Ads:
We love when we get little tipster emails from people that say things like "Thought you should check out this new site..." and "Viral marketing at its best" because, inevitably, it's not and we relish the opportunity to squat down and dump all over it like a 400 pound slob who's just had an enema. This, unfortunately, is not one of those times. This viral, and we do call it viral because we're sure it's been paid for or influenced by The Coffee Bean, follows the antics of three roommates as they terrorize a fourth who is a mascot called Mr. Ice Blended for West Coast-based The Coffee Bean.
The site, Masot Roomate, has a bunch of videos that show the guys pulling various pranks on the mascot from attacking him on the job, impersonating him, placing his hands down their pants and mascot mascotnapping him. Without fail, all the guys have MySpace profiles which look like they were all recently created and, for the most part, all have the same friends. In another section. Another section of the site, called "5 mascots we wouldn't ever fuck with" explains why the Kool-Ais Man, The Fruit of the Loom Guys, Grimace, McGruff the Crime Dawg and The San Diego Chicken are off limits. Only an unleashed creative type would obsess over these icons and write such lines as, "I spent my formative years with my junk cradled in the safe confines of their white cottony briefs" about the Fruit of the Loom Guys.
more »
We are tired. So tired. Tired of typing the words "Burger King," "Chicken" and "Crispin Porter + Bogusky." But, it is our duty, as one who conveys the latest in advertising goodies, to tell you that, yes, CP+B has launched yet another chicken-themed campaign to promote Burger King Chicken sandwiches. We've seen everything from the Whopperettes to CoqRoq to Subservient Chicken to Big Buckin' Chicken. Now, there's this site called Huckin' Chicken on which a guy in a chicken suit does increasingly more daring motorcycle stunts based on how many people visit the site. It's a nice twist on a viral campaign but maybe CP+B should just move on to Big Fuckin' Chicken and close the book on the man in a chicken suit approach to selling sandwiches. Oh wait, there's still Suckin' Chicken to endure.
Adland points us to a fetish-focused site for electronics distributor Cosmos on which the usual arty images of perfect males and female bodies are adorned with links to products available from Cosmos. What this has to do with selling technology we don't know but, oh wait. Silly us. Sorry. We lost the mantra for a moment there. OK, now it's back. Sex sells. Sex sells. Sex sells. Repeat after us. Sex sells. Sex sells. Sex sells. OK, we feel better now. Sorry for that brief lapse in knowledge on our part. We'll try not to let it happen again. There is some nudity on the site.
In what BBDO Canada calls inventive, the agency has created a campaign for Pepsi's Pepsi Access Canada, a site that provides people with "access to ultra exclusive music, downloads, concerts, merchandise and events." To promote the site, BBDO Canada seeded will seed (although BBDO, as of June 8, says the client has not yet given approval) peer to peer sites like Acquisition and Kazaa with MP3s that appear to be unreleased tracks from major artists but when the user downloads the song, this (removed from YouTube at the request of BBDO Canada) is what they hear. Basically, BBDO and Pepsi are tricking people into believing they are downloading new music when, in fact, they are downloading an ad promoting Pepsi and its association with really cutting edge groups like...oh...INXS which almost may have been cutting edge about 20 years ago.
Anyway, less "inventive" are several (1, 2, 3, 4) ads BBDO created to promote the site which humorously follow the actions of a couple guys as they try to obtain access to popular Canadian groups such as Kardinal Offishal, Swollen Members, and Dashboard Confessional.
UPDATE: The MP3 file that was to have been seeded has been removed from YouTube at the request of BBDO Canada who claims (or had to based on the choices YouTube provides when a cancellation request is made) they were used without permission even though they were sent to us by someone from BBDO Canada to be featured here on Adrants. Twisted. Consequently, because of this and other companies who have sent in content and then had other entities with the company or partner companies make complaints, our YouTube account has been closed. With bandwidth constraints in mind, we'll host what we can here or we will rely on the marketer/agency to host things themselves. The frustrating thing here is everyone wants there work seen by everyone - and we want to show it - until those nasty usage fees and other issues come into play.
UPDATE II: We've been told the file that will be seeded has not yet been approved by Pepsi and that is why BBDO Canada asked YouTube to remove the file and has asked us to clarify that here.
Appearing to be some sort of lung capacity test for cancer prevention, an officious sounding woman instructs visitors to Lungster how to conduct an online lung capacity test using a microphone or headset. The test calls for the visitor to blow as hard as they can into their microphone or headset to determine lung capacity. But, midway through the test, visitors are interrupted and told, well, just take the test yourself to find out. It's worth it.
The site was created by McCann Norway.
Here's a whacked, little microsite for James Ready beer that involves monkeys, an image of your face and lots of monkey noises. It's all promoting cases of James Ready 5.5 which are available for $24. Cundari created the work.
Coolzor points to a MobuzzTV report that explains all those weird websites on which two guys with green hats promise multiple countries they'll support their football team rather than their own. Of course, something this silly always turns out to be a viral marketing campaign and, in fact this is just that. Heineken built all these sites and then unveiled the whole thing last month in a video in which everyone wore a green hat to a game. Mirroring the strict Olympic-style brand police attendees slipped by security with the hat only to, en mass, remove the hats from their heads and transofrm the thing into a branded Heineken megaphone. Now this is some cool marketing.
Pokerroom.com has released a couple of videos intended to go viral to promote its services. One illustrates the importance of having a good hand. The other, the sex one (you knew there was going to be at least one of those) speaks to the importance of position. Both are good. The one that talks about having a good hand is the better one though, Yes, we did just say the non-sex one is better than the sex one.
In a clever bit of marketing, SanDisk has launched a site called iDon't to promote its new Sansea e200 MP3 player. The approach is a snipe at the ubiquitous iPod and features links to other anti-iPod sites as well as schwag, posters, templates and chat icons, all of which carry the iDon't anti-iPod message. Of course, to be complete, there's a weblog on which Da Sheep Herder will continue to spread the iDon't propaganda. No that anything's going to knock the iPod out of its top spot but this is, by far, the best marketing effort to have taken on the iPod. The site must be making the rounds because it just became unavailable. Perhaps it's on the receiving end of come Boing Boing, Digg, Fark, Slashdot action.
When it comes to promoting Coke Light in Brussels, they don't sign some random pop star to perform canned dance moves, they go out and film real people doing real dance moves and let others create their own dance moves on a website that collects all these dance moves. On the sitem you can watch dance clips or upload your photo onto a random body and create your own dance clip. Predictably. most are amateurishly bad but, then again, people love to see themselves on camera and send them to their friends so I guess this could work.
|
|
