Somebody give Tom Farber a job in advertising. The Rancho Bernardo High School calculus teacher decided that he would make up for cuts in his Xeroxing budget by selling ad space on his quizzes, tests, and end-of-the-semester exams.

So far, he's made more than enough to make up his deficit, and has started helping other teachers make up their own. Tom thinks he'll end the year with over a $1000 Xeroxing budget surplus. Maybe some media buyers should look into this specialized venue.

read the full article here.

Posted by Tanya Jenkins

Look at these new PepsiMax print ads from BBDO Dusseldorf. That cute little blue thing that looks like it's probably a brain parasite or Herpes simplex virus type 1, it's a calorie. It's killing itself because it's all alone in PepsiMax, the one calorie Pepsi.

Too bad lots of people are ticked off about the ads blatant trivialization of suicide, these little guys are kind of cute. In fact, if calories were really this cute, I bet people would stop eating them. Could be a solution to our country's obesity pandemic...

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Posted by Jennifer Powell

Did you get your free Dr. Pepper on November 23rd? Neither did we! Prune soda (no?!?) is bullsh*t anyway. And anyway again, Axl Rose is calling out Dr. P on their own bullshit. Read the letter his legal team just sent to Larry Young, president-CEO of the Dr. Pepper-Snapple Group...

Posted by Jennifer Powell

Yesterday, we wrote about Drago 5 sucky "viral" spot for Guitar Hero World Tour. The guy in this video obviously wasn't impressed either.

Posted by Geoff Howser

Youtube Link

Only the Drago5 edition. Words of wisdom, if you're going to go to this much effort to set up your "viral" spot, it's a good idea to make sure that it doesn't suck as bad as all the other non "viral" spots. This is seriously some boring sh*t with a capital SH*T.

Posted by Jennifer Powell

BBDO Montreal decided to hire Yves-Christian Fournier to direct this spot for Quebec Federation of Milk Producers. Right after he finished Tout est Parfait, an incredibly uplifting flick about teen suicide. Pass the milk, please, I need to wash down my Prozac.

Posted by Jennifer Powell

Yeah, ok. I like this ad. I like the idea of your Barclaycard being a "water slide" through life. It's an effective spot. But, I'd much rather end up in a wave pool at the end than my house. That must only come with the platinum card.

Posted by Tanya Jenkins

Face off! (Molson Dry, you already lost...)

...

Youtube Link

Posted by Geoff Howser

I've been a fan of Mike Rowe's Discovery Channel show Dirty Jobs since the early days. I enjoy nothing more than watching an attractive man getting down and dirty?I ain't kidding! And I have to say, I do enjoy this ad quite a bit. (See it in high res here.) He's so perfectly dirty and yet, so clean. Oh how I love the magic of our industry.

Posted by Tanya Jenkins

What's going on here in this little ad for Utah's Hogle Zoo? Are these guys gonna let me scratch them behind the ears or are they gonna eat me? They look like nice guys. Those birds seem like they're having a great time. But where did the cow go?

Youtube Link

Posted by Hesh Goldstein

Advice to readers everywhere: if you're town's ball club is poised to win the World Series of Baseball, feel absolutely free to park your car exactly where you're absolutely certain absolute mayhem is going to ensue shortly after your town's ball club wins the World Series of Baseball. The odds of your car getting completely fu*ked are about the same as you being completely fu*ked financially when your car gets flipped, but whatever, you've got it completely covered.

4) Success! You're a viral marketing genius. Not only did you just get a new used car for free, you also got to park really close to the place you were hanging out the night your town's ball club won the World Series of Baseball and you didn't even have to pay that PPA parking ticket. Kudos!

Posted by Geoff Howser

Yes, I'm well aware this video has been floating around the internet since around the time that Al Gore invented the Internet. However, I recently became aware?today in fact?that there exists an extended version of this formative viral video. It also made me long for a job at the local cable ad agency.

Posted by Geoff Howser

Really, these ads form CLM BBDO Paris make me think of anything BUT indigestion. And, even though I do suffer from IBS?I know TMI?I've never really felt like indigestion made me feel really little. Quite the opposite in fact.

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Posted by Jennifer Powell

Starbucks really wants you to vote tomorrow. In fact, they want you to vote so badly they'll give you a free coffee if you do?well, actually, all you have to do is say you voted, but please do vote. They also really like Noah's soundtrack. Voting is oh so emotional.

Posted by Geoff Howser

Well, at least one MLB team will probably sell a lot of gear for the next three days... And yes, the Dodgers should have gone.

Phillies World Series Phreakout 2008! from The Walrus on Vimeo.

Posted by Geoff Howser

This just in: Guitar Hero 4: World Tour actually has all the same instruments Rock Band has?no squeezebox yet. This also just in: Kobe Bryant, Alex Rodriguez, Tony Hawk and Michael Phelps play it together... in their underwear?bet we can guess who felt the most awkward on set just by his playing style. I think I'll stick with Rock Band. Thanks.

