Pro Surfer Anastasia Ashley Signs With Airwalk Fashion Label

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Fashion Label Airwalk has signed pro surfer Anastasia Ashley, whose been surfing since age five, to represent the company's Airwalk Footwear in Fall 2007 and Spring 2008 advertising campaigns. Anastasia will be joining longboard champion Josh Mohr, vert skater Andy Macdonald, street skater Rodney Jones and snowboarder Jimmy Dowd on the 2007 Airwalk team.

A Los Angeles native, Anastasia has been competing in surf contests since she was six. She's won 200 local, regional and national titles. The 20-year-old pro surfer has already taken two National Scholastic Surfing Association National titles, and other professional titles including winning the Professional Surfing Tour of America, being named the Hawaiian Triple Crown Rookie of the year, and being runner up in 2006 at the ECSC W.Q.S event.

Ashley is currently competing full time on the ASP World Qualifying Serie), and is currently ranked 13th in the world rankings. And as is required by any hot, female athlete, she's done the usual Teen People, Cosmo Girl and FHM appearances.

by Steve Hall    Feb-18-07    
Topic: Campaigns



Pepsi Pinball Ad Uses Music From Song About Giving Head

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Shannon Stephaniuk from Glossy Inc. did some sleuthing for us about the music in the new Pepsi Pinball commercial. We really like commercial during which a guy takes a wild ride on the ball through the streets of San Francisco. We also really like how the snickering creatives behind this ad, as Shannon's research indicates, seemingly slipped past the client the fact the original lyrics of the version of the song used in this ad, 1977's Jet Boy Jet Girl, are about one guy giving head to another.

Perhaps all those hipster marketers over at Pepsi are too young to remember seventies punk. Perhaps they actually know what they're doing trying to connect with in-the-know hipsters all while slipping it under the radar of Pepsi's culturally disconnected top management. Perhaps neither the agency nor the client has a clue regarding this song's origin. Perhaps, as one commenter points out, it's because the song is not really the song but a version of the song sung by another guy in another band that used to be in the original band. Confused? We are too. No matter what, we just think it's pretty funny.

by Steve Hall    Feb-18-07    
Topic: Brands, Strange



'Create' Magazine Announces 2007 Create Awards Call For Entry

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The 2007 Create Awards, a creative competition for professionals and students in advertising, film and video, motion graphics, graphic communication, photography, printing, interactive media, and copywriting has announced its official call for entries beginning March 15 and closing on June 1.

This year, the organization has tripled the Best of Show Award to a $30,000 Dream Studio Prize Package with products from Adobe, Hewlett-Packard, Kodak, NEC Display Solutions, Alienware Computers, Wacom Technologies, Digital Tutors, Softimage (a Division of Avid), Iomega, Wiredrive, Microtek, Inovartis, LensBabies, E-Frontier, Spam Cube, AutoFX, Corel, Pantone, Tivity Software, and Extensis.

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by Steve Hall    Feb-18-07    
Topic: Industry Events



Your Miserable Life Provides Free Trip to Hawaii

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Adrants reader Jeff Wasiluk writes to tell us, "For most of us, day to day creativity only pays off in our minds. Sure there is the occasional award, standard company raise, maybe you even got a pat on the back. Good for you. But me, I'd rather have those little sparks of brilliance put my ass on the beach and a mai tai in my hand." Point taken. Which brings us to Rather be in Hawaii, a site from Starwood Hotels and Hawaiian Airlines, on which you can upload an image of an unpleasant moment of your life and have it paired with another image of vacation perfection. If you win the contest, you get a 5 night stay in Hawaii at a Starwood Hotel with airfare courtesy of Hawaiian Airlines. Go ahead. Upload your misery and go to Hawaii.

by Steve Hall    Feb-18-07    
Topic: Good, Online, Promotions



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Aria Giovanni Makes Calling Your Mom Icky

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After reading a piece in Snackable Content which ended with, "Well I guess it certainly is one way men can get Giovanni in their pants," we simply had to share with you the story that led to that one liner. Aria Giovanni, the gorgeous and curvaceously top-heavy model, has teamed with Brickhouse Mobile to create Ariamobile, a site where Aria lovers can download videos, photos and ringtones featuring Aria. With images titled "So Big," "Overflow" and "Dangerous Curves," the site offers up all manner of curvaceousness to make using your cell phone more pleasurable than you ever thought possible. Except, of course, when you mother calls and you have to mentally rectify the sound of your mother's voice in your ear with the body of Aria in front of your eyeballs so that your head doesn't explode from the ickyness that combination is sure to conjur.

