Playboy Playmates Assist Captain Morgan's Charitable Efforts

Captain Morgan has partnered with Playboy and 20 of the brand's Playmates to support One Million Poses. The efforts aims to gather one million Captain Morgan poses - uploaded by anyone - and donate a dollar to responsible drinking charities for every pose uploaded. Check out the Captain Morgan facebook page or the promotion's page on Playboy.

Rokk Vodka Gives us Luxury, Status, And a Viking

OK, this is hilarious, Poking fun at very over done ad concept you've ever seen, Rokk Vodka brings us back to reality. Delivered in seductive Euro accent, a beautiful woman intones, "Luxury, Status. Desire. And...a Viking." Oh, and, of course, a vodka. From that point on, it gets silly. Oh and there's Andy Samberg and Akiva Schaffer too.

We love it. Booze is just booze.

Sony's Bloggie Touch Video Contest Offers Free Ride to SXSW Music

180LA is out with new work for Sony's new Bloggie Touch. Launching this week, the campaign is going after 18-25 year olds. The campaign will include a contest and Facebook application, with webcam upload and video editor built in, that lets consumers create their own "You had to be there" video.

Running until January 10, participants will have a chance to win Sony Bloggie Touch cameras with the Grand Prize Winner getting a VIP package for two to SXSW Music in March 2011.

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Christmas Tree Causes Mayhem on the Road

According to Allstate Insurance, you never know when mayhem will strike. Another installment from the Leo Burnett campiagn has our friend, mayhem, taking on the role of a Douglas Fir. A happy go lucky family is out for the evening picking up their Christmas tree. On the ride home, unbeknownst to them, the three comes lose from the top of their car, falls to the road and causes another car to crash.

The talking tree informs, "If you have cut rate insurance, you may not be covered for this." What a Merry Message for the holiday season. But, as we've seen before from Mayhem, mayhem can strike at any time.

The work is a nice tie in to the holiday season and it's an entirely probable scenario.

Soliel Moon Frye Gets $5,850 Per Paid Tweet

Soliel Moon Frye, AKA Punky Brewster, who used to be a bigger celebrity - in more ways than one - than she is today, gets the big bucks for paid tweets according to her listing on IZEA's Sponsored Tweets.

Frye has 1,519,400 followers and a Klout score of 70.57 so she's likely worth the investment. And besides, she's really nice, too.

On the other end of the scale, Shavar Ross, who played the role of Arnold's friend Dudley on Diff'rent Strokes, gets just $15.29 per tweet. Damn, those Diff'rent Strokes kids just can't catch a break. But he does fare better than porn star Jerzi Lynn who commands $3.46 per tweet.

And Lindsay Lohan? She gets $2,985. But she hasn't tweeted since September 26 (hmm, wonder why) so she might not be the best buy for a marketer right about now.

Don Draper's Ex-Wife Gets Even, Hooks Up With Versace

If you've been wronged by Don Draper, what better way to get back at the man than to front a major fashion designer's ad campaign. Aside from the fact that scenario mixes fiction with fact, January Jones, otherwise know as Don Draper's ex wife on AMC's Mad Men has signed a deal with Versace to appear in the designer's Spring 2011 campaign.

Following Halle Berry, Madonna, Milla Jovovich and several other Hollywood celebrities, Jones is said to have been shot by fashion photographer Mario Testino for the campaign. The deal is rumored to have come together after a meeting between Jones and Donatella Versace following a magazine shoot for Elle.

Bruce Willis to Front Russian Bank's Ad Campaign

Bruce Willis has signed a year-long deal with Trust Bank and will front the financial institution's ad campaign for the next year. Messaging will include the headline, "Trust is just like me, but a bank." How did Willis get the gig? Well, the previous frontman for the bank, weight-lifter Vladimir Turchinsky, unexpectedly died at the young age of 46. ANd the bank called WIllis.

Billboards carrying Willis' image will be placed in 170 cities across the country. Promotional and online efforts will be part of the campaign as well.

Men Should Collect Cars, Not Women

Men love to collect things. Baseball cards. Beer bottles. Hubcaps. Sport stats. Cars. And women. But a brand which manufactures miniature car models would like men to stop collecting women and start collecting the brand's collectible miniatures.

Sexist? An appropriate appeal to the mindset of men? You tell us.

Google Instant Destroys Brands, Holiday eCommerce to Hit $38.5M

- How Google Instant can destroy your brand's reputation. And the steps you can take to avoid this from happening.

- Royal Caribbean has teamed up with Starbucks and DreamWorks with a brand partnership for its newest ship, Allure of the Seas.

- Sarah Jessica Parker has hooked up with Barnes 7 Noble to hype the retailer's NookColor eReader in a series of commercials which broke this week.

- eMarketer reports holiday ecommerce will hit $38.5 billion this year, up 14.3 percent from 2009.

- Seven things you didn't know display ads could do.

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Social Media Gets Slapped Upside the Head

Writing on Advertising Age, brand strategists and author Jonathan Salem Baskin wrote, "The conventional wisdom of social marketing is an effort to breathe new life into the all but dead presumptions of branding, only with one small catch: It can't make it work, and the only way anybody can claim otherwise is to fudge the stats, time frames and expectations for tangible results."

Damn, dude! Them's fightin' words! You're going to have the social media guru army all over you in a matter of minutes. But you know what? You're right. Well, mostly. Social media isn't the cure to everything. It can help. But not to the seeming exclusion of all other forms of marketing...which appears to be what's happening these days.

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