We stood behind Rosie after that Donald Trump nonsense. We like that she stuck by what she said even when the Trumpster threatened to fling a lawsuit in her direction on one of his ninja-star toupees. But this makes us feel funky about her.
Kimberly-Clark hits The View to push their room makeover sweepstakes. Rosie gets exhaustively excited and right when we think she can't look more insane she does a Broadway number complete with dancing K-C products. And that's not something we could have made up even if we tried really, really hard.
Rosie, we hate to be the ones to tell you, but you're not funny anymore. We can't remember whether you ever really were. You're a bit cartoony. And not in a neat Jim Carey way. You're more like, well, that Roger Rabbit villain who tried to kill the other cartoons with Dip.
He gave us the horrors. And these days, you do too.
Show Me Some Lube, a viral-intended love letter to us from our cars (courtesy of Serve Assist), is a handy demonstration of how even businesses on a shoestring budget can showcase their creativity and draw traffic to their services.
The language doesn't reek of cool-hunter. We can picture our cars lying propped up on a canopy bed with a feathery purple pen jutting out the side of its hood as it dreamily scrawls. We also like the use of car images to make sexual suggestions. But considering the potential of this neat hodgepodge of adolescence, low-riders and sex, it's pretty one-dimensional and we hope they do more with it.
Here's a weird one. Sinless gets behind Bar Code designs, an odd project in which people can flirt and hook up with a form of sign language for those too cool - or simply too lame - to talk or offer to buy somebody a drink.
Bar Code sends registered users a new sign to learn every week or so. We registered for the list but are thus far pretty skeptical. It reminds us a little of Esperanto, that experiment in universal language that was supposed to bring cosmopolitan travelers together but is mainly utilized by awkward people trying to shortcut learning an actual native tongue.
Dissemination of the hipster signs depends on word of mouth but we don't see it working unless a critical mass is already out there using it. Otherwise those willing to get savvy will just be out there with limbs akimbo, monkeying an artificial social langue only they and maybe five other people in the universe understand, which gives us something new to laugh about, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. For us, anyway.
The chums at Mortar point us to the eSurance hottie's latest ad. To say nothing of the eSurance ads in general, which are dramatic, well-animated and blessed with catchy music, Erin Esurance is hot. We've always thought so.
But until SpaceGhost confirmed it in a recent interview with the pink-haired incognito op (aptly labeled Daddy's Little Bad Girl) we might have kept our feelings for the curvaceous cartoon to ourselves. It doesn't quite matter what she says and she doesn't even really have to leap tall buildings; her pixels could just shift from side to side and most of America would still be paying attention. Is that pathetic?
To poke a semblance at serious, though, good execution on the eSurance/SpaceGhost collaboration. SpaceGhost is always a good way of gauging whether brands have a sense of humour about their work. And Erin passes with flying colours, broadening her appeal to a more cynical audience.
Clean Butt is the spankin' new concept site for BidetSpa, which specializes in, well, bidets. We don't know who in America buys bidets but we found the Clean Butt URL catchy and amusing.
There are features on the site we're dying to check out but can't because either the site or our internet is misbehaving this morning. But how can you not want to explore a link marked Toilevator? Or Bidet Spa with Wireless Remote? We feel like Alice slamming her head into the Looking-Glass to no avail. They're killing us here!
Beer takes the internet dive with Here's to Beer, an Anheuser-Busch/MingleNow collabo intended to bring beer's social merits to social networking.
Here's to Beer includes blurbs on which celebrities you'd have a pint with, as well as some beer trivia and brewing history. We thought it was a fairly coherent idea but upon mentioning it to a twenty-something beer aficionado he scoffed, "Beer trivia and brewing history? All you need to know is Anheuser-Busch makes shit beers."
For A-B and MingleNow's sake, we hope that doesn't speak for the whole demographic. Actually, that's a lie. Bud's fine for drinking in secret at home when you're all depressed about your life, but we can't remember the last time we ordered one on tap.
- Google command over the ad industry may increase even further with the purchase in-game ad company Adscape Media.
- Time Inc. is not having a good time these days as automaker cut $100 million in ad spend across the publisher's titles.
- It would appear the Saatchi 17 are now wishing they never left in the first place haviing just been axed by Interpublic.
PETA conducts its State of the Union with the one gimmick it knows can't fail: by having a somewhat attractive representative take her clothes off and talk at the same time.
