Once Again, Butts And Thongs Sell Stuff

We're not quite sure Palmers is a clothing company because, just like Sloggis, the models in the company's ads, like the one featured here in Berlin, are never wearing much. A web search doesn't tell us much only offering up even more images of models wearing next to nothing. A lingerie company? A thong-wearing showgirl troupe? Some kind of bootie-based therapy or the public? It looks good to us no matter what the company does.

Google's YouTube Acquisition Kills uTube

While everyone's fawning all over Google's purchase of YouTube, the poor guys over at pipe and tube equipment company Universal Tube whose web address is utube.com wish the party would end because, apparently, several million people can't tell the difference between YouTube and Utube causing the company's president Ralph Girkins to tell CNN, "It's killing us." Indeed it is. The site is currently available. Hey Google, help a little guy out. Send a spare server or three over to these guys so your $1.6 billion party doesn't put this guy out of business.

'Meers' Make DLP TV Better

OK then. Need a campaign (1, 2, 3, 4) that explains Texas Instruments DLP technology which makes a TV's picture better and brighter? Easy. Get a cute little girl. Bring on that "elephant in the room" metaphor with an actual elephant. Put them together in environments that need DLP technology to look good and talk about the mirrors. Yes, the mirrors. You see, DLP TVs are powered by Texas Instruments chips filled with millions of mirrors that direct the light towards the TV screen. The trouble is, unless you knew that prior, you'd think it was some strange entity called "meers" that made DLP TV beautiful. Here's a tip. When casting a kid for a spot in which she needs to say the word "mirror," it helps to make sure she actually can before you cast her in a campaign about "meers," uh, mirrors.

more »

Borat Threatens Country's Image, Creates Myspace Ridden with Typos

Borat, an anti-Semitic journalist personality invented by comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, has riled up Kazakhstan with publicity attempts to generate interest in his upcoming movie. An irate President Nazarbayev, concerned about Westerners taking Borat seriously, assures us all that "contrary to Borat's claims, [Kazakhstan] is not a nation of drunken anti-Semites who treat their women worse than their donkeys." We're not really sure why this kind of thing is a political issue considering Fez has made us laugh over stereotypes for as long as "That 70's Show" has been around, but whatever, every country is different and has the right to decide what kind of news should be a diplomatic priority.

more »

Billboard Scares Passersby Into Afterlife

We're all used to people accosting us on the sidewalk to sell us the latest piece of crap but we don't usually expect street-based billboards to shock us into submission.To promote its new show, Afterlife, Britain's itv is scaring the shit out of people with billboard that, well, watch the video and experience it all for yourself. For you widget heads that will comment, "Yawn. So and so did this eons ago," save it. We still like it and think it's very effective in getting notice.

Invented Word Aims to Aid Mentally Ill

Coast Medical Care, a Canadian organization that helps the mentally ill with housing, employment and emotional support launched, with help from Grey, a campaign that centers around the invented word, psychosiphobia. The campaign consisted of local newspaper ads, radio, television and a street campaign. The street campaign involved painting the word psychosiphobia on the pavement at a Vancouver intersection that is the dividing line between a business district and a troubled neighborhood rife with homelessness, drugs and prostitution.

more »

Awkward PR Photos Part of Versus NHL Promotion

It has to be a bitch to pose for all those awkward photos your PR department demands from you but that's just how it goes when you're trying (begging?) to build interest in the kick off of the NHL hockey season. So here we have Versus (formerly OLN) President, Gavin Harvey and SVP of Programming Marc Fein outside Icecalibur in New York graciously obliging the PR folk at an event that offered autographed hockey sticks and various prizes such as $10,000 in cash, tickets to the Stanley Cup or tickets to the All Star Game to anyone who could pull a stick out of the ice block.

Walking TV Nets Nivea 6,600 Potential New Customers

A couple years ago, we told you about a technology that mounted TV's on people so they could walk around and sell stuff. Now, everyone's doing it including Nivea who contracted with AdWalkers, trained street walking marketers who wear TV's and hand out stuff, to promote the company's "Nivea Touches New York" Exhibit.

Nivea deployed eight Adwalkers in its first week of operation and four during its second week. The Adwalkers fanned out around Chelsea, Union Square, Gramercy Park, and Herald Square on a Wednesday through Saturday basis. Of the people exposed to the AdWalkers, a total of 6,600 took a virtual tour of the Nivea exhibit and got a printout reminder/invitation to visit the West 19th Street installation.

Youth Panelists Tell Guy Kawasaki About Media Habits

We all love to go to trade shows to schmooze with others in the industry, attend panel discussions in hopes we pick up the latest cool marketing tactic and, perhaps, strike a business deal or two. While some of that may have merit, in this fast changing media landscape where everyone's skipping your ads, blocking your pop ups and stripping banners from web pages, it's unlikely any panel is going to deliver you as much insight and usable information as this Guy Kawasaki-led panel called Next Generation Insights. The panel consisted of kids aged 16 to 24 and offered up more a treasure trove of first hand information about media usage habits that will soon define the future of media. From cell phone usage to use of MySpace to IM to online shopping to text messaging gaming to computer usage habits to television viewing to magazine readership to iPod usage to email to online video to RSS and more. It's a motherlode of insightful, usable information about a generation that is indicative of what media usage will look like in the future.

After watching this, you will very quickly realize that all current methods of marketing have a very, very...very short lifespan. There are bright spots though. Interestingly, magazines and billboards were mentioned as viable media outlets. Give it a watch.

Radio Station Trashes Phil Collins, Titanic Soundtrack in Campaign

In a recent campaign, an Austrian radio station, 88.6, is trying to position itself as something other that a station that plays popular music. By trashing the hugely successful Phil Collins and the Titanic soundtrack, two entities that, while some question their musical merit, made more money that this station will likely ever see, this station is trying to position itself as some sort of anti-pop, hip station. Too bad they couldn't find some cultural references that were relevant to this decade.