AIDS Awareness PSA Chronicles Zesty Kink-Romp

TBWA, France is responsible for this AIDS awareness ad, the third installment of what apparently started out a slightly more charming series. Thanks go out to FishNChimps who, as usual, knows how to send us home happy.

We love love love love love love love PSAs from the French. They're masters of the subtler message delivery arts.

Unreel Sports Not So Unreel-istic

The guys at left, Adam and Dave, are "Top Emerging Talent" according to Boards magazine. After seeing their Unreel Sports features (sponsored by the zany folk at Fuel TV), we could only shake our heads and wonder to ourselves why nobody else ever came up with pool pool or Segway jousting.

Don't both just seem like things you'd fall into one lame Sunday with your spoiled pothead friend from Tampa?

eHarmony Not So Harmonious, Says Chemistry.com

A new dating site by Match.com goes head-to-head with eHarmony by leveraging the latter's tendency to reject clients who are gay, "unhealthy" or even just obstreperous.

Chemistry.com says "Come as you are" with TV and print spots featuring eHarmony rejects. They've also got a blog for airing every relationship-oriented topic imaginable, appropriately (that is, vaguely) called The Great Mate Debate.

To demonstrate its commitment to individual happiness, Chemistry.com gives users five free matches. And that's great, because if people change their minds as often as Match.com changes its campaign strategy, those freebies will come in handy.

Feet Get Trippy For Havaianas

For a while, we thought we were looking at an update of Honda UK's kooky Hate video but no. It was a new campaign for Havaianas footwear with three spots that look like a kaleidoscopic, heroin-induced, feed your head-style trip through Alice's Wonderland but turn out to be nothing more than the dreams of feet. We like. After all, just how many ways are there left to sell shoes? The ads were distributed by Jun Group and can be seen here, here and here.

On Beer and Big Balls

I popped into a session at the recent ad:tech in San Francisco that covered Anheuser-Busch's Here's to Beer campaign and Verb, an active attempt to bring play back to the kiddies.

ad:tech is quite possibly the only place where beer marketing and children can be discussed in one forum.

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Nair to Unleash America's Ass Cheeks With Return of Short Shorts

When a press release finds its way into our inbox which proclaims short shorts, the rage in the late 70's and co-opted by Nair in their famed Who Wears Short Shorts campaign, are back in fashion, we have mixed feelings. See. There's this little problem America has - the expanding waist and butt line - that wasn't such a big issue back in the day. When you couple that little problem with the apparent obliviousness of some as to amount of bulging flesh that billows outward between their low rise jeans and short belly shirt, the return of short shorts sounds like nothing short of the worst fashion disaster since the leisure suit.

Oh sure, the models in Nair's new, updated version of its Who Wears Short Shorts campaign are bootyliciousness perfected but we're not looking forward to watching the explosively bulging ass cheeks of those not in the bootyliciousness perfected category but think they are.

Vegas Wants Its Tagline Back

"Hello, Thoroughbred Owners of California? This is Vegas calling. We want our tagline back!"

"Vegas, this is Thoroughbred Owners of California calling. We didn't steal your tagline, we just had fun with it. Come on. Can't you take a joke?"

"Thoroughbred Owners of California, we're casinos. We never joke. Besides, every one knows 'what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.' You can't tell people 'sometimes things don't stay in Vegas.' It's just not right."

"Vegas, what - are you some sort Bermuda Triangle where things enter and never leave?"

"Well, yes, Thoroughbred Owners of California. We do have a lot of dead bodies buried in the desert here but since corporate America bought everything, the body count seems to have dropped. Besides, our only claim to fame now is NBC's Las Vegas and that damn tagline you're fucking with!"

"OK, fine, Vegas. After we let the commercials run a few times so RPA creatives, with help from Tool, can enter them into 2,387 award shows, we'll pull the spots. Fair?"

"Agreed, horse lovers. Otherwise James Caan will be knocking on your door."

BP Gets (a Little) Better, MySpace Backlashes, Sicilians Sell Alibis, Ideas Get Buried (Crosses and All)

- Oh, if only gasoline fumes smelled as nice as these candy-coated BP ads look. Meet the trippy A Little Better campaign, the result of possibly too much inhalation.

- MySpace doesn't work for everybody's agenda, and apparently the people you're trying to reach may judge your business by your personal social network. Who'd've guessed. Well, life on MySpace (if you can call it that) is still going swimmingly if you're Obama.

- A Bucharest-based Sicilian started a website service called Babalucio. Sound fishy? Wait until you find out what it's for. We hate to be spoilers but we can't help it: they sell alibis.

- Germany's Getty Images brings us to where ideas go to die. We're not sure what the idea cemetery is selling, but the dedicated website has a handy function for picking grave markers, selecting an idea to bury (photo upload included! YES) and then e-mailing it out and about.

We thought of shooting some over to an agency or two but it's too close to ad:tech to do that safely.

New Mexico is Great for Aliens. No, Not that Kind

Tourism campaigns are all over the map. While W. Virginia is busy hustling humans out, New Mexico's literally ushering aliens in. This is part of New Mexico, Earth, a campaign meant to position the state as the best place in the universe. Guess that's better than trying to get by on a winning personality.

The spot brings Geico's caveman to mind. Both efforts take characters from outside our range of realism and bestow upon them a swingy white-collar vibe, coupled with a good healthy dose of middle class ennui.

One alien even seems to be verging on a caveman-esque nervous breakdown. Hey, great spin-off opportunity.

Adidas Uses Street Art to Stir Sleepy Commercialism

Adidas goes graffiti way with End to End, a snazzy collabo that includes graffiti artists from around the world drawn together to bring hype back to the sleepy brand. It's got a playful mishmash of colour that reminds us of the Asics Made of Japan effort.

Fresh Creation has a more elaborate intro and some neat videos too.