Gallup: Ad Folk Still At Bottom of Honesty and Ethics List

According to Gallup's annual honesty and ethics poll, we all still suck. The poll says advertising practitioners rank below congressmen and just above car salesmen and telemarketers Just as in past years, there's not much respect out there for us ad folk. We'd venture to say purveyors of pop up/unders sure haven't helped our cause. Anything to say in answer to that FastClick, ValueClick, Casale Media?

Site Says Cut The Bull, Calls For Respect

Connecticut-based Outhouse Communications has created a site for Operation Respect CT called Cut the Bull, a site that urges respect among kids, teens and everyone while hoping to eliminate bullying. At the website visitors can spread respect in various ways by making a unique, one of a kind custom respect poster, by sending friends respect notes, by downloading ringtones and by purchasing a "No Bull Shirt" T-Shirt. Outhouse is using billboards to promote the site.

Adobe Melds Macromedia Into Product Offering With New Bundles

For you creative types, Adobe has launched three new product bundles that combine Adobe Creative Suite 2 and Adobe video tools with the just-released Macromedia Flash Professional 8 and Macromedia Studio 8 software. Adobe acquired the Macromedia product line when the company purchased Macromedia, a transaction that formally closed on December 3, 2005.

The new product configurations are: the Adobe Design Bundle that combines Adobe Creative Suite 2 Premium with Flash Professional 8 software; the Adobe Web Bundle that brings together Adobe Creative Suite 2 Premium and Studio 8; and the Adobe Video Bundle that delivers Adobe video solutions coupled with Flash Professional 8. The Adobe Design Bundle and Web Bundle are available for purchase today and the Adobe Video Bundle is expected to ship in early 2006. Go get creative.

Unemployed Copywriter Suggests Jobs For Unemployed Copywriters

Jordan Buntain sent us a site he created that's aimed at unemployed copywriters and offers tips on the kind of jobs they might try as they wrestle through the difficulty of being unemployed during the holidays. Several suggestions include becoming a Christmas Movie Screen Writer, a Street Musician, a Sandwich board Advertiser or a Scammer Spammer. By the way, Jordan is unemployed as well. Give him a look and give him a job.

Virgin Mobile Reveals Aussie Viral Campaign Details

Virgin Mobile in Australia has summed up a recent viral campaign involving a fake soapstar, Jason Donovan. There's a long and involved story about how Donovan was trying to sell his Range Rover by placing a For Sale sign, which contained his cell phone number, in the window of the SUV, how a photo of Donovan, his vehicle and his cell phone number was taken, how he was harassed by callers, how Virgim Mobile got involved and how the whole thing turned into one big viral. It's the only time we've ever seen a company publicly lay bare all the details of one of its viral campaigns. It's insightful and refreshing. Though, sadly, we have no explanation for the woman in the upper right hand corner of the site who looks like she's having a killer orgasm.

Messenger Bag Company Sells Bags In Exchange for Beer

In a week long promotion, Australian bag maker Crumpler sold messenger bags in exchange for beer. Patrons entering their stores could buy beer and then give the beer back in exchange for a bag of their choice. To see detail of the promotion, drag the eight ball or one of the stars to the hand in the lower right hand corner of the site. Promotion aside, do check out their website. It's one of the more odd sites out there and was created by Sputnick Agency.

CLIO Show Kicks Up Promotion With SecretWebSite

To promote the 2006 CLIO Awards, an elaborate website, which looks like some sort of under-the-radar, clandestine, government operation, called Creative Liberation Intelligence Organization has been created. The site is full of goodies such as what appear to be actual prank calls by a guy named David Brock to agencies humorously asking for creative execs to review his book. Brock butchers names and even asks for the retired Hal Riney to review his work.

There's tons of other great stuff like an Idea Tracker which is a sort of global idea detection map, a cryptograph that lets you email messages, the ComposiTron 3,000 which lets you create your favorite creative persona, a Microfiche library that contains info on the judges, a Dossier section which has, we're sure, cool stuff but didn't have time to dig in and little stickies peppered around the site promoting the May 14-17 2006 dates for the show. Good stuff.

House's Holiday Audio-Visual Spectacular Becomes Miller Ad

It seems our story about the house that explodes with an audio-visual Holiday spectacular which we thought had nothing to do with advertising actually, as pointed out by Charley Brough, does. The house, which is decked out with 25,000 lights and computer-programmed to synchronize with Trans-Siberian Orchestra's "Wizards in Winter", had a visit from a Miller Brewing film crew which spent seven hours last Thursday filming this year's version of the spectacular to be included in an upcoming commercial.

The house, located in Deerfield Township, Ohio, is owned by the Williams family. Carson Williams, an electrical engineer for Cincinnati Bell Technology, spent three hours on each minute of music programming the lights to move in sync with "Wizards of Winter" and broadcasts the music with low power FM transmitter so that passersby can listen on their car radios while they watch the lights. In addition to the video of last year's spectacular in the original story, you can view the slightly bigger video here.

UPDATE: Unfortunately, some gawkers got in a car accident and, as promised, Williams has shut down his light show indefinitely.

Syndicated Programming Immune to DVR

A recent study by the Syndicated Network Television Association claims 80 percent of DVR viewers view syndicated programming live versus 48 percent for network prime time. During the day, 73 percent of DVR users view syndicated talk shows live versus 46 percent of DVR users viewing soaps.

BzzAgent Word of Mouth Disclosure Policy Enhanced

Boston-based buzz marketing firm BzzAgent has strengthened its stance on transparency. While the agency has always asked its bzzagents to disclose their involvement with BzzAgent, the agency now requires all new BzzAgent community registrants to verify that they have read and accepted the company's Code of Conduct which requires campaign participants to make certain others are aware they have volunteered to be involved in a word-of-mouth campaign.

So that existing bzzagents are also adhering to full disclosure, BzzAgent has added a check box to its reporting template, a section where members describe their interactions as they buzz products, which must be checked off to participate as a member of BzzAgent. BzzAgent is also saying it will require members who do not properly disclose their BzzAgent status to those they interact with to complete an online training course before participating in the company's future campaigns.

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