Snapple Balloons Fly Above Bryant Park

Three helium balloons rose above New York's Bryant Park today in an apparent promotion for, well, something. Flickr user thefangmonster snapped these shots (1, 2)

Grave Site Smoking Room Delivers Powerful Anti-Smoking Message

Some ads try way too hard to deliver their message. Others, like this anti-smoking ad created by Mumbai, India-based agency Everest Brand Solution needn't try at all because it's a simple message delivered the most powerful of ways. Not a word needed. Except to say it is an outdoor installation and CoolzOr has the details and more images here. It won a Bronze Lion.

MySpace Continues Commercialization With 'Seventeen'

Does any right minded person actually think MySpace will continue to grow once it's littered with advertising, sponsorships and corporate pages born out of partnerships such as the recent deal between Seventeen and MySpace? Wasn't the genisis and the success of MySpace based on its homegrown qualities? Perhaps the guys don't mind the giant boobs on all those True models and maybe the girls will want to wallow in the importance of Seventeen's crucial editorial issues. Perhaps MySpace users will become immune to these new ad tactics like they've become immune to most other online marketing tactics and MySpace will continue to grow in size despite its commercialization. Perhaps it's all irrelevant. After all, AOL used to be where the cool kids hung out and that monstrosity is still around.

ExatTarget Wins, Advergirl Dislikes Man Laws, Contextual Goofs

- Email marketing provider ExactTarget which, yes, advertises on this site, is happy to announce the company's co-founder and CMO Chris Baggot was awarded Best Email Markerting Blog for his blog, Chris Baggot's Email Best Practices.

- More "Get A Girlfriend ads from Axe.

- Advergirl is happy to be a girl and isn't too pleased with Crispin Porter + Bogusky's Miller Lite Man Law campaign. If we were a girl, we'd agree.

- Someday, this industry will figure out contextual advertising but, for now, we will still have to deal with ads for movies called Water placed next to stories about tragic floods.

Desktop Billboard Company Thinks People Want to See Ads

OK, aside from the fact it's Pointcast all over again, why in the word would any sane human download a piece of software that seems, apparently, only to deliver billboard ads to your desktop? We're have a group head scratch here so if anyone can help us out, please do. Perhaps something is being misunderstood here but Tessa Wegert, writing on ClickZ. thinks it's the next nirvana of advertising claiming it has benefits of both the offline billboard of old and the measurability of the online banner. Oh sure, it's wonderfully customizable and can be targeted efficiently for the advertiser and it's permission based but what's the value for the consumer? If there is one, it's certainly not clear anywhere on the AdDiem website nor in the ClickZ article - unless you're a recipe hound. Perhaps desktop advertising will someday rule. We just don't see it yet. Then again, we were wrong about CBS's NCAA March Madness on Demand.

Arms, Legs, Ears, Feet, Fingers For Sale In Workers' Comp Campiagn

Acknowledging nothing could be more boring than the topic of workers' compensation, the Workers' Compensation Board of Nova Scotia has launched a site that calls attention to the 4,754 bodily injuries that occur each year to workers by displaying "lost" body parts in a retail store setting. The store comes complete with the usual displays but these displays contain legs, arms, feet, fingers, ears, backs and a friendly sales person with witty comments to assist you with your shopping. Created by Halifax-based Extreme Group, the site offers safety tips to young workers, how to handle workers' compensation issues and how to return to work.

Newsflash: Coors Not Brewed In Rocky Mountains

Canadian beer Kokanee wants Canadians to know it's beer is brewed in Creston, British Columbia where the "glacier streams flow from snow-capped mountaintops." They also want Canadians to know that, contrary to popular belief, Coors sold in Canada is not brewed in the Rocky Mountains as, apparently, most of the ads tout but in Etobicoke, Ontario near the Pearson International Airport, hardly the picturesque Rockies. They've created a simple site with postcards from each location, the ability to Google Map each location and the ubiquitous "Send to a Friend" feature.

Ford Finally makes Bold Move

If the premise of Ford's new Bold Moves documentary, which promises to rip the bullshit out of the company, holds true, the company may actually live up to the promise of its new "Bold Moves" ad campaign. The online documentary series promises an unfettered look inside the company and how it plans to return to profitability by 2008. The first episode of the series recounts Ford's glory days but very quickly admits its tenuous position in the face of superior foreign automotive companies which continue to take more and more market share. With the documentary, Ford promises to tell the honest story of how it will engineer its own comeback.

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