This year, there seems to be a fascination with the flushing of toilets during halftime. Like the obsession with national toilet flush stats following M*A*S*H, Scott tissue will leverage the notion that all 90 million Super Bowl viewers will collectively go to the bathroom at the same time with the launch of Halftime Flush, a site touting the dissolvability of Scott toilet paper. On the site, Mike Ditka lends his intense convicibility to Scott's superior toilet tissue and a game allows visitors to match toilets to their flushing sounds. OK, so bathroom humor is always a good standby but we like VIA's simpler approach to the whole halftime flush thing.
Using the home shopping network approach to selling an AK-47, the Amnesty International Protect the Human cause has released a humorous but convincing video that claims the world's arms trade is out of control and calls for governments to sign the Arms Trade Agreement. The video was created by Mother London.
A tipster has brought to our attention an odd association between the McKinney Silver-created Pherotones campaign and the release of Stephen King's new novel, Cell. While the Pherotones promotion may have something to do with McKinney Silver telecommunications client Qwuest, Stephen King's new novel most certainly has to do with telecommunication - tones sent through cell phones that turn people into flesh-eating zombies. In fact, King's book is being juiced with a cell phone-related promotion of its own.
Hmm, you say? Perhaps it's just a coincidence. Perhaps McKinney doesn't keep up on all things Stephen King. Or, though an unrealistic but intriguing stretch, the Pherotones campaign is a promotion for King's new novel. Nah.
So we've all seen those images of the Burger King with Brooke Burke Crispin Porter + Bogusky thrust upon us a while ago. Now, there's videos. There's a video of the King and Burke riding up the seashore Planet of the Apes-style and another of the two laying together catching some sun and taking a walk.
We in the editorial department of Adrants are saddened to note our advertising department has, against our better judgment, decided to accept an ad promoting the much-maligned Pherotones campaign from McKinney-Silver. While we understand advertising supports this site and, generally, makes the world go 'round, our pompous rantings at the doorway of our sales director were brushed off with a quick "go pointlessly bitch about another lame viral campaign. They pay for your ass, you idiot!" Our ego bruised, it is with our utmost apologies, dear readers, that we subject you to the hypocrisy Adrants has thrust upon you.
In yet another clandestine viral effort, it appears North Carolina agency McKinney has cooked up a viral marketing campaign promoting Pherotones, ring tones that, apparently, cause sexual attraction. While the site is obviously a joke, a little snooping around reveals it's a marketing ploy. From a fake Wikipedia listing that's been labeled suspect to fake interviews with Boing Boing to suspicious Whois info to all sort of IP address foolery, clearly, McKinney is up to no good.
We're sure all the McKinney folks are huddled around their computers today laughing at all of us writing about their cute little effort, waiting patiently for the right moment to reveal the client behind this ploy. While you're all reading this you sneaky little McKinney truth-benders, remember, people don't like liars. The law doesn't like doctors who aren't doctors claiming they are doctors and, ever so coincidentally, BuzzAgent, the former master of deception, just released a study that says people hate stealth marketing, are offended when lied to and, get this, a brand fares far better when all is honestly presented upfront than when it's not. Do your homework guys. The days of trickster marketing are over.
OK, OK. So it is a little funny after it sinks in. Still blatantly dishonest.
UPDATE: I knew I had seen that doctor image somewhere before. Smartly, McKinney has placed a BlogAds campaign increasing the likelihood bloggers will go easy on the campaign. They forgot to buy Adrants though:-)
Hoping to cash in on a bit of Numa Numa and William Hung viral fame, Sprint has launched a knowingly goofy video clip in which a bunch of guys get all jiggy with themselves in an attempt somehow...that's it...sell phones! That's right. Sprint has seeded the goofy video which points to gothookedup.com, a site that promotes Sprint's mobile entertainment services it feels are far more entertaining than lame online video clips. It's a nice sort of nudge-wink effort that does it's thing without being clandestine about it. Whether it goes anywhere, only Sprint will know.
Capitalizing on Friday the 13th fears, Greenpeace, through The Viral Chart, has released an online video (here too) that, with compelling imagery, claims building more nuclear plants is an invitation to terrorists 911-style. Sarah North, head of Greenpeace's nuclear campaign, said, "Millions of people could die as a result of a terrorist attack on a nuclear plant. This is a totally unacceptable risk. This film shows that building new nuclear power stations is a catastrophic gift to terrorists."
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Perhaps we should consider being a bit less jaded around the Adrants offices since it seems to be causing us to ignore what, at times, turns out to be a pretty good story. A day or two ago, like many other people, we received some strange images of Brooke Burke with the Burger King king and we figured...screw it...just another one of the hundreds of pieces of crap passing through the bloated Adrants Inbox so we, religiously, deleted them and went on with our day. Now, we see AdFreak put one of the pix up and has pointed to some sites that have combined the images to hokey music. Well, once you have more than one offbeat image it simply has to be...yup...yet another Burger King viral effort from the beloved Crispin Porter + Bogusky.
Because of our overly jaded viewpoint, we apologize for bringing you sloppy seconds but, even Adrants has to suck once in a while, right? So enjoy. There's are image/music collages here and here. And here's a collection of the images over at Buzznet. We promise to check our jaded pompousity at the door each morning now and be sure to look twice when we receive these witty viral teasers. Of course, we could have been right all along and this really is just a bunch of random Burger King, Brooke Burke pix.
We make no claims as the the recency of this little clip promoting Village Voice classifieds with a bunch of hipster wannabes but we were a little freaked out by the masked, dancing fat guy at the end. The "Click Right. Think Left" tagline is great though.
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