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Chevy Plays Taxi Cab Confessions With College Students

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In what is sure to prompt all manner of debauchery, Chevy is bringing back its Aveo Livin' Large promotion to college students. this in time in the form of the Chevy Aveo5 Livin' Large College Cab. Students on six college campuses are filmed in the back of the Aveo5 College Cab as they go to class, the dorms or to parties. They then have seven days to get as many people to view their video as possible. The most viewed video from each school will compete in a final round of competition where the students in the video with the most votes at the end of the five days win brand new Aveo5s of their own.

by Steve Hall    Oct- 2-08   Comments ()    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Online, Promotions, Social, Video

Don't Be Fooled, It's a 'Super-Tasting Bird.'

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Visit the Chocolate Steam Dream Machine to make your own Cadbury chocolate bar. If the parrot -- yes, there's a parrot -- likes what you made, he might send you the candy bar you created. If you live in the UK, that is.

Cute. I actually feel like having chocolate now, but not because the idea of a free almond/apple/banana bar is particularly appetizing.

It's that rich purple packaging. Something about it just primes me for a Cadbury cream-filled wonder.

by Angela Natividad    Oct- 2-08   Comments ()    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Brands, Online, Promotions

VIFF Turns Camera Eye to Film Festival Audience

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"I was immediately attracted to the idea of turning the movie screen into a kind of mirror to the audience," says Chris Hutsul of Soft Citizen, referring to the spots he directed for the Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF).

They're smart, funny and unexpectedly existential -- but also familiar, because you see yourself in each of these snapshots: your rage at late-coming friends, your perplexity toward abstract cinema, or the way some foreign films turn you into an overthinking, turtleneck-sporting douchebag. With a ponytail.

o The Overanalyzer
o The Foreign Film
o The Seat-Saver
o The Front Row
o The First Question
o The Die Hard

They end neatly -- gratefully, even -- with the words "We're glad you're here." (So glad, in fact, that they -- meaning VIFF -- have also given you a game to play. It's an amusing one-time distraction, enough of an experience to leave you feeling good, post-chortle.)

Agency: TBWA/Vancouver. Soft Citizen produced, Secret Location assisted with interactive production.

by Angela Natividad    Oct- 1-08   Comments ()    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Commercials, Events, Games, Good, Online, Promotions, Television

St. Pauli Girl Creates Dilemma With St. Pauli Girl Vote

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For the first time in its 31 year history, St. Pauli Girl is letting the public choose its new St. Pauli Girl and in doing so has created a dilemma of epic proportion. How does one choose the hottest of the hot when the hottest are, well, already the hottest? Teaming with Maxim, St. Pauli Girl has anointed four finalists and is asking the public to make the final determination as to which of the four will become the new St. Pauli Girl.

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by Steve Hall    Oct- 1-08   Comments (1)    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Brands, Promotions

Stock Photo Faux-Viral Attracts Bloggers, But Not Corbis

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Everyone that starts an agency has a dream account -- a client that, upon winning its business, validates your ability to both create and persuade.

Corbis is that dream for General Projects, a just-launched design shop that wooed its prospective client with Schtock.com.

Schtock is really flippin' cool. Each time you reload the site, you see a random, totally abstract image. When you click on the "About the image" tab, you'll find each one was composed of many stock photos. The work at left, for example, is called "Emo." Here's how many stock photos it took to produce it.

The site blog claims Schtock is the lovechild of someone at "a major stock photo company," putting illicit use to imagery that see nothing but the cutting-room floor. "Corbis" isn't mentioned outright, but all the photos can be found on Corbis's image search.

more »

by Angela Natividad    Oct- 1-08   Comments ()    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Agencies, Brands, Good, Online, Promotions, Strange, Viral

Tourists Promote PA Tourism

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Red Tettemer's launched "PA Stories," a campaign where Pennsylvania tourists tell other tourists their memorable Pennsylvania story.

That sounds cheesy, facile and unoriginal, but the execution was surprisingly good. (Thankfully, the urge to recruit nothing but bloggers was resisted this time.)

At left is "Bonnie Appleseed," the epic story of the best apple bobber off the Dutch Country Roads. Also see "Sticky Situation," about a blind date that takes place in Abay; "Stag Party," where a newlywed husband gets stripped by an elk; and this cute little billboard, "Wildlife and Shopping."

Ex-tourists can submit other stories at Visit PA.

by Angela Natividad    Oct- 1-08   Comments ()    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Good, Outdoor, Promotions

Got 48 Seconds? Enter Embarq's Video Contest, Win $5,000

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Calling all out of work, starving creatives! Wait, that would be discrimination or something and we don't do that in this industry, right? So I guess even working creatives are welcome too. iCrossing has created 48 Seconds, a video contest for its client Embarq, an internet, satellite, wireless and phone provider. As expected, some of the videos are crap. Others surprise. Here's a nice one of a guy painting a mural of the Joker.

Why is the contest called 48 seconds? Because, with Embarq internet service, web pages will load 48 seconds faster than dial up, not that anyone's actually on dial up anymore but still.

so if you need a little extra cash and you think youu can do better than all those consumer generated idiots out there, enter the contest and show the world how "real" creative is done.

by Steve Hall    Sep-30-08   Comments (1)    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Good, Online, Promotions, Video

Sony Gets Its James Bond On with Mission for a Million

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Bond. James Bond. Yes, he's back for another adrenalin-fueled adventure this November and, yes, brands are lining up to get a piece of the action. Sony, with a promotion called Mission for Millions, offers people the chance to win $1 million by playing in which they are tasked with recovering stolen HDNA molecules.

Supporting the contest will be all the usual suspects, a Facebook page, a mainstream media ad campaign, storefront displays and an online campaign.

by Steve Hall    Sep-30-08   Comments ()    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Games, Promotions

'I Know a Lotta Ex-Homosexuals.'

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"I know a lotta ex-straight guys too!"

At left is a promotional poster for Regent Releasing's Saving Marriage, a documentary that chronicles the two-year political odyssey leading to gay couples' right to wed in Massachusetts.

See trailer.

Set against a Pepto Bismol-pink background, a white car sports a "Just Married" wreath and cans on string. Clearly some couple had a happy day.

more »

by Angela Natividad    Sep-30-08   Comments (1)    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Campaigns, Outdoor, Poster, Promotions, Trends and Culture

Animation Site Plugged with Kitten-Killing Game

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Got a minute to kill and a lust for destruction? Take time out for Suicide Kittens, a strategy game where you play a kitten and the objective is to get shot, preferably by your own laser beam.

It gets surprisingly complicated.

I stayed alive too long in level 4, which landed me a big fat GAME OVER, after which I was invited to check out 4mations.tv, a just-launched site for deliciously sophomoric animators.

The funniest thing about this effort, though, were the game tags: suicide, kittens, lasers, and trigonometry...?

By Rubber Republic/London.

by Angela Natividad    Sep-25-08   Comments (1)    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Games, Good, Online, Promotions

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