Virgins Urged to Open Mouth For Mint

Sometimes you really wonder what's going through the mind of a copywriter when stuff like this transit ad are created. The phrase "Don't be afraid to open your mouth" next to "I'm still a virgin" just seems to conjure up something very different than the breath mint ad it's supposed to be.

Ad-Free Blog Sells Out to Twix

After receiving an email from Sinuate Media, a company that represents a project for Twix, Andrew Krucoff, publisher of the ad-free blog Young Manhattanite, decided to sell out. He was contacted by Sinuate Media's Justin Chiang who asked Krucoff to post banners promoting a sweepstakes in return for a bunch of free candy bars and some MLB tickets. Apparently a lover of candy, Krucoff caved at agreed to post the banner. So much for the ad-free blog concept.

Sea-Doos, Experiential Markets, Nokia Blogs, Cement Speeds

- AdFreak says two out of the three Sea-Doo films are pretty good. We'll take thier word for it since, like many bloated sites, it wouldn't load well for us. Then again, that could just be our crappy Internet connection. And if you're wondering what Eric Roberts is doing these days. Here's your answer.

- Jack Morton has published a white paper which finds experiential marketing to be more likely to "increase understanding, lead to action and inspire advocacy."

- Nokia is running a blog-based campaign in Toronto and Vancouver to promote its new 6682 phone. The company has promised to send bloggers the phone for free if they qualify (age, blog size, location, etc.)

- An Iowa construction company which is building the Iowa Speeday is promoting the track by outfitting ten of the company's cement trucks with Iowa Speedway decals.

- Crispin Porter + Bogusky's VW Configurator, which was developed in part by IQ Interactive, took home a Cyber Lions Grand Prix.

- It's in French so we're not sure what it's all about but we do know it's for Coke BlaK. We've also seen the hippy-dippy floral/bubble theme before. Yup, we have and it was for Coke's M5 project.

AOL Gets Caught Trying to Badger Customer Into Retaining Account

Now we know why AOL still has so many users. Try as they might, canceling an AOL account is, apparently, a nightmare, a point proved by one Vincent Ferrari who recorded his exchange with an AOL customer service rep while canceling his account. It took Ferarri a total of 21 minutes to complete the cancellation and the five minute he spent with an actual human being are simply priceless. The CSR berated Ferrari, who is 30, to the point of asking to speak to his father because he thought Ferrari was making wrong decision in canceling the account. While, AOL did reply to the MSNBC report on the incident with an apology and a statement it had fired the CSR in question, there are, according to Ferrari, many others who have had similar experiences with the company. In the world of social media, consumer-generated media and YouTube, there's no hiding shady business practices any longer.

Long Lasting Gum Makes People Do Weird Stuff

In a unique approach to illustrating just how long Cadbury Adams Stride gum lasts, the company has launched a website on which several people sitting at a desk chew gum while doing random acts of nothingness. There's also a contest which be can enter by submitting a 100 word statement of what they would do for a ridiculously long time and, if selected, a photograph of them doing it. No, you can't film yourself having herculean long sex nor can you be gross, obscene, violent or any of those other activities that irk lawywers but you can do just about anything else. Who knows if it will sell any gum but I wasted a good 20 minutes watching some of the videos.

Smelly Fingers A Sign Of Successful Score

In a nod to the age old "smell my fingers" routine as proof of contact, this UK commercial for Scampi marries horny guys with hot chicks to sell chips. Not much more seeds to be said.

Snoop Dog Tells Kids What It's Like to be A Gangster

Don't bother visiting the excruciatingly slow loading Orbit site but you might get a kick out of this Orbit commercial featuring Snoop Dog telling school children what it's like to be a gangster. At first, it ends badly but then Snoop is saved by and angel in white bearing Orbit.

'Entertainment Weekly Explores Viral Video, Fails

To both see if they could become famous and to do their journalistic duty, two Entertainment Weekly writers, Jason Adams and Scott Brown manufactured a video they hoped would go viral and reported on the process they went through to make it happen. With advice from people at CollegeHumor, MySpace, Google Video, AOL Video, comedian Anthony King and Time Inc. lawyers, the pair shot a video of Brown breaking up with a mannequin named Becca Kelly.

To date, the video has been viewed 7,700 times on YouTube and the effort has been called a failure by Brown and Adams. It was too long. The jokes came too late in the video and the lawyers got involved. Well, we'll see. No one new who the Numa Numa kid was for a while so we'll see where this goes.

Red Lipstick Adorns New City Coffee Cups

If you're one of the few people daring to grab a cup of coffee from a New York Street vendor, you may receive a cup that looks like a woman wearing red lipstick has already used the cup. Makeup retailer Sephora, with help from PromoMedia Concepts produced coffee cups branded with a store opening message along with an imprint that makes the cup look like it's been sipped before. It certainly grabs the attention. After all, no one wants to drink out of someone else's coffee cup and this lipstick sure does make one look closely to make sure it's just an imprint and not the real thing.

Deutsch Wants Lawsuit Filed Against Him by Steve Dworin Dismissed

As the Donny Deutsch/Steve Dworin legal saga continues, the latest development has Deutsch and other named parties in the suit filed by Dworin for slander, libel, emotional distress and breach of contract moving to dismiss. As if pointing out something new, Dworin's suit claims Deutsch "improperly charged clients for advertising production and lied to clients and prospects about his agency's size and capabilities." name one person in this business who hasn't done that before.