We didn't really even pay attention to what she said because we were too busy lampooning her for her tasteless choice of underwear. If you're going to exploit women as a gimmick to keep people from exploiting animals, can't you at least find them better knickers than whatever they had lying around courtesy of their (already abusive) not-for-profit paycheques?
And don't even get us started on the hugging chickens and monkeys that appeared shortly after she finished her mediocre moment in the sun.
When someone sends us something they describe as "sexy and juicy," our attention perks up. So off we shot over to the Diesel site where, beginning today and running through Friday, two girls in their underwear are holding a guy, a Diesel sales rep, hostage webcam-style on a bed in a hotel room. The set up has five camera angles to choose from and the ability to chat with the two girls. Though intriguing, as with most live webcam set ups, the quality is bad and video and audio continuously cut in and out. That's no way to enjoy hotties of either sex. Perhaps they'll get it right after a while. OK, now it's working fine. Aside from pure tantalization, we're not quite sure how this is going to sell any product for the company. Oh wait. This is advertising. It's not suppose to sell. It's suppose to amuse. Our bad.
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Imagine for a minute you are a brand. Feel the monetary hurricane at your back pushing you towards the unwanting consumer. Wallow in pain as people pass you by without a care. Take offense as everyone fast forwards past you as you try to deliver your message. Feel the frustration as you and your fellow brands are yanked out of the Sunday paper tossed into the trash en mass. Sense the rage as you are digitally eradicated from a web page by an ad blocker.
Now, picture yourself empowered with the ability to fight back. Envision those pesky little consumers as helpless, tiny flies. Imagine yourself holding a fly swatter ready to attack. Feel the pleasure of whacking the consumer upside the head with a vengeance that requires...no...demands attention! Now, go watch this YouTube video and revel in a world where brands actually get noticed.
Here's a couple of spots created by TBWA Dubai for an "online matrimonials" site called Bentelhalal (we're guessing that's their version of a dating...arranged marriage?...site) that capture perfectly long-held stereotypes about men and women living together. We won't spoil. Just watch. (1, 2) They're very simple and we like simple. We're not sure about arranged marriages though.
OK. Now we know why a good commercial needs a talented agency and a capable production house. Otherwise, we'd end up with boring outtakes like this making their way to the screen instead of the finished product. As if to drum up some excitement for one of its upcoming Super Bowl spots, Budweiser has released b-roll footage of a spot that will feature Dale Earnhardt Jr. in what looks like a nod Mel Gibson's Road Warrior. You can view the footage here but you won't be missing anything if you wait until game day to see the final product.
We once worked in an agency where one of the B2B clients was in the dermatology space and each month a magazine called Cutis would appear in the mail room. When the magazine arrived, several of us took great pleasure in horrifying the squeamish at the agency by placing copies of the magazine on their desks. The cover of the magazine always featured some disgustingly sick skin affliction, pussing orfice or freakishly huge zit-like thing no one would ever want to see on their own body. What? You thought ad agencies were intellectual institutions staffed by scholarly folk who would never stoop to such antics?
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Monday is never a good day to analyze why so many commercials featuring athletes always portray said athletes as mindless idiots. Poor Vinny Testaverde, back-up quarterback for the New England Patriots is the latest to receive the jock-as-buffoon treatment. Setting aside for a moment the lunacy of a professional football player ordering food from a stadium's fast food counter while in full uniform, MasterCard, while promoting its PayPass card, felt it necessary (with advice from McCann-Erickson/New York) to capitalize on the stereotype of athlete as slave to coach.
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While quite a few commenters think this Toyota RAV4 jousting spot is for shit, we like it purely for its unique entertainment value and because it's not a winding mountain road spot. And, wouldn't it be fun to watch two drunk idiots actually try to do this? Come one. You know you like it. Admit it.
Continuing is long-running trend of thrashing about its Tacoma pick up truck, Toyota is at it again; this time with a barfing Loch Ness monster who can't seem to stomach the truck's indestructible nature. Of course, a truck being shot out of the water like a cannon ball, smashing head first onto the ground and then being driven off with nary a scratch causes one to put as much belief into that as the existence of the Loch Ness Monster. Oh but wait, there's a disclaimer: "Fictionalization. Not a demo of Tacoma's performance or crash capabilities." Hmm. It might as well have read, "This commercial is a lie and we apologize for treating you like an idiot. Go buy a Ford. They're the ones that are really Built Tough." Nice touch though having Loch Ness Project's Adrian Shine in the spot. Not such a nice touch dropping the word "Expedition" in the spot though.
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