GAP Gives Joss Stone Bigger Butt in Commercial

Just as producers did for a poster promoting Kelly Clarkson's movie, "From Justin to Kelly," the GAP has decided Joss Stone's butt wasn't big enough and edited big butt doubles into her recent GAP commercial. Stone took it all in stride, telling the SUN, "Apparently, I need a J-Lo bum or something."

Urban Concepts Launch Party to Feature Faith Evans

Tonight, US Concepts, an event marketing agency, is launching it's new division, Urban Concepts, a group comprised of urban marketing specialists, an influencer network and event promotion, viral/buzz and street team services. Faith Evans will be performing at an event, limited to 100 clients, friends and family, to toast the new venture taking the concept of the mini-concert to the another level.

Hummer Ad Aligned With London Bombings

Adrants reader Patrick Bennet ponders the oddity of a Hummer ad placed in conjunction with CNN London bombing stories, writing, "Am I the only one who can't help but notice the irony in the fact that every time I want to watch a video on the CNN website about the latest bombing in London, or deaths in Iraq, or terrorists in general there is a Hummer ad preceding the story?

It's as though Hummer wants to make sure they tie their oil dependency inducing vehicles as closely as possible to the results of that kind of thing.

Am I the only one noticing this? If you were Hummer, is this where you would put your ads? Before stories of terror and mideast instability?"

Either Hummer has intentionally planned this through contextual keywords or it's just an unfortunate side effect of the contextual advertising concept. Of course, Patrick might be one of the few people seeing this placement, having been previously identified, via cookies and behavioral targeting through the likes of Tacoda, as having exhibited car buying behavior elsewhere on the web.

Grand Theft Billboard Goes Up As Game Pulled

One day before Rockstar announced it would alter Grand Theft Auto San Andreas to an AO (Adult only) rating, this big ass outdoor board appeared in Union Square. On Wednesday, Rockstar announced it was ceasing production of the current version of the game because a hack was found that unlocked hard core sex scenes within the game. While it certainly takes plenty of lead time to get a board of this magnitude up, one does wonder about the timing of it all.

Ever-present Bucky Turco thinks the whole thing is just a bunch of needless wind, telling Adrants, "To me, this whole hot coffee hack/modification was blown so out of proportion. Yes you could hack the PC version and there is some pornographic material, however the console game, although it too has leftover material, it way harder to hack, and that's the one that is most sold not the PC version. Who the hell plays GTA on a computer?"

View another image of the board here.

Book Promoted With 'TwattyGirl' Apparel

Having gone to trademark court to prove the word "TwattyGirl" is "not immoral or scandalous," let alone referential to a particular female body part, New York-based hedge fund executive Precious Marlowe (again, who names their kids like this?) has launched an apparel brand called TwattyGirl. According to the press release, the line is "designed for independent, sexy, bold, outspoken women from 18-45 and is inspired by the main character, TwattyGirl, in Marlowe's forthcoming novel – 'Bulletproof –Things Twattygirl Told You, But You Didn't Want to Hear.'" Of course, this whole thing is just a stunt to promote the book.

The line will include t-shirts with inspirational slogans or "twattyisms" along with lingerie, jewelry, baseball caps and greeting cards.

Mannequins to Descend Building For HBO Billboard

With a billboard located at 721 7th Avenue in New York that will have a bunch of mannequins scaling down the side of the building with couches to sit in front of a giant TV screen, HBO is promoting its Sunday lineup. The board, created by BBDO, will have additional mannequins added to it over time and HBO's upcoming saga, Rome, will be heavily promoted.

ESPN And MasterCard to Launch User Submitted Content Contest

Capitalizing on increasing consumer involvement with content creation, ESPN and MasterCard will launch a program this fall where sports fans can submit self-created videos and images of their goofy sports moments which will be displayed on the web for visitors to vote for favorites. During the voting period in September and October, submissions will be displayed bracket style with the first place winner receiving a sports room makeover and the second place winner receiving $5,000 in MasterCard credit. The program, created by GSD&M, will be promoted on ESPN and ESPN.com with four 15 second shorts.

Produce Laser Labeling Could Be New Ad Medium

While produce companies, grocery chains and consumers might like the new laser tattooing of fruit and vegetables, as opposed to the annoying stickers, it won't be long before everyone has their head in a twist when advertisers discover they can use the technology to emblazon their logo all over the country's produce.

AOL Uses Blogs and Video to Introduce AIM Mail

To promote its new AIM Mail, AOL has a couple of strange online videos, created by Attik. One has a receptionist drifting into a daydream which consists of superhero midgets...oops...dwarfs...oops...little people giving her a tickle attack. The other has a pair of sushi falling in love only to have one killed by getting eaten. Both end with @aim addresses and no other form of linkage.

Once at the AIM Mail site, there are blogs that promote the videos. The videos can be viewed here and here.

Nestea Ice Gets Kooky Microsite Treatment

Adverblog points to a microsite, created by Juxt Interactive and done up with a combined country/hip-hop/British twist, for Nestea Ice which hopes to attract 12 to 24 years olds guys with its music videos, T-shirts, branded character stories and a contest which offers chances to win a bunch of Sony products including a TV, mini stereo, PlayStation 2, games, music CDs and inflatable chairs.