IKEA Pods Promote Store Opening

Advertising For Peanuts points to a campaign for IKEA which consists of 14 outdoor mini-stores placed along streets to promote the opening of the Funabashi store in Japan. We wonder how many people crawled into the things and adopted them as their temporary home.

Kate Moss Is Back With Calvin Klein

Despite the brand bailout following Kate Moss' cocaine dalliance, Calvin Klein, who Moss had been with fourteen years ago when she appeared along side Marky Mark (Mark Wahlberg) as he was then known, has re-signed the supermodel to in a new ad campaign for the brand. Moss will appear in ads along with Jamie Dornan, formerly of Keira Knightley boyfriend fame and a model for Calvin Klein since 1992. The deal is worth about $890,000 U.S. dollars. Ads were shot over this past weekend in New York and will begin to appear Fall 2006.

Design Studio Pits Young Guns Against Old Ones

Somebody, Jeremy Abbett according to Whois, went out and created a site that pits the large holding companies (Old Ones) against the independents (Young Guns). Lining up fpr the Old Ones are WPP, Dentsu, Omnicom, Publicis and Interpublic. Stepping on the field for the Young Ones are W+K, CP+B, Naked, Mother and Strawberry Frog. It's a game of strength as the Young Guns hurl media bombs (TV, Print, Net and WOM) at the business-suited Old Guns hoping to eradicate their asses from the world. While it's funny, it's also a pretty clear representation of what's going on in the ad agency world right now.

As it turns out, Jeremy Abbett is a partner at Truth Dare Double Dare, a design studio that probably hopes to eradicate the world of both Young Guns and Old Guns so it can take over all creation of the earth's marketing.

Sexy Billboard Called 'Sexist Shite'

It seems somebody has taken offense to the imagery of beautiful, barely dressed women used in ads to promote products and has expressed him/herself calling this billboard "sexist shite."

Inline Skating Company Taps MySpace Users With News Ticker

Extreme skating company Roller Warehouse hopes to jump on whats left of the MySpace bandwagon with an interesting promotion. Roller Warehouse's Rid D tells us, "We've created a news ticker that can be pasted within any MySpace page, and are rewarding any MySpacers who use this ticker with a 5% discount on any purchase. We think this is a great buzz-marketing effort, and we've already seen a significant increase in sales since implementing the program." Reviewing any typical MySpace page, it's clear members love their widgets so this Roller Warehouse widget would feel right at home.

Life Might Take Visa But 'America Runs On Dunkin'"

Sounding oddly similar to Visa's new tagline "Life Takes Visa," Hill Holliday has just introduced a new tagline for Dunkin' Donuts: "America Runs On Dunkin'" Hmm. Well, we're not complaining. After all, there's isn't much more you need to get through life than a credit card and caffeine. There are eight spots in the campaign, most of which play like music videos and do the whole coffee as lifestyle thing. Our favorite, Pleather, rocks on about that annoying summer problem of legs sticking to leather/pleather car seats. The campaign also includes nine radio spots, print, in-store advertising, outdoor and online.

UPDATE: Hill Holliday lays out all the work and the thinking behind it on their new website/blog.

Continental Airlines Advertises On Chopsticks

Following Ella Blache Paris' draping nude women over chopsticks to promote its "skin good enough to eat," Continental Airlines has placed wraps on chopsticks in New York City Japanese restaurants which read, "Sticking it to the competition." Maybe Continental should hook up with sushi bars that promote their establishments with their food draped over nude models.

Nepotism And Scandal Fill Old Navy Creative Department

Hmm...now we now why all those Old Navy ads are so kooky. A tipster give us the lowdown on the allegedly scandal and nepotism filled world of the Old Navy in-house creative department writing, "Word from the tumultuous in-house marketing department at Old Navy is that the creative director, Mr. Landis Smithers (yes, that's his name), has fired the departmental IT expert and subsequently replaced him with another IT "expert" (credentials not known by this tipster) who just so happens to be the domestic partner/boyfriend/significant other (it's San Francisco, so we need to be p.c.) of one Mr. Smithers.

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State Farm Promotes Disney Pixar 'Cars' Movie

It seems pretty obvious - a car insurance company sponsoring a movie about cars - but insurance companies aren't usually the sort of company that gets in bed with Hollywood. That line of thinking's ended with State Farm's promotional sponsorship of the upcoming Disney Pixar movie Cars. State Farm will co-brand and launch a sweepstakes called State Farm Countdown to Cars, created by Disney Online, which will run through June 19 and offer 25 grand prize winners who will be awarded a 2007 red Ford Mustang two door coupe.

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Heineken Sends Us Beer, Launches Campaign

The other day, we received our very own, specially packaged bottle of Heineken Premium Light. We promptly did our job by taking a few pictures of the packaging to share with you and then placed the bottle in the fridge for future enjoyment. Well, that future came and we can tell you we liked what came out of that bottle.

In terms of promotion, Heineken Premium Light is getting $50 million thrown at it in the form of a national marketing campaign with simple layouts of a Heineken Premium Light bottle and taglines such as "Succumb to Smooth." There's also an out-of-home component to support the wider distribution of the beer and national television advertising kicks off on April 17.