Biz Stone Makes More Twitter Premium Noises.

Think for-pay add-ons. Stone maintains, though, that the services people and companies are already using will remain free.

Vincent Gallo Sleeps Around

From blow jobs to vodka mass retail? My Vincent Gallo does have quite a range. Yes, you can now find him in H&M's new commercial along with Eva Herzigova.

My, my, that's a lot of red? Are we sure this isn't a Target ad?

Havaianas Blooms, Kevin Spacey for AA, ATL Goes Intramural

- Ex-Ofsted chief proposes that kids learn social media skills -- Wikipedia, blogging, podcasting, Twitter -- in primary school, alongside other communication skills like handwriting and keyboarding.

- How far would you go for some glacier-fresh Kokanee? As far as the dudes in this spec ad? (Gotta say: the premise is cheesy, but production is clean.)

- Pretty spiffy ATL ad.

- Havaianas footwear in full bloom around Paris. Almost too pretty to stand.

- Fallon Skimmer.

- Take it straight: we fucking hate this execution.

- Kevin Spacey to do Michel Gondry-directed ad for American Airlines.

- Killed Idea alert: "the following ad for Krystal Hamburgers created by the Johnson Group in Chattanooga was killed for fear of 'clown retribution.'" Ever read Jpod? This sorta reminds us of that.

Playboy TV (Somewhat Feebly) Aims to Improve on Reality

It's hard! times! for Hugh Hefner, the world's most recognizable epicure of biped bunnies. With that in mind, Playboy TV's tapped zig/Chicago to help launch its first-ever programming promo campaign.

Under the tagline "A better reality awaits," each ad depicts a formulaic reality TV trope that could do with a little bit of Hef-style debauchery. For some reason though, they feel less party-at-the-mansion and more like Wild On.

I know Playboy needs to walk that line between cutting-edge and soft porn, but it's doing more brand-tarnishing than brand-polishing here. Random party shots of the Mansion in Entourage and Sex and the City probably do more for the company image than these knee-jerk knockoffs of network TV.

more »

'It's Called Earth Hour. And it Promises to Be One of the Hugest Turn-Offs Imaginable.'

Janeane Garofalo, who's cool in a dicey sort of way, lends her spokeswoman clout to the World Wildlife Federation's Big Turn Off.

The sitch: this Saturday at 8:30 pm local time (wherever you live), people around the world are committing to switch their lights off for one hour.

As noted above, Garofalo vows this'll be one of the hugest turn-offs imaginable. More of a turn-off than watching her say all this while she paints watercolours with her armpit hair. (And speaking of, who decided lengthy underarm locks should be the awkward fist bump of 2009?)

more »

Under Armour Brings Drug-Free Drama Back to Baseball

New York Mets base-grabber Jose Reyes makes an appearance in "Instinct Fast," a new spot for sports label Under Armour.

Put together direct-to-client by Shilo, the piece is sober, slow-moving and taut. Its objective is to promote the Heater lightweight cleat to aficionados of baseball, a word we never hear independently of "steroids" anymore.

Under Armour's carved a niche for itself as the athletic label with a flair for the theatrical, but bon mots from Shilo creative Noah Conopask suggest the vibe's infectious: "We wanted it to feel like a battle, where Jose and the pitcher both had their fingers on the trigger. We wanted you to see it in their eyes, in their body language, and we wanted to subtract everything out of the world they were in, no bleachers, no fans, no scoreboard, only the moment..."

Heavy.

more »

Flight of the Conchords Rides High Tide of Unhip Lip-Syncers

Since you're probably a postmodern hipster, it's highly likely you love yourself some Flight of the Conchords.

Well, that's cool, we do too.

To promote Season 2 of the show, HBO partnered with Deep Focus to launch the Flight of the Conchords Lip Dub Video Fansterpiece. It's about as grand as it sounds, and one-time creators of fan fiction will probably relish the opportunity to reinterpret FotC's "Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros" with their own wincey music videos.

And they are admirably wincey. (Okay, maybe not as much as that one time Jemaine dressed up like Labyrinth Bowie and appeared to Bret in his dreams.) Fan or not, feel free to relish in this most awkward pool of self-conscious exhibitionism.

According to Deep Focus, Facebook outreach generated about 470 comments and about 5400 "likes." The two top videos were edited into a single mumbo-jumbo one and incorporated into a Flight of the Conchords ep -- and yeah, that's on cable TV, man.

See Final Fansterpiece below.

more »

It Didn't Sell Us on Pastel Wayfarers, but Damned if We Couldn't Use a Chameleon Right About Now.

Gad knows we've seen more than our fair share of Never Hide videos by Ray Ban, but "Super Chameleon" had us going "Is that real? Is that REAL?!" all over again.

To the disturbingly appropriate Eat My Bear by YUKSEK,* a slow-moving chameleon changes his stripes according to whatever shade of Wayfarers is set in his path -- and there are some pretty ugly options to choose from. Easter egg blue! Cammo! But in the context of watching nature in action, as opposed to destroying our fine facial aesthetic, those shades suit us just fine.

more »

Levi's Promises 501 Pounds, and Some Face Time, for Window Display

Levi's has partnered with Dazed & Confused for a window display competition. This is for the Carnaby Street store in London. In the event that your blood, sweat and tears make it to the store window, your work will be featured in the June issue of Dazed & Confused, and you'll also win a token, if paltry, 501 pounds.

For that much, they're probably not getting the Five on Fifth treatment. But sometimes people surprise you in exchange for a little limelight.

More about the Carnaby Street display contest here.

Possibly the Only Time 'Blah-Blah' and 'Click-Click' Will Resonate Like Ear Candy.

"Smart Play" illustrates Cosmote's melodic marriage of mobile, landline and internet with a three-part orchestra whose only instruments are phones and laptops.

Pretty nifty. Fun fact: a team of musicians wrote the score specifically for this ad. It's an amiable watch, and the tagline wraps it up nice n' easy: "The most harmonic combinations of mobile, landline phone and internet on the go."

Work by Bold Ogilvy for Cosmote, a major telecom in Greece.

more »