In the "Um...WOW" category, Adidas said it would buy Reebok for $3.8 billion. Who new merger madness would hit the sneaker category. Adidas CEO and Chairman Herbert Hainer said in a statement, "We will expand our geographic reach, particularly in North America, and create a footwear, apparel and hardware offering that addresses a broader spectrum of consumers and demographics. With Reebok, we are advancing our position on the playing field of the sporting goods industry and are improving our financial strength to drive increased shareholder value." Watch out, Nike.
Max Lenderman points to a billboard created by TBWA/Vancouver which leveraged the unfortunate but dependable human propensity to steal stuff. The billboard was created for security company Black Tower Home Security and after enough people had stolen various items off the billboard, the headline, "People Steal," was revealed aligning nicely with the Black Tower's business proposition. Good stuff.
To promote the UK-based search engine 118 118, several viral videos were created over the last month which, in their own weird way, have something to do with driving viewers to a promotional site which then leads to the 118 118 search page. The page provides searches for businesses, people, addresses, films, train times and the Internet.
The videos, which are made up of odd situations - an old guy skateboarding, a homeless guy having a gourmet dinner out of a trash can and a guy your goes nuts on a traffic cop, all of whom don a 118 118 head bandanna and a black mustache - are just odd enough to create necessary curiosity to see what 118 118 is all about. At least it did for us.
Likely, everyone's seen this already and we couldn't get to it yesterday since we spent the day in Times Square doing important advertising-related research but this on is just too funny to pass on. That hipper than hip big box store Target has launched a bunch of new back to school commercial, one of which, features a bunch of little kids with backpacks on dancing to the tune of that racy Baby Got Back, booty-shaking tune MTV had trouble with a while back. Of course, they've toned down the lyrics to a much tamer, "We like backpacks and we can not lie. With a cell phone pocket on the side. Those old backpacks were a fashion risk but can a cool backpack exist? Baby, I'm back...at school...etc."
Either Target has just moved to the top of the hipness pile or they have crossed into dangerous territory associating big assed babes shakin' ass with little girl's back packs. While we're on the topic of Baby Got Stuff, check out the very funny Baby Got Book which promotes church of all things.
Without her involvement or consent, Hilary Clinton is getting promoted as a candidate from president in 2008 via an ad campaign created by a Florida-based Gay rights group, called Hilary Now!, run by Bob Kunst. The campaign consists of an animated television commercial showing Hillary driving a "Bush's Mess" garbage truck. In the ad, Hillary is seen emptying into the truck trash cans in front of the White House labeled "Iraq," "War on Terror," "Health Care" and "Budget."
The campaign will air on New Hampshire cable news networks in the cities of Manchester, Portsmouth, Concord, Nashua and Salem.
Yesterday in New York City, some weirdo decided to hang from a 13th floor balcony of the Kimberly hotel at 150 East 50th Street and drop a bunch of flyers promoting his non-sensical website that seems to be designed to dissuade Florida tourism. Of course, all hell broke loose with police arriving on the scene, closing the block and finally apprehending the kook. The Daily News reports the website mentioned on the flyer is registered to Mauricio Pavez of Miami. It's unclear whether Pavez was the man on the balcony as the police declined to release the man's name.
While idiotic and frustrating to many New Yorkers who were held up due to the street closings, we can be quite sure the man's website is getting a lot more attention today than if he hadn't been caught.
Lee and Dan of the famed Volkswagen Suicide Bomber ad have created, along with production company Quiet Storm, a Sixth Sense-like online video, called We Hear Scared People, to call attention to the UK charity Childline, a service children can call when they are faced with abuse. The work was done mostly for free to raise money for the organization.
iMediaConnection's Media Strategies Editor Jim Meskauskas approaches the cookie conundrum with six suggestions marketers may wish to consider in the face of a seemingly huge consumer cookie rebellion. Maskauskus suggests the advertising industry take strides to educate consumers about the advantages cookies provide; educate the industry so those that use cookies or make software that uses cookies understand how each discipline values the cookies; make the cookie hard to find like United Virtualities has done with its Flash-based PIE technology; keep quiet about the whole debate acknowledging that talking about cookies just brings unwanted attention; forget about the cookie and and rely on other existing tracking technologies; and simply surrender control to consumers allowing them to create Passport like "universal cookies" containing any type of information the consumer choose to provide and allowing them to decide whether they share it or not.
My Little Pony, a toy line for girls from Hasbro that was extremely popular in the 1980's, has launched an exhibit/promotion called The Pony Project. Hasbro, to re-energize the My Little Pony Line, has invited young, contemporary female artists of varied backgrounds such as graffiti, fashion, illustration, photography, and fine art to customize blank 18” My Little Pony figures. Artists like Claw Money (graffiti writer), Maya Hayuk (fine artist), Betsey Johnson (designer), and Kozyndan (illustrator) will create their versions of My Little Pony.
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Somehow equating automotive sound system components to female body components, this ad for Toyota and Pioneer certainly grabs attention. flickr user Barrybar points to the copy on the back of the ad, which he graciously translated, that pumps up the suggestive nature of the ad. Citing the directions from which one can enjoy quality sound, the copy eludes to directions from which one can enjoy female components: "from above, from below, from the middle, inside, from the front, from behind."
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