Agency.com Gets Fist-Bump Love In Subway Pitch Video Spoof

Coudal Partners has delivered its own Agency.com fist-bump this week with a spoof of the interactive shop's Subway Pitch video. If Agency.com wanted attention, it's certainly getting it. Though we suspect they'd rather be getting attention from Subway than from other agencies tearing their efforts to shreds and creating spoofs.

Chickens Aren't Horny, Teenagers Are

This outdoor board for Gold'n Plump Chicken carryies one of the most straight forward, un-hipsterized messages we've seen in a long time.

Truth Campaign Newsflash: Teens Like Sweet Products!

Continuing their idiotic approach to anti-smoking, the TRUTH campaign is out with yet another off the wall commercial featuring the hairstyle-challenged Derek. In this spot, Derek tries to sell cigarette "flavors" to kids basing the whole shtick on the most ancient cigarette company document they've used to date, a 1972 internal document that stated "it's a well known fact that teenagers like sweet products" as if that statement were some sort of revelation. Can we please retire Derek and this idiocy and get back to some of the better stuff we know this campaign is capable of?

Pop Culture Latinized, Mini Maxed, Food Freed, Chevy Silveradoed

- Dallas agency Dieste Harmel & Partners explores the "Latin-ization" of pop culture and the ways of Hispanic teens in this week's edition of its podcast.

- Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners has mailed a black box to every MINI owner which contains a book called " A Dizzying Look At The Awesomeness of Small" and some included gadgets that will interact with ads breaking this month in Maxim and Blender. Check it all out here.

- This sounds really dumb but there's a restaurant that says it's ad-supported. i.e. the food is free.

- Campbell-Ewald has created an introductory site for the new Chevrolet Silverado pickup..

Carmen Electra Hired by Camera Retailer For Youth And Flash

AdFreak tells us Carmen Elektra, perhaps in a nod to her waning viability as...well...anything, has signed with Ritz Camera to be the retailer's spokesmodel for its family of stores. Though Elektra's youth and hipness are questionable, Ritz wants her to appeal to the young and the hip. In any case, it will certainly be a step up from the Ritz dude who always appears in the Sunday inserts. The campaign will promote the chain's picture development services and its new picture sizes.

New Video Share Site Launches With Revenue Model

While the business model comes off sounding a bit like it's leaching off the success of other video sharing sites, new video sharing site, Filxya, splits ad revenue 50/50 with anyone who uploads videos and has a Google AdSense account. The videos are not hosted on Flixya, saving them a ton of money, but appear on the site using the embed code from other video sharing sites like Google Video, YouTube, Daily Motion and other sharing sites. Flixya then surrounds the videos with Google AdSense Ads. Basically, the site is a giant aggregator of content and advertising which uses other site's content and resources to make money for itself and it's users. But, hey, that's not a bad thing. That's just making use of existing content distribution methods.

more »

New Service Aims to Rid Agencies From Annoying Vendors

If you work in agency production, you likely hate the endless sales calls from vendors who waste your time selling you a service you don't want or need at the time. They are kind of the scum of the earth sometimes, right? Oh but wait. When you really, really need to get a quote for that super niche'y idea that freaky creative down the hall came up with, you want every vendor at your beck and call immediately regardless of whether you treated them all like shit yesterday.

A new service called AgencyVendors has just launched to make sure all those vendors are at your beck and call when all those whack job ideas require you to come up with a quote for the meeting that was set up without any regard for how long it would take you to create said quote. Unfortunately, the service is so new there are no actual vendors listed on the site yet so you might want to change your voice mail message to something like "Quit bugging me, freak. Go to AgencyVendors.com and make your pitch there. Don't call me. I'll call you."

Hadrian's Wall Helps Save Agency.com With Pitch Game

Hmm. It seems Agency.com might have been better off using this Super Pitch game created by Hadrian's Wall for their client Magnecote. The game takes all the work out of creating a super-hip YouTube video and boils the whole thing down to a few clicks. The object of the game is to win the advertising account of one of three fictional clients; rafts magazine CozyNook, cardboard box manufacturer Blumsfeld Floomer or "nihilist, anti-fashion" brand Überboff. Witty commentary and industry insiderism accompany the game.

Players choose a team from eight agency types, including planner "The Brit," creative director "40 Going On 16," and president "Linda From New York." The team builds their presentation using tools organized into six categories. Then the player conducts the pitch. Nodding or frowning clients offer a progress report. A final score either wins the new business, or doesn't. We say give this one a whirl and see if you all can come up with a better pitch than Agency.com did.

Electrolux Vacuum Saves Man's Life

This is either really, really bad or really, really good although we're inclined to go with the former rather than the latter. A commercial sent to us by FishNChimps and created by Lowe Shanghai shows the power of Electrolux vacuums by using one to save a guy from a suicide attempt. The effect are a bit cheesy but, hey, this isn't the kind of commercial you see everyday which, that alone, gives it a leg up.

Grunting And Groaning Does Not Always Equal Sex

If you don't mind the sound of guys grunting and groaning then by all means leave your sound turned on. If, on the other hand, you don't want your co-workers to think you've got an orgy going on in your cube, we advise you to turn your sound off before viewing this promotional clip for the Quebec Aids Organization in association with the Montreal Outgames. Sex isn't the only sport that gets people...uh...vocalizing their urgency.

Heinz Personalizes 'Talking Label' Campaign

The only true ketchup, Heinz, is, again, extending its talking label campaign. This time, in celebration of the company's 130th anniversary, by offering people the chance to create their own custom printed labels by visiting MyHeinz. At the site, people can choose from three bottle types, select or custom-create a message, pay for it and have it shipped to their home. We're guessing there'll be some pretty stiff editorial policing to keep the kooks from messing up the offering with dreck.