We were lollygagging on MySpace because apparently we never have anything better to do (this is our second mention this evening) when a funny Citibank ad caught our eye.
To promote its student-targeted credit cards Citi's got this weird campaign with haphazardly drawn college students. In the one we saw, the head of an oft-complimented girl expands until she floats away like a balloon.
The co-ed courting credit cards include Citi Bronze (for Jet Setters), Citi Dividend Platinum (for the Cash Fan) and the Citi MTVU card (for the Rewards Junkie).
We love little characterizations like that. What better way to sniggle us into a frightening APR than to give each one a personality? If we weren't debating Jet Setters or Rewards Junkies we'd probably still be on Rachel or Monica.
Nothing brings people together like the promise of intoxication. Leveraging its ongoing love affair with Anheuser-Busch, MingleNow launches Clink, an "innovative new social networking promotion" where trend-setting adults can upload pictures of themselves enjoying beer.
"Supporting this niche social media outlet where people actively engage in sharing stories and images reinforces the honesty and authenticity of socializing over a beer," says EVP Bob Lachky for the global industry development sector of Anheuser-Busch.
more »
Don't know how we missed this but back in January, Zima launched a video called Mom My Ride in which three guys at a repair shop give their special version of Pimp My Ride to a minivan. Complete with scratch marks, sour milk, spilled soda, jammed CD player, broken mirror and duct tape, this minivan gets the full makeover. Definitely one of the more ingenious and amusing ways to sell soda....or whatever the hell Zima has turned itself into.
Catch Up Lady points us to what is perhaps the best car dealer promotion we've ever seen. Of course, that might not be saying much as we avoid their marketing like the plague but go with us on this one. Clay Automotive, located just outside of Boston, has created a hilarious but very informative video in which the seven ways car dealers take you are explained. Citing several terms associated with buying a car such as hosed, porked, betrayed, cheated and slammed, a very round man explains how Clay Automotive makes car buying a pleasure buy...yes...undressing. It's a metaphor, of course, for Clay Automotive's opening it all up and hiding it from the buyer. We say brilliant to this one. We just might travel to Clay to buy our next car.
Vancouver agency smashLAB has launched Design Can Change, an initiative that urges designers to become aware of the affect they have on the environment. On his blog, Eric Karjaluoto offers some stunning numbers, writing, "...if you are a member of the AIGA, you take part in purchasing or specifying over $9 billion of printing and paper per year. At the risk of sounding obtuse, I have to say, 'That's a lot.' Let me give you another number: 81 million tons. That's the amount of paper waste you and I helped generate over the past year. How about this one? More than a million. That's how many species are expected to be at risk of extinction by 2,050 as a result of global warming. Another? $11 billion. That's the average cost of climate-related disasters in Europe during the 80s and 90s."
more »
Yesterday, MTV Latin America launched a new campaign to promote the network's evening series "The Ten Most Requested". The campaign was created by Miami-based creative agency la comunidad, and directed by Jorge Colon of production company Letca Films.
The spots, which were shot in Miami, focus on the top 10 requests a variety of professionals receive while on the job. For instance, in "Surgeon," a plastic surgeon in the midst of operating on a patient recites a litany of his most popular improvement requests - including breast implants, male enhancement, and nose jobs.
There's only so many ways you can talk about a top ten anything and, for us, this is one of the more inventive ones but, as always, we're sure you'll tell us we're full of shit if, in fact, we actually are. And unlike Bob Garfield, we don't claim to have got it wrong only a few times. Check out the three spots here.
- Miller is looking at five agencies after exiting Crispin: Saatchi, Y&R, Mother and two unnamed agencies.
- On July 16-17, youth-focused YPulse will host a conference called The 2007 Mashup which will cover all aspects of youth marketing.
- Hadji Williams gets a nice review for his book, Knock the Hustle: How to Save Your Job and Your Life From Corporate America.
- Copyranter dug up an old pro-asbestos ad that touts the material's fire-retardant qualities and features an image of The World Trade center. Particularly prescient is the ad's headline which reads, Whenthe fire alarm went off, it took two hours to evacuate New York's Trade Center."
- Mr. Clean has launched a consumer-generated effort and is offering $10,000 to th person who creates the best 60-second ad. Nothing like getting what would normally cost about $100K for a tenth of the cost.
- In Belgium, you can Rent A Wife. Actually, you can rent a lot of stuff.
We'd have to see it to render fair judgment and we missed its debut opting instead for Survivor and John Hughes Sixteen Candles which unintentionally sucked us in as fast as people are leaving Agency.com but last night, MTV debuted its mixed up programming block. The block merges programming with advertising and intertwined them in a heightened fashion purposefully aiming to blur the line between entertainment and commerce.
MTV describes it thusly, "Interweaving show content and the commercial experience, MTV's Thursday Night Block will present continuous engagement for the MTV audience - where shows will merge into one another, and programming content will play in commercial time - throughout a continuous 2-hour block."
more »
The slightly-more-considerate cats at Wired inform us that yesterday marked the birthday of Dean Kamen, born in 1951, holder of over 440 patents, and inventor of the first portable insulin pump at the blooming age of 25.
On a more contemporary note Kamen is the inventor of the Segway -- you know, that zany fat-wheeled thing that was going to replace walking and is now the transport of choice for security guards and theme park attendants.
Few can put significant contributions to the betterment (or at least the leisure) of mankind to their names. And even after the Segway crack, we really, really do mean that. So happy belated April 5th to the Pied Piper of Technology (don't look at us -- Smithsonian magazine said it first).
|
|
