As part of the Global Fund RED campaign to fight AIDS in Africa, The Independent has been redesigned today by Giorgio Armani and half the papers ad revenue will be donated to the Global Fund ro Fight AIDS. It's all part of the Maria Shriver/Bono-created campaign that aims to urge big business to contribute to the fund in an ongoing manner. The companies already involved are Gap, Converse, Emporio Armania, American Express and Motorola. All those companies have developed RED product lines and a portion of the revenue that comes from sales of those lines goes to the Fund.
Maria Shriver explains the effort telling The Independent, "How do you think Magic Johnson [who has HIV] is still around? He takes two pills a day, which he can get from any drugstore. But those drugstores don't exist in Africa, and millions can't get to the drugs Magic Johnson can get. That's where the RED money's going." So far, $10 million has been raised.
 George Parker tells us the story of a German magazine that fell prey to the openness of the interweb or, perhaps, was just plain stupid. The Cologne-based magazine, a yet-to-be-launched book aimed at teens, called Objektiv found an image of a model to use in a promotional piece and slapped the headline, "Deutsch Ist Geil!" or "German is Hot!" next to her. While it's very easy to troll the Internet for millions of images that suit any particular purpose, the group behind Objektiv found the image of the girl, 19 year old Czech model, Jaimy, on her site, Sweet Natural Girl, a psuedo, semi-pornish, girl next door type site. These kind of sites, whose sole revenue stream consists of drooling, horny guys who will throw money at anything just to see fleshy hotness, don't take kindly to their images being used in such a widespread manner by a for-profit entity without remuneration. Obviously, legal action has ensued. Apparently, the fact she's Czechoslovakian didn't sit well either but that's for you political types to analyze.
Acknowledging the lowly state of the lonely, unread book collecting dust on the shelves of Barnes and Noble and Borders as kids instead spend hours playing video games, obsessing over MySpace, chatting on AIM and blogging on Xanga, Random Hose Children's Books has teamed with The Book Standard and announced the Teen Book Video Awards. It's a contest in which college students create virally-intentioned :30 videos, similar to movie trailers, which will help Random House promote books through various web outlets and over Sprint's MSpot.
Random House has selected three books for the contest including The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray and How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff. Oddly, they're all bestsellers. One might think Random House would want to promote books that, well, haven't sold so well yet. Hey, we just write about this stuff.
Here's a beyond dumb but maybe not so much promotional video for Nuts magazine sent to us by FishNChimps which touts its circulation superiority over competing magazine Zoo by featuring a striping females who begins her disrobing with "I've got a figure I want to reveal to you." That figure, of course, isn't hers. It's the circulation figure for Nuts which is greater than that of Zoo's. But hey, women who take their clothes off always seem to attract attention and since its an editorial edict here at Adrants to cover anything involving women who get naked, we figured (ouch. unintentional pun) we'd better tell you about it.
- Copyranter hates, really hates Niche Media publisher Jason Binn and his prickish self importance. W don't know him but we think we hate him too after reading about his recent behavior
- Smaller sized newspapers are better. Especially if your laying in bed and your spouse needs a hand.
- BlogAds Founder Henry Copeland marvels at the Washington Post's description of its new blog ad service as "the next big, slightly-outside-the-mainstream idea."
- Intentional or not, the upside down version of this ad brings a whole new meaning to this flooring company's slogan, "Laid by the Best."
- Not at all related to marketing - unless, of course, it turns out to be some stealth promotion for the next zombie flick which it won't because it's just a fun little flash mob gig - but a mob of zombies attacked San Francisco Saturday. And Vancouver.
- The Environmental Working Group is taunting McDonald's Toy Hummer Giveaway with a site that protests the promotion.
- Freeload Press has come to the aid of college students and will publish over 100 ad-supported text books free of charge.
- Ariel thinks "old men" can't get it up which is why they "erect blogs instead." Hmm.
- Here's yet another one of those anti-cute spots for the Dodge Caliber. This one features cute cuddly things not quite displaying a lot of attraction for the vehicle.
- Production company Indelible has completed some work for Mac lips gloss in which Sandra Bernhard goes on and on and one and..well...on about her lips.
Who better than whacked out Tom Cruise as a 44 year old virgin to grace the cover of humor magazine CRACKED as it makes its return after a two year hiatus? The "re-imagined" magazine has been juiced with editorial staff from the Daily Show, SNL and Chappelle and will offer up a heavy dose of humor and satire. The publisher and advertisers hope men 18-34 will flock to the mag like paparazzi flock to the disappearing Nicole Richie.
Advertising's most lovable curmudgeon, George Parker of AdHurl and AdScam fame has finished his book, MadScam: Kick-Ass Advertising Without the Madison Avenue Price Tag which is sure to ruffle a few feathers as it Parker reveals the inner working of the ad agency business, it's over reliance on the cool and its seeming inability to focus on what's important: The Idea. If you've read either of Parker's sites, you know this book will be like a bad burrito that's decided to set up house in your intestines while it turns the innards of the agency business inside out. if you dare, you can pre-order it on Amazon here. It's not out until December. You can read the book's preface, written by Ogilvy & Mather VP and Global Creative Director Steve Hayden here.
This is just too good to pass up. Commenting on New York Times ad columnists Stuart Elliott's three month vacation and his replacement by Jane L Levere, George Parker writes, "...for fucks sake Jane Baby... Get off your arse and write about advertising... Otherwise, just rename the column... Jane L. Levere's really fucking boring column that has nothing whatsoever to do with advertising, 'cos it's much easier to re-write PR releases from the media companies that take me out to lunch and get me fucked up." Exactly.
Floyd Hayes from CunningWork has put together FiveOnFriday, which he says will become a weekly video update covering the world of advertising, marketing and cool stuff. In this debut show, Hayes highlights recent campaigns both online and off, recent news and Nike's iPod sneakers. If you want a quick hit on what's up in the world of advertising, The quality is low but it's the first one so give it a chance. You can view the debut episode here.
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