Levis Posts Casting Call For Bloggers to Appear in New Ad Campaign

Gossip dripping Gawker received a tip Levis has made a casting call for bloggers to appear in an upcoming Levi's ad campaign called "A Style for Every Story." Gawker appropriately comments this would clearly be a shark jumping event for the blogoshpere.

Cheerleader Slam Dunked In AMC Pre-Movie Promo

We saw this a day or two ago and then again on AdJab which made us realize we'd seen, a month ago, images of one the actors in it on SportsbyBrooks where she's been modeling for almosta year. All of which promoted us to share it here. So what the hell are we talking about? AMC, Nokia and Best Buy have teamed to created an amazing, pre-movie, turn-your-cell-phone-off promo invloving cheerleaders (and the above mentioned actor) and a distracting cell phone. Consequences are hilarious but even more hilarious is an offshoot of the promo called Cheerleader Toss in which a cheerleader is successfully tossed, by stunt men, through a basketball hoop. While successful, it looks like the poor girl ended up with quite a headache. All very amusing.

UN Mine Action Service Launches Powerful PSA

The United Nations' Mine Action Service has launched a campaign which brings the dangers of landmines close to home in hopes awareness of the worldwide dilemma will increase. The campaign includes a website and shocking PSA that will likely never appear on TV but should. It opens with a scene of idyllic suburban tranquility. A young family cheers on their daughter who has just scored a goal in her soccer match when she suddenly, violently explodes. Chaos consumes the scene while the mother of the victim shrieks hysterically and her father cradles her lifeless body. A simple graphic reads: "If there were landmines here would you stand for landmines anywhere." It deserves to be seen by as many people as have seen the, in comparison, ridiculous, GoDaddy commercials.

The video was created by New York agency The Brooklyn Brothers.

Cabs to Get Wireless Multimedia Systems

Interactive Taxi, a subsidiary of Targeted Media Partners, based in New York, plans to install wireless touchscreen interactive devices in the back seats of more than 600 cabs in Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco.

The company used to offer screens that required large hard drives, mounted in the trunk of the taxi, which were hampered by bumps and the inability to remotely update. The new system will be powered by a 2GB flash drive wiith wireless connectivity for updates. The service will provide passengers new, movie trailers, restaurant listings and, yes, ads.

WOMMA Code of Conduct Released

The Word of Mouth Marketing Association released its code of conduct today, an industrywide effort to tackle the issue of ethics in word of mouth marketing. The WOMMA Code establishes guidelines and best practices so marketers have a framework with which to plan and execute ethical word of mouth marketing campaigns. At the heart of the Code is what WOMMA calls its Honesty ROI - honest disclosure of relationship, opinion, and identity. This demands that those who are spreading a marketer's message by "word of mouth" disclose their relationship with marketers in their conversations with other consumers; that they be allowed to form their own honest opinions and let those with whom they're communicating form their own opinions; and that everyone be transparent and reveal their identity to anyone with whom they're communicating. Another key provision deals specifically with the issue of marketing to children. In it, WOMMA states that they stand against any word of mouth marketing to children under 13. The code further emphasizes the important responsibilities, sensitivity, and ethical obligations of working with minors. The Code is being released as a draft for public comment as part of WOMMA's commitment to open, transparent communications. All interested parties are invited to voice their views and contribute to improving this ethical standard. WOMMA has previously emailed more than 1,100 people who expressed interest, inviting them to participate in the discussion. The comment period will remain open for one month, after which a final code will be adopted.

Comments can be submitted at the WOMMA website.

Pepsi Girl Blog Not Pepsi Marketing Ploy

A fan blog called That Pepsi Girl was launched Super Bowl Sunday in honor of the half-Asian model, Mandy Fujiko Amano, who appeared in the Pepsi/iTunes "Pop the Music" commercial. Beginning yesterday, bloggers speculated the site was another lame, fake blog marketing trick similar to the one McDonald's launched in support of its Lincoln Fry. The mystery and speculation can be put to rest. We know the creator of the blog and he emailed us Monday to tell us about it. Pepsi has nothing to do with this blog. It's simply a joke. Next.

