Hey, Gamer. Getchyer Face on Times Square!

Every Saturday in November, registrants for Gillette/EA's Champions of Gaming Tournament could have their avatars broadcast in gigantovision over the NASDAQ and Reuters signs in Times Square. (Those chosen will be emailed and sent a picture of their billboard for posterity.)

Few things are cheaper or more effective than a shout-out. See PGA Tour '09 variant.

By Proximity Canada in tandem with BBDO/New York.

Sexting, Nuggnuts, Blogger Bailouts, In-Game Ads on Saints Row

- Massive inked a multi-year, in-game ad deal with THQ. So far, the only game that will for certain feature dynamic advertising is Saints Row 2.

- Queen Rania of Jordan has won the first-ever YouTube Visionary award for her daily videocast. I kind of love her.

- Six Apart has launched something called the TypePad Journalist Bailout Program. Under it, about 30 ex-bloggers or journalists will receive a free TypePad Pro account, tech support, representation on Blogs.com and auto-enrollment into Six Apart's ad network. 300 applications were received in less than two weeks.

- "Diddy is so Sarah Palin."

- Close-up on crotchvertising.

- New buzz word: sexting! Almost as fun as nuggnut. (Click on "Nuggnut pledge" for awesome brainwashing action.)

A Crowd-Pleaser that's Fun to Sing. Nice Thinking, TAG!

I don't think I could properly describe "Lips" even if I wanted to. It's an ad for Xbox game Lips, which is pretty much karaoke for the Guitar Hero generation. (The microphone's motion sensitive, and you can select songs from your own collection.)

Agency TAG enlisted Tom Kuntz to conceive a strolling pair of lips, singing Take on Me and going about his business. Then he walks into a house party and traipses creepily up the sleeve of a guy who, right on cue, belts out the chorus to A-HA's greatest hit.

I don't know if it's the lips' cheer that got to me, or the natural seratonin-explosion resulting from Take on Me, but this is an insanely infectious spot. We loves it.

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Don't Just Talk the Grill; Rock the Grill.

Pay close attention. The object behind the Grill the Goodness advergame is to put items on the grill, then use various tools (spatula, tongs, fork) to achieve two objectives: cook the food properly, and swat sticky fingers that try to steal the food before it's done.

Do those things with grace and poise, and maybe you won't be relegated to salad shaker when the reckoning happens.

Sassy stuff by Red Tettemer. Also one of the better advergames floating around right now, with the possible exception of Suicide Kittens. Hit the Grill the Goodness homepage for videos, tailgate tips and the Get Grilled Hall of Fame/Shame.

Tomb Raider Does Site-Takeover, Content-Manipulation Thing

From now through December, expect to see Lara Croft decimating your favourite gamer sites, starting with this one. (Pull the ring in the leaderboard to get her going.)

Once all that pesky content's out of the way, indulge in a big-ass HD ad for Tomb Raider: Underworld, plus free downloadable demo. By Eyeblaster, IGN and SF-based agency JVST.

Playful immersive ad experiences like this are very cool. We saw something similar last September for Wario Land: Shake It! on YouTube. As the video progressed, Wario's kicks, bumps and big fat jiggles utterly "destroyed" the profile page.

National Geographic Sends Ad Blogger on Journey of Impatience.

Okay, maybe I a idiot. Pretty sure I know my way around an Xbox/PS3, but this Exploration Week site by Arcadium for National Geographic felt like it took too long to get in and just start playing. That's me though, because I've always been an impatient gamer. Screw the start-up mission short film sequences: I wanna blow stuff up and I wanna blow it up now. The site reinforces the theme of exploration, lets you customize things, and the Flash work is great. My gripe is bigger picture: Why does it seem like the one thing the internet has failed to deliver on is a gaming experience on par with the real world? While a lot of that rhetorical has to do with bandwidth issues, the Matrix-Borg Second Life OMG Experience^® we've been waiting for hasn't materialized yet.

Maybe it'll be included in the release of Web 5.0.

Gears of War 2: Cue Angst-Ridden Track and Epic Visuals.

While HALO 3 still feels like the gold standard for video game trailers, Gears of War 2 doesn't hurt the cause here with the trailer for Last Day. Just take one part contemplative hero, one part hip track (How It Ends by Devotchka) and mix with YouTube for a week. Result? Well, the internetz don't lie. Just ask captawesome014 in the comments there:

"im a hardcore gears fan, this trailer is epic, i mean how would u feel if u thought u were going to surly die underground and it is ur last day above ground?"

Sounds like a hit to me.

Dawn Whips Out the Jazz Hands ... and a Spongy Casanova

Dawn Hands Have Talent is a UGC contest to promote Dawn Hand Renewal, a dishwashing soap that "improves the look and feel of hands in just five uses." The site also includes a special offer for the soap and a dancing hand game you can play.

The image at left is from an entry titled "Handtasia," though I much prefer the vivacity of "Fingerlina."

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Practice Hand-Eye Coordination While Eating Fried Chicken!

KFC partnered with the highly-addictive Guitar Hero World Tour for a cross-promotional something-or-other. Redeem codes for branded Guitar Hero cups from KFC Rocks.

More importantly, try your hand at this "crowd surfing" game. Hit the arrows to the beat, and keep your emo rocker dude from falling to the bottom of the mosh pit.

The game was put together by Creative Alliance, a KFC agency, in collaboration with The Basement Design + Motion. It's funny, though: after playing a few times, I craved both chicken and Dance, Dance Revolution.

Paper Pigskin Advergame Reels Emails in for Sheraton

Sheraton's Ultimate Paper Football Challenge is a little mindless fun for a slow workday. Keep an eye on that pesky west wind.

In case you naively wondered what paper football has to do with Sheraton, here's the catch: the game requires registration. I anticipate much spam in exchange for these two minutes of pleasure.

By Gigantic.