Posted by Geoff Howser

We were all enthralled when Dr. Pepper announced earlier this year that if, in fact, Axl Rose's long-awaited?17 years?album, Chinese Democracy, was released at any time during 2008, every last man, women, and child in America would receive a free Dr. Pepper. At first, everyone wrote the ridiculous offer off as a carefully hedged bet on Dr. Pepper's behalf. A there's-no-way-this-album-is-ever-going-to-come-out-kind-of-thing, similar to when Taco Bell placed a giant floating target in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and offered a free taco to everyone in America if the earth-bound space station Mir happened to crash on the target?interestingly, Taco Bell actually purchased an insurance policy to cover the cost of such an event.

However, it appears that Chinese Democracy will be released in 2008 and Dr. Pepper will in fact owe every American a free Dr. Pepper... if consumers register for a coupon on the corporate Dr. Pepper website within a 24-hour period. Lame-o! Furthermore, it turns out that the album is being released on November 23rd?ya know, Dr. Pepper with the 23 different flavors?only at Best Buy who just happens to share PR agency Ketchum with Dr. Pepper. Lame-r!

Taco Bell runs these kinda things a lot better. Show up. Get your free taco. Go home.

Posted by Geoff Howser

Take that PC/Crispin Porter & Bogusky. Appropriating a rival's campaign isn't that clever after all... even if you spend/make $300 million in the process, and especially when your rival's single rebuttal spot is better executed than your entire campaign; yup CP&B, crashed. Burned. 'Shoe Circus' was just the beginning...

Youtube Link

Posted by Geoff Howser

Antrepo Design's series of 'movie posters' calls out big brand product placement in major motion pictures... pretty interesting. Similarly, but way 'awesomer,' Brandchannel's 'official' list calls out product placement in major motion picture studio productions dating back to 2001.

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Posted by Jennifer Powell

Grey Amsterdamn recently did this piece to urge public transportation passengers to pick up after themselves. The copy reads, ?Don?t turn the bus into a garbage truck. It?s just as easy to throw your trash in the waste bin.? A simple concept, a simple statement, and a simple execution. Nobody is going to miss out on this message. I wish more advertising was this straightforward. via I Believe In Advertising.

Posted by Tanya Jenkins

It's not just me, everybody else in the advertising community thinks Gyro Worldwide's new book, Virus, is dribble too. AgencySpy had this to say about it...

Personally, the blurb below [from Gyro Worldwide's webiste] is what got me to shift them from neutral to moderate dislike:

"The Life Cycle of Hipness explains the evolution of "hot" - how trends, brands, people, music, fashion and ideas go from obscure to blisteringly hot to colder than a day old dog turd."

All the poop and prick jokes get old real fast. Pair that with the "life cycle of hipness" and who doesn't want to barf? Oh lookie! I made a vomit joke!

The book is written by Harriet Bernard-Levy who spends way to many pages rewriting the history of the agency and as the Philly Ad Man blog said, managed to "linguistically blow founder Steven Grasse." The title goes on to makes wild claims such as that Gyro invented viral marketing and was the first to capitalize on the "latent sexual forces running through contemporary proletarian subculture." Riiight... just as you thought, the book has turned out to be a joke. Philly ad men and women have been had.

The author doesn't exist. Neither does the book's publisher, Gold Crown Press. What does exist is Grasse's "art" videos called Bikini Bandits. AdPulp does a good job of dissecting the concept, but you can also just watch the video above. Note that Grasse thinks:

"Today satisfaction is not longer a visceral atavistic exchange but a hollow, symbolic one, obtained by calmly waiting in line and exchanging symbols of credit for symbols of desire.

With the Bikini Bandits, I restored the old sense of blood-and-guts dominion to the act of consumption and the feminine form."

Really? Grasse? Come on. You are recycling old ideas - hot girls empowered by guns and their flesh being exposed? There was already an homage to that kind of subverted feminism and Robert Rodriguez along with Quentin Tarantino did it much better. You've got your women using their bodies as weapons; their guns as metaphorical cocks. How banal. This isn't post feminism. This isn't even female empowerment. This is a tenth grade understanding of sexual politics. Hmm... Grasse, let me play by your rules for a second to be sure you understand: "Baby... can you say, suck my dick?" Now, there's a prick joke for you. AgencySpy

Looks like I'm not the only hater. In fact, Hesh might be the only person who isn't a hater.

Posted by Geoff Howser

Citing another facet of Steven Grasse's Arcadia Project, Bikini Bandits, AdPulp contributor David Burn continued wrestling today with the conceptual nature of Grasse's work saying:

To the uneducated viewer, Bikini Bandits might appear to be nothing more than eye-candy. However, the creator of the series, has much loftier ideas.

