Hart+Larson Offers Kate Moss Job, Gets Haircut

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After wooing Neil French with a job offer, Hart+Larson, milking the buzz train, is now after Kate Moss promising her a chance to "take off her Choos and lie back, relax and think." She's also promised Hart+Larson will "play Twister together and then head outside to drink Coke on the stoop." There's also a video, called 14 and Wow, which, we're quite sure, has some inner meaning but, currently, it escapes us. Lastly, Hart+Larson asks Kate, and everyone else, to contact the agency at womendocokesodoweexiletheonceidealized@hartlarsson. Fun

by Steve Hall    Nov- 2-05    
Topic: Agencies, Online, Spoofs, Viral



ThermaSilk Does Dress-The-Hottie Thing

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For the Ashlee Simpson generation, Unilever's hair care product ThermaSilk is being promoted, in Canada, with a microsite called Hit On My Guy, a dress-the-hottie site where women can create the man of their dreams all while subtly being branded with ThermaSilk. Like all dress-me sites, there's a send to a friend feature and a sweepstakes to win gift certificates, an iPod Shuffle and ThermaSilk products. It's basic. It's straight forward. Maybe it will sell some product along the way. If not, there's will, at least, be a bunch of freaky looking hotties floating from inbox to inbox.

by Steve Hall    Nov- 2-05    
Topic: Online, Viral



Mystery Virals Shill Mystery Swedish Food

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Adrants reader John sends in a couple of virals (one, two) that appear to be for Swedish health food maker Risenta. The videos feature a provincially dressed guy spouting his love for his mother country and all things Swedish. In the first video, he finds a Rezento snack and in the second he harasses a woman with the snack telling her she simply has to try it because it's so healthy. Mildly amusing but if these are for an actual food company, they're sort of pointless unless it's a bit more clear what they're actually about. Call us dumb but we like to know what we're being told.

UPDATE: We have been clued in. While we searched and search and searched, Google didn't like our spelling of Risenta so we were at a loss. Commenter Joe pointed us to the right place.

by Steve Hall    Oct-31-05    
Topic: Strange, Viral



Slate Ponders CP+B's Role in Burger King Halloween Mask Hype

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In a Slate article Seth Stevenson ponders the notion Burger King agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky orchestrated the Burger King Halloween mask hype which involved emails inquiring where the mask could be bought, a thread on Fark in which the mask was parodied and a BK Masks site was launched by CP + B around the same time. Coincidence? We don't think so.

Adrants reader doesn't think so either and wrote us, "Lets say CP+B were the farksters of the King. Funny, but is it legal? Can an agency Fark a marketing tool, and then profit by selling masks for Halloween? Although a bit shiesty, this seems to bob and weave around any kind of direct profiteering via manipulated personal likenesses, intellectual property, etc. But sending faux-inquiries about the masks to Slate? I realize that the inquiries where only that- inquiries, not hard sells. But the level of shrewdness here gets under my skin. I know this isn't anything new; advertisers have been playing the fool in chat rooms for years. But Slate is a major news source. It makes me angry."

Anyone want to add their comment?

by Steve Hall    Oct-26-05    
Topic: Agencies, Brands, Opinion, Viral



Ehealthinsurance Makes Insurance Fun

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It's a known fact there's nothing fun about health insurance. What with referrals, co-pays, "this is covered but that isn't" insanities and wallet-busting monthly premiums, insurance needs all the help it can get. eHealthInsurance hopes to help with a new online promotion, called Am I Covered, which features an animated series featuring the Wyndales, the "lovable, yet klutzy family with whom all Americans can identify." Led by Percy Wyndale, family patriarch and certified klutz, the adventures of the Wyndale family brings humor back to the insurance game.

The campaign was created by marketing agency RSA and Truelight Entertainment and used artists and producers from The Simpsons, King of the Hill, Dilbert and Ren and Stimpy.

by Steve Hall    Oct-25-05    
Topic: Online, Viral



Cheerioke Introduces Yogurt Burst Cheerios

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Sanj points to General Mills which has created Cheerioke, a karaoke site on which people can choose there character, style them, change their physical features then sing along to the provided music and send the thing to a friend. The site promotes the new Yogurt Burst Cheerios and uses Oddcast's virtual host technology.

by Steve Hall    Oct-25-05    
Topic: Online, Viral



Teaser And Stealth Marketing Tactics Explored

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After receiving an email from Banu Sen of Publicis Net Paris telling us about a viral teaser trailer created to promote a new online game which would feature car maker Renault and that a fake game company and fake website where created and disseminated to bloggers as part of the promotion, a lengthy email exchange with Ben ensued regarding the buzz phrase of the day, transparency. Transparency is the notion that all marketing, especially that which comes through buzz, viral and word of mouth channels, be fully forthcoming with what brand is behind the campaign.

Clearly, with fake company names and websites, this was not transparent. However, during our discussion, in which, at first, I was quite surprised a major agency like Publicis and a major car maker like Renault would engage in fakery such as this given the recent uproar over buzz and word of mouth marketers and their associations calling for transparency, I realized it's really nothing more than your standard teaser campaign which has been around forever. There's a fine line, though, between a teaser campaign and a misleading campaign. The prior always, at some point reveals its identity which this Renault campaign does. The latter, which uses stealth methods like the recent U.S. Cellular blue man fiasco or an army of 250,000 teenagers who may or may not reveal their association with the large word of mouth company for whom they work.

Publicis and Renault has done nothing wrong here. Not that anyone is saying they did. Though in the face of transparency insanity, the discussion was worth having.

by Steve Hall    Oct-25-05    
Topic: Online, Opinion, Viral, Word of Mouth



Gambling Viral Thanks God For Football

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Wicked Chops points to a viral campaign for online gambling site Bodog which consists of three outlandish videos involving unlikely wagers all which close with "Thank God There's Football...So We Can Bet On Things That Really Matter"

by Steve Hall    Oct-20-05    
Topic: Viral



TBS Gives Us Seinfeld Serenity Now

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Here's a little viral micro-promo, called Serenity Now, for the TBS re-run of Seinfeld riffing on the series' use of the term, "serenity now.:

by Steve Hall    Oct-19-05    
Topic: Cable, Viral



Punk-Ass Stroller Babies Promote Game

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Promoting its new street racing game, LA Rush, Midway Games has launched a viral, called Pimp My PushChair, created by Maverick, which has a couple of "punk-ass motherfucking" street-wise babies bustin' on each other's bling in their tricked-out strollers. Enough said.

by Steve Hall    Oct-19-05    
Topic: Viral