Playboy Gets Verbal In Viral

To promote its UK website, podcast and blog, Playboy has launched a a viral which, while containing no nudity, might raise your blood pressure a bit if you use your imagination.

Dunkin' Donuts to Launch Caffeine Crazy Customers

Next week, Dunkin' Donuts will launch a new ad campaign that focuses on the things people do to get their caffeine fix. Thirty second spots will highlights efforts such as a woman, stuck in traffic with co-workers, who left the car, walked a mile to a Dunkin' Donuts, then returned to the car for the rest of the ride to work. Radio, print and outdoor will accompany the campaign.

While they may already have thought of this, Dunkin' Donuts should launch a site or a blog where people could share wacky tales about their quests for caffeine. Amusement for readers. Fodder for future campaigns.

McDonald's To Save McRib With Boneless Pigs

In a last ditch effort to convince people boneless pig meat is a good thing, McDonald's has launched the MicRib Farewell Tour. Apparently, the McRib was popular at one time but the company is considering dropping the product unless people respond to the promotion which consists of a microsite where fans can find out where and when McDonald's is serving McRib, get McRib trivia, write McRib Haikus, submit their own McRib photos, download official McRib t-shirt decals and send phone messages to fellow McRib fanatics. They can also sign the "Save the McRib" petition and explore the BPFAA (the Boneless Pig Farmers Association of America) website, bonelesspigs.org, a fictitious organization that promotes the good will of boneless pigs. Hmm. OK. Why spend all this money if the product is just going to be dumped? Oh wait, silly me, they're not dumping the product, they're renewing demand by making us feel sorry for a bunch of boneless pigs. That's it.

The Wilford Brimley-like videos are pretty funny though.

Oxygen Network Launches Missing Person Effort

Oxygen's new series Relentless is a true crime show about women who keep pursuing justice even when society gives up. The episodes revolve around cases that have been solved. An online extension of the show is a social networking project, called SpeakUp, designed to help locate a missing woman, Daniel Imbo. Daniel is a 34 year old mother of a small child and was last seen Feb 19, 2005 in Philadelphia.

Teen Launches Ad Agency

George Mason University student Rana Sobhany, 19, following the launch of three other companies beginning at the age of 17, has launched Inchoate, a marketing, PR and advertising firm in Springfield, Virginia. Her prior companies dealt mainly with music and she intends to focus the new company in that space as well offering services to clients such as recording studios, record labels and individual artists as well as nightclubs, music retailers and universities. She's currently working with George mason University to educate both the administration and students on the subject of peer-to-peer file sharing.

Hart+Larson Offers Kate Moss Job, Gets Haircut

After wooing Neil French with a job offer, Hart+Larson, milking the buzz train, is now after Kate Moss promising her a chance to "take off her Choos and lie back, relax and think." She's also promised Hart+Larson will "play Twister together and then head outside to drink Coke on the stoop." There's also a video, called 14 and Wow, which, we're quite sure, has some inner meaning but, currently, it escapes us. Lastly, Hart+Larson asks Kate, and everyone else, to contact the agency at womendocokesodoweexiletheonceidealized@hartlarsson. Fun

Smart New Ways Boot Old Stupid Ways

Kathy Sierra, writing on Creating Passionate Users, has put together a chart that compares the old ways of marketing to the new. Filled with gems like "Hire a creative, user-focused product designer" rather than "Hire a creative, award-winning advertising designer" and Buy Typepad accounts for every employee in your company, and maybe some users too" rather than "Hire a PR firm" and "Product placements in the 'real' world, by donating samples to those who could benefit" rather than "Product placements in a 'fake' TV, movie world," Sierra has created a chart that inspires and demonstrates how truly stupid current marketing efforts are.

iPod Begets iSmell

This ad, another entrant in the long line of Apple parodies, introduces iSmell, a new fragrance containing a "hint of apples and a whiff of Cupertino elitism." It's, as the headline says, "A new fragrance for the iPod generation."

ThermaSilk Does Dress-The-Hottie Thing

For the Ashlee Simpson generation, Unilever's hair care product ThermaSilk is being promoted, in Canada, with a microsite called Hit On My Guy, a dress-the-hottie site where women can create the man of their dreams all while subtly being branded with ThermaSilk. Like all dress-me sites, there's a send to a friend feature and a sweepstakes to win gift certificates, an iPod Shuffle and ThermaSilk products. It's basic. It's straight forward. Maybe it will sell some product along the way. If not, there's will, at least, be a bunch of freaky looking hotties floating from inbox to inbox.

Revver Makes Consumer Generated Media Profitable

AdJab points to a consumer-generated media treasure trove called Revver. It's a site where anyone can submit self-created videos on any topic. Revver will host the video, insert a short ad at the end and share the proceeds, 50/50, with the video creator. The ad, called a RevTag, is embedded in the video so that viewership can be tracked whether the video is viewed on Revver or viewed as it wends its way from friend to friend via email attachment.

Apparently the site's quite popular as it's moving slower than a turtle pulling an 18 wheeler. We hope that's temporary. There's a lot of promise here as people begin to realize that all content doesn't have to come from big media companies and all ad revenue doesn't have to go to large corporate conglomerates.

Calvin Klein's One Day Time's Square Billboard Worked

So that we aren't accused of simply highlighting odd advertising stunts without giving credence to their success or failure, we point you to a MarketingSherpa study that examined Calvin Klein's one day "live" billboard in which male and females Calvin Klein models hang out in a board constructed to look like a living room. Usually these things are tossed off as stunts purely to garner media attention which, though not a bad thing, doesn't always translate into sales. This time it did. Times three, in fact. The promotion, along with achieving media coverage in 15 countries, 100,000 visitors to the campaign's microsite and 20,000 street team sample packs gone by mid-day and another 20,000 but day's end, netted three times normal sales for CK One at the nearby Macy's Herald Square location.

Infinity Campaign Promotes Howard Stern's Move to Sirius

In an interesting twist, Infinity's "Who's Replacing Howard Stern" campaign, currently gracing every sliver of ad space on Ad Age, may, according to 925M, do more to hurt Infinity than help. The campaign highlights Stern replacements Adam Corolla, David Lee Roth and Penn Jillette, who have received with less than stellar reviews as replacements for the irreplaceable Stern. As 925M indicates, all this campaign may do is say "Hey, we know Stern left. We know the replacements suck. We're trying this kooky FreeFM thing. Just skip it all and go listen to Stern on Sirius."