Sony Ericsson: Be the Star of Your Own YouTube Video!

Because everyone knows that's tough to do.*

Check out Ericsson's Darkside campaign, where you plug your likeness into a pre-made spooky YouTube video.

Brando, the left-of-center agency responsible, even provided one-click ways to "viral it out" via Facebook and email. So, like, wow, you don't have to do jack to get your face on the front of the internets.

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Draft/FCB Shake Up Coming, DirecTV Gets Ideas, Enfatico'd Ethics

- George Parker's spies have informed him there may be a "major shake up" coming soon to a Draft/FCB office near you.

- You've seen all those DirecTV ads, right? The ones that play off the scenes of various movies? The current one pays homage to Poltergeist. Tirico Suave has plenty of suggestions for more.

- With Guns 'N Roses releasing its Chinese Democracy album soon, Dr. Pepper, who claimed they couldn't get it done this year (and if they did, would give a free bottle of Dr. Pepper to everyone in America) must now live up to its promise.

- Audi asks you to Meet the Beckers.

- If you want to hear a bunch of experts on the topic of the internet benefiting small businesses, sign up for the Solution Stars Video Conference. Apparently, I'm an expert because I'm one of the speakers. But, you'll have to watch and decide.

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Great Milk Comes from Happy Cows. And the Happy Cows are Casting!

The California Milk Advisory Board is screening for its next bovine star. And guess who gets to pick her? You! Between October 13 and September 30, trawl audition vids and cast your vote.

Of 10 total, only two videos, "Alicia" and "Jenn," are currently available to view. Alicia reeks of The Real World, and little Jenn's being constantly goaded on by her attention-starved mom.

Videos of the hopeful heifers will be repurposed as TV spots. I hope one of Silk's renegade soy cows enters, because no audition series is complete without some wacked-out anti-establishment radical.

Now You Don't Have to Wonder What the Mirror Thinks

I can't help thinking Snow White's childhood would have been less tragic if her evil stepmother was fed marketing propaganda, and not beauty validation, from her enchanted mirror:

"Mirror mirror, who's the fairest?"

"You're very close! Here's a projection of what La Mer can do about those unsightly crow's feet."

I'm thinking these thoughts because Alpay Kasal and Interference Inc. created something called the Interactive Mirror, which lets people "draw" across reflective surfaces or interact with stuff that's already there (like ads!).

See a demo. I like it when the girl runs her finger down the mirror and flowers bloom along the trail. Oh, it's also neat when the guy customizes a shirt. The photo-viewing feature is cool too.

This is pretty nifty all around, actually. I can imagine it seeing it in "ambiance" stores like Virgin.

Economy Got You Down? Buy A Chainsaw, Cut Some Trees

Appearing today in USA Today and The Wall Street Journal, Stihl offers confidence to wary consumers that, of late, hear nothing but bad news about the economy. With so many portfolios in shambles, Stihl promises to be a sharp investment in today's crazy market.

Say what? Is that a chainsaw in the ad? So, like, the solution is to take a chainsaw to your portfolio and dramatically carve it up because, given Wall Street, anything less would be wimpy?

Oh wait, Stihl isn't a financial management firm. It makes power tools. And not just any crappy power tools like the ones you can find cheaply priced at Home Depot or Lowe's. Nope. Stihl is an investment, not an expenditure because, unlike the cheap tools you have you buy over and over because they always break, Stihl is a life long investment. Or so the ad would have us believe.

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Bakers Molds Magic Between Flour-Stained Fingers

"Precious Biscuits" uses the loose, altered threads of fairy tales to imbue Bakers Biscuits with wispy wonder.

It begins with pretty schoolchildren walking through a forest. Behind them, biscuits leap out of a cobblestone pavement (vestiges of Hansel & Gretel), bringing the environment to animated life.

Naughty piglets race across a canvas populated by blind mice, an egg that only almost dies, a lone social advocate made of gingerbread, and a round Red Queen with a teeny china mouth. You remember them, don't you? At the end, Bakers draws a subtle comparison between itself and other confectioners of myth.

Produced by the divine hands of Shy the Sun & Blackginger for Ogilvy/Johannesburg and client Bakers.

T-Mobile G1 Brings Answers to You!

Last night I saw the first ad for the T-Mobile G1, the first mobile handset built on Google's Android platform.

The spot depicts people in random situations, asking spontaneous questions that bug you at the time, but might not be important when you're back in front of a computer: "Do sharks have eyelids?", "Do monkeys make good pets?", "Can I get this cheaper somewhere else?"

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Obama Girl Backs Ack

Believe it or not, Amber Lee Ettinger's career as Obama Girl was just preparation for a political endorsement that manages to be even more surreal. (Yes, it even outdoes her Giuliani dance-off.)

America's favourite lobbyist now throws her bikini-clad weight -- and lip-syncing skillz -- behind President Howard Ackerman of Red Alert 3. Love that "Let's screw 'em all with Ackerman" tee she's rockin'. And that intro -- it's so vintage Dick in a Box!

Isn't it awesome when an agency -- in this case, DraftFCB -- contaminates a good thing with a flinch-inducer? Whatev, this is officially The World We Live In. Expect to see "Back Ack" splashed across YouTube, RedAlert3.com and the Barely Political website.

Wow. It's Everything I've Ever Wanted in a Stimulant.

A pill that increases libido and decreases cellulite?" Let Slim Seduction -- don't you love that name? -- show you! Hit the site for Extremely Persuasive surveys, before/after shots, video testimonials and BIG RED TYPEFACES.

The ad hit me while I was reading a political and religious tirade on Dooce.com, which goes to show diet companies don't discriminate much in terms of audience. All you need to do is be female and have skin.

Who Knew Libraries Made Babies, Assisted Ascension of Everest

Here's a series of ads for The Alberta Library which tells us just how powerful informative and motivational books can be. Aiming to show just how much influence a book can have on a person's life, both positively and negatively, four scenarios are played out to humorous effect.

Created by Rethink Vancouver and produced by Holiday Film, the commercial's directors commented on the work, saying, "We were both attracted to this job because neither of us can read, and we thought this would be a good excuse to go into a library for the first time. We loved Katie and Chad's scripts, they were simple and quite dark, and reminded us how libraries can lead you down the road to ruin, but then get you right back on track. It was our idea to use real actors in all four spots, instead of CGI characters used in most library commercials."

Um, right.