Oral B Solves Smelly Telephone Listing Problem

There are many ways to sell mouthwash and, believe us, we've seen them all. Except for this new piece of work for Oral-B from Leo Burnett Brazil. No one likes to be near a person with bad breath so why should it be any different with telephone listings?

Shocker: Monetizing WAP Sites More Important Than Cannes

You learn something new everyday writing about the ad business. Did you know the biggest thing on the minds of ad agencies and brands is these days is...wait for it...how to monetize WAP site. Yes, we kid you not. This, according to a recent press release from iLoop which has partnered with Third Screen Media to "enable mobile web sites to have Internet ads." Stellar!

According to the release, the partnership "eliminates the 'how do I create the ad and make it mobile' question and Third Screen eliminates the 'how do I offer automated, relevant and targeted advertising optimized for each individual campaign' question."

Hmm, and we thought the biggest question from agencies and brands today was "Who's paying for my trip to Cannes?"

Delta's New Campaign Is So Fetch

In yet another example advertising is clearly not the place to let loose your jive-talking, yo dude, phat fetchisms, Copyranter points us to the new Delta outdoor campaign currently assaulting New Yorkers from all angles. What the new campaign like? It's fly, my friend, fly.

Pink Line Personifies Inanimate Aids

Frederik Samuel brought our attention to this piece (at left) for The Pink Line, in which we're actually staring through the receiver holes of a telephone, at the woman on the floor. "Help is close," the ad coaxes.

We kind of liked the esophagus concept better.

Abuse hotlines or help centers are always trying to magnify the moment you're left bleeding on the floor. Like children gone numb to the act itself, this repetitive stance is getting tiresome - and focusing on the traumatic moment may actually miss the point.

Why can't they make like your standard ad and put the spotlight on the vast improvement that takes place after taking action? Granted, healing is less interesting than stained linoleum, but it's a stance that may stick out.

MySpace Shimmies In and Out of Fancy Film Costume

MySpace has become a total box office mouthpiece. When it's not all Silver Surfered-out, it's a poker table for Ocean's Thirteen (at left).

Littlejohn at Advertising for Peanuts wonders whether users will get turned off by the social networking darling's shameless ad-whoring (kind of like friend-whoring?) but we doubt it. If there was going to be a meaningful reaction to MySpace's games of homepage dress-up, it would've happened already. At this point we're all just watching the show go by.

Anyway, there are worse things in this life than a homepage swathed in George and Brad.

An Ad Is Not A Film. An Ad Is Not A Film, An Ad Is Not A Film

Dear Wieden + Kennedy (and most other ad agencies too),

Please repeat on the conference room white board 100 times: A commercial is not a film. A commercial is not a film. A commercial is not a film. A commercial is not a film. A commercial is not a film. A commercial is not a film. A commercial is not a film. A commercial is not a film. A commercial is not a film. A commercial is not a film. A commercial is not a film. A commercial is not a film. A commercial is not a film. A commercial is not a film. A commercial is not a film. A commercial is not a film.

Or at least stop your PR people from referring to :30's and :60's over and over again as films. They're commercials. They're ads. No matter how beautiful or creatively fueled they are (and your latest work for Nike certainly is, indeed , beautiful), they're ads. They're just ads. Sorry. No amount of creative puffery can change that. Most movies aren't even films let alone :30 and :60 bits of creativity that sell stuff.

So, please, can we lay off the inflated sense of ego and just realize all we do in this business is sell stuff? We can glamorize it all we want. We can give it fancy names. We can even go to Cannes a week after "real" filmmakers do to make ourselves feel as though we are they're equals. We are not. They make entertainment. We sell stuff.

Sincerely,

The Pompous Assholes From Adrants
(who, at heart, are really, really nice people who totally understand the business of the press release which, for better or worse, must follow a format that is far removed from how normal human beings speak but, for better or worse, we are stuck with and make fun of from time to time which then causes unrest because of that fun-making which, in turn, causes us to profusely apologize to the very nice human whose job it was to write the standardized information delivery transferal, all of which, for better or worse, rightly earns us the the title Pompous Assholes)

Altoids Leaves Leo Burnett With Atomic Bang

While we do kinda like the production and FX work Martian Labs and Digital Kitchen did for this last Altoids spot from Leo Burnett, we do seriously have to question what was going on in the minds of the creatives when they thought it's be cool to show an atomic bomb-like mushroom cloud made from an Atoids package dropped into a sea of chocolate. Is the Altoids Chocolate mushroom cloud the next third world country threat? Curious, indeed. Perhaps it's just a fitting, insiderish finale to the years of mostly great work Leo Burnett has done for the brand.

