Scarlett Johansson Joins L'Oreal Celebu-Campaign

Nabbing $4 million for her efforts, actress Scarlett Johansson will appear in L'Oreal's celebrity-focused ad campaign joining Eva Longoria, Mila Jovovich Andie MacDowell and Beyonce Knowles. Johansson's previous celebu-campaign appearances include Calvin Klein and Louis Vuitton. Reportedly, Johansson will appear in ads displaying a range of L'Oreal-enhanced hair colors.

Intel Launches Boneheaded Boardroom Brand Blather

Claiming Intel's marketing needed a swift kick in the ass, American Technology Research Analyst Doug Freeman, commenting on Intel's decision to change its tagline from "Intel Inside" to "Leap Ahead" in support of the company's expansion beyond computers, said, "That they're going to focus on 'Leap Ahead' makes me think about the technology. Not, 'buy me because I'm inside,' but 'buy me because I'm doing something unique.'" Apart from the fact that sounds like boneheaded boardroom brand blather, the change is beyond stupid. It's illogical and nonsensical. Intel chips ARE inside. That's the whole point. It's an easily understood, straight forward way of saying a product is better because it has an Intel chip inside. "Leap Ahead" is meaningless. Oh sure, there's that whole squishy, "we're doing all these cool things to help you move ahead and beyond the competition" but that could be applied to any company. It's not unique enough to set Intel apart from, say, the brand of wires used inside a device.

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Alpha-Hotties Deliver Christmas Message For Lynx

The folks over at cheeky Lynx have created a Christmas card that lets visitors write a message and have it spelled out by to models who contort themselves into the shape of the messages letters. T is a pretty good letter to try.

Sprite Commiserates With Frustrated Intern

Sprite, along with the Jun Group, has launched Marcus Hates His Job, a series of three short films that follow the life of a guy starting an internship that doesn't go a smoothly as he would like. Firts, he gets hired by someone who, upon his first day of work, does not work at the company any longer. His interaction with the boss is not encouraging. His visit with the IT department to get an email address where he is met by a paranoid IT guy who demonstrates the usual office administration insanity we all have to go through from time to time. The whole thing, while supposedly promoting Sprite, just gave us a stomach ache reliving our own early days in advertising struggling to get a nut.

While we'd love to say it's all just another online video bandwagon jump emanating from a "Dude, we gotta do online video" creative jam session between iPod-carrying, file-sharing junkies, we can't. We actually like it.

Gisele Bundchen Steps In For Louis Vuitton

Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen will take over where Uma Thurman left off as spokesmodel for fashion house Louis Vuitton. Marc Jacobs explains the shift from celebu-model to supermodel telling FemaleFirst, "We just wanted a fashion icon more than the celebrity thing. I certainly feel that Gisele is iconic and recognized all over the world as Gisele. Also the clothes were hot and colorful, and we thought she would exaggerate the strength and heat of the collection." Is the clebu-model trend over? Not according to Jacobs who added, "There are all sorts of people I'd like to work with."

Two Hunks of Steel, Mary J Blige, Branding Bonanza Hit Times Square

Joining the New Year's Eve party in New York's Times Square and sponsoring NBC's New Year's Eve With Carson Daily, will be Chevrolet which will hang two 2007 Tahoe SUV's above the stage on which Mary J. Blige will perform. While we're all for Times Square branding blowouts, if we were Mary J. Blige we'd think twice before letting anyone hang two hunks of heavy steel above our heads. Aside from threatening the life of Blige, Chevrolet will also appear on ABC's sign and ball-drop screen as well as Reuters' Jumbotron. while also handing out all forms of Chevy-branded paraphernalia.

Mitsubishi Uses Origami to Sell SUV

Here's something you don't see in a car commercial every day. BBDO New York has created a spot, for the 2006 Mitsubishi endeavor, in which the entire background is made up of Japanese Origami. It's a bit more interesting than your typical winding mountain road spot.

There Is Most Certainly Life After the :30

During the bathroom breaks and :30 coffee breaks we are allowed here at Adrants headquarters, we have finally finished Joe Jaffe's book Life After the 30-Second Spot. Actually, we finished it about two weeks ago but, again, we aren't allowed much time here to do anything serious what with all the stunt marketing and cleavage out there that had to be given our journalistic excellence. So, finally, we've found a few moments to hide from the Adrants Overlords to reflect on Jaffe's book and share our thoughts with you.

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Sony Promotes PS2 Game With Worldwide Archaeological Find

In an elaborate marketing hoax, it appears the Sony PlayStation2 game Shadow of the Colossus is being promoted with sitings of giant, unexplained archaeological findings around the world. Three large, prehistoric entities have, reportedly, been found - one in India following the tsunami, one in the Sulu sea and one in Bam, Iran following an earthquake. There's even video news footage from the Indian finding to go along with the hoax.

Fueling the notion this is all just a big marketing ploy - albeit a grand and intriguing one - Joystig points out all this information appeared at the same time just this week, an anonymous tip pointed them out, there's the predictable blog (with a podcast) and two of the site's follow that tired, Geocities-like, "this site is so bad it has to be real" design strategy.

One has to admit, it is quite admirable the lengths to which a company with boatloads of money will go to get its products talked about. One also has to question the potential backlash of such an elaborate lie.

Bud Light Unleashes Ted Ferguson, Stunt Man

Bud Light, perhaps in a nod to what we can expect from them during the Super Bow, has launched Ted Ferguson: Under the Helmet, a website featuring a slice of life look at Ted Ferguson, Bud Light daredevil, an every-man's stunt man. You never know where these things are going to go but, well, this doesn't seem that interesting. That said, it is pretty comical watching the guy treat listening to his girlfriend as an excruciatingly difficult stunt to accomplish. Perhaps this is one of those campaigns that needs to be "given legs" upon which to "blossom."