True Blood is Truly Weird

This is hilarious! It's another promotion for HBO's True Blood Season 2. It's a compilation of several different news stories about "extraordinary" people and STrange" events. The funniest part is when a seeing eye dog turns into a...well...just watch.

Rooftop + Tweetup = Roofup

Last night in Boston several hundred people arrived at the Rattlesnake Bar and Grill for one of the biggest tweetups the city has seen. Organized by Northeastern University student Sarah Merion and sponsored by Johnny Cupcakes, Kickass Cupcakes, Annie Mulz and RUNmyERRAND, the event was held on the rooftop of the Rattlesnake.

In attendance were @stevegarfield, @patrick, @schneidermike @urwingman @robertcollins @michaelpsweeney, @pamelump, @repcor, @gradontripp, @mathurrell, @swirlingmedia, @bostonist, @Meg_Goullet, @michaelpsweeney, @urwingman and many, many others.

As Tweetups go, it was a good one...and an interesting one. While there were many familiar faces there, there were more unfamiliar ones. As Twitter expands beyond the inner circle of early adopters, Tweetups will no longer represent the tech elite, the Twitterati or whatever label you want to apply to those who just love to get there first. Nope. Now it's all about the regular people. And you know what? That's a very good thing. After all, how long can we all talk to ourselves over and over again saying the same things over and over again at the same places over and over again?

And while it's always fun to see your friends, it's never a bad thing to step outside your clicke every once in a while.

Dank!: Aesthetic Imperfections Cut the Pain Out of Price

Here's a clever little campaign for Dank! Second Hand Furniture. Each print zeroes in on a piece of furniture; whatever defect mars it visually also mars the ostentatious price that made the item unattainable.

Also see Table and Chair. By the clever visual acrobats at DDB&Co./Istanbul; via.

New York Pizza and Italian Stereotypes Envision Rollergirl

New York Pizza, which is not in New York, is out with another strange commercial just in time to be compared to the recent Miller commercial, featuring Sopranos actor Frank Vincent, which was derided for perpetuating Italian stereotypes. In the commercial, we see the stereotypical mafioso type who's "got other businesses" envision a "Damn Hot" promotion that, in the end, doesn't go so well.

After surprising a little boy, pleasing dad and shocking mom, New York Pizza's Rollergirl gets lost, hangs with prostitutes and ultimately gets arrested. At which time our mafioso character concludes, "Eh, bad idea" and realizes all that matters is a "damn tasty pizza and a damn cheap price."

Gain: So Sweet-Smelling, You Might Attract Hop-Ons

This print effort for Gain could probably have done with better execution. I had to read the tagline -- "It smells that good" -- and even then I had to look hard. And it was like, "Oh, it would appear that there's a person stuck to that other person."

But it isn't immediately clear that they're trapped there because they're smelling, and not because, oh, they got sat on and taken-with when their host got up again.

Variants include Gallery and Airport. Work by Leo Burnett/Toronto.

The Crime Isn't in Napping, It's in Napping Indiscreetly

BreatheRight keeps you snoozing soundly without leaving the auditory evidence in your wake, promises CBGrey/Paris in "Theatre."

In the piece, a man snoozes quietly in a packed audience. Meanwhile, onstage, some melodramatic Vagina Monologues-meets-beat-poet stuff folds brains into various shapes of comatose.

Nice that Napping Ned is considerate, but that's gotta be one hell of an expensive siesta.

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Audi Q5 Goes Anywhere Your Bicycle Can. Well, Not Really.

Here's a cute little Audi Q5 spot called "Bicycle." It's shot from the perspective of a bike-rider exploring the city on a beautiful day; later, you discover it's not the bike doing the work but a teeny little Audi, upon whose roof the bike is resting.

"Agility that conquers the city," the tagline reads.

Trendy and chic material brought to us by Ogilvy & Mather/Tokyo. Guess it would be too much to ask for the car to do wheelies, or leap off little wooden ramps resting on barrels, but it's cool that it goes down public stairs and invades pedestrian walkways and whatnot.

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Because Who Needs Hands...

...when you've got a bra that turns your mammaries into superclamps? And consider this: if women had more paws for shopping bags, they'd probably be a lot less depressed. For the next eight minutes, anyway.

Just another support-illustrating gem by Wonderbra (via y via).

Previous efforts to break the mold with basoomas have included the glass-breaking bus shelter ad, the extra caution line at metros, and the, uh, "we hold big boulders" approach.

Paul Smith Rabbit Lights Up for Scraps

@dabitch and @leighhouse graced our morningtime desks with this rabbit rubbish bin. The bins are designer Paul Smith's contribution to Super Contemporary, an exhibit that launched at London's Design Museum this week.

The "New London Rubbish Bins" will solicit garbage over the next four months at Covent Garden and Holland Park. Ears light up when you toss a little something-something into their sacks.

More photos at High Snobiety.

Good way to bring design character to a city and reward constructive community behaviour. Here's hoping no malevolent clothes irons appear over the horizon.

Bud Lite Puts Tongue in Cheek

Ever walk into a store and buy something you'd rather no one see you buy? And then your prom date shows up? And the store clerk has to shout to the other store clerk at the top of her lungs about what you're buying? And then some freak exacerbates the issue? And then the store gets held up? And then you're on the news?

Thank God for the internet no one is at risk of going through this scenario any more. Which begs the question. What was Bud Light thinking when they made this ad? Are these things still sold in convenience stores? And why would anyone risk embarrassment when they can obtain an endless supply of the stuff in the privacy of their own home?