I'm Gonna Huff And Puff...And Crack Up

Little Red Riding Hood is nowhere to be found in this spot for Halls but some dudes dressed up like pigs are worried a dude dressed like a wolf is going to huff and puff and blow their house down. It's a fairly amusing spot, especially since the guy playing the wolf looks like he can't stop cracking up while acting his part.

Budweiser Surprised People Drink Beer

We are so late to this but it's just so much fun, we can't leave it alone. On Wednesday, Anheuser-Busch said it would end its Bud Pong promotion, a beer pong game that is supposed to be played with water, because people are playing the game with, shockingly, beer. What doofus at AB thought beer pong would ever be played with water? Doesn't matter. The person is probably fired by now. Or at least force to write "People Drink Beer" 500 times on the whiteboard.

Conversational Marketing Demands 'Conversation Department'

Reacting to a column UnderScore Marketing's Tom Hespos wrote about marketer's fear and laziness to engage in meaningful conversations with consumers, I wrote a piece calling for the creation of a "Conversation Department," a department whose sole responsibility would be to listen to what is being said about a given brand in blog posts, discussion boards, forums and other methods of group conversation, join the ongoing conversations about the brand and make sure the company properly reacts to conversational opinion by addressing concerns immediately. Today, Tom goes a bit further with this and proposes a structure for a conversation department and how it might be staffed.

The more we talk about listening, joining and learning from conversations, while everyone in a company should be doing this, it makes more and more sense for companies and agencies to created a dedicated conversation department.

Agency Distributes 401K Video Memo

To explain the benefits of participating in the agency's 401K plan, Neimen Group dispensed with the usual, boring, overly wordy memo and created a video to get agency employees to attend an informational meeting. With a five dollar bill, some glue, a mini-cam and some humor, the agency illustrated the free money aspect of the agency's employer-contributed 401K plan. Anything to rid the inbox of those lame email memos!

ad:tech Launches Connect Live Networking Event

ad:tech is embarking on something new this year which it will kick off at the New York show in November. Called ad:tech Connect LIVE, the event, held Monday, November 7 from 12:45PM to 3PM in the East Ballroom of the Hilton New York is, in a way, a physical manifestation of ad:tech's recently launched online networking community ad:tech Connect. Billed as an experiential event, the East Ballroom will take on the look and feel of a music-filled, engagingly fun three-ring circus environment complete with costumed hosts, Ringmaster and plenty of snacks.

Ad:tech Connect LIVE, open to all attendees, will posses both educational and experiential elements. In the center of the Ballroom will be the main event - The Hotseat. Twenty-five people will sit in a circle surrounding one individual who, in the Hotseat will be asked, by the Ringmaster, ad:tech Chair and Radio Show Host, Susan Bratton, questions designed to cut though the preponderance of industry fluff, exaggerated research findings and over-used industry platitudes. When answering, the person on the Hotseat will be given the chance to lie, tell the truth, or pass. Of course, all the questions won't be industry-related and may delve into areas designed to help attendees better understand themselves and those people with whom they work day in and day out, year after year, The game is intended to help dispel pre-conceived notions, game faces and long-held misconceptions. If this sounds a little "come to Jesus/Allah/Buddha/Abraham/Confucius," perhaps it is. But the hope is to build community, open lines of communication, eliminate fluff, reduce puffery, cut through outlandish claims, get the heart of the industry's focus and inspire growth.

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Aquent Studio Smackdown 2 Winner Announced

Aquent's final round of Studio Smackdown 2, the second edition of the marketing and communication company's interactive online design talent competition was won by Melissa A. Phillips. The four-week elimination contest ended October 18, 2005. Results of the challenge, which pitted five motion graphic designers against each other, can be viewed at www.studiosmackdown.com.

Besides scoring the grand prize of $5,000 and getting to keep the Adobe Creative Suite 2 and Canon MiniDV camcorder that were provided to each of the five challengers, Phillips says the second greatest thrill was the thought of so many people seeing her work. "It's like an instant international portfolio," said the Milwaukee resident. "The hardest part was meeting all the deadlines while still working a full time job." We wonder what her boss now thinks about that.

Neil French Defends Himself to Ad Age

In an interview with Ad Age following comments regarding his belief some women in advertising are crap because of their inability to commit themselves 100 percent to the job due to childcare issues, WPP Creative Chief Niel French defended himself. Unfortunately, he just dug a bigger hole with his answer to Ad Age's last interview question:

So you didn't use the word "crap," then, in reference to women?

"Oh, of course, I did, yes. But I didn't say all female creative directors are crap. If you can't commit yourself to any job then, by definition, you're crap at it. If you can't commit 100 percent to your job, don't pretend you can. Nobody deserves a job unless they can commit to it."

To most people, the world does not revolve around their jobs alone. That era is gone. There are far more important things in life. French is out of touch with reality. Martin Sorrel should be happy he's leaving. Of course, now a debate over the definition of "commit" will likely ensue.

Mountain Dew Launches MDX Energy Drink

Mountain Dew has introduced a new energy drink, MDX, and will launch a BBDO created ad campaign called Be Nocturnal, consisting of two spots, "All Night Long" and "Sunglasses At Night," October 22 during the World Series to introduce the drink. Print and radio will accompany the television. Check it all out here.

Game Conference Session to Discuss Sex

The Game Initiative has announced game industry veteran Brenda Brathwaite will deliver an adults-only talk on sexual content and video games at the October 26 - 27, 2005 in Austin, Texas. From flirting in MUDs to hardcore sexual simulators to the emerging field of teledildonics, sex in games is, for sure, a topic of much interest. The talk won't be limited to sex in games but will touch on the infamous E3 booth babes who are as much a part of sex in games as the characters that walk through game worlds. Now that's a conference session worth attending.

Food Marketers Free From Fatty Lawsuits

Fast food fatties who like to blame fast food establishment like McDonald's and Burger King for their weight gain may soon be out of luck. The House of Representative passed a bill banning obesity-related lawsuits against restaurants and food makers. Urging people to get their lazy asses off the couch, supporters of the bill said the purpose of the bill is to place responsibility for one's own weight squarely where it belongs - with the person who controls their hands that place food in their mouth - and not makes of food even if the food is horribly unhealthy and dangerous to one's health. The point being, restaurant and food manufacturers haven't yet found a way to force feed humans. Until that time, it's the individual who will be in control of caloric intake.