Crispin Gets Spoofed Again

As they were before, out hot friends in Miami, Crispin Porter + Bogusky have been given a little spoof treatment again, this time riffing on the agency's work for Captain Morgan and that campaign's Wake Up With The King" ad. Funny enough.

'Got Milk' Campaign Spoofs Steroid Scandal

Major League Baseball isn't taking too kindly to a new 'Got Milk' commercial which riffs on the leagues recent steroid scandal. The spot shows a player getting pulled from the game "after testing positive for a performance-enhancing substance" only to have a carton of milk found in his locker. MLB Executive VP is not amused, "There is nothing humorous about steroid abuse. I would think that the California Milk Processor Board and their advertising agency would know better regarding an issue that threatens America's youth."

Goodby, Silverstein & Partners Co-Founder Jeff Goodby whose agency created the campaign says Brosnan needs to get a sense of humor, "It's just milk. Believe me, we know parody is based on a serious topic. So we wanted to make sure that it was goofy enough so that people didn't get upset." Touche. See the ads here.

Adrants Thanks Its Readers

We'd like to make it known that what you read here on Adrants would only be half as good if it weren't for its readers. Over half the stories you see here on Adrants come in the form of tips from those of you that work in or have an avid interest in advertising. We offer a long overdue thanks to each and every one of you. Keeps the tips coming. It makes for a great read.

When we're big and famous and rich, we'll host a huge party and invite you all to celebrate with us this fabulously fun, freakishly fickle, decidedly dynamic, piously pompous, fruitfully fulfilling, edifyingly entertaining, paradoxically perplexing, simplistically simple, delightfully divine industry in which we work.

Thanks.

'Words & Pictures' Takes on Neil French

Latching on the the ad industry latest scandal dujour, ad comic strip site, Words & Pictures, adds their two cents to the crap-storm Neil French stirred up in a recent speech because of comments he made about women, working and giving 100 percent to the job. French was right when he told Ad Age he's suffering "death by blog."

Shoe Polish Gets Cannon Treatment

John from random Culture points us to some work his agency, Click Here, did for Kiwi show polish. To get across the point of how "crazy fast" Kiwi's Express polish is, a Kiwi bird, in the first of a series of three videos, is shout from a cannon (Outpost anyone?) and proceeds to fly through various scenescapes until the spot ends with a voiceover and the tagline, "Look Sharp." Mundane as shoe polish is, this at least attempts to add some fun to the product.

HP, Intel Take Digital Photography to The Street

Graeme Klass points out an HP and Intel street promotion in Melbourne Australia, called "The Color Factory," which lets people inside the digital picture creation process to experience it first hand.

Absolut Spoof Bottles Crooked Politicians

Rick Bruner points us to an amusing, politically-charged Absolut ad which bottles up a bunch of politicians claiming they are "pulling a Martha Stewart, or conspiring to subvert election laws, or ripping off their kids' school board, or outing a CIA agent, or practicing cronyism turned deadly, or hiring a bagman who in turn hires Mafia hit men, or lying to get us into an unjust war that kills tens of thousands," and names them "Absolut Corruption."

The site that created the spoof, 2 Political Junkies, promises posters and T-shirts will be forthcoming. Unfortunately, it's a safe bet Absolut lawyers will be forthcoming as well.

Budget Launches Blog-Based, Sixteen City Treasure Hunt

In a first, Car rental company Budget has launched a blog-based, four-week, 16-city treasure hunt, called Up Your Budget, which offers a total of $160,000 in prizes. To win, participants must find a sticker which has been placed in a public location in each of the 16 cities, call the number on the sticker and provide photographic or video proof they've located the sticker. To find the sticker, contestants will read the Up Your Budget blog for clues and watch daily video clips (in easy to navigate Quicktime, thankfully) shot in each of the 16 cities which help identify the city and where the sticker has been placed within the city. The clues will come in the form of blog posts by the two-person crew that shot the videos as they drop identifiers such as weather, local culinary choices and geographic references. There will also be a Treasure Hunter's blog on which contestants can submit hints, clues and sightings. Each week, four of the 16 cities will be in play.

Following the blog-based approach, the contest itself will be promoted almost entirely within the blogosphere with sites like Adrants, MarketingVOX and Boing Boing breaking the story and with advertising promotion on 74 weblogs, including Buzzmachine, Metafilter, Gothamist, Jossip and Busblog, through the BlogAds blog advertising network. There will also be some minimal search engine keyword and IM buys. It will be a true test of the weblog medium's ability to propagate information and main stream media's capacity to rely on (and credit) bloggers as sources.

The campaign was created by blogger, author and marketing strategist B.L. Ochman and Impax Marketing Group's Jay Arnold. The Up Your Budget blog was designed by Design4Results' Komra Moriko and advertising was created by the famed "cartoons on the back of business cards'" Hugh Macleod. Center City Film & Video shot the clue clips. Gret stuff. Who needs mainstream media when you have the consumer-generated, conversational power of weblogs and social media? Already the thing is spreading like crazy. This is truly very cool.