Labatt Spokesman Faces Kiddie Porn Charges

Ryan Anderson over at Ads That Suck points to a couple stories that report Labatt brand Alexander Keith's spokesman, Robert Smith, is facing child pornography charges after a Toronto undercover police operation found images of "prepubescent children engaged in sexual activity" on Smith's computer according to Toronto Police Constable Scott Purchase. Oops. Labatt has pulled the long running campaign

Famed Graphic Artist Creates Kobe Bryant Design For Nike Gallery

Bucky Turco reports on a collaborative effort between graphic artist WK and Kobe Bryant that resulted in a dramatic mural for Nike's LA Nike Gallery. Check out all the work at the Wooster Collective.

Scion Sucks, It's Just A F'ing Box

There's consumer-generated brand love and then there's consumer-generated brand hate. Web hunter Bucky Turco sent us this funny example of the latter in which the Scion is lambasted for it's boxiness and labeled a retarded mini van that plopped out of some fat guy's ass. Give it a watch here. Click Watch This Movie.

The King Puts On A Show, Offers His Meat

Advertising For Peanuts points us to yet another creepy Burger King commercial in which the King convinces is to sample his meat in a not so G rated manner. Crispin, if they are behind this as this is a UK spot, has truly taken the Burger King brand to new heights though we wonder if these height aren't moving them into the Hooters category of restaurant chain.

Miller Hunts Down Those Who Use 'Fake' Email Addresses

Boing Boing points to an act of lunacy on the part of Miller Brewing which hunted down a person who used a throwaway email address to enter a contest the brewer was hosting so she could avoid future marketing messages from Miller. Apparently, Miller didn't like being tricked, found the user presumably through some sort of IP tracking and sent her this email which read, in part, "We have performed an electronic change of address to update our records so that we can continue to send you special offers, promotions and announcements via email." We'd like to speak with the person at Miller who actually wrote and/or approved this to se just what it's like to be so disrespectful to one's customer.

UPDATE: Ad-Verse takes a detailed look at this, offers more details on how Miller supposedly does this, why they do it and why he calls this crap sociopathic marketing.

Burger King Girl Brooke Burke Spotted At McDonald's

Apparently, Brooke Burke didn't have a non compete clause in her agreement with Burger King and Crispin Porter + Bogusky as indicated by these images of her entering and leaving a McDonald's.

Or, according to a Buzznet editor, these images may simply be a twisted continuation of the Burger King Brooke Burke photo viral. The editor tells us, "The 'boink' galleries where the Brooke Burke pics are posted seem to be owned by someone who is 'in the industry' PR-wise. The person/company behind 'boink' tends to have a lot of pics that end up being widely available but they really seem to have them first. There's a couple other galleries like 'boink' at buzznet that could be the same person but are posting promotional photos of bands, etc." We'll keep you updated.

McDonald's Releases Inner Child

Advertising for Peanuts points to this inventive and conceptually brilliant Australian commercial for McDonald's in which the the true meaning of the "inner child" is explored.

GE Explains 'Healthcare Re-Imagined" Campaign in Podcast

Today, GE has launched the online component of its Healthcare Re-Imagined campaign currently running during the Olympics. The company has published a podcast with Judy Hu, GE's global executive director of Advertising & Branding and Jen Walsh, GE's director of digital media in which Judy describes the thought process behind the campaign and Jen explains why the online medium is so important to GE's healthcare focus. In the podcast, Judy explains the company chose to go with a more serious tone in the campaign as research found humor didn't play well with healthcare topics and Jen explains the online component which includes a Yahoo page takeover February 14 and 15, videos on Webshots and AOL.com and a local language International roll out.

Microsoft Faces Obstacles Over Vista Welcome Screen Ads

Microsoft's new OS Vista "Welcome Center" screen, seen by all PC users when they start their computers, will display ads. Because that practice has caused complaints, the company is facing trouble from the U.S. Department of Justice as well as states attorneys general who are considering legal action. A report was filed last Wednesday with the judge handling Microsoft's antitrust compliance.

With millions if not billions of people viewing that screen on initial boot at least a few times a week, calling it prime advertising real estate is an understatement. While TV has died as a mass media, Microsoft's "Welcome Center" will cause marketers to drool over its reach but cause extreme concern among those who feel Microsoft will use the space to promote the company's own products.

UPDATE: Catch the "diggversation" over here where diggers crucify Adrants Farker-style.

UPDATE II: Here's the actual legal brief (pdf) that confirms the story except for our misinterpretation about the ads appearing every time Vista is booted versus just during initial boot.

Nike Film Series Leads Up to Football World Cup

To promote the 2006 Football (soccer) World Cup, Nike has launched a campaign called Play Beautiful which consists of eight serialized videos, the first showing a ficticious cause group, headed by real-life, legendary footballer Eric Cantona, taking over a television station to deliver the group's message of encouragement. In the first video, Cantona says "we've let liars and cheaters make a fool of the game" and that he is here to "remind the world that this game is about skill, heart, honor, joy, team spirit." He urges us to make the game beautiful again. As football-clueless Americans, we never would have know the game had a problem in the first place so we'll take his word for it.

Future videos will also feature Cantona along with other current footballers. The video was produced by Wieden & Kennedy and F/Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi, who handle work for Nike in Brazil, created the site.