Last week at ad:tech, Steve and I ran into Marjorie Kase. Kase, in tangent with David Preciado and originator Mike Liskin, is a mastermind behind the Schwaggin' Wagon, whose mission is to gather craploads of SWAG (Stuff We All Get -- but don't actually want) for charity.
The Schwaggin' Wagon will take donations all through the Web 2.0 conference in SF this week. Follow the van's activities on Twitter (caution: psychedelia ahead) or check Facebook for tour updates.
Let's just hope the Schwaggin' Wagon doesn't cross paths with Plaid Tour '08, because the result (AESTHETIC WARFARE!) might give us epilepsy.
A soft-hued, angelic Alicia Keys appears -- on a first-name basis! -- for Alicia in Africa, a documentary following her efforts with Keep a Child Alive. (Not to be confused with that other video work she does.)
The film is streaming on the official site as well as on Blip.tv, which provided the video player; and on MySpace. (It's a wonder people still bother with that.) You can also download it for free on Spiral Frog.
But let's cut to the chase. KIDS! In AFRICA! With AIDS! Go DONATE.
Sometimes commercials delivers their message with a sledgehammer. Other times, such as with this Canadian Woman's Foundation commercial to end violence against women, the delivery is far more subtle. So subtle, in fact, that in this case the spot had to be watched a couple times before the message made sense.
The physical separation between the husband and his wife and two kids as they sit on the couch in the commercial is an analogous illustration to the emotional separation that can come with spousal abuse as well as the emotional separation caused by years of suffering abuse without complaint
It must be Amnesty International day. First there was the sex trafficking ad. Now there's the waterboarding ad.
Waterboarding is a torture method for encouraging prisoners to, well, do what they are asked to do. Apparently America uses this technique and Amnesty International doesn't like it. The :90 makes the point but takes an interminable :60 to get there. It's like some art director was like, "Dude, let's illustrate the beautiful innocence of water and then suddenly cut to the horror of its abuse." Um, yea. Next time, make it a :30.
They came for the smokers, and I did not speak up because I wasn't a smoker.
They came for the caffeine junkies, and I did not speak up because I drank neither coffee nor tea.
Then they came for sex, and chocolate, and my sluttiest Halloween costume, and there was no one left to speak up for me.
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- Score about $10,000 to get a logo tattooed across your forehead. Add another $2000/year to keep it there. Got anything better to do?
- BlackBerry is profiling executive-level users on its website and in print ads. See the interview for Jason Pomeranc who seems kind of like a ... never mind.
- The Wall Street Journal killed Chuck Schwab. Well no, not really, but this WSJ parody site did point out his untimely passing. If Chuck is dead, we don't want to talk to anybody ever again.
- More behind-the-scenes Foam City stuff for Sony. Will you just SHOW US THE AD already?!
- Orgasmify my world? Hell yes! Oh, you meant "organify." Um, awesome.
- The TreeHugger guy said we'd "get a kick/sigh" out of this. We're really just perplexed.
VBS.TV is broadcasting a 12-part series called "Garbage Island," which follows the adventures of angry kids that scoop up, examine and lament the drifting artificial refuse we've forcefed Mother Earth.
It's an interesting series. But dude, what's going on with the visual litter all over VBS.TV? It seems incongruous to make us feel glum about depositing commercial waste everywhere while blatantly selling us commercial waste. Those Stussy ads chafe my eyeballs.
- Here's a trailer for The Big Bang Theory, a comedy of geek/glam stereotypes that will probably last all of two seasons. And the saddest part is, I'll probably watch it at some point. It returns April 14 on CBS.
- This stunt by agency New Message for The Phone, a Dutch show where a randomly-placed phone surprises whomever picks it up with a chance to win 25,000 Euros, was called "HILARISCH!" by one a YouTube fan. I didn't find it that funny, but I like that there are people somewhere in the world shouting "HILARISCH!", possibly even as I write this out.
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Here's a video that will make you think about deforestation in a painful, deeply personal way. Try not to cry.
Except this metaphor doesn't really hold. Because after that virgin pluck session, you get all rhino-skinned and totally impervious to the pain of losing your hair, one at a time, in an agonizingly slow manner.
I know this. I have conducted studies on my own anatomy.
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Family Resources in Florida tapped Salter>Mitchell to help promote marriage on the Fed's dime. (Your tax dollars at work! ...Just sayin'.)
Instead of advocating marriage's benefits, S>M orchestrated a familiar scenario where a bride-to-be talks her head off about the wedding while the groom stews in catatonic misery until he boils over. The tagline: "Make your wedding a beginning not an end." That could use a comma. But whatever.
How far the happy couple's come from proposal night, which undoubtedly included expensive dinner, lavish dessert, Veuve Clicquot champagne and hot sex. People should get married right at that moment, while the fire's still toasty and when the man's made all the preparations.
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