Anheuser-Busch Super Bowl Military Spot Gets Hacked

Why it took so long, we do not know but someone has made a minor edit to the ending of Budweiser's brilliant Super Bowl Military commercial inserting what was probably on the minds of some but was, wisely, left out. Rather than sit through the entire minute long, 4 MB file just to see the pay off, here's a screenshot for your enjoyment.

Match.com, Giants, Mohegan Sun Launch New Campaigns

Featured in this week's MediaPost Out to Launch column by Amy Corr are new campaigns from Match.com by Hanft Raboy & Partners which debuted on Desperate Housewives a week ago, an outdoor campaign for the San Francisco Giants with a bit less Barry Bonds than originally planned, three tourism campaigns for Charlotte, Beverly Hills and Wisconsin, the return of Mr. Six for Six Flags, a Kirshenbaum Bond + Partners created campaign for Mohegan Sun, a "we're better than cable because we're DSL" campaign for Verizon, a Popeye Chicken & Biscuits campaign featuring comedian Bruce Bruce and a get-out-of-debt campaign from TrueCredit.

Six Flags Brings Back Mister Six

While we loved the original commercial better, it's nice to see the return of the old fogey, Mr. Six, seen in this spot walking in his bed at the retirement home, prepping a Six Flags park then breaking into his signature "We Like to Party" jig.

Marriott Marquis Rejects IFC Green Day Billboard

After seeing the artwork, showing a grenade held in a bloodied hand, for a billboard promoting IFC's year-long hook up with Green Day, Marriott rejected the 28 X 43 foot placement on the side of its Times Square Marriott Marquis hotel. After learning the board was banned last Friday, Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong thought it was an April Fool's joke. But a Marriott spokesman clarified any misunderstanding, telling the Daily News, "We have the right to review all advertising that goes on our buildings and if we feel it has any political, pornographic or inappropriate content, we have the right to reject that ad."

Bits Gets Perpendicular in Hitachi Video, 30,000 Song iPod On The Way

Those who toil in the creation of B to B advertising know there's seldom a time when the work approaches the level of so-called "fun" their counterparts in consumer advertising supposedly experience working on those cool accounts like Apple, Volkswagen or any beer account. [Ed. I know. I've been there.] Thanks to Andreas, after viewing this little animated video created for Hitachi, there's proof at least a few who work in B to B are having a bit of "fun."

To explain how a 6GB hard drive, like the one in an MP3 player, can hold 30,000 songs instead of 3,000, this Hitachi video illustrates, amusingly, how lining up the bits in a perpendicular manner (as opposed to laying flat), can dramatically improve a hard drive's storage capacity. A 30,000 song iPod would sell pretty well, don't ya think?

'Current' TV Likened to Blog TV

By now, you've all heard Al Gore is behind the year old operation called Current, formerly known as INdTV. The thrust of the new cable network, to be piped via cable to 20 million homes in August, is people-produced content. The network, through its Current Studio, will provide support to those who wish to create content which will be segmented into Current Soul, Current Gigs, Current Fashion, Current Lies, Current Tech as well as news supplied by Google.

Nick Mathisen, writing on The Ill Quill, likens this approach to blogging and calls it Blog TV. It's an apt analogy and Current is enabling the spread of consumer-created content to another medium: television. While it's unlikely the country will completely ween itself from the likes of 'Desperate Housewives,' 'Lost' or 'Grey's Anatomy' but the content offered through Current will be dramatically new, different and certainly intriguing. And no, just like the Internet, Al Gore did not invent Current either.

MarketingSherpa Publishes Viral Advertising Guide

Lending some practical knowledge and hard facts to the viral advertising category is MarketingSherpa which has just published its Viral Advertising in 2005 - Top 7 Tactics, How-Tos and Measurement Data special. Based on responses from 2,431 marketers and viral agencies, the article includes a clarification of the definition of viral advertising, suggested best practices, strategies, experiential results from viral marketers, measurement procedures and a practical Data and Tips section on viral ad tactics. It's the most concise collection of information about viral advertising ever published and a must read for anyone remotely considering this method of advertising.

Ford Focus Commercial Steals Volkswagen Concept

Ever vigilant Jossip has, again, spotted a Ford commercial that's, shall we say, less than brilliant. Last week, on American Idle, Ford ran a commercial for its SUV wannabe, the Escape, to which Jossip so eloquently reacted to the ad's horsepower claims by writing, "We take shits with more thrust." This week, Ford ran a spot for its Focus that, as Jossip points out, mirrors a recent Volkswagen spot quite closely.

In the spot, a person takes the Focus out for a test drive and loves it so much, he races by the dealership and keeps on going. Sound familiar? It should. It's the exact premise of a currently running VW commercial in which an overly excited VW test driver races past exits as the salesman tries to urge the driver to head off the highway.

You see, it's really true. All great ideas are already taken.

Gawker Media Launches One Stop Tabloid: Sploid

Gawker Media magnate Nick Denton has launch another weblog. The site, Sploid, mirrors the look of a tabloid publication complete with over sized headlines and Page Six-like editorial. While much of the content consists of the first few sentences of original content cut and pasted to Sploid, the headlines are originally written as are some of the posts.

Unlike most weblogs that roll posts down the page based on receny, Sploid will keep what are deemed to be top stories at the top of the page with other, less important stories further down the page. And they will keep stories coming fast. Sploid is written by Choire Sica, former Gawker editor, Ken Layne and Henry Seltzer. With headlines like "Sex Creep Poses As Vice Cop!" and "Vatican Plagued By Filthy Toilets & Unbearable Garbage", it's likely to be an amusing smash. Already, the site is getting over 10,000 page views per hour. Not a bad start.

AWNY Gives 'Grand Ugly' to Adrants' Favorite Ads

Adrants is deeply saddened to hear the fine, upstanding advertising organization Advertising Women of New York saw fit to bestow its Ugly awards upon three of this site's most favorite ads. AWNY, for which we have fond memories since introducing us to advertising through a seminar attended while in college and which included a day's visit to the now defunct NW Ayer, awarded its Grand Ugly award to Troeg Beer's "Burp" commercial and its Ugly Print award to Guess for its Paris Hilton ads and Skechers for its Christina Aguilera ads. OK, so we really didn't like the Paris ads but Christina was HOT in her ads.

Explaining the point behind the organization's awards, AWNY President Carol Evans said, "This event has always looked at advertising with a sense of humor and honesty. We know many of the beer ads that continue to be losers are directed at men, but nonetheless, they reinforce images and stereotypes that continue to show women in demeaning roles. It's important that marketers understand that using women as props just for a laugh is not acceptable." Fair enough.