- Facebook shuts down Burger King's "Whopper Sacrifice" app, which offers users free Whoppers after they de-friend 10 people. The data-sharing giant treated the app as a privacy breach.
- Google shafts 100. Dodgeball will be no more; Google Video will cease taking uploads in a few months' time.
- Paris-based Havas is splitting CEO duties between COO Gabriel Saenz de Buruaga of Madrid, and CSO Anthony Rhind of London.
- How advertising works.
- Got a secret, but can't be bothered to make a postcard? Contribute to Big Love's web of secrets. Note that each secret you enter endorses polygamy. Kidding. Maybe.
- Get a load of Obama's beast.
- Oh nooooes, renting a movie is just too hard for some.
- The Social Path lists emerging careers of 2009.
- MTLB's gas-related wisdom.
- Eyewear for the poor.
More specifically, it wants its couches and desks and bedroom sets and carpets and oblong dishware inside the White House. (See concept design for the Oval Office, which doesn't so much say "President" as it does "patriotic single mom with puppy and kindergartener.")
And by adopting the "Change" message that worked so well for Obama, it hopes you'll help achieve its goal. Witness and wince while it slathers Washington, DC's Union Station with bright yellow propaganda:
o "The time for domestic reform is NOW!" (At left.)
o "Fiscally responsible home furnishings FOR ALL!"
o "Change Begins AT HOME!"
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John McCain hopes to reshape the Republican party -- and reignite his supporter base -- using the same social media tools that betrayed their obsolescence.
But Country First, launched with help from the same web consultants that helped him lose his campaign for POTUS, is no contest to Change.gov, the Obama administration's way of keeping people involved with government at a granular level. It currently does little more than solicit donations with cheap euphemisms ("Become a charter member!") while pushing a smarmy, superficial "McCain loves America!" video -- which can neither be embedded nor shared.
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One Chicago-based furniture store is happy to admit it sells more seats than Governor Blagojevich -- and at a better rate, to boot.
High-la-rious. But oh, does it beat Virgin Mobile's technicolor spin on Spitzer?
This holiday, Brew Creative decided to forego that "we're donating to charity!" crap that other agencies are doing and cut right to the good stuff. Here's a mash-up of all the depressing political soundbytes we were all subjected to this year.
If nothing else, let this knowledge fill your heart: our government makes so many warped promises that our interests are bound to be met at least some of the time, so keep right on coasting along and eating bacon.
Probably the best thing about this effort is the ability to sift through a broad array of disconnected soundbytes and make your own "message of hope." Politico quotables are divided between "Phrases" and "Connecting words." Good times.
Mashup features provided with help from Sevnthsin.
Straight out of advertising's Book of Awkward Moments comes this Thanksgiving-themed commercial for Georgia Senator Saxby Chambliss who, after giving thanks and offering prayer for President Bush, President-Elect Obama and the troops, gives his granddaughter a very creepy chest grope.
Creepy as that move might be, it's made even creepier by the two grand kids who utter "...and vote for my big daddy." With the commercial just dripping with overtones of family value, the ending is a bit shocking. Even more shocking is the fact no one noticed Chambliss' awkward hand movement before the commercial hit the airwaves.
Under its classic slogan "There is always a clever mind behind it," German paper The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung is running a campaign depicting various "clever minds." At left is UN Chief Inspector Mohamed ElBaradei in a state of exceptional transparency.
Hmm. What he needs is a red nose. Then we'd really have a party.
See variants for Billy Wilder, Helmut Kohl and Vitali Klitschko. All smart stuff, comparable to some of the better work we've seen for The Economist and BusinessWeek.
Photos by Nick Veasey. Curiouser still? See making-of and interview with ElBaradei.
- Transport for London spoofs Clue for cyclist awareness.
- Obama does fireside chat thing via YouTube.
- The churches are sorry. (But a billboard with italic print may not be enough for some.)
- Guerrilla naughty.
- Will businesses have to pay per tweet?
- Rallying for Starbucks. (TBH, I'm running out of faith.)
- The Matrix Runs on Windows. George Parker says CP+B should listen up.
- Snazzy new Vespa site. Includes big green section on Vespanomics. Um, yay...?
It merits saying that there are plenty of countries where people don't get as nuts as we do when ads zero in on race. But I still felt an "arrrg" rise to my throat when I saw these pieces for ChromaWhite TRX Skin Brightener, Dermalogica India.
The text at left reads "America's future looks bright, thanks to a black." Above the caption is the bust of a suspiciously white-washed Obama.
Thanks for the unsolicited commentary on our election, but what the fuck, guys? How does news of the States blackwashing the White House promote your skin whitening product?
Variant: "There are times when black can go to white." Okay, I'm not even touching that one.
Put together by the politically earnest cats at IBD Brands, India.
UPDATE: After this article had been live for a few hours, the guy who sent us this work apologized for any cultural misunderstanding and claimed the creative was just spec. And having sent us the material in the first place, he even tried insisting his agency didn't do it. (The creative credits appeared right below the work in the original email.) In separate IMs, he went on to say he doesn't work for the agency at all, and a mystery person from IBD sent it to him.
Dear IBD Brands Dude: We're typically really nice about this kind of thing, but you've done this more than once. If this was an honest mistake, here's a tip: don't get cocky and send us material your client hasn't approved.
If you simply can't take flak for doing a sub-par job, get the hell out of this business.
- Be a GAMER. Made of steel. Video game school will show you how.
- The US Army is using webcasts by overseas soldiers to bait new recruits. The series is called -- wait for it! -- "Straight from Iraq." Soldiers are ready to take your questions.
- Keep up with Advergirl's social manifesto on how companies are using social media. It's illustrated!
- To remind us all how with-it and un-stodgy it is, Microsoft (I guess?) sends rats skydiving. Sick 'em, PETA.
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by Angela Natividad
Nov-11-08
Comments (3)
Topic: Agencies, Brands, Campaigns, Cause, Guerilla, Online, Opinion, Political, Promotions, Research, Strange
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