed to a quiet universal longing, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners put together a Sprint effort called More Yous.
The ad is meant to drive multi-taskers into the arms of the speedy Palm Centro but it feels a little like a Doublemint Gum spot from hell.
See it at AdWeek.
For its client Kajeet, Philly-based Red Tettemer launched an 8-part webisode campaign called The Mysterious Mystery of the Malfunctioning Pets. One episode will be unveiled every week on Dudeworld.
Kajeet provides pay-as-you-go cell phone service for kids. Participating tweens will be able to help decide the ending.
A few seconds into the first episode we heard this high-pitched scream, the likes of which we haven't experienced since Sailor Moon.
After you cross the threshold of age 13, you just can't process that kind of sound anymore. Some small part of us died.
Anyway, the episode was cute. If our pets malfunctioned, we'd probably just sell them.
Odd that it took so long but here's a spoof ad centered on the whole Wal-mart/Julie Roehm thing that touts the chains unbeatable prices and...uh...unbeatable lawyers. Not much else to say other than don't fuck your co-workers and file a lawsuit while employed at Wal-Mart. The outcome will not be pleasant.
|
