While we're not quite sure just how different CarMax is from other used car dealers with their claims of return policies and "buy without sell" but they sure are different in that they look much more like a Wal-Mart of a Best Buy than most cheesy, flag-flying used car lots. The company has just launched a two-part Boone/Oakley-created television campaign. The first part focuses on the brand with three very un-used car-like commercials set in Rome and the Old West. A second set of commercial focuses on the unique differences between CarMax and other used car dealers. We especially like the freaked out 16 year old who pitches a fit after realizing the nw car her fathr just bought her int eh wrong color. Cue "5 day return policy" voice over. For the most part, good stuff if not a bit off the wall. (Click more for links to spots.)
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Well no, not really, unless you think vacuous infamy exerts the same social influence as political diplomacy.
*long pause*
She's actually going to appear in an Indian campaign to introduce a new fashion line from Anand Jon, an American fashion designer of Indian descent. Moving on, AdJab points out Hilton's music video was recently banned from Indian airwaves but her sex tape is still widely available for under $2. AdJab adds "I'm not sure what's more embarrassing, having your sex video available to the public or the fact that it costs less than a king size Snicker's bar."
Provocative point. We're sure it won't hurt her modeling career. It might even help. Don't models do dumb shit all the time? - Contributed by Angela Natividad
This Frisky Dingo plug for Scion is so awesome, we're willing to look past the fact of the car's ugliness and appreciate their magnanimous capacity to feed their own minions to Killface. We just love that long pause that happens between the words "PPO" and death.
More Scion inclusions here and here. - Contributed by Angela Natividad
If we thought pet enthusiasts couldn't get more bizarre then we were wrong because Purina just broadened the landscape. On the Toronto-based Talking Pets mini-site, pet owners can further distance themselves from the rest of humankind by sending "purr/woof mail," posting pictures of their furry friends and even gauging their Pet IQ's.
"It's unique in that it approaches the world from a pet's perspective," explains Christina Yu, VP and Creative Director at Lowe Roche. To be honest we're not too sure the local siberian husky would be receptive to having his grin admired and emotions dissected over the internet, but whatever. Purina knows better than we do. - Contributed by Angela Natividad
For Joe's Garage in Minneapolis agency Colle & McVoy releases a campaign called "Fixing Food, Not Cars." Agency rep Jennifer Weismann says the restaurant gets calls from people looking for repair shops constantly so we figure they wanted to stir up still more confusion.
Good job. After seeing the creative we felt less "Fuck, what I'd do for a BLT right now" and more "Where can we get a Hummer decal that says Hummus? Do they sell those there? Does somebody want to give them a call and find out?" There are also BLT and Lamb Burger versions. The words "lamb burger" against a gigantic SUV grill struck us as funny on so many levels. - Contributed by Angela Natividad
CoolzOr has put together an in-depth review of the many brands who've stepped in Second Life and the tremendous growth the virtual reality world is experiencing. CoollzOr walks us through the Second Life presence of brands such as Adidas, Reebok, American Apparel, Sun Microsystems, Toyota, IBM, Starwood Hotels and Nissan. Each has created an interesting virtual representation of themselves and, predictably, not without some complaint from SL residents.
Ad agencies have jumped into the world as well including Leo Burnett, BBH and the new social media agency Crayon which will open tomorrow.
If you're interested in keeping with what's happening in Second Life, Reuters has set up shop and provides news about the world. Preceding Reuters' coverage of Second Life is The Second Life Herald which is filled with all sorts of SL activity. CNET is there too.
Second Life has been around since 1999 but has only recently caught on with marketers and, for that matter, the general public having just netted it's one millionth resident a few days ago. In an odd way, this feels like the old AOL when it passed its one million mark. If you missed out on that ride, now's your chance not to miss this one.
Having already raised $61,931, a "hopeless romantic" has created a site called My Super Proposal where he is trying to raise enough money to buy a Super Bowl commercial in which he will propose marriage to his girlfriend. The URL of the site is, of course, registered anonymously so punditry on whether this is real or the machinations of some brand will have to wait. Acknowledging thaefact there are some pretty dedicated (weird?) people in this world along with mischievous marketers bent on doing the next coolest thing, it could go either way. We'll just have to wait and see.
If you've ever wondered why anyone would sit in front of a webcam, talk randomly about almost nothing and then upload it to YouTube for all to see, dive deep into the world of social media with this video about the whole trend. Sure, there's a bunch of wackos out there and most of the stuff is irrelevant but that's not the point. The point is, styles of personal conversation are changing and there's no going back. I once had an art director ask me to stop sending him emails because the notification of arriving emails distracted him from his work. Can you imagine a world without email? Perhaps there will be a day when we can't imagine a world without this new form of video communication.
After having dissed the whole Diet Coke Mentos geyser thing saying the "craziness with Mentos doesn't fit with the brand personality" then giving in and quickly implementing a lame contest, Coke is now back in full force with Poetry in Motion, a video contest fronted by the very people Coke dissed in the first place, Fritz Grobe and Stephen Voltz, creators of one of the craziest Diet Coke/Mentos geyser videos. The two now appear in a video urging people to submit videos and teasing us with the fact the pair will release their latest video October 30, sure to be even more massive than their original geyser work
Copyranter amusingly analyzes the dating site wars comparing Match.com's more conservative style with True.com's approach which calls for each model to have one cup size larger than the former. Copyranter also wonders just how effective Match.com's paper cut outs are as compared to True'com's bulging cleavage. Pardon us while we visit MySpace to see if all that True.com cleavage affects us in any way.
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