by Steve Hall    Feb-18-07    
Topic: Celebrity, Mobile/Wireless, Racy



Girl Scouts Enter Seedy World of MySpace

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The Girl Scouts of America, that pristine organization of innocence and good values, at the end of January, stepped foot into the seedy world of MySpace with a site promoting this year's cookie drive. On the site you'll find pictures of the cookies and some of the cleanest, most fully-dressed pictures of people you'll ever find on MySpace. The MySpace presence, aside from our tasteless snark, makes perfect sense. Why not hang with the most concentrated collection of tweens and teens anywhere online to build awareness and to, perhaps, as a side benefit, encourage those tweens and teens to...put more clothes on while getting them to buy cookies and join the Girl Scouts...who don't let you wear low-cut, cleavage revealing belly shirts and low rider jeans to their den meetings. Wow. A Campaign With Benefits. Sell cookies and get American youth to fully dress themselves in the morning. Is this a new trend? If this campaign succeeds, will there be no more places online for teenage boys to drool over what they can't get in real life anyway?

Oh damn, our phone's ringing. It must be the Girls Scouts of America telling us to shut up and stop associating all this filth with their fine, upstanding organization. OK, fine. Besides, we have to take our daughter to a den meeting now.

by Steve Hall    Feb-18-07    
Topic: Good, Online, Social



Newsflash! Read All About It! 'Aqua Teen' Terrorism Agency Speaks!

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Just is case you aren't by now completely sick of the Aqua Teen Hunger Force Boston Terrorism media orgasm, Brandweek scored an exclusive (did you hear that? exclusive! damn, they're good.) interview with Interference Inc. Founder Sam Ewen whose agency was behind the placement of the moonite/litebrite (or whatever the fuck you want to call them) bombs...oops...guerrilla marketing installations. There's a tease of the interview here which basically reveals nothing we didn't already know. The full interview will be published in Monday's printed Brandweek and online.

by Steve Hall    Feb-18-07    
Topic: Agencies, Guerilla



Jerry Bruckheimer Music Addiction Instills Love of Video Game

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With its classic Jerry Bruckheimer movie-sounding theme music (which draws us in every time for reasons we know not), Sony has released two new PlayStation sites created by Zugara. The two sites offer visitors mini Navy Seal Missions introduced by former real life Navy Seal Rob Roy. After viewing a brief explanation Roy about how a four-man team needs to work with a two-man team, visitors are asked to complete a reconnaissance mission on the FireTeam Bravo 2 site. Once the recon work is completed, a four-man assault mission on the Combined Assault site becomes unlocked, and players are automatically deep-linked back to that site's Crosstalk section so that you can lead the assault team.

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by Steve Hall    Feb-18-07    
Topic: Games, Good, Online



New Orleans Tells Chicago It's the Windier City

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We suppose since a New Orleans entity created and placed this board on their own in Chicago claiming its famed status as the "windier city," it makes it all OK. Apparently the old adage holds true. Poking fun at your own misery is cool. Poking fun at other's ain't. All of those cultural/political/behavioral rules aside, this is a succinctly strong and powerful advertising message. See a bigger version of the image here.

by Steve Hall    Feb-18-07    
Topic: Good, Outdoor



Banana Republic Has Disillusioned View of Architects

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Gawker takes a look at a recent Banana Republic ad that features what, apparently, are architects all styled up with Banana Republic fashions. Gawker wonders, as we do too, if architects really dress like this. To discover the truth, Gawker spoke to an architect, "Frankie," who works at "a large firm downtown with an eccentric, megalomaniac starchitect at the helm." A taste:

Gawker: So what is it like being surrounded by nubile 23 year olds in khaki coordinates at all times?

Frankie: I am not really sure, to be honest with you. I think I may be involved in some different types of architecture than these people.

by Steve Hall    Feb-18-07    
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Strange



Bayer Gets Initiative, talent Zoo Gets Naked Again

- Bayer has consolidated its $200 million media buying and planning with Initiative. Previously, OMD handled planning.

- Talent Zoo is re-introducing the Naked Career with Sally Hogshead and the first interview will be with Seth Godin will discuss the industry's need for reinvention.

- Google buys in-game ad firm Adscape. Is there anything Google isn't going to buy?

by Steve Hall    Feb-18-07    
Topic: Agencies, Games, Podcast



Diversity in Advertising Conference Series Continues

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Last Fall on November 8 in New York City, Adrants and the Business Development Institute held its first Advertising Industry Diversity Job Fair and Leadership Conference. We had 500 job candidates show up to hear industry professionals talk about what life is like in advertising as a minority and how agencies are approaching the issue. The timing of the event was well planned as it closely followed hearings held by the New York Human Rights Commission at which New York City Councilman Larry Seabrook stated agencies "ran like chickens with their asses plucked clean" when asked to appear at the hearings during last Fall's Advertising Week.

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by Steve Hall    Feb-18-07    
Topic: Announcements, Industry Events