American Apparel Snatches Tutorial Market Away from Teens with Web Cams

American Apparel is using YouTube to push a series of tutorials that teach all the different ways you can wear Le Sac, a versatile little sheath with string.

The vids are short, clean and to-the-point. Certainly helps that the demonstrator is easy to look at and listen to. (Can't help going there, but we speculate whether the Infamous Dov ever tried copping a feel. It's an unpleasant thought.)

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British PSA Razes Perception About Mental Disorders

"Schizophrenic Man Terrifies Kids at Party" is a YouTube piece released by English mental health charities Mind and Rethink under their "Time to Change" campaign. We like how it plays on our expectation of crass amateur video fare to illustrate two important messages:

o That people with mental disorders can function in society
o That retaining the stereotype of the off-the-hinge crazy person is counterproductive for everyone involved

It also reminded us that as kids, we were always screamy-scared about stuff we couldn't see, however facile or harmless said "stuff" actually was. And then, lightbulb moment, it was like hey, tripping out about schizophrenia is kind of like that.

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Don't Be Fooled by the Desperation; Jack is Not a Nice Guy.

Australia's ANZ Small Business tapped M&C Saatchi to develop an ad both funny and sympathetic to its target demo: small business owners.

That doesn't sound like tons of fun, so we didn't expect it to be, especially when we saw the length of the clip: 1:40? And in sepia? Why not force our eyes open with steel rods, too?

The spot itself starts out innocuously enough: a suited man is walking down the street, somebody calls his name: "Jack!" He starts to run. As the spot progresses, the variety of people -- butchers, mechanics, a Chinese restaurant owner -- that catch sight of him and give chase increases, adding to the dramatic tension and making way for a few semi-amusing stunt scenes. You lazily wonder what the punchline is.

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Learn MySpace Profile Cheats from the Bloody, the Undead and the Occasional Witch

How completely insane. Here is a series of videos that purport to teach you how various indie emo hipster-looking people achieve their MySpace profile pic angles.

Sounds innocuous enough. Even seems to promise a spirited joke or two: how does the Crooked Bathed-in-Light guy get his gooseneck lamp to cast just right?

Click on one to view the how-to. What you discover is that each person, or group, is actually a disfigured or terrifying zombie/witch/monster thing. Then you're walked pragmatically through the process of how they covered blemishes and used various cheats on their cameras to make themselves as MySpace-worthy (and, uh, human-looking) as possible.

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Because It's Never Too Soon to Put the Pasties on Penny.

We were thinking the other day about all the technological advances that happened with dolls when were kids: the kind with the hair you could cut that grows back, or the one whose hair changed colour when you ran a cold hairbrush through it, or -- our personal favourite -- the one that pissed into a changeable cloth diaper! after suckling real fluid from a bottle.

So maybe Spanish doll maker Berjuan is adding a logical cobblestone to what's already a long illustrious tradition. Still, this demonstration for Bebe Gloton, a doll little girls can pretend to breastfeed, left us suffering from WTF Face.

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Even in Death, Obama Girl Remains Selflessly Political

In what could, for some, be considered poetic justice, Barely Political contributes to the untimely-yet-prolonged death of its charmingest Frankenstein Monster: Obama Girl.

Amidst a campy new jingle and some ass-wiggling with a faux Republican, a reluctant Obama Girl -- recently informed that she's cheated vindictive Death -- is thrown into a wall of knives. The resulting perversion of a quaint Victorian pastime gives her the chance to perform something most actors salivate for: a death scene.

The chill demeanour she maintains, even as life leaks unconvincingly out of her sternum, is a tribute to our casually jaded generation. She even gets a dandy little healthcare message in.

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Levi's Panders to Frat Heads with American Mockumentaries

Taking a break from its role as ad land's mouthpiece for the American adolescent's collective wet dream, Levi's partnered with Break to bring forth "Stories of a New America."

This is supposed to be the more relatable version of its frontiersy-sounding "Go forth" campaign. Hit a point on a rust-coloured US map to watch, oddly enough, mockumentaries of American pastimes.

There's currently only one pinpoint, a video for the "Manhattan Beach Six Man Volleyball Tournament." Composed of co-ed teams playing volleyball in costume, the California (?) based pseudo-event is supported by inspired quotes like "this is the one setting where people can get away with wearing as least as possible."

And of course you have guys dressed like Smurfs. Just think of the whole thing as a less interesting version of ING's Bay to Breakers, populated with characters from The Hills.

OfficeMax Pranks, Sausage Titillates, Bikinis Stimulate

- OfficeMax is out with even more Penny Pranks foolery. They've added seven videos featuring improv actor Matt McCarthy and a "billionaire" boy who attempt to buy expensive items with pennies.

- The UK's Mattison's has got itself in trouble with the Advertising Standards Authority over some suggestive sausage ads. But come on. You can't even say the word sausage without conjuring some sort of innuendo so why try to regulate it?

- Yawn. Women wearing bikinis read Star Wars script to pimp 1690 Swimwear.

- it's official and it's sad. Vogue's September issue has 36 percent fewer ad pages this year.

Text This: Don't Text And Drive

This is probably not what you want to watch on a Monday morning but it will most certainly make you think twice before trying to text and drive. In two parts (one, two), the movie follows the story of four girls, a tragic accident and the pain the accident leaves in its wake. It will make you cry. And it's even more emotionally gut wrenching than this one which will tear you up as well.

It was created for the school Tredgar Comprehensive and the Gwent Police. The United Kingdom most certainly wins the award for the most dramatic "drive safely" commercials in the world.

Samsung Offers Photo Tips Hoping You'll Buy Their Cameras

Well here's an interesting way to pimp a a new video: "We've not pushed these out to any websites - just a hushed public launch, because they're so heavily branded and we don't want people to feel like we're trying to trick them in to watching the campaign"

Fair enough. So the video is for Samsung and it's actually six videos in one. Each video displays the magic of Samsung cameras' ability to transform subjects into, well, something other than they really are. And that's a good thing. Some of these subjects are pretty creepy.

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