To promote a book, called Dead Pets, about pet cemataries, cruel animal death in movies, the stunt doubles that make that happen, pet afterlife and its religious implications and, yes, recipes for cooking pets, book publisher Canon Gate has launched a microsite, with ghoulish music, where you can play "whack a pet with a bat." We're sure it's all done humorously. We hope. It was created by Small Oranges.
Like young lovers finding out how much fun it is to kiss each other, book publishers can't seem to get enough of these kooky promotions for their books. But, with this execution, is the trend dead before it even began?
Court TV has erected a piece of "advertecture," a huge banner that looks like the building it is draped upon but carries artistic renderings of windowscapes and, of course, the Court TV logo. If you look closely, you can one apartment dweller about to be whacked with a butcher's knife while other tenants are oblivious. Can you say voyeurism? The board is located on King Street in New York's Soho neighborhood and was created by Venables, Bell & Partners. Other images here and here.
In this commercial which involves drills and helicopters, the power of the new cordless Milwaukee V28, lithium ion-powered drill is clearly and humorously displayed.
Obviously never having worked in advertising thus having no clue as to the lead times needed to get a movie billboard campaign up and running which usually occurs before the movie is rated, Yahoo's Movie Mom, Nell Minow is accusing studios of placing billboards for R rated movies without the rating thereby, she claims, attracting interest in the movie by kids too young to watch the movie. Aside from the fact that ratings, when they do appear on a billboard, are unreadable at driving speeds, Minow seems to have forgotten the Mom part of her title. As far as we know, the parent is the one makes the determination whether or not their child will see a movie if the rating, which is always available upon release date, is not within their comfort zone.
Derogatory headline aside, Jessica Simpson realizes all her fans are not stick-figured, tiny little size 1 and 2 chicklets (who is?) and, according to her spokesperson, include "girls from 90 pounds all the way up to 300 pounds." With that realization, Simpson has launched a line of plus-sized jeans for women available through Avenue stores. Sizes range from 12 to 26 and cost about $60.
 Joe Jaffe, upon seeing BMW's RFP letter to agencies, offers the manufacturer some advice. His advice comes in the form several bullet points along with a bit of self promotion for his new book which we really, really want to read but the post office, apparently, can't seem to find us. One of Jaffe's suggestions. While we haven't seen BMW's letter ourselves, Jaffe feels BMW is being "delusional, greedy, unrealistic or all three. You want an 'agency' to reach a 'broader, more diverse audience' on roughly half of last year's budget; you're looking for a shop that can create integrated marketing aimed at a niche audience; you feel the need to turn $1 into $5 and state that 'if you don't have a track record of creating stuff like this, this is probably the wrong opportunity for your agency' - come on, why stop there: if it were me running this pitch, I'd demand that the 'shop' come up with a 3-step program to cure both cancer and AIDS, and while we're at it, let's throw in ending poverty in Africa, which seems to be all the rage right now. Aim high my friends, aim high." Point taken but on the flip side, why aim low?
A little bird tells us the Ask Jeeves account, which is up for review, is now down to two agencies. There were originally six agencies involved in the pitch. Two of the four agencies which have been eliminated are Butler Shine and Mullen. The two remaining agencies are Hanft Raboy & Partners and incumbent TBWA Chiat Day. A final decision is expected within two weeks.
Flickr user Ke Wynn has put together a billboard guessing game. While driving through the smog or fog filled streets of Malaysia (we think), Wynn took two pictures of each board. The first is blurred by the smog/fog. The second is readable. The point of the game is to guess the advertiser. There are five questions. Wynn provides a clue to each. Have fun.
As male fantasies go, right up there with school girls clad in plaid skirts are librarians dressed as though they were too busy reading to finish dressing. New York City's Library Bar created an ad that maximizes this fantasy in a way that aligns nicely with the brand. Oh, screw that marketing blather. They dressed their hot bartenders up in sexy librarian-wear to attract drooling men incapable of resistance. The ad features Erinn and Elizabeth who both work at Library Bar.
We received these spots from a very kind and very knowledgeable public relations professional who knew we simply couldn't resist sharing them with you. The spots are part of a Wieden + Kennedy created campaign promoting ESPN's Fantasy Football. Leveraging every man's fantasy in which the perfect football team would be a bunch of hotties dressed in sexy pink outfits frolicking on a very pink bed in a very pink room, the spots certainly grab attention but not in a purely T&A fashion. You see, the models in the fantasy are in on the joke and know they are just pawns in the mind of a daydreaming football fan. Well done.
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