'People Ready' Microsoft Ad Gets Reality Treatment

Angered as we are with the blandness of Microsoft advertising and its recent mean-nothing positioning of itself as "people ready" and its knack for portrating fake companies and fake people in its ads, Copyranter decided to edit the ad a bit and bring some reality to the models standing in for real people in the ad. See the full sized ad here.

Best Buy Fearful of People Dressed Like Its Employees

Improv Everywhere, a New York City group that likes to have "organized fun" recently gathered together eighty people, all dressed like Best Buy employees and entered, at 15 second intervals, the Best Buy on 23rd Street. The purpose of the "mission" and all of the group's missions was simply to create an event that would make for good story telling. As you read the mission here, you'll begin to realize different reactions people had and how a group of harmless people dressed alike can raise unwarranted alarm. What does this have to do with advertising? Not much but it is interesting to see how a big brand can can be so fearful of a bunch of people who happen to be dressed like the brand's employees.

Clio Announces Future Gold Participants

The international Clio Awards has named the 12 participants from around the world who will compete in the 2006 Future Gold: Young Creatives Program, one of the organization's key initiatives in support of the next generation of advertising creatives. Now in its third year, this global competition calls for the dozen Future Gold participants to be paired into six teams and asked to respond within 24 hours to a creative brief, this year coming from the United Nations refugee agency.

more »

Search Engine Marketing Gets Song Parody

Madeleine Begun Kane has created song parody lyrics for a tune called Webmaster's SEO Lament which should be sung to the tune of "My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music. If you work in search engine marketing, you'll find this amusing.

Volkswagen 'Crash' Ads Get Results

The recent Crispin Porter + Bogusky-created Volkwagen Jetta ads in which two Jettas are involved in real accidents filmed in one shot with stunt drivers are reported to have generated positive results. The ads, which began April 10 and carry the tagline "Safe Happens," have, according to Volkswagen as reported in USA Today, increased online dealer quote requests by 58 percent and increased brochure requests though call centers 37 percent and 56 percent through the web. Results happen. Now, maybe, we can all give CP+B a break and realize they do actually create good work. View the ads here and here.

Ad Blogger Sued For Defamation

When one thinks of Maine, one usually envisions beautiful mountain landscapes, endless coastline and a land made for vacationing. That all may be true but recently, at least in the ad industry, things have been pretty ugly. A blogger, Lance Dutson, has been sued by Warren Kremmer Paino Advertising for defamation, libel and copyright infringement. Basically, Dutson called attention to an ad he found on the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development website which carries a telephone number that, apparently by mistake, leads to some sort of dating/phone sex operation. The Maine Office of Tourism and its agency Warren Kremmer Paino weren't too pleased Dutson called attention to the ad which, according to Dutson, was publicly available on a website. While we don't claim to have intimate knowledge of all the details (there summed up here) the saga, it seems, is yet another example of how poorly large organizations react to having their dirty laundry aired when a simple, "Oops, we're sorry, we goofed," would suffice.

mtvU And Reebok Release Winning Darfur Digital Activist Game

mtvU and Reebok Human Rights Foundation sponsored a Darfur Digital Activist contest in which students created and voted for the best games created to create awareness the genocide occurring in the Darfur region of Western Sudan. The game illustrates the difficulties people must endure sumply to gain food and water while militia kill, rape and pillage. The winning game was released today.

Subaru Kicks VW's Butt, Queers Give Financial Advice

OK, we're back from ad:tech San Francisco, their biggest to date, and we've got piles of backlogged bits for you so here we go, once again. machine gun style.

Exopolis has created a funky website for the Nicktoons Network Animation Festival. It's a busy page with all kinds of things to do but that's what the kids love.

The Dairy Farmers of Canada have launched Mobiloke, karaoke for the the cell phone. It's part of a campaign to make milk hip.

Apparently, this is to promote Honda's new civic hybrid and references London's congestions charge.

There's a new film coming called Art School Confidential staring John Malkovich which proves to look very weird but probably not far off from real art school.

Zugara has created another site for Reebok's "I Am What I Am" campaign. Each country's version of the site will feature different athletes and artists specific to that region. For example the U.S site (www.rbk.com/us/iawia) features Mark Zuppan and Carolina Kluft while the U.K. site (www.rbk.com/uk/iawia) features Amir Khan and Ryan Giggs.

Somebody's filed some sort of patent for an Advertising Box that seems to make it easier for marketers to create online ads and for consumers to change and interact with them.

Oxygen Network is promoting it's new Ivana Young man reality dating show with a cheesy video featuring Ivana Trump.

We have no idea what this is but we're sure it has to do with some sort of heartwarming organ donor list thing. We could be wrong.

Ad archive site Ads of the World has launched a forum section.

Lethal has launched a campaign in London for the Honda Civic Hybrid that involves the hanging of air fresheners from trees around the city to connote the vehicles environmentally friendly emissions.

Allegiant Air is allowing its planes to be wrapped with logos and commercial messaging. InterAir Media is behind the move.

Here's an ad from a tech retailer called TekServe that used $60,000 worth of iPods dominos-style to deliver its message.

Dieste Harmel & Partners has taken Gold at the 2006 FIAP show in Buenos Aires for an Anheuser-Busch spot titled "Mini Mouth."

For you art directors with some spare time on your hands, a site called TheBroth is a place where multiple players can move 1,000 colorful tiles to form collaborative mosaic artworks.

It's not exactly the most beautifully produced commercial, but this PSA advocates the hiring of those with disabilities and makes the argument that doing so is better for all involved.

Apparently, Subaru felt the need to respond to the VW My Fast ads.

It seems queers need financial advice too.

At ad:tech, ad serving company Atlas had a Truth Booth into which conference attendees would share their inner secrets which would be edited and emailed back to them. Wexley School for Girls created.

Here is a seriously whacked video promoting a cereal called Jelly Filled Frosted Sugar Balls. Actually, it's a twisted promotion for Mercury's twisted The Neverything.

We have no idea what this is. We're too lazy to find out. But, someone sent it to us so it must be something. Oh, it has something to do with advertising during the World Cup in Germany.

This thing promotes Sprite 3G...and a woman lays an egg. Don't ask, just watch.

This ad does a really nice job demonstrating the human touch Toyota imbues on its vehicles. A little too much human touch for us though.

Jeff Kling has a new book coming out. We think.

Ford' Your Ticket 2 Drive has Music 2 Drive 2. Good tunes.

Captains of Industry has created a podcast series for its client Arbor Networks that brings radio-style drama to the podcast. It's all about securing the net.