'Advertising Can Be Bad. Come Do Some Good.'

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Productivity isn't always about the next "Got Milk?". To get creatives elbow-deep in their local community soup kitchens, Cossette/New York produced the a clever little intro for Agencies in Action's website.

It tackles the upcoming Cannes Lions debauchery head-on, kind of uglifies the whole thing, and wraps up with the tagline in that leads this article.

Go do good, guys, in addition to all the other good things you do anyway.

by Angela Natividad    Jun-19-09    
Topic: Agencies, Cause, Industry Events, Online



Here's a Message That's Fun for the Whole Family.

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Throw open that beach towel, get a public service announcement: "You're probably not expecting to drown today." Not especially, no.

Other fun-tastic messages in ideal places include "You're probably not expecting to need a helmet today" and "Being run over while jaywalking only happens to other people."

And here are some highly depressing, but decidedly effective, TV spots. Sobering stuff for preventable.ca by Wasserman + Partners/Vancouver.

by Angela Natividad    Jun-18-09    
Topic: Campaigns, Cause, Commercials, Outdoor, Television



Spot Turns Theatre into Giant Cervix

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It's not as bad as it sounds. To encourage women to get regular Pap smears, and to promote its Cervical Cancer Screening Program, BC Cancer Agency partnered with Cineplex Odeon Theatres to air "Eye of the Cervix" in theatres.

Friendly enough ad. The curtain opens to reveal a pretty, congenial doctor. She asks if we're comfortable, does a quick swab and decisively says, "And we're done."

Closing lines bring it home: "It doesn't take long to prevent cervical cancer. Remember to have regular Pap tests."

We like it just fine, and it even made us feel productive, but here's where wanky boyfriends turn to their partners and go, "When was the last time you got checked?"

By Cossette/Vancouver.

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by Angela Natividad    Jun-18-09    
Topic: Campaigns, Cause, Commercials



Elejump to Show Your Earth-Savvy

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Heh, this is highLARity. For Sustrans, which campaigns for sustainable transport in the UK by promoting a bike-or-walk commute, Rubber Republic launched Elejumper.

The object of the advergame is to build enough steam for the elephant to slide onto a ramp with sufficient momentum to get himself to work. Probably the best part about it is you can hit space bar mid-flight to flap his ears, and if you flap them while he's on the ground he kind of just lays there, thumping pathetically. Oh how we LOLed.

The game's objective is to promote Sustrans' Change Your World 2009 challenge, where, for the week beginning June 29th, people are invited to swap their cars out for more earth-friendly transport. If all car users do it for just one day, traffic is expected to go down 20% that week.

Pledge your support at the Change Your World site or at the end of the game.

by Angela Natividad    Jun-17-09    
Topic: Campaigns, Cause, Events, Games



Staples Hops the Cause Caboose.

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To win both the youth and the responsible parent vote, Staples commissioned social marketing firm Mr. Youth to develop "Do Something 101," a cause program that's, at the very least, relevant to the office supply chain's MO.

Campaign elements, from what we can tell, are a Facebook Fan page and a Facebook app. (That's it?!) Participating students are encouraged to build a custom backpack by tagging their friends and then donate money to help the 13 million kids in the States that can't afford school supplies.

Every completed backpack makes participants eligible for a chance to go to New York and meet Ciara, who can teach you the one-two step*, which is as good a reason as any to drum up crayon cash for your less-plush peer.

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by Angela Natividad    Jun-17-09    
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Cause, Celebrity, Online, Social



Laboring Mom Bears Teen, Finds the Strength to Scold

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"One Powerful Mother," the latest PSA by Partnership for a Drug-Free America, casts light on a powerful woman indeed. Moments after giving miserable vagina-decimating birth to a teenager, then having her heart shredded to pieces as he rolls his eyes and starts walking off, she still has the strength to raise her head -- ever so slightly -- and say, "Don't even think about going to Kevin's."

The message is swiftly and cleverly delivered: it takes one powerful mother to have a teen. And an even tougher one is called for to keep that teen drug-free.

Work by agency Martin Williams and production firm Gartner.

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by Angela Natividad    Jun-17-09    
Topic: Campaigns, Cause, Commercials, Television



Lancia, Noble Peace Laureates Summit Drums Up Love for Suu Kyi

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Vehicle mark Lancia partnered with the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates to demonstrate support Aung San Suu Kyi. The latter won the Nobel Peace Prize in '91 and has been imprisoned in her home country, Burma -- er, the Union of Myanmar -- for the last 18 years.

Suu Kyi is currently on trial; in the meantime, this video is seeking broader dissemination throughout Europe and the rest of the English speaking world. It's moving work that depicts past Nobel Peace laureates stepping out of cars and onto the red carpet. The last car opens to an empty back seat -- Lancia's way of pouring out the liquor, so to speak, for the absent Suu Kyi.

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by Angela Natividad    Jun-17-09    
Topic: Brands, Cause, Events, Good



It's Like 'Conjunction Junction,' But So Much Hipper.

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EUTube -- the YouTube channel of the European Union -- is seeding a video called "Electrical Derby," whose job is to educate viewers about electricity, while propagating the Eurotrash pop culture aesthetic that gives spoofs like this a perpetually appreciative audience.

After a few watches we're fairly confident we'll be experts in how batteries work; but every time we start the video up again, we get caught up in fantasizing how RAD it would be to spend a few hours at a neon roller derby.

We like the idea, but imagine trying to explain supermagnets at a rave. (Actually, it's possible we've done that -- and it all went horribly wrong.) In any event, "Electrical Derby" is a follow up to "Chemical Party," last year's attempt to teach chemistry with synthesized music and mating rituals.

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by Angela Natividad    Jun- 9-09    
Topic: Cause, Good, Trends and Culture, Video



Ingenious Drunken Hijinks Fail to Amuse in Light of Day

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On behalf of the UK Home Office, John Luke Roberts wanders city streets in broad daylight, trying to get people to do things they only do drunk and in the safety of darkness: piss in the street, spew vom over friends, dive into vehicles with strange men and abuse strange girls with traffic cones.

For the most part he fails, but that doesn't stop him from doing it all himself.

Roberts' shenanigans look nothing short of insane, but only because we don't have the Lush Googles on. After the guy belts out a war cry and shoves a trash bin through a store window, we're graced with a simple enough tagline: "If you wouldn't do it sober...", tying it to last year's effort, similarly (though less ambiguously) titled "You Wouldn't Do It Sober."

Harrowing shit, seeded by Team Rubber.

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by Angela Natividad    Jun- 8-09    
Topic: Campaigns, Cause, Guerilla, Video



Paul Smith Rabbit Lights Up for Scraps

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@dabitch and @leighhouse graced our morningtime desks with this rabbit rubbish bin. The bins are designer Paul Smith's contribution to Super Contemporary, an exhibit that launched at London's Design Museum this week.

The "New London Rubbish Bins" will solicit garbage over the next four months at Covent Garden and Holland Park. Ears light up when you toss a little something-something into their sacks.

More photos at High Snobiety.

Good way to bring design character to a city and reward constructive community behaviour. Here's hoping no malevolent clothes irons appear over the horizon.

by Angela Natividad    Jun- 5-09    
Topic: Campaigns, Cause, Events, Good, Guerilla