In fact, Gyro Worldwide CEO, Steve Grasse, sees Bikini Bandits as a post-feminist attack on the way women are portrayed in modern culture, especially by advertising.

According to the artist's statement on The Arcadia Project (which he describes as "a sequence of five projects that together form a phenomenology of attentional economics and American pop culture at the beginning of the 21st century):

Advertising usually presents women as passive objects who are acted upon. And the consumption that advertising promotes--though it may be dressed up as an act of rebellion--is equally passive. Before the retail environment swallowed the natural world, satisfaction was wrested by violent force from the land. Today satisfaction is not longer a visceral atavistic exchange but a hollow, symbolic one, obtained by calmly waiting in line and exchanging symbols of credit for symbols of desire.

With the Bikini Bandits, I restored the old sense of blood-and-guts dominion to the act of consumption and the feminine form.

It's copy like that leaves me dumbfounded. I don't know whether to stand up and cheer, or roll around on the floor in a fit of laughter. David Burn, AdPulp

Posted by Tanya Jenkins

Jenn here weighing in on this Gyro Worldwide book issue in my first Top Story post ever. Apparently, Harriet Bernard-Levy claims in Virus that Gyro ?was the first to capitalize on the latent sexual forces running through contemporary proletarian subculture?forever changing our collective notion of cool.?

I read that and I said to myself, ok, I don't really understand what she's talking about at first?sounds like she's trying to say a whole lot without really saying anything to me?but I do understand what "changing our collective notion of cool means." Then I dug up this old Mountain Dew clip on Gyro's YouTube channel. Horribly horribly uncool. Let me say it again, this is not cool. I think I'm going to have to agree with Geoff on this one. Bernard-Levy did not get her Ph.D at the Sorbonne. That's for damn sure. Maybe at some French community college, if at all...

Posted by Jennifer Powell

Two weeks ago, we posted about a new book titled Virus that chronicles the rise of Philadelphia ad agency, and viral marketer inventor, Gyro Worldwide. It seems that the rest of the press corps has caught on... Industry insiders over at AdPulp, namely contributor David Burn, picked up the story. In a post entitled "'Zeitgeist' Is Gyro Worldwide's Middle Name," Burn writes

Steven Grasse of Gyro Worldwide is a skilled self-promoter, and I say that with all sincerity, for self-promotion is a necessary skill that's hard to master. Too much self-promo and you're tiresome. Not enough, and you don't exist. Like a soufflé, you have to get it just right.

With the help of Harriet Bernard-Levy, a celebrated French cultural theorist, Grasse is getting it right. For what agency head doesn't want a French intellectual poking through his old campaigns and family albums?

According to the publisher, Bernard-Levy's new book, Virus: The Outrageous History of Gyro Worldwide, "frames the Gyro story as a business epic, the tale of an unknown Philadelphia ad agency that taught the world to ?sell out? and, in so doing, laid the foundation of America's cultural and economic hegemony for the 21st century."

In the book, Bernard-Levy claims Gyro invented viral marketing, while also launching careers of such notables as Spike Jonze, Doug Aitken, Quentin Tarantino and Dayton and Ferris. Hmmm...there's likely some truth in these claims, but I can certainly see why the word "outrageous" is in the title of the book. David Burn of AdPulp

Posted by Tanya Jenkins

This new Guiness spot from Saatchi & Saatchi/London just premiered in Jamaica. Nice piece of spoken word, bad beer ad. Definitley not anywhere as excellent as their "Good things come to those who wait" spot from a while back. Do people even drink Guinness in Jamaica? Or the small Peruvian town the older spot was filmed in? Pretty sure not.

via AdRants.

Posted by Tanya Jenkins

John Lydon, better known as Johnny Rotton of the Sex Pistols, is staring in his first ever TV commercial. The ad, from agency Grey London, is pretty much exactly what you would expect. Lame as hell. Says John, who is earning 5 million pounds for the ad, "People know I only do things that I want to or that I believe in and I have to do it my way. I've never done anything like this before and never thought I would, but this Country Life ad was made for me and I couldn't resist the opportunity." Now that's punk.

Posted by Geoff Howser

It's not the first time us ad men have heard from him, and it won't be the last... Steven Grasse, progenitor of viral marketing and CEO of Gyro Worldwide, is the protagonist in a new treatise published by France's preeminent cultural theorist, Harriet Bernard-Levy. Virus: The Outrageous History of Gyro Worldwide chronicles the past 20 years of Gyro Worldwide and one of the most outspoken men in marketing, Steven Grasse.

