MySpace Launches Safety PSA

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You can debut all the privacy controls you want, but there's nothing like a generic safety PSA to show the feds you mean business.

See "Don't Stop the Dialogue," produced by Big Fuel for MySpace. It will run on iKeepSafe.org and MySpace Safety along with featured safety tips and a soothing message from CSO Hemanshu Nigam.

Chill effect much?

by Angela Natividad    Mar- 6-08    
Topic: Cause, Online, Social, Video



For Hardcore Green, Revisit Penguin Basics

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To persuade people to Do the Green Thing, Play With Us put together this documentary about penguins in Antarctica. Except the penguins aren't penguins; they're naked people that seem at least partially catatonic.

All this to get us to huddle? We've seen cozier arguments.

by Angela Natividad    Mar- 4-08    
Topic: Campaigns, Cause, Online, Video



Leo Burnett Combats Cancer with Man Hair

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Nothing says "manly" like a manly manly mustache. So why not use its follicle-rich power to fight prostate cancer, that most castrating of man-diseases? That's what Leo Burnett did.

For the month of what came to be called "Movember" ("mo" being slang for "mustache" in Australia), employees at Leo Burnett, Chicago grew mustaches to raise money for prostate cancer research. Part of the game was competing with the Australia office. (Witness the hijinks for yourself.)

Chicago, which beat the Aussies in both donation and 'stache style, raised $7000 for the cause. For an additional $10 donation, employees were offered a signed Men of Movember 2008 calendar.

Guess what! Now you can have one too. And if anybody asks why a calendar of hairy strangers is hanging over the water cooler, just tell them you helped fight cancer.

Only pray they don't ask what one has to do with the other. Out loud and to somebody who's probably gunning for your cubicle, telling this story is strangely tiring.

by Angela Natividad    Mar- 3-08    
Topic: Agencies, Cause, Good, Strange



Jack's For Hillary, Rest of Hollywood's For Obama, Tilley Tattered

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- Jack Nicholson's got a thing for Hillary. And he's expressing it by using clips from the many movies he's made over his career.

- On Advertising Age, Ken Wheaton explores the Hitleresque qualities of the latest will.i.am Obama video.

- And the Paul Tilley saga continues. Here and here and here. Make it stop. Please. Can't we just let the man rest in peace?

- Minneapolis-based Martin Williams has laid off 14 people in media, creative, operations and in print and television production.

more »

by Steve Hall    Mar- 3-08    
Topic: Agencies, Cause



To Plea for Plight of Pigs, PETA Exploits ... Yo' Mama.

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Here's a picture from a recent PETA stunt at Covent Garden in London. (If you're wondering why it says "Moo," it's because it came from our favourite Hilton.) Campaign copy reads, "Unhappy Mother's Day for pigs! GO VEGETARIAN."

See Make the Logo Bigger exercise deductive logic: "Wouldn't momma pigs have a bad day every day?"

No need to be coherent when you've got a naked MILF on her knees in a cage. And BFD says the woman in the cage isn't just somebody's mom -- she's pregnant.

Ugh, PETA, uuuuuugh. You make us want to tear the shin off an antelope with our teeth.

by Angela Natividad    Mar- 3-08    
Topic: Cause, Guerilla, Human, Worst



Ad Council Launches Creative eNewsletter

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The Ad Council just hopped aboard the online clue train and started its own e-newsletter, the Ad Council Creative.

It's pretty neat, actually. What it will do is showcase creative from ad agencies that donated time and effort to building campaigns for the Ad Council. The first three on the list include an eco campaign by DraftFCB, a child abuse campaign by Ogilvy & Mather, and a domestic violence series by McCann Erickson.

We'll probably be subscribing to keep ourselves updated on the wacky hijinks of cause advertising (there are many!).

by Angela Natividad    Feb-26-08    
Topic: Cause, Good, Online



It's Holocaust Awareness Week, and Anne Frank is Not Fiction

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This is one of those well-tempered print ads that forces you to really look before you know what's going on. Most people will probably miss the point while rushing by on the subway, but those that catch it might go, "Hrm" and bring it up in random bar conversation. (That's totally okay though, because MTV will probably catch the speed racers with this.)

Put together by TDA Advertising & Design out of Boulder for Hillel Colorado, the ad promotes Holocaust Awareness Week (which is NOW!). It features a copy of The Diary of Anne Frank, marked "Fiction" with a library label. The copy: "Millions of Americans don't believe there was a Holocaust."

Alternatively, maybe a few library aids just never read Anne Frank. (In which case, they can't have grown up in the western public school system. Anne's plight -- in print and as a Fox 20th Century Studio Classic -- was resolutely hammered into our 10-year-old minds and souls).

by Angela Natividad    Feb-26-08    
Topic: Cause, Events, Good, Magazine, Poster



Kung Fu Banana Takes Up Plight of Exploited Workers

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Based on the premise that people are more likely to do good deeds after watching a banana cry, UK-based ActionAid gives us the WhoPays? Campaign. Register for the loyalty card, which could help good producers fight exploitation, after which you can "digitally dress yourself up as something tasty."

Which is all we wanted, really.

by Angela Natividad    Feb-25-08    
Topic: Cause, Online



Pig Songs Take Shot at Saving Farmers from Extinction

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UK-based National Pig Association surveys say consumers would pay more to keep high-quality British pig farming in business. Currently, farmers lose about 20 pounds ($39.09) per pig.

The elegant solution: "Stand By Your Ham," an objectively painful pop appropriation. Stay safe and Read the lyrics instead.

Sensory molestation aside, will the song save British farmers from losing their livelihoods? (It sure as hell won't save pigs.)

See ponderous print ad too.

by Angela Natividad    Feb-24-08    
Topic: Campaigns, Cause, Magazine, Online



'Jesse Fewer Watts' Rounds Up 'Incan Derek' For Vermont Efficiency

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We're assuming these three Kelliher Samets Volk-created commercials for Efficiency Vermont, an organization which encourages people to use compact fluorescent bulbs, were purposefully created to be bad. If not, we have no other explanation for why the they are so goofy. See one of the spots here. The other two are nearly identical.

Along with the three spots, the campaign includes local newspapers, online ads and a website on which "Jesse Fewer Watts" (get it?) and his Western buddies ride into town to collect "Incan Derek" (that's stretching it) for his crimes against light bulb efficiency.

OK, OK. It's for a good cause. We'll stop complaining.

by Steve Hall    Feb-21-08    
Topic: Campaigns, Cause, Commercials, Creative Commentary, Newspaper, Online