Hold Your Breath -- It's Another Reality Dance Show!

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If you're waiting in quiet agony for the Flashdance moment that will never come, project yourself into "Audition" by MTV. Composed of different dance auditions stitched together, the spot feels less "Maniac!" and more like the start of a dire final exam. That surprised us because other stuff by the same director are pretty funny in an "Are you there, God? It's me, puberty" sort of way.

"Audition" is for a new MTV reality show called America's Best Dance Crew. Might as well tune in because is there anything else to watch?

NO. (But ooh, we heard Lost was coming back.)

by Angela Natividad    Jan-25-08    
Topic: Commercials, Television



Campusfood Incites Facebook 'Food Friendzy'

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If the internet has taught college kids anything, it's that panhandling is a totally stigma-free sport.

With that in mind, Campus Food -- a network of college restaurants that let students order online -- has launched a Facebook app called Food Friendzy. The pitch: "Free food for poor college kids nationwide!" The premise: win free food by playing online games and sharing the app with friends.

Ugh. Whatever happened to the glory days of quiet submissiveness to four years of Ramen? There's nothing wrong with Ramen.

by Angela Natividad    Jan-25-08    
Topic: Cause, Online, Promotions



Because Robots Deserve Happy Endings Too

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Mandy sent us another video of the dancing yellow robot from those Carnegie Mellon promotions we saw. It's strange in a meet-the-new-cult-on-the-block kind of way, but the story ends in fame, glory and success.

If robots could aspire, we'd call it a robot rags-to-riches parable.

The robot's name is Keepon. You know, like Keepon Auditioning (for Carnegie Mellon)? Yeah.

by Angela Natividad    Jan-25-08    
Topic: Campaigns, Online, Strange, Video



Personal Lubricants Aren't Always For Personal Satisfaction

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Some promotions/videos/ads are just so whacked there's really no clear explanation for them. From viral production company Dragons Tale Films, we have another in the form of a crazy concept for ID Lubricants, maker of "personal lubricants." In the video, we have a woman seemingly getting ready for a bit of self-gratification when she suddenly decides to use her lubricant for something far different than some smoothly sensational satisfaction.

by Steve Hall    Jan-25-08    
Topic: Strange, Video



IZEA Generates Icky PR for SXSW

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We love ourselves some SXSW. Expect us there, cameras at the ready, this year.

But this morning when we checked our email we caught a subject line that read, "The TACK: Ted Wants You at SXSW."

The TACK is PayPer-- er, IZEA's online newsletter. Ted is the company's CEO. He gets off on undisclosed paid posts and is always fighting with people about the viability of his business model.

Then we opened the email and saw this. Love pygmies!

And for, like, eight minutes, we were turned-off by the idea of going anywhere, much less SXSW at Ted's behest.

by Angela Natividad    Jan-25-08    
Topic: Brands, Industry Events, Online, Opinion



Pac Man Hacked Into Hack Man For One Show

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Hey, kids. Before Guitar Hero. Before Playstation, xBox and Wii. Before, well, everything, there was this game called Pac Man. It was pretty simple. All you had to do was make sure you at up all the bad guys before the bad guys ate you. That was eons ago but la comunidad has unearthed the game and given it a spin turning it into a promotion for the One Show.

Called Hack Man, the game's characters include Confused Planner, "Yes Sir" Account Director, Scared Client and Client's Wife. Hey, wait a minute. Where's the Client's Husband? This ain't Mad Men, remember.

Hopefully, the game isn't insinuating the entire advertising industry is made up of a bunch of hacks. Hmm. Anyway, give it a go.

by Steve Hall    Jan-25-08    
Topic: Games, Industry Events



Onitsuka Tiger Campaign Subtracts Cartoons, Adds Electricity, to Last Year's Idea

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Check out the Electric Tiger Land shoe campaign by StrawberryFrog, Amsterdam (print variations 1 and 2).

Here's the accompanying spot.

The pressie tells us the shots are of a giant "city in a sneaker" sculpture for Asics' Ontisuka Tiger.

The sculpture was inspired by Tokyo and has Japanese market signs in the toe, Onitsuka Tiger vending machines in the heel and the Narita airport runway on the the tongue. Versions were also made for Germany, France, the UK, Korea, and Australia.

more »

by Angela Natividad    Jan-25-08    
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Good, Guerilla, Packaging



Pick Paul's Brain With HBO's 'He's Listening'

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For HBO's new series In Treatment, Deep Focus along with illustrator Bryan Christie have crafted a website, He's Listening, that, like the series, lets you get inside the minds of the five patients features in the show. Visitors can click into the brain of Gabriel Byrne's Paul, the therapist to the patents in the show and see how the five characters relate to each other.

by Steve Hall    Jan-25-08    
Topic: Good, Online



PUMA Creates Football Shoe For 2179

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If you want to know what sort of "footwear" football (soccer) players will be wearing in the year 2178, PUMA has the answer for you. Like some form of full lower body armor crafted after those freaky looking animals you see in horror and fantasy movies, these PUMA "shoes" turn the game into something you'd see in Greek mythology.

Created by Danish agency Robert/Boisen & Like-minded and directed by Nicolai Fuglsig (who did the Sony Balls ad), the commercial features football players Gianluigi Buffon, Samuel Eto'o, Nicolas Anelka, Frederik Ljungberg, Alex Frei, Mario Gomez and Peter Crouch. Post-produced by The Mill, the "filming" involved 8 months of work with much scanning, animation and rendering of 523,000 fans all pulled together in one "take."

more »

by Steve Hall    Jan-25-08    
Topic: Commercials, Good



Sneezing Billboard Promotes Science World

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We love it when outdoor boards spit at us, don't you? Well not really but that's what the people of Vancouver were subjected to in this campaign promoting Science World, a non-profit, science-focused educational organization. The campaign aimed to demonstrate the fact a sneeze can travel 12 feet and hover for three hours. Gross. Did we really need to know that? We're never leaving our office again.

by Steve Hall    Jan-25-08    
Topic: Outdoor