The book places Grasse's brainchild?perhaps the most salient contribution to advertising since the billboard?viral marketing, under the retroactive, microscopic lens of contemporary marketing. Levy traces the storied history of Grasse, Gyro Worldwide, and viral marketing through the annals of history and concludes the journey with a rousing "huzzah!" In no uncertain terms, let me say that if anyone is anyone in marketing, this is their bible.

Posted by Hesh Goldstein

In a radical move, the personal finance industry has decided to use yet another broke B-list celebrity for advertising purposes. 85-years-old and bankrupt, Ed McMahon is turning his life around. Or at least he is in some new spots he recently filmed for Experian's FreeCreditReport.com website. In one of the spots which will air in October, McMahon, broken neck and all, raps...

When I retired, I was famous/I had money and glory/I bought a house for 6 mill/I thought nothing could touch me/Until my credit went south, and debt started to crunch me/Next thing I know, instead of playing gin rummy, I was scrambling just to make ends meet/It wasn't funny/ Got a bump from the media chumps, but that was temporary/Wife with bad credit was scary, so I got wise/I may have fallen, but I got back up/Now I'm back on the attack, like a ninja swinging nunchucks/I told the haters, 'Go on, take a hike'/It's my show now, and I can do what I like. Ed McMahon

Posted by Jennifer Powell

Graduate school. It's really expensive. You're gonna spend the next decade paying off student loans. But you're gonna leave with a degree in something. Then there's grADuate school. You can choose to leave with a degree?in association with a partner university and for an added fee?or just a portfolio that you pay lot's of money to fill with stuff like this... (Gotta love the education business.)

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Posted by Geoff Howser

Phase II of Crispin Porter + Bogusky's much-hyped new Microsoft marketing campaign is here, begun way ahead of schedule after Phase I of the campaign starring Jerry Seinfeld crashed and burned like a less funny version of the Hindenburg disaster. And guess what... the new "I'm a PC" spots (watch below) are complete rip offs of the Apple ads that have been coming out for the last few years. How creative. To make matters worse, turns out that, according to file meta data on the new "I'm A PC" website, all the creative was created on Mac computers. Whoops.

Youtube Link

Posted by Geoff Howser

Fact: Willie Nelson has his own biodiesel brand, BioWillie.

Question: Is BioWillie made from Willie Nelson's fossilized bones, you know, like dinosaurs and oil?

Fact: No, he's still alive. Two copywriters from BioWillie's agency of record,Fitzgerald+CO, will attempt to drive nonstop from New York to Los Angeles for the first time ever on one tank of biodiesel fuel.

Question: Is that a good idea? I mean, is that safe? Do they have a whole tank of trucker speed too? What the hell is this hijink all about?

Fact: It's not clear if this is a good idea. It's certainly not safe. It is definitely called Willie Run 2008.

Question: Ok, I get that, but is Willie Nelson really still alive?

Fact: Yes. He's been running on a combination of BioWillie and cannabis since his 1997 album Gone Fishin'.

Posted by Geoff Howser

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Posted by Geoff Howser

I actually spent the first thirty seconds of this PSA from the British Heart Foundation trying to figure out if the "butler" (as my girlfriend referred to him as) was Anthony Hopkins or not. After I figured out that no, the "butler" was not Anthony Hopkins, I spent the duration of the spot making a mental list of people I would enjoy heart attacking. Me having a heart attack never really entered into the equation. If I die of cardiac arrest, I'll know who to blame.

Posted by Geoff Howser

It's definitely not the norm to tell potential customers they might hate what you're selling, but British Marmite manufacturer Unilever has been running with "Love It or Hate It" for a long time. And while I firmly believe that yeast extract should remain in the brewery and far, far away from my toast, these print ads for Marmite-infused junk food are making me a mite curious. Are Marmite cheddar bites any good? Contrary to my post titling, I just might have to give them a go. You can have the Marmite bread sticks all to yourself. via AdHunt.

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Posted by Geoff Howser

Who invents this stuff? And what type of company does their marketing? And what production company produces every single last one of these ridiculous video spots? And are they hiring?

Posted by Geoff Howser

The Captain wuz here. Or at least that's what Denver residents will be saying come Friday morning when the DNC packs up and rolls out of town, along with its "preferred wine and spirits company," Diageo. In possibly the lamest marketing move since deciding to name their flagship rum brand after a comical pirate, Diageo decided to have said pirate run a faux presidential campaign at both the Democratic National Convention and the Republican National Convention.

I'm Captain Morgan, and I approve this massage [dude]! Captain Morgan If you're not happy with either Obama or McCain, perhaps you should consider voting for the Captain. He's running on a platform of "5 day weekends." His environmental stance is a little waffle-y: when it comes to global warming, he just want to "ensure the party stays hot, hot, hot." Oh witty copy, how the frat boys love thee. If you like sugar and sh*t swill, this is the rum for you.

