Power Tools Encourage You to Cover Your Tool

AdFreak points to a new ad from Planned Parenthood Golden Gate which gleefully marries power tools, hot guys, hot girls, sexual innuendo and condoms in its latest effort to encourage suiting up prior to having sex. While we think it's right on message and effective is speaking a language its target audience understands, other uppity folk don't. The spot is airing on MTV this week.

Kansas Radio Station Offers $20,000 For Listener-Created Commercial

Kansas City radio station The Rock is holding a competition in which it has asked its listeners to created and submit a TV commercial for the radio station. The winner, who will walk away with $20,000, will be announced April 21. So far, the station has received hundreds of submissions. While some will call this a coup for consumer-generated media, others might tend to conclude there's a reason us right and left coasters live where we do.

Creative Directors Get Goofy For Portfolio Night IV

If you can actually get the video to work (keep your mouse moving. We have no idea why but it helps), a collection of U.S. creative directors get their goof on to call attention to ihaveanidea's Portfolio Night IV, a multi-city portfolio review event where those interested in breaking into the business can get their work in front of America's top creatives...or at least in front of the people occupying the top spots in America's ad agencies.

College Student Tells Donny Deutsch When She Graduates

In a bid to get hired into the ad agency world right out of college, NYIT student Brittney placed an ad in the New York Times telling Donny Deutsch she'll be graduating May 20, 2007. Hmm...just where does a college student get enough money to place an ad in the Times? And why does she look way too model-perfect? And why would she do it one year earlier than she needs to? Something smells here. Oh wait, it's an ad for NYIT. There we go.

No matter. In an effort to provide the poor child who is about to enter one of the most cut throat, cynical vacuous business in the world, Copyranter offers some advice writing, "What Brittney hasn't put together yet is that Douche, Inc. is a shithole of a sweat shop that is coming off another shit year. Brittney, have you seen the inside of Douche's agency? It's an ugly macho concrete tomb. The days of those cute IKEA TV spots are looooong gone." Hmm, indeed. Yes, this definitely sounds like something other than a college student looking for a job.

'Truth' Campaign Threatened In Ongoing Legal Battle

The future of the American Legacy Foundation's Truth campaign could be in jeopardy following a Delaware Supreme Court case next Wednesday, April 26 during which Lorillard Tobacco Company will appeal an earlier ruling which found the American Legacy Foundation Truth campaign did not, as Lorillard claimed it did, vilify the tobacco company. If Lorillard wins, the tone of the campaign may have to change dramatically and Lorillard has asked the approximately $1.5 billion in money provided by manufacturers to American Legacy Foundation be returned to an escrow account making it, the organization claims, impossible to continue with its anti-smoking efforts.

The American Legacy Foundation claims the Truth campaign is crucial to maintaining and lowering youth smoking. The Foundation claims the campaign aided the decline in youth smoking 22 percent from 2000 to 2002 resulting in 300,000 teens choosing not to smoke in 2002. There are simple truths here. Every human knows this. Smoking is bad. If a person wants to smoke, they can make that choice. But cigarette makers should not be able to stifle organizations that are trying to provide information that helps a person decide whether or not they will take up smoking. That's just wrong.

Branded Entertainment Increases, Measurement Difficult

A recent Association of National Advertisers survey found 66 percent of advertisers involve themselves in some form of branded entertainment. Eighty percent use television as the channel through which to launch branded entertainment initiatives and 76 percent plan to include those initiative in their upfront dealings with broadcasters.

While marketers acknowledge impact on sales is of great importance and are measuring their efforts, 62 percent say it is not easy to do and 87 percent say existing measurement tools can't do the job. Sixty two percent say the money to fund branded entertainment initiatives comes from television budgets, up from 52 percent last year and more (35 percent) are funding initiatives incrementally, up from 18 percent last year. More than half (60 percent) do not rely on their agencies for branded entertainment and initiate projects themselves.

Advertiser Alleges Audit Bureau Part of Circulation Fraud

Software developer Teletype has filed a suit against the Audit Bureau of Circulation alleging the organization turned a blind eye to Laptop magazine's inflation of its circulation. The suit, filed last week according to Newsday, names Laptop publisher Bedford Communications, Bedford executives Edward Brown and John Jay Annis, defunct distributor Inflight Newspapers and former Inflight executive Remy Lehner. In the suit, Bedford is accused of paying Inflight "to accept delivery of tens of thousands of copies of Laptop magazine each month in return for paperwork showing that Inflight had 'accepted' the copies for distribution" but were never delivered.

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Allstate Says It Will Cost $400 Billion to Rebuild San Francisco

Copyranter points out an Alstate ad that appeared in tuesday's Wall Street Journal that showed a snow globe version of San Fransico with a $400 billion price tag attached to it. Apparently, while that seems low, that's the price to rebuild San Francisco after an earthquake of 1906 proportions. The headline reads, "If San Francisco had the same size quake as in 1906, it could cost $400 billion to rebuild." Whille Allstate may want San Francisco residents to feel as though they are in good hands, that's not exactly the most comforting method to do so. Although it certainly gets one thinking about just how much insurance one should have when living on a fault line.

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Ad Agency Creates Branded Girl Band

We all know those mythical days of corporately untainted music are over and have given way to overly commercialized, manufactured pop groups. Noting that trend, Saatchi & Saatchi UK figures they nor their clients should be left out of the fun and have created a band for hire. Saatchi has brought together four twenty-something girls (not shown in the photo) who will completely give themselves over to the whim of the advertiser who chooses to cough up the dough to sponsor them. Everything from the name of the band, musical style, lyrics, clothing, the food they eat and the liquid they drink will be under control of the advertiser.

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Talent Zoo Up For Webby Award

Up against big boys Monster and CarreerBuilder, communications industry employment site Talent Zoo is in the running for a Webby Award. Sort of a People's Choice Award for the web but with judges, the Webby's honors sites in multiple categories for excellence in web design, creativity, usability and functionality. Check it all out here. Register to vote here.