Terra Makes for Muddled Puppet Master

This Terra News print campaign by DM9, Brazil has apparently confused readers with its use of strings, says AdPunch. The logic was to suggest that behind every action lie a series of events that led up to it, and the hope is that the user infers this series of events will be clarified on Terra News.

Campaign text reads, "And suddenly you start seeing the world more clearly." They probably would have sparked less confusion with a more direct caption like, "Every string has its source," or maybe that's more confusing. It's hard to tell from here; hindsight's always 20/20, isn't it?

Variation here, yo. (Be forewarned: That one has a ton more strings, which probably didn't help clarify matters. Really. It kind of looks like a loom. Like, if we had yarn right now, we'd totally cut out the ad and make a blanket. A really, really small blanket.)

Dunkin' Drives, Beer Does A Body Good, Gay Spend Up

- Massachusetts, as has been discussed for some time, is considering a proposal that would create commercial free zones within public schools.

- Dunkin' Donuts and Mapquest have partnered for offer MyIcedCoffee, a site that helps travelers plan trips while making sure a Dunkin' Donuts is close by.

- George Parker meets advertising's New Kids on the Block at the PSFK London Conference and realizes there's hope for the business.

- Though not to the extent of the full on female bodybuilder freak show, Boddington Beer seemingly wants us to believe its beer gives women bulbous curves where we don't usually expect them.

- Ad spending in gay and lesbian publications in 2006 reached a record $223.3 million, an increase of 5.2 percent over 2005 and an increase of 205 percent since 1996, according to the 2006 edition of the Gay Press Report, the annual survey produced by advertising agency Prime Access Inc. and gay media representative firm Rivendell Media.

more »

Social Media Campiagn Killers Exposed

We don't know what's worse; having to slog through no less than eight pages just to read one article or having to endure the annoyance of trying to figure out which ad banner was auto-playing audio so we could turn it off the read the article in peace. All of this on a site that should now better: iMediaConnection.

Anyway, distractions aside, marketing consultant BL Ochman has written a concise, illustrative and educational article about social media, the brands that have excelled at it and the brands that have failed miserably. Citing famed failures such as the Edelman-created fake Wal-Mart blogs, Microsoft's supposed "bribing" pf bloggers with free Vista-equipped laptops and Sony's fake PSP blog, Ochman slaps brands upside the head for their idiocy.

more »

Leo Burnett Spain Wins San Sebastian Grand Prix For TCM

Leo Burnett Spain was just awarded the Grand Prix at the San Sebastian Advertising Festival for a campaign that ran last fall for Turner Classic Movies which involved outdoor elements that chided people for not having watched classic movies. Taglines such as "This guy still hasn't seen 'Rear Window'" and "This guy still hasn't seen 'The Apartment'" were emblazoned on parked cars as well as on scaffolding. You can view a video of the campaign here.

AdColor Introduces Award Show For Ethic Minorities

AdColor, a newly formed coalition which will "serve as a catalyst for the next generation of diversity programs by combining the energy of the marketing, advertising, and media industries to identify current issues and opportunities around diversity" has introduced its AdColor Awards, which is meant to honor outstanding work done by "diverse professionals at the junior, mid and senior levels in each segment of our industry."

Sponsored by ANA, AAF, AAA and Arnold Worldwide, the award ceremony will take place during the ANA Masters of Multicultural Marketing Conference November 4. Nominations are due August 1. Check out all the details here.

IFAW Adds Explanations to Animal-Shaped Letters

IFAW further develops its "Will Only Words Remain?" campaign with animal-shaped letters in print ads and street stamps that actually have explanations -- something the initial guerilla-style campaign appeared to be lacking.

The added words describe the travails each spelled-out animal faces, along with a call-to-action that invites those inclined to the IFAW website. Neato. Hope they save some elephants, and maybe a dolphin, too, and while they're at it, hopefully a whale.

Orbitz Game Sucks. Can They Do Anything Right?

This Orbitz game, which involves some really weak shakram-like throwing, is amusing until you realize how much it sucks, which takes about 35 seconds.

It's also way too salesy. Why don't you give Wrigley's a call? They know how to throw together simple brand-oriented games that are actually fun.

Orbitz last disappointed us about a month ago.