Youtube Link

Posted by Geoff Howser

Well, I thought before every client who's heard of the Internet begins asking for Twitter in their social media campaign strategy, it might be a good idea to help get the idea out there that there are certain rules that should be observed and followed. This ain't no MySpace, that's for damn sure. So, let's turn to a Twitter expert's advice: Margaret Mason?s 14-point guide to improved tweets.

If only a few people follow you, but you follow a thousand or more, many people will assume you?re a spammer. That?s because you probably are. Go away, spammer. We do not care about your Facebook app. Margaret Mason

Posted by Geoff Howser

First YouTube user Levinator 25 posts a video of a "glitch" he found in Electronic Arts' Tiger Woods PGA Tour '08. Tiger Woods walks out "onto" a water hazard and hits a brilliant shot from a lilly pad.

Youtube Link

Then one year later, almost to the day, EA posts a video of Tiger Woods actually doing the "Jesus Shot" in person.

Youtube Link

AdFreak is all over it, as are some other Internet people. Is this a clever "viral" marketing campaign from EA Sports? Maybe, maybe not. Although the next game in the series happens to come out in three days, it seems pretty unlikely that EA has been planning this two YouTube video campaign for their '09 release since before '08 hit the stores.

Posted by Geoff Howser

An extra $646.00 helped me pay off my house remodeling! Like Stacy Johnson, male CPA, always says "Money Talks!" Fortunately though, your dead relatives don't and Cash4Gold is the place to make cash on your cashed out relatives' gold. Seriously, with the price of gold these days, I'm telling Sylvia if she doesn't watch it, I'm gonna arrange some kind of accident.

Posted by Hesh Goldstein

Literally. In the interest of transparency?quite a news media/internet buzzword these days?I'll make it clear: I love Oreo cookies. Delicious. Literally. That being said, I'm also a fan of the idea of this "recently spotted" ad on Ad of Da Month. Produced by DRAFTFCB NEW YORK USA, I will say I'm wondering where the hell this is, and how effective this kind of location-specific, one-off advertising is in reality. This crap is all over the internet, but I don't think I've ever run across any "site-specific" outdoor stuff like this ever in my entire Oreo-eating existence. Or at least I can't remember having encountered it. And isn't that the point?

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Posted by Tanya Jenkins

After years of success as the Geico spokes-Neanderthals, and a half season as very unsuccessful ABC sitcom-ers (watch an outtake below), the Geico Cavemen are back on prime-time through a new deal with ESPN. Everybody's least favorite Middle Paleolithicans will be gracing the 24-hour sports network "as fantasy-football salesmen, as well as stars of a series of vignettes promoting the network's flagship "SportsCenter" program."

Seriously, you've got to be kidding me. After you've been on TV for a decade and try to make the switch to a family sitcom and your show crashes and burns worse than a polyester Zeppelin, you should be relegated to the Hollywood has-beens retirement home never to be seen or heard from again. Nobody wants to see your overly developed brow ridge ever again. I'm so mad I could spit.

Youtube Link

Posted by Hesh Goldstein

The Spanish Olympic basketball team is under fire for posing for this questionable photo op. As reported in the Guardian,

Spain's Olympic basketball teams have risked upsetting their Chinese hosts by posing for a pre-Games advert making slit-eyed gestures. The advert for a courier company, which is an official sponsor of the Spanish Basketball Federation, occupied a full page in the sports daily Marca, the country's best-selling newspaper. Sid Lowe, The Guardian

That's just not couth guys; we're surprised you didn't do the whole thing in "yellow face."

Posted by Geoff Howser

JWT London rolls out this ad for Trident's new flavor, Chocolate Mint. It's amazing how ad shops used to think rolling out a retro illustration would fix everything. It's even more amazing that an ad shop would think rolling out a retro illustration these days could even be remotely construed as cool. Maybe if it depicted someone in Skidz?

P.S. Linking to the Skidz site happened in a coincidental moment of divine blog intervention. You really need to visit the website if you haven't. Mind blown? Check.

Posted by Tanya Jenkins

When it comes to getting kicked when you're down, this is right up there with the whole anti-Budweiser ads/In-Bev sale thing we reported on last week. Greyhound has apparently been running these ads since last year, but wouldn't you know it, last week "bus rage" became all to real for the bus company. Leave it to one of your passengers to repeatedly stab, behead, and cannibalize a random passenger, hereby rendering your hard-spent advertising budget completely worthless. Thanks View From The Bottom.

Posted by Geoff Howser

Phil Knight doesn't give a flying fu*k about rising gas prices. Rumor has it the chairman/founder of Nike bought and electric car and converted it to gasoline power just to prove a point. Now that's extreme. Not as extreme as the Mountain Dew Action Sports Tour though. And what better way to rep your brand on said extreme Mountain Dew AST?that's "action sports tour" dork?than tricking out a decommissioned amphibious assault vehicle. Hint: there is no better way. Please note the skate ramp on the back. Maybe decking out all of our current military equipment in such a manner is the key to winning the hearts, minds, and brand loyalty of Iraqis.

