Barney Brand Gets A Hip-Hop Update

Having your brand spoofed is par for the course when you have a brand that stands for something as odd as Barney. In this dub of a Barney dance, we are treated to what the kids would really be singing if they and Barney were a little bit older. If your boss doesn't like uncensored hip-hop emanating from your cube, you might want to turn the volume down on this one. Thanks to Lucian James for the tip on this.

Ad Calls Non-Voters Idiots

In a clever use of letter-play, this spot for Politics.com by Riester-Robb places those who don't vote squarely in the category of idiot.

Ingenious.

Copywriter Wins Dead Radio Award For Miller Brewing

Young & Rubicam' Greg Christiansens's client-rejected radio script "Testing" was chosen from 1,000 entries and has been awarded a Gold by Oink Ink Radio Inc.'s "Dead Radio Contest." The spot was to introduce the new Miller Fridge Pack. As a winner, Christiansen get his spot produced by Oink Ink Radio Oink Ink Radio Inc. (www.oinkradio.com), a national radio-advertising agency with offices in New York City and Los Angeles, is pleased to announce Greg Christiansen’s “Testing” for Miller Brewing Company is the Gold Award winner of its seventh annual “Dead Radio Contest.” Hailing from Young & Rubicam’s Chicago, IL office, Christiansen’s script was selected from more than 1,000 entries nationwide. “Testing,” which was rejected by the client, is a :60 spot introducing the convenience of the Miller Fridge Pack.

Oink Ink Radio’s annual “Dead Radio Contest” invites advertising agency copywriters across America to submit their best radio scripts that suffered heart-wrenching deaths on clients’ conference room tables.

"When I first got the call from Oink telling me that I won, I was really surprised and very excited," said Christiansen. "I immediately told my creative director, who high-five’d me, my partner, and a few others in the office. It’s really great to be recognized for good work, even if the client doesn’t use it."

We can see why the spot might not have been client-friendly. It centers around various types of people such as a cement-footed mafia informant overcoming odds to reach the Miller Fridge Pack. We can just hear the client getting all PC, "But we can't actually make it seem like people would go that far out of their way to get a beer. That would them sound like alcoholics and us sound like drug pushers." Exactly.

Here Come The 'Lost' and 'Desperate Housewives' Copycats

Just one month into the new television season and there are already hints television executives are up to their old tricks cloning successful television series. Not quite understanding that people really do want variety, not warmed over versions of current hits, network execs can't help themselves and have begun searching for "quirky female dramas and big-concept thrillers." Next year, we can expect train wrecks like Lost in Suburbia.

Bikes, Babes and Boobs Bolster Buell

After you've seen the first five seconds of this multi-minute video for Buell American Motorcycles set to Psykohed's 'Do It Again,' you've seen the whole thing. Over and over, it's the same visuals of bikes, boobs and babes. Of course, if you like that sort of thing, there's not much to complain about. Other spots from this week's Ad Age TV Spots of the Week include a spot promoting the Suzuki 2005 Reno which features an MP3 player, bathroom humor for Foxwoods, floral cultural confusion for HSBC Local Banking, more babes, beer and office flirting for Michelob Ultra, Mom does "Incredible" stretched for P & G, Emiral Lagasse goes bang for Crest and Acura beats the traffic.

Woman uses Billboard to Find Husband

Australian Chinese woman Helen Zou has spent $5,000 to buy a billboard in Randwick for a month advertising for a husband.

With the headline, Husband Wanted," the copy lists her requirements for the ideal husband. Requirements include "good sense of humor, solid financial background, unencumbered and of Caucasian appearance and up to age 45." Zou has never been married and says her past attempts at romance have been unsuccessful. She is quite nonchalant about the whole thing, "I'm surprised a lot of people think this is special or unusual," she said. "It's Australia. There's a lot of freedom here. If you can put up a sign advertising Coca-Cola or whatever, why not write one about a husband.

Fufeng Toy Trademarks 'Happy Birthday' Brand

A Chinese toy company, Fufeng, has registered the words "Happy Birthday" as its trademark in 25 countries including the U.S., Japan and the European Union. Accordingly, marketers may now face legal difficulties when tying their brand to the words "Happy Birthday." One hopes the company won't be too hard on little girls who are planning birthday parties for their Barbie dolls.

Marketers: Wake Up And Smell The Consumer Control Coffee

Writing in Clickz, Sean Carton gives marketers a swift kick in the ass and tells them DVRs are ready to wipe out television advertising as we know it. We've heard this warning over and over but marketers need to hear it again. Begin right now. Today, envision your media plan with no commercial pod television element. Foresee a media landscape in which the consumer has complete control over every piece of content fighting for their eyeballs. It's not science fiction. It's happening right now.

Plan for it.

SC Johnson Goes Limp, Quits TBS's 'He's A Lady'

There's a lot of pulling out going on these past few days. Following Lowe's and Tyson Chicken's pullout from ABC's Desperate Housewives, SC Johnson is pulling out of the TBS cross dressing reality show He's A Lady.

It seems marketers are having difficulty completing the task at the last minute. Perhaps Viagra can fill in for these less than virile marketers.

Ford Dealers Experiment With Addressable Advertising

A group of New York and New Jersey Ford dealers are experimenting with addressable advertising - the practice of delivering customized advertising using database marketing. The dealer association is running nine versions of the same spot with each delivered based on geography, income and demographics as determined by zip code. Granted, this is hardly what addressable advertising will resemble in the future with true, individualized message targeting but marketers are at least getting their feet wet.

To put the campaign in place, the dealership group worked with its agency, J. Walter Thompson and Visible World's Intellispot software.

The first :15 seconds of each :30 are the same. The second :15 uses the same footage but superimposes different financing options over the second half of the spot.

Visible World EVP Claudio Marcus acknowledges the industry is in its infancy. "We are in the diaper stage right now," Mr. Marcus said, "and many marketers and media buyers are just beginning to understand what it could mean to execute cable TV campaigns in much the same way as direct marketers use household data to plan and execute mailings."

Online Gaming Ad Network Announced

New York-based Massive Inc. has announced its introduction of the first online gaming ad-serving network. Similar to online ad banner networks, Massive Inc. will enable advertisers to embed their advertising messages within gamescapes. Unlike product placements in games, Massive Inc.'s system, like current ad banner networks, will allow for the placement of messaging based on dayparts and other targeting criteria.

Massive Inc. has signed deals with gaming companies such as Ubisoft, Universal Games, Atari and Konomi. The company has signed RealNetworks as its first client. Estimates claim 10 million PC gamers and 3 million internet connected consoles. Massive predicts internet connected console players to double every 12 months.