Bowlmor Lanes Equates Bowling With Pregnancy, Sort Of

Copyranter points out the continuing whackiness of the Bowlmor Lanes ad campiagn but goes step further and suggests some new copy the campaign might wish to consider. From "Knock down pins and get knocked up!" to "He'll be putting more than fingers in the hole," Copyranter does his own version the the Priceless fill in the blank thing. Check it out.

Grenade Needed to Force Viewership of Dan Rather

Apparently because Dan Rather's reporting is so explosive or it's what's needed to get anyone to care what's he's doing these days, BooneOakley chose to go with a hand grenade motif in a newspaper campaign to promote the news man's Dan Rather Reports show on Mark Cuban's HDNet. The ads will appear in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, LA Times, New York Times and the Philadelphia Inquirer. Why can't aging anchors just ride off into the sunset with their final glory intact rather than dwindle away to also ran status on a technology platform the intended demo has likely never heard of nor will ever use?

Ignorance of Abuse Used to Call Attention to Abuse

Brilliantly illustrating the unseen horrors of abuse against women, this commercial from Amnesty International's Stop Violence Against Women graphically drives home the point most abuse is hidden from plain site or simply ignored with both abuser and abused in the shadows, invisible to friends, family and co-workers. The ad is a wake up call asking us to be more aware of the potential signs of abuse because it's happening everyday right under our noses.

The work was created by Cake and is a follow up to their initial Amnesty International work on the topic called One Man Fight.

Sexual Fantasies Fulfill Old Khaki Campaign

Spanking and that old standby - milk poured over a woman's chest - are central elements in two ads for South African fashion brand Old Khaki. While we know we should say something pithy about this approach, for some reason we simply can't seem to come up with anything. Could we possibly be bored with this whole "sex sells" thing? Of course not. It's all about precarious positions promoting homegrown pleasure.

Altoids Boggles But Hey, Ads Have to Entertain, Right?

We don't even know if Leo Burnett still has Altoids as an account but if they do, there's some serious mental illness going on in the creative bowels of 35 West Wacker. With each successive Altoids campaign, things just get stranger and stranger. Perhaps that's the point but their recent Souro thing just boggles. Perhaps that's the point and perhaps we're just old school and like to...oh...have a fucking clue what we're being sold and why we'd want to buy it in the first place.

'People' Smells, NBC Lays Off, Wristbands Billboarded

- If your nose explodes it's because you've just opened the upcoming special holiday issue of People magazine which contain no less than five smell-o-rama ads from Kraft. Oh, and all the rest of the ads in the issue are from Kraft as well. Wear your nose plugs.

- Cynopsis reports "NBC Universal has begun layoffs based on its NBCU 2.0 plan designed to tighten budgets in every department which will increase efficiency company-wide. The broadcast TV side will absorb much of the 700 expected layoffs, with the NBC News division taking the bulk of the hits. In this first round of layoffs, at least 17 employees affiliated with Dateline NBC will lose their jobs."

- This idea is so not new but no there's company formalizing advertising on nightclub wrist bands.

- The poor guys over at Agency.com just can't catch a break.

- Obligatory "hot babes promote TV show" link.

- Somebody likes golf balls.

- Obligatory S & M food promotion link.

Moog Synthesizer Capabilities Visually Represented

In a poster campaign for Moog Music, the company's ability to digitally re-produce real world sound with its effects technologies is visually represented in a poster campaign which "plugs" Moog technology into original sounds emanating from a sizzling sausage, the crack of a billiard ball, snapping bubble gum and the sound of breaking china. See all the posters here.

Oxfam America Solicits Cows, Goats, Camels As Donations

Oxfam America has launched an online gift catalog called Oxfam America Unwrapped on which atypical donations such as a camel, goats, sanitations systems, coffee mills and cows can be made. Each person who makes a donation receives a card representing their donation and the money goes to Oxfam America to fund its worldwide efforts. It's a nice representation of what donations can actually achieve.

Bloggers Paid to Write Positive Stories, Model Questioned

Underscore Marketing President Tom Hespos, at the recent New York ad:tech conference, interviewed PayPerPost representative Britt Gustafson. PayPerPost has sparked a bit of a controversy since its launch four months ago because it pays bloggers to write positive stories about marketers without requiring bloggers to disclose which stories on their blog are PayPerPost stories and that they have received money to write them. Personally, we think it's a terribly shameful business model and one that will cause much harm to the already struggling trust level of bloggers. Give the interview a read and we'd love to hear your thoughts.

Bigwigs Battle, Sky Mauled, Mardi Gras Sponsored

- Sky Mall catalog gets Mauled (click upper right hand corner of page to flip through the catalog).

- Adrants readers Matt tells us he saw ads on the bottom of the plastic bins used to transport items through security check at LAX. We're not sure what company's behind it but we've never seen it before.

- Strawberry Frog has been added to E*Trade's creative roster and will work on a Super Bowl project for the company

- Media Bigwigs Martin Sorrel, Sir Harold Evans, Dan Rosensweig and Mel Karmazin battle about old media versus new media at a recent Digital Media Revolution panel discussion.

- MediaBuys is again handling sponsorship programs for this year's Mardi Gras. Revenu from sponsorships will help the city continue to rebuild itself. A television special will follow the event highlighting the event's history and offering up a bhind the scenes look at Mardi Gras.