Posted by Geoff Howser

No, really. These guys are so bad at dancing it's kind of embarrassing to mention them. It's all part of Haagen-Dazs Help the Honey Bees campaign. The little guys are disappearing and no one knows why.

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Posted by Hesh Goldstein

Those beverage industry guys can play real dirty sometimes. Just as Budweiser "The Great American Lager" fans recover from the recent sale of the "The Great American" beer brand to Belgian industry giants InBev, some ruthless admen from Y&R Irvine come out with a whole campaign for Costa Rica's Imperial beer calling out Budweiser H-A-R-D. I mean, you can't really blame the Anheuser-Busch boys for taking the 52 billion dollar takeover/sellout unsolicited bid, but hostile ads that say "Not Brewed in a Factory in Downtown St. Louis Since 1924" really have to tug at the heartstrings of those fiercely loyal Gateway City guys. Now they're definitely singing the blues.

Posted by Tanya Jenkins

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Posted by Geoff Howser

Well, it's here. The search engine that some people have been waiting for, from some people that used to work for Google. Cuil launched on Monday, and so far, it has been off to a little bit of a rocky start. It spent most of Monday crashing and most of Tuesday working better than Monday, but still not flawlessly. Of course, any site launch has its issues, but when you're going up against Google, you gotta be pretty spot on.

Maybe Cuil does have a larger search index than Google through better search algorithms. That's great for them, but they're never going to beat the G-men. First off, Cuil pronounced "cool" is kind of a pretty stupid name. "Cuil it?" Something is already lost in translation there. It does have a little bit of a slicker edge to it, but maybe Google just needs to consider giving itself a face life. And what about images, and directions, and maps, and RSS readers, and email, and... well, I guess a search engine is a start.

Posted by Tanya Jenkins

Three gay rights organizations condemned the commercial as homophobic, arguing that the men's reaction (they tear out their chest hair to prove they're really "manly") demeans gay men. Paul Farhi for The Washington Post It's pretty easy to offend people these days. When Mars ran its "Man Kiss" Snickers ad during the 2007 Superbowl, it hastily pulled the commercial and related web material after it received complaints from three different gay rights organizations. However, it seems that MGMT?nope, not that popular band, just the regular old MGMT at Mars Inc.?grew some balls and is bringing the whole theme back, at least in the UK. These new Mr. T spots are B.A.!

Youtube Link

Posted by Tanya Jenkins

Yeah, I already talked about this a couple weeks ago. But, the countdown is over?thank freaking God?and now any one of us can purchase the a Lotus "Evora." Thank God this sh*t is over.

Posted by Hesh Goldstein

Steve Lambert is having an Information Age identity crisis. He is a "conceptual artist" who believes he has had an original idea: Steve Lambert thinks advertising is annoying. It's an eyesore. It's subversive. It's also a write-up in ADWEEK.

So, Steve Lambert decided to empower people with the ability to manage how much online advertising they have to "endure." His Anti-Advertising Agency has, among other things, produced the application Add-Art, which allows Firefox users to replace website advertising with fine art.

Too bad Lambert is rebelling against the institution that most supports ideals he's attempting to promote. Right now, the majority of web content is more or less free. But, a large number of industries are struggling to figure out where the free content they publish on the web fits into their bottom line. Take The New York Times for example. How can one of our country's most acclaimed newspapers continue providing comprehensive content online for free, when their old business model was built upon the high-priced advertising real estate of printed newspaper pages. If free access to world-class journalism actually comes with the cost of an advertisement or two slipping into my eyeball's periphery, sign me up Steve.

P.S. Steve, after I saw your "rectangular eyeglasses" while you demonstrated that "program on [your] MacBook," with "its glowing Apple logo covered by a 'VOTE' sticker," I decided to register for this upcoming election, finally make the switch from PC to Apple, and purchase a pair of rectangular eyeglasses. Nice job with "the man."

Posted by Tanya Jenkins

You could be on Mad Men! AMC AMC is holding a contest that could get you?yes, you?onto cable television's Mad Men (thanks Rachel Timmerman. I was about to submit my own entry video until I saw Justin Zell's gem. Guess my acting career is never going to take off.

Posted by Geoff Howser

There are many companies that say, 'We can give you a smoothie in a box,' and we resisted it. If you ask people, what they want is real food that starts with a whole, fresh fruit. Michelle Gass, senior VP-global strategy at Starbucks The King of Coffee Houses has wised up to the twenty-year-old smoothie trend: introducing Starbucks' Vivanno Nourishing Blends. The new blended beverages "have 270 calories or fewer and no artificial sweeteners," which surprisingly/not surprisingly (depending on how you look at things) is the same as a 16oz Grandé Caramel Frappuccino Blended Coffee sans whipped cream. Orange Julius called, it wants its "venti Vivanno" back.

