Kaboom Advertising Wants to Be Your Friend

Yes, they do. They really do. They asked us. Maybe they'll ask you. Yup, Kaboom Advertising has a MySpace page and they invited us to be their friend. Cool. We're not sure how much awareness or business a MySpace page for an ad agency will generate given that the average MySpace member is, oh, 16 and nowhere in need of an ad agency but, thankfully, Kaboom's page looks nothing like a MySpace page.

'TV Guide' Begs For Readership With Popcorn Promotion

Never one to accept the fact on screen guides have crushed their print business, TV Guide is getting together with Orvill Redebacker popcorn in a TV That Pops promotion that will place dollar off coupons and a chance to win eight complimentary issues of the magazine on boxes of the popcorn. The promotion will be aided by FSIs, POS displays and online ads. There's also a "TV That Pops Sweepstakes Challenge" that will award one lucky person a trip to TV Guide's After Party in LA following the 2007 Emmy Awards.

Book Videos Get Kids to Read

Acknowledging the lowly state of the lonely, unread book collecting dust on the shelves of Barnes and Noble and Borders as kids instead spend hours playing video games, obsessing over MySpace, chatting on AIM and blogging on Xanga, Random Hose Children's Books has teamed with The Book Standard and announced the Teen Book Video Awards. It's a contest in which college students create virally-intentioned :30 videos, similar to movie trailers, which will help Random House promote books through various web outlets and over Sprint's MSpot.

Random House has selected three books for the contest including The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray and How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff. Oddly, they're all bestsellers. One might think Random House would want to promote books that, well, haven't sold so well yet. Hey, we just write about this stuff.

Search Consultants Unnecessary, P Diddy Pisses on YouTube

- We're in full agreement with George Parker who says agency search consultants don't add much value other than taking a cut of the client's marketing budget and treating agencies like early-round American Idol contestants.

- STACK magazine and Nike's Jordan Brand have partnered to create a custom publication for teen athletes. The magazine will focus on helping young athletes pursue a healthy athletic development.

- Shawn Waite brings us important news informing us P Diddy has pissed on YouTube. Literally. Like we needed to see that.

- Ha, ha, ha. Like we didn't all see this coming. Time has closed down its pitiful attempt at humor known as Office Pirates.

- In winning the Safeway account, DDB now has the pleasure of creating an insane amount of newspaper FSIs, POPs, shelf talkers, circulars, goofy radio ads and piles and piles of direct mail. Hey, for $200 million, it just might be worth it.

Bleary-Eyed Best Buy Web Developer Hits Wrong Letter On Keyboard

Web Developers for online retailers have a tough job. While working on a car dealer account and dealing with all the minutia that has to appear in each week's Sunday newspaper ad may seem grueling, that's nothing compared to the minute by minute and second by second changes that must made to a large retailer's site such as Best Buy. It seems when Michael Shostack did a search for a Sony Cybershot 7.2, the returned results were hardly what was expected. Yes, the "i" is right next to the "o" on the keyboard which explains this error but, all the same, it's still funny to see certain words on major retailer's site. It brings new meaning to the phrase "shot to shit." See the screenshot and a video of the action here since you know this little typo will quickly be corrected.

Boobs On Bikes Promotional Parade Stirs Controversy in Auckland

Adrants reader Amy is surprised we didn't cover the news regarding last week's apparently controversial Boobs on Bikes Parade which promoted the weekend's Erotica expo in Auckland, New Zealand. Avid Adrants readers know we never stoop to the depths of racy fair such is this simply to garner increased readership but when a reader wonders why we haven't covered the news, a little bell goes off in our head helping us to realize we really do need to serve our reader's need.

That said, we are duty bound to comply so we'll inform you 20 porn stars rode topless down Queens Street on motorbikes to the glee and shock on onlookers which ranged from pre-pubescent small boys to the elderly on the verge of a coronary. Calling the event "morally repugnant," Auckland City Councilors tried to get the event canceled but could not succeed. Event organizer Steve Crow, taking the don't like don't look stance, said, "If it was a religious parade I'm not religious and I would choose to stay out of Queen Street for the day. They've got the choice." Crow also said the City Councilors' efforts are pointless adding, "The only way they could legally stop it would be to change the constitution of New Zealand and remove women's rights to bare their breasts in public." Hmm. Do we have that right here in the States?

Crappy Jeep Commercial Leads to Wasted Saturday on YouTube

With nothing better to do on a Saturday afternoon, we decided to follow a link under a really crappy Jeep spoof commercial on YouTube to morbeck's Biggest Video Response Chain Ever thing. We sometimes lead a very sheltered and quarantined life here in the Adrants high rise because, well, we're just too busy finding trivial advertisms and time wasters for you to enjoy so, we end up spending 24/7 trolling the Internet for crap like this that makes you wonder why the human race has nothing better to do that act like an idiot in front of a webcam. Oh wait. Sorry, I mean join the social ecocosm, and pump out paradigm-shifting consumer-generated media which, according to A-list bloggers, is transforming the world and causing marketers to drool uncontrollably like a male ad slut watching a Flirt Vodka ad.

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Discovery Channel Thinks Katrina Was Comedic

You've got to wonder what those media buyers are thinking when they place and write Goofle AdWords ad. Take, for example, this ad that appears on a Fox Interactive exec's Linked in page that promotes "Surviving Katrina," a Discovery Channel documentary. The headline for the ad? Comedy. Yes, Katrina was fucking hilarious don't you think? Click the thumbnail to see the humor.

Race Car Skids Atop Turkish Billboard

Outdoor is one medium that, unlike many others, seems to be weathering the storm the Internet has rained down on other media and it's executions like this one that insure the medium will remain viable for, well, ever. This is s promotion for the Turkish GP, and Indy 500 of sorts, sponsored by Turkish fuel company Petrol Ofisi and created by Alametifarika

Common Fronts Common Gap Merch For Common People

Among the many celebs the retailer has hooked up with, supposedly hip rapper Common, according to Animal, "The Gap couldn't have picked a better spokesperson to try and help sell their bland suburbanite t-shirts." Calling Common a common choice for a common brand, Animal calls into question the logic of the Gap having Common "slaving away in one of their NYC stores silk screening t-shirts for we assume, mostly white moms with absolutely no style." Indeed.