To honor the titans who paint their chests, dye their hair and live by the free throw during March Madness, Coke bestows a chance to take part in their human bracket or hit the Final Four in Atlanta with their Most Devoted Campaign.
Demonstrate your own love of the hoop by telling a story about college basketball or March Madness in general. It might help to paint your chest and scream. For our part we find the idea of being in a human bracket unappetizing and would rather sit in the way-way-back, act surly and throw shit in peace.
Kevin at PR Blog keeps us updated on that mistletoe demonstration he saw recently. Shortly after our original post DIAGEO expressed concern via e-mail because they worried about kids' exposure to the alcohol-related event.
Impressive follow-up - we remain as gratified with the campaign as we were when we heard about the heckling children.
We're also pleased about finally getting to see the swampy mistletoe man with our own eyes, which was all we cared about anyway. He doesn't much look like he's wearing his favourite suit but everyone else seems to be having fun.
In this collabo between Cunning and JWT, passers-by can text opinions about paparazzi and fitness fads in exchange for the chance to win a digicam or gym membership.
We've seen the live mannequin thing before and while it never ceases to be creepy we like the execution of the idea here. It has the potential to be comically obnoxious which off-sets the creepiness. And guess who this is for? Our opinion-courting friends at HSBC. Aww.
If you thought this was distracting then wait until you see the largest mobile billboard in the world, though you probably won't have a choice because it looks like a big fuckin' deal.
Brought to you by Truck Ads, purveyors of classy truck decor.
Bozell created this collaborative holiday card for clients and friends, inviting others to upload holiday photos onto the site. Bozell will make a donation to the Salvation Army for every image posted.
We hope they are donating something little like pasta beads or walnuts because there are quite a few photos on here already and more coming, we expect. Some are quite cute but it makes us feel funny looking at the holiday memories of strangers. Didn't Robin Williams do something like that in One Hour Photo?
Inspired by the enduring Willy Wonka, First Flavor builds on film strip technology to create little taste samplers for food and beverage products for use in media kits, promos and soda machines.
The description of apple cinnamon oatmeal strips didn't bring the Wonka wallpaper scene to mind, which is what founder Adnan (himself somewhat Wonka-esque, though we can't quite say how or why) credits as his inspiration. Instead we recalled the three-course-meal gum, where Violet describes the flavors in vivid detail and then expands into a blueberry.
We don't think First Flavor does that but it's still pretty neat. The newscaster in the ABC video got to try some and not only was she impressed; she couldn't stop talking about the dieting possibilities of a zero-calorie taste explosion.
Back in March of 2002, Adrants had one reader. We now have 30,000 every day. That growth would not have been possible were it not for every single one of you reading Adrants today. It would not have been possible without the early inspiration and wise advice from people like Tony Pierce, Rick Bruner, Elizabeth Spiers and John Engler or the education and guidance of Ask Wapling or the editorial and sales expertise of Tig Tillinghast.
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The support is truly appreciated. We'd love to hear from you in comments about the things you like about Adrants. The things you hate. The things you'd like to see changed. The things you'd like to see added. Anything. It's your forum and we want to know.
Happy Holidays. We'll be publishing the site and the newsletter lightly next week but be sure to watch for our annual top ten lists. See you next year.
From the Chia Pet to a Fez hat to a Christmas ham for a vegetarian to handcuffs to cheesy romance novels to really bad Christmas sweaters to a nose hair trimmer to assorted doilies to Ken the Art Director to, yes, the fruit cake, Lowe foists upon us the worst gifts anyone could hope to receive this year in a video called Worst Gift Ever. However, the agency redeems at the end of the video as Lowe lets us know they've partnered with TORCH to provide really great gifts to students who really need them.
- The holiday videos keep pouring in. This first pair are by Animax. Here's a Peanuts spoof with a crying tree, and a Santa-style King Kong where the victim is a gingerbread girl. Note flying banana on image at left. How do you not love that? We're not sure. We don't know what to feel anymore.
- If you're more into bad pick-up lines and the immortal stereotype of the douchey ad guy, please believe you will enjoy this holiday song by Ignited Minds. Because it's not a happy holiday until you're reminded at least several times how slimy people can be who find themselves in your line of work. Unless you are that slimy individual.
- And how often do you get to dress your CEO like a tree, subject him to a walk of shame and pelt him with paintballs? This video is really almost art. Thank you White+Partners for realizing a fond dream we've all had at some point.
The festivities draw ever nearer.
New York agency Catalano Lellos and Silverstein always seem to come up with dance-themed holiday cards and this year's is no exception. They've created Cirque Du CL&S, a full blown stage production complete with faced cartoon characters and audience participation. It's odd. It's quirky. It has a funny ending.
Yes, there is an actual medical ailment called "mouse rage syndrome," The term was coined by the Social Issues Research Centre in the United Kingdom which recently conducted a study of 2,500 web users who were found to exhibit negative cardiac function, profuse sweating, altered immune and nervous system function and, yes, "mouse rage" defined as furious clicking and bashing of the mouse.
Guess what causes the syndrome? Fat Flash sites, poorly designed sites, bad navigation, pop ups, banner ads, unnecessary graphics and just about everything else our industry foists upon the helpless public who only want quick access to the relevant information they need and have no need for "site loading..." bullshit or sites that look great in a presentation but perform like a turtle crossing the road when launched. Wake up and smell the consumer, people. We want them to be our frinds. Not our enemies. Make nice.
It's sad we even need an ad campaign to tell people how to take care of their babies but that's the mission of a current New York City transit campaign for the city's Administration for Children's Services and Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (mental hygiene? that's a new one). Unfortunately, there are idiots in this world that do need to be told some very obvious things about caring for a baby. Trouble is, this campaign seems to confuse more than educate - well, at least to those mentally hygiene-challenged types.
Ironi Sans sent us this video clip of two of the campaign's subway cards placed next to each other. The first reads, "Don't Leave Him Alone." The second reads, "It's Safest For Him to Sleep Alone." That sort of "education" is sure to make a mentally hygiene-challenged person's logic loop explode which is quite the opposite, we're sure, of the campaign's intent.
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