Posted by Jennifer Powell

Sometimes having 258 offices in 75 different countries can complicate agency operations. Omnicom Group Inc.'s TBWA Worldwide is scrambling to explain how the agency managed to produce work for two different clients, Adidas and Amnesty International, painting two wildly different images of China and the upcoming summer Olympics. The Adidas ads focus on Chinese pride and the nation's athletes, while the Amnesty International ads, which happened to win bronze at Cannes, center around China's poor human rights record. Three sample ads from each campaign:

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Posted by Tanya Jenkins

They're all over London. Wimbledon, Harrod's?see below?etc. A faceless couple who wants you to buy an expensively-cheap Lotus sports car. It's all part of their Faceless People campaign. A $65,000 sports car? Either you can afford a Ferrari or you stick with a Mazda Miata. A Lotus is like a Kia for the 35%+ tax bracket. If I thought I had money but that was all I could afford, I'd forgo my face too.

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Posted by Hesh Goldstein

Clear, very clear...

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Posted by Geoff Howser

Batman and Domino's go hand in hand like The Incredible Hulk and Burger King. And like Speed Racer and McDonald's?crash. And like WALL-E and Popeyes Chicken and Biscuits. Really, it all makes so much sense. Like this latest Domino's spot conceived by C+PB, most likely shot in the Gotham City section of Six Flags Over Texas (are those masks regulation?). Super heroes and fast food go together like saturated fat and weight loss. I highly doubt Alfred orders any Domino's to Wayne Manor in The Dark Knight. They should have just stuck with the Noid.

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Posted by Geoff Howser

I flipped open Time Magazine last week to find that identity protection company LifeLock is stull running ads featuring CEO Tod Davis and his Social Security number?it's 457-55-5462. Amazing. As of last month there have been 20 US driver's licenses issued under that SS number?somebody should tell the Department of Homeland Security?and that revelation comes on the heels of LifeLock's co-founder Robert Maynard, Jr. stepping down under accusations that he himself is guilty of identity theft. They're also currently being sued by credit information giant Experian for "fraud and false advertising." Wow Todd! Maybe it's time to shift the brand's identity away from your own Social Security number and think of some other way to convince people your company is at all capable of preventing identity theft.

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Posted by Tanya Jenkins

I really wouldn't want my daughter looking at it. She might think it's cool and say 'Mom, Dad, have you ever tried Colt 45?' Concerned Philadelphia resident Jill Maguire The fair city of Philadelphia has found itself ground zero in the struggle between the tyrannical non-profit arts conglomerate and "big alcohol." Last week "graffiti-style" murals pushing Colt 45 malt liquor began popping up around town. The city's Mural Arts Program?one of the largest public arts initiatives in the country?is incensed that corporate America has laid its paws on Philadelphia's limited outdoor wall space. An unidentified mural painter wearing cutoff jean shorts and mandals was overheard saying, "We built these walls and now big business think they can just roll in and paint wherever they want all willy-nilly? Nah-uh."

Meanwhile, most area residents around the various mural locations agreed that they would be fine with the murals except that they "suck." Featuring the tag line "works every time," and the sign off, "yo, enjoy our frosty malt beverages responsibly," the murals are part of Colt 45's new marketing campaign, The Tales of Colt 45. Amazingly, the website also "sucks."

Posted by Jennifer Powell

Dubai definitely breaks our hearts all the time, and I think they really captured that in their logo. Amnesty International Wow, it's pretty bizarre that entire nation-states have logos. It's also strange that there seem to be semi-regional trends. A lot of the former Eastern bloc states really prefer the primary school art class look, while the South American tourista countries go for the glossy, over produced kind of stuff. Amazing, seperate flags seem kind of unnecessary. Maybe we should just put the logos on flags and ditch that Betsy Ross jazz. We'll just call them "flogos."

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Posted by Geoff Howser

No one at J.C. Penney was aware of the ad or participated in the creation of it in any way. The commercial was never broadcast, but rather was created by a former employee at J.C. Penney's advertising agency, Saatchi & Saatchi, solely as an award submission without J.C. Penney's knowledge or prior approval. J.C. Penney J.C. Penney is up in arms over a viral spot "condoning teenage sex" for its department store that took home a bronze Lion at Cannes last week. It appears that production agency Epoch Films, created and entered the spot without the knowledge of J.C. Penney or Saatchi & Saatchi, J.C. Penney's agency of record. I can understand J.C. Penney's wrath; the spot definitely doesn't go far in helping the department store chain win over their Middle America target demo.

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Full coverage on Advertising Age.

