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Celebrities Hold Hands Up For Nelson Mandela Day

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OK, fine. A Nelson Mandela Day in New York on July 18th can't really be a bad thing, right? After all, the dude did a lot in his lifetime to help a lot of people. Why not celebrate him? But why do we need a video with celebrities holding their hands up for two minutes as some almost Simon and Garfunkel-sounding dude whines about how wonderful the world would be if people just helped make peace on earth with their own two hands.

Oh wait, this is all a good thing, right? Sorry, let's start over.

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by Steve Hall    Jul-14-09   Comments ()    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Cause, Celebrity, Video

Perez Hilton Promotes 'The Ugly Truth' on Twitter

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What's a marketing campaign these days without a dollop up Twitter thrown in for good measure? A bad one if you ask any one of those self-style social media gurus. So it makes perfect sense that, yet again, something's being promoted on Twitter.

This time it's Perez Hilton doing the promoting and Sony Picture's The Ugly Truth getting the tweetlicious hype. According to BlogAds' Henry Copeland, whose company serves ads on perezhilton.com, "Readers will tweet their best dating advice to @uglytruthmovie. Their tweets will be featured on PerezHilton.com, where readers will rate the dating tips. The top 10 tips will be featured on the site this Friday. Perez is doing sponsored tweets (clearly marked) to promote the contest."

And yea, the movie's got a great update to the When Harry Met Sally orgasm seen. Except the orgasm isn't fake this time.

by Steve Hall    Jul-14-09   Comments ()    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Celebrity, Social

Concept Behind Duffy's Diet Coke Ad Revealed

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Ever wonder where the idea came from for the Duffy Diet Coke commercial in which the singer leaves the stage, grabs a Diet Coke, hops on a bike, sings, rides through a grocery store and then returns to the stage?

Now we know.

by Steve Hall    Jul-13-09   Comments ()    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Brands, Celebrity, Strange, Video

How to Get People to Stop Calling You

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Sick of getting too many phone calls and texts? Yea, we aren't either but Samsung thinks it's a big enough problem to launch a "24-hour silent disco" dance competition during which people listen to their Beat DJ phones and hope no one calls them. If they do receive a call or text they are eliminated from the competition.

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by Steve Hall    Jul- 8-09   Comments ()    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Celebrity, Mobile/Wireless, Promotions, Strange

Brands Go Green For Rain Forest

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Last week in London's Piccadilly Circus, St Trinian star Talulah Riley posed in front of new Princess Rainforest Project billboards which feature an animated frog. Riley virtually kissed the frog from afar optical allusion-style.

McDonald's and Coke are supporters of the effort. The Coke sign tuns green and shows the faces of Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford and Kermit the Frog.

Other campiagn elements include MySpace (???), Facebook and Twitter.

London's Cake Group created the campaign. See images here, here and here.

by Steve Hall    Jul- 7-09   Comments ()    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Cause, Celebrity, Outdoor

Seed Bombs, Tweetolution, Spike Lee Spake

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- Houses come a-hunting on Twitter. (More proof that in this market, it's do-or-die time.)

- Love can be complicated. (But once you pop...!)

- The revolution will be Tweeted. In Iran, anyway.

- 140-character twibutes to Michael Jackson. Srsly.

- Spike Lee, out loud and in Cannes.

- Seed bombs. That plant seeds!

- When writers go apeshit.

by Angela Natividad    Jun-29-09   Comments ()    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Cause, Celebrity, Online, Social, Strange, Trends and Culture

Seriously, Sears. You're Never Getting Your Fetch Back

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In yet another effort to hipify itself with a generation that's never heard of The Sears Catalog let alone even noticed the store in a mall as they scamper by it on their way to Justice, American Eagle or Claire's, retail giant Sears has hired Disney cutie Selena Gomez for its back to school effort.

Wait, wait, WAIT!!!! Back to school? Stop! Stop! Stop!! Can we please start Summer first? Seriously. This is like summer blockbuster movies making their debut in April. Or Christmas promotions beginning the day after Halloween. There are rules here, people. Rules that must be followed. You can't just mess with seasons like this. You can't mess with our heads. Seriously. Why don't we just start celebrating New Year's 2010 today!

Anyway, Selena (Miley? Miley? Where did you go, Miley?), along with Demi Lovato, is Disney's new it girl so if the retail giant's trying to connect with teens and tweeners, they did choose the right spokesperson for its Arrive Lounge effort.

On the site, visitors can vote for the best styles in a series of air band competition videos. Design Kitchen created the work.

by Steve Hall    Jun-29-09   Comments ()    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Brands, Celebrity, Online, Opinion

Even in Death, Michael Jackson Sells Pepsi

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Wholly unintentional, Pepsi is enjoying a bit of added exposure in Times Square. It's signage is placed all around a digital display which is paying tribute to the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, who died yesterday.

Most brands don't willingly take advantage of a celebrity's death but it's a sure bet a few people at Pepsi and the brand's agency aren't complaining about this coincidental confluence of events.

by Steve Hall    Jun-26-09   Comments ()    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Celebrity, Outdoor, Strange

Barack Obama Helps Improve Perception of Illinois Lawyers

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See if you can find Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama in this Abraham Lincoln mosaic, part of a perception improvement campaign for Illinois State Bar Association. Created by & Wojdyla (yea, that's not a typo. what's up with these agency names?), the campaign consist of mobile billboards and posters.

Also appearing the in 3,055 head shot image are Stephan Douglas, Clarence Darrow, William Jennings Bryan and (Abe's son) Robert Todd Lincoln.

The campaign will make its debut this Sunday at the Chicago Gay Pride Parade.

by Steve Hall    Jun-26-09   Comments ()    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Campaigns, Celebrity, Outdoor

Staples Hops the Cause Caboose.

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To win both the youth and the responsible parent vote, Staples commissioned social marketing firm Mr. Youth to develop "Do Something 101," a cause program that's, at the very least, relevant to the office supply chain's MO.

Campaign elements, from what we can tell, are a Facebook Fan page and a Facebook app. (That's it?!) Participating students are encouraged to build a custom backpack by tagging their friends and then donate money to help the 13 million kids in the States that can't afford school supplies.

Every completed backpack makes participants eligible for a chance to go to New York and meet Ciara, who can teach you the one-two step*, which is as good a reason as any to drum up crayon cash for your less-plush peer.

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by Angela Natividad    Jun-17-09   Comments ()    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Cause, Celebrity, Online, Social

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