McDonald's Promotion Serves Up Virus-Infected MP3 Players

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As part of a McDonald's Japan promotion, the burger giant, along with Coke, gave away 10,000 MP3 players to those who purchased specially marked cups of Coke. Unfortunately, the MP3 players were infested with QQPass, a piece of spyware, that, once connected to people's PCs, allowed hackers access to passwords and other personal information. McDonald's issued a public apology and a recall for the infected MP3 players. It's unclear whether the company made any restitution for any data lost by those who were infected.

by Steve Hall    Oct-16-06    
Topic: Mobile/Wireless, Promotions, Worst



Dove Illustrates Why Perception of Beauty is Distorted

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When we as an industry set out to create a beautiful ad, we tend to sometimes let our creativity and this thing called Photoshop run amock. Clearly demonstrating this penchant and fixation for beautifying everything in our path is this Dove commercial - created by Ogilvy Toronto and produced by Reginald Pike - in which an average looking woman is, first, subjected to intense physical makeover and then intense digital makeover turning her into the very familiar but very unreal woman we see gracing the pages of magazines and as subject matter for our advertising.

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by Steve Hall    Oct-16-06    
Topic: Brands, Commercials, Creative Commentary, Good, Opinion



Marketers Discover Too Late Gen Y Doesn't Look at Ads

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Uh-oh. Guess now is a bad time to figure this out, considering social networks seem like rabid acquisitions that go for a pretty penny - like, gazillions of pretty pennies at a time.

But did we actually need to tell you this? Were you really ever under the impression all those ads slathered across MySpace's site were achieving anything? There's only one way to market on MySpace: save some money, throw together a somewhat clever site, and whore yourself out to where the eyeballs really go - the Top 8. - Contributed by Angela Natividad

by Angela Natividad    Oct-16-06    
Topic: Online, Research, Trends and Culture



Advance Screening of New Sony Bravia Ad Midnight Tonight

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While everyone is waiting until Tuesday at 8:35PM GMT (Tuesday 4:35PM EST) to see the much anticipated Sony Bravia ad which, in reality, has already been available in un-produced, amateur video form (like this one) for some time now, something tells us if you check out the Sony Bravia Advert site slightly after midnight EST tonight (Monday), you'll have a 16:35 hour head start on everyone else. See? We do deliver the goods from time to time.

UPDATE: It's up now (7:30ish PM EST) and it's good. Though some of the mid-air paint explosions look quite fake, we're not complaining.

by Steve Hall    Oct-16-06    
Topic: Commercials, Video



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Napster Continues Stripper Fetish

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Continuing its fixation with strippers and their apparent ability to convey Napster's marketing message, the once free-for-all now pay-for-all music service has trotted out yet another stripper to illustrate just how bad the iTunes buck-a-song premise is compared to Napster's all you can eat offering. We suppose the analogy works. After all, no one really wants to own a stripper. They just want to rent one for a little while until they're...well...finished.

by Steve Hall    Oct-16-06    
Topic: Good, Online, Promotions, Racy, Video



Super Hero Goes Splat in UK Alcohol Education Campaign

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Well now here's something to brighten up your Monday morning. Just as soon as your getting comfortable watching some strange super hero attempt to retrieve a party girl's balloons which have just flown away, the super hero turns out to be something entirely different: a stupid drunk. It 's all part of a UK-based campaign from the Home Office and Department of Health to educate people on alcohol's wondrous ability to make one both invincible and vulnerable all at the same time.

by Steve Hall    Oct-16-06    
Topic: Commercials, Good



Juliet Lewis Goes Nuts, Justin Timberlake Botches Danish

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MTV is hyping its MTV Europe Music Awards in Copenhagen hosted by Justin Timberlake and its Backstage show hosted by Juliette Lewis and the Lick with a series of videos in which Justin botches the Danish language, Juliet smashes a computer while logging on and another in which she tells everyone to fucking log on. There's four videos in all (fourth one here) and for some strange reason, we like them.

by Steve Hall    Oct-16-06    
Topic: Cable, Commercials, Good



Captain Morgan's Liquors Up Kid's Holiday

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We're sure this Captain Your Halloween promotion and accompanying cheesy DRTV-style commercial are supposed to be kitsch-filled fun but, we just don't see it. Perhaps it's seeing grown adults in Halloween costumes meant for kids. Perhaps it's a liquor company's trying to make a kid's holiday into an adult's holiday. Perhaps it's just Captain Morgans' attempt to be dumb in order to be seen ad funny when it's really just dumb in the first place.

by Steve Hall    Oct-16-06    
Topic: Bad, Commercials, Online, Strange



Friendster, Sharkle Get Political With Video Contest

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While the entire world is busy talking about GooTube, social networking site Friendster and video sharing community Sharkle have teamed to create a political video contest in which Friendster members and the general public are encouraged to upload videos which express their political viewpoints for all to see. The contest will run through November 6 and producers of the top six video submissions will win a variety of prizes including $2,500 in cash, a $1,000 Sony video camera and four $300 video iPods. If there are any Bill Maher wannabes out there, now's your chance.

by Steve Hall    Oct-16-06    
Topic: Consumer Created, Video



The NFL Wants Your Commercial Idea

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Get of your couch and onto the set. That's what the NFL is telling people to do. The NFL wants people to create a commercial for them that will air during Super Bowl XLI. The winning idea - partially determined by fan vote - will be professionally produced with the winner invited to the shoot and handed a VIP package to Super Bowl XLI. Private parties, gifts and more will ensue. It seems we'll have wuite a collection of CGM type ads in this year's Super Bowl.

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by Steve Hall    Oct-16-06    
Topic: Consumer Created



Video Improved, Carbon Reduced, Blimp Thanks,

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- DigiCast Media has launched a video training program for busimesses that aims to improve the quality of of all the crap on YouTube.

- Instant Karma Films has hooked up with Carbonfung.org to assess carbon emissions from producing commercials and to work towards reducing them.

- Dairy company Hood placed an ad thanking Beverly, MA residents for putting up with the company's unexpected visit to theri town in the form of a crash.

- Broadband jukebox company Ecast reports that during the first five-weeks of a Jeep Compass campaign, users have demonstrated an 8.3 percent click-through rate from the end of their paid song-selection sessions into Jeep's promotional "mini-site."

by Steve Hall    Oct-16-06    
Topic: Newspaper, Tools, Video