Posted by Tanya Jenkins

Not everybody gets to go to Cannes. Some advertising people are too busy worrying about what their clients actually want, or what will actually score with consumers as opposed to with a panel of industry judges. Then there are people who are so busy worrying about what the judges want to see that they fail to produce good enough work to get admitted at all. For this second, less successful group of adverteers there's a little ad festival that takes place on Coney Island just for them. It's called the Wrath of Cannes and it went down last Thursday at Cha Cha's Cafe on the Coney Island Boardwalk.

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Posted by Geoff Howser

Dear VCU Brandcenter,

I get enough junk mail that has been imagined and designed by your former students in their real-world jobs, why would you clog up my mailbox with work from your current students? Recently, I came home to find the eleventh volume of your Sixty magazine waiting for me, so I flipped through it while I was making a BM. Holy sh*t if I do say so myself. Did your creative license expire along with the automobile registration on your cover? And, what's with the "Creativity / Commerce / Culture" subtitle? The only thing this magazine is about is plugging your little education brand. Do you have e-students yet? It's a highly lucrative way to make some money and teach nothing.

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Posted by Hesh Goldstein

The air in Cannes this morning was thick with a palpable tension as the Cannes International Advertising Festival prepared to announce the Viral Grand Prix winner of their Cybor Lions category. As it turned out, 42 Entertainment took home the golden nod for their work on Trent Reznor's / NIN's / Nine Inch Nails' multimedia extravaganza, aka his last "album" Year Zero. The album includes several components in addtion to the original album, such as a remix album and an "alternative reality game," or ARG, which is basically Dungeon & Dragons for cybernerds.

Despite winning a client-pleasing paperweight, the only thing viral about 42 Entertainment's campaign was the marketing part, once again proving that you've gotta look to the experts if you really want to unleash a true plague on consumers. Meanwhile, Trent Reznor, who claims to hate money and marketing and all that stuff that other Americans can't get enough of, seems to have found a happy place on the client side of a Cannes victory. He's probably "feeling that" Lion "from the inside" of his stock portfolio right now.

Posted by Geoff Howser

It's almost to good to be true for the morbidly obese: eat McDonald's three times a day for six-months and lose 86 pounds? Apparently that's what happened to Chris Coleson, a formerly 281-pound guy from Virginia. Although he did eat only the stuff that's on the McDonald's menu because angry fat people were threatening to sue. You know, stuff like salads and wraps and ketchup packets.

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Posted by Tanya Jenkins

Energy drinks have been around since John Pemberton threw some cocaine into his cola recipe during the 1880's. Now there are more energy drinks than there are reality tv shows?there are about 100 different brands or so?and they've gotten strong enough that you're probably better off smoking meth. You've got your Red Bull and your Full Throttle. There's Rockstar, XS, and AMP. Then you've got my personal favorites, BAWLS and Blow. So how do you break into a market that's super saturated beyond the point of penetration?

I am still shocked at the unbelievably anti-energy effect that this drink has on me, plus, it has a GREAT taste. John D. from Texas First, you have a brilliant idea like the guys over at Drank and you invent an anti-energy drink. Then you come up with a killer name like Drank with a killer tag line like "slow your roll," and then you brand the hell out of it. You've also gotta make a website that has great fonts and even greater clipping paths. Then you just sit back and wait for the money roll in. After all, all those people that drink a lot of energy drink during the day have gotta sleep sometime, and dranking Drank really gets the job done.

Posted by Geoff Howser

Tom?yeah, we're friends?announced at an afternoon press conference today that MySpace would be getting a long overdue makeover.What does Mark Zuckerberg think? Why the fu*k would I give a sh*t about what Mark Zuckerberg thinks? I was flying around Friendster posting testimonials while Mark Zuckerberg was learning how to use a toilet. Fu*k Mark Zuckerberg, fu*k Facebook. Tom, MySpace While Tom said that the main purpose of the makeover was to give himself an updated profile picture with new stuff on his white board, the changes will also include a new homepage, improvements in site navigation, an updated profile editor, and a better search system.

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Posted by Geoff Howser

Meet Andy, Liza, Karen & Katy. Their first mistake was thinking they had to go to some expensive advertising school to learn the biz. Their second mistake was entering a silly awards show, the Cannes Lions, in which they happened to win some silly award. Now they want industry folks to pay their $6000 airfare to go over to France and accept their AKQA Future Lions award. Well I've got a better idea. Instead of blowing six grand on a week-long trip France, why don't you spend the week at home coming up with some ads that will actually speak to people in the real world instead of some panel of industry schmucks. Come up with a good one and I might pay you $500 for it; that's the way it usually works in this business.

Posted by Hesh Goldstein

Summer interns at J.W.T.'s North American regional headquarters in New York City walked off the job early this morning after J.W.T. refused