PR Blogger Launches Blog Monitoring Service

CooperKatz & Company, Inc., a mid-sized New York City public relations firm, today launched a new service to help corporations monitor, analyze, plan for and respond to issues that might bubble up from blogs and other emerging online channels.

The service is the first in a series of planned introductions under a new agency practice called Micro Persuasion that will be led by Steve Rubel, VP, Client Services. Micro Persuasion capabilities will not only help companies address corporate issues and concerns but also capitalize on the vast opportunities that blogs and other new channels afford to engage key audiences in a transparent dialogue. Micro Persuasion counsel will be infused into the agency’s existing PR services, but can also be purchased as a stand-alone service. "Thanks to weblogs and other inexpensive online publishing tools, individual voices are more influential than ever in the marketplace," said Andy Cooper, an agency principal. "Corporations need to pay attention to this online commentary as well as engage in a one-to-one dialogue with its 'authors.' We see an opportunity to create a new kind of service that helps companies listen, prepare and manage issues – as well as their overall reputation – in this emerging era of citizen’s media.

When you couple our experience with online privacy, product recalls, litigation, strikes, mergers and acquisitions and controversial marketing categories with our knowledge of blogs and consumer-generated media, we feel we have a unique expertise that will be quite compelling."

Knowing Steve, this new offering will focus on joining the the conversation rather than controlling it as others have, wrongly, done. Steve details the offering further on his blog.

Super Bowl Sex Peaks Internet Traffic

While the game, itself, was good, Super Bowl XXXIX will also be remembered for its prudishness and skittish advertisers, largely the result of a stricter FCC following last year's halftime "wardrobe malfunction." Not surprisingly, new Internet data now show advertisers with the most sexually-nuanced commercials were the top drivers of Internet traffic on Super Bowl Sunday.

According to Hitwise, an online competitive intelligence service, GoDaddy, the most provocative advertiser, led the pack. Its total market share of U.S. Internet visits increased 260 percent on Super Bowl Sunday versus the prior day.

Meanwhile, traffic to the Web site for the male impotence drug Cialis increased 155 percent. Visits to the Tabasco Web site increased 118 percent, driven by an ad featuring a bikini-clad actress.

Whether GoDaddy's ad will sell domain names is another story, as Hitwise clickstream data reveal that 23 percent of visitors to GoDaddy went to company founder Bob Parson's blog. which revealed the story behind the ad as well as why the second showing of the ad was cancelled.

The chart below, from Hitwise, reflects Super Bowl-induced changes in Internet traffic:

Now Corporation to Host Viral Awards

On February 15 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, the now corporation will host The Viral Awards 2004 benefiting The Food Bank for New York City. Awards will be given for "the most infectious North American viral." Finalists for Most Infectious North American viral include Burger King for Subservient Chicken by Crispin Porter & Bogusky, MTV for Instructoart by Matt Vescovo, Scienceworld for Boardroom by Rethink Advertising, Napster for Venables by Bell and Virgin Atlantic for Haircut by Crispin Porter & Bogusky. More info and tickets here.

Career Builder Expands Super Bowl Monkey Business With Website

To accompany it's round of Super Bowl commercials which feature bunch of monkeys working for a company called Yeknom Inc., Career Builder has launched a purposefully poorly designed spoof site based on the Yeknom (yes, that's monkey spelled backwards) company and all the monkeys that work for it. The site includes a history section detailing the company's inventing of the first tool, a stick, an About section with employee photos, a section highlighting the less than stellar accomplishments of employees and, of course, an employment section which leads to phony job listings on Careerbuilder. There's even an 800 number offering even more monkey business.

The ads and the site nicely wrap together the theme of working for monkeys as in impetus to using Careerbuilder to find a new job. The site is humorous and, hands down, far better integrated into its campaign than the McDonald's Lincoln Fry site an its fake weblog.