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Doc's DeLorean Harks Back ... from the Past

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There's something to be said about bloggers. They're geeky, sure, but they're also taste agents who give tech monuments from the past deserved due.

That's why we're less than surprised - pleased, even - to find a DeLorean revival inching its way into geek salience. Get a refurbished model or even paint it like these guys did so you don't have to stress over the fingerprint-friendly steel. We agree with Rob at Wired that painting the thing is sacrilege but to call the original DeLorean high-maintenance would be an understatement - it could do with an upgrade or two, or three, or ten.

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by Angela Natividad    Jan-26-07    
Topic: Good, Trends and Culture



Kooky Musical Bodysuit Guy Returns with Mic-Spitting Competitor

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Pjotro of the musical bodysuit is back to promote the Nokia NSeries phones (which, yes, store music). This time he's got competition, the freestyling DJ eFFeX.

The pitch goes, both guys think they're music. (We're not really sure what that means.) You get to manipulate the battle between them thereby proving you, in fact, are music. And hopefully this will make you want to buy an NSeries phone, which means you may have to forego the media miracle cure coming out this summer.

Trailer is here. The campaign was created by Sweden's FarFar.

by Angela Natividad    Jan-26-07    
Topic: Mobile/Wireless, Online



K-Fed Proves Surprisingly Good for Something

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Even if he can't sell CD's, Kevin Federline proves he can generate buzz by sole merit of his complete lameness. And it's nice when you can get attention by being yourself.

Nielsen BuzzMetrics reports that the latest ad deal for the Speared ex-beau accounts for a whopping 26% of all Super Bowl ad-related blog conversations between January 14 and January 21. The figures cap at 49% on January 17. Compare those beans with the '06 figures.

"Sometimes the counter-intuitive or 'campy' choice of spokesperson yields the highest pre-game buzz dividend," Nielsen CMO Pete Blackshaw explains. "Nationwide saw a similar lift last year with the use of retro-star MC Hammer, and this helped them take a higher share of mindshare leading to the game."

Congrats to K-Fed. Guess there really is a calling for everybody.

by Angela Natividad    Jan-26-07    
Topic: Celebrity, Research, Trends and Culture



Asics Makes Giant Shoe Out of Toys to Rep Roots

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To celebrate its quirky Japanese roots Asics presents its Fabre74 Onitsuka model in the style of ad-idolatry: with a 1.5-meter sculpture of an Onitsuka Tiger sneaker made of warring elements of Japanese culture. This is part of Onitsuka's Made of Japan effort, which seeks to challenge ideas about the Japanese pop-world with, uh ... a hodgepodge of its icons.

The giant shoe is a collabo between StrawberryFrog, LA-based artist Gary Baseman, and Dutch photographer Marcel Christ, all of whom are about as Japanese as the little Russian toy who gets excluded from the fun and games at the end of the promo video. The sculpture will appear in print, online and at venues in London, Paris, Berlin, Barcelona and Zurich.

Not to sound silly (as if we ever do) but we continue to harbor quiet fears about our toys coming to life and tormenting us.

by Angela Natividad    Jan-26-07    
Topic: Campaigns, Good, Online, Outdoor



AdBrite Hypes InVideo with Balding Guy in Emo Glasses

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Lots of neat new media coming out lately (like this!). This is probably a favourite, as it takes the Youtube concept and turns it into something that benefits video producers many times over.

AdBrite's InVideo service lets you embed video onto your site and share it. When other people put your work on their sites, it reflects your logo and draws clicks back to you.

What a spiffy little service. Our only complaint is the kitschy pitch AdBrite uses to push it. Why is everybody all up on this neurotic hipster laugh-with-us-as-we-laugh-at-ourselves kick? It's cute and all but sufferers of Ad ADD are growing bored with the shtick.

by Angela Natividad    Jan-26-07    
Topic: Good, Tools, Video



Virtual Assistant Lets Common Man Convey Swill en Masse

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You know those casual-sounding recorded calls that say you should refi your house? Now you too can act like you don't have time to make calls yourself.

Eidoserve presents Abby Me, who does all the dirty work for you. Punch in the number of who you want to call and write a whimsical message. Seconds later a pleasant but eerie female voice will call the receiver from your number and repeat what you scribbled out. It's sure to irritate everyone you know and make you feel more important than you are.

Abby makes good with simple phrases like "Hello, I want to have your babies" but not so well with $10 words like "Supercalifragilisticexpialidoceous." Well, an assistant who at least tries to convey nonsense with a straight face is always a keeper. Best of all, she doesn't charge anything. Why can't most interns be that awesome?

by Angela Natividad    Jan-26-07    
Topic: Good, Online, Strange, Tools



SpotBowl Readies Third Annual Super Bowl Commercial Poll

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SpotBowl, created by Harrisburg, Pennsylvania agency Pavone, is gearing up for its third year of Super Bowl commercial adoration. The site has a line-up of brands planning to advertise during the game, a blog that will provide a running commentary on all this Super Bowl 2007, tips on how to throw a Super Bowl party, the ability to vote on the commercials, facts and figures about Super Bowl advertising but, apparently, not the spots themselves. You'll have to watch them on your own or find them elsewhere online. Who can blame them for that, though? Why pay for all that bandwidth when YouTube, AOL and many others are willing to do it for you?

by Steve Hall    Jan-26-07    




Retro Milkman Days Fodder For Men's Magazine Milkmaid Campaign

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Ah,yes. The wonderfully sexist attitude of those Europeans. Oops, we mean sexually liberated. Where else can you find a campaign that so openly fantasizes about how life would be if a man designed it? Oh wait, everywhere, but just go with us on this one. You know you'd never see a milk maid like this from Hood or Garelick or any other milk make in America. Maybe that's because this ad isn't for milk but for the Belgian men's magazine Che.

Not that anyone actually gets their milk delivered to their house anymore but thank God we can at least fantasize about it vicariously through an ad campaign. Thanks, Che. Oops, thanks Duval Guillaume. They created the ad.

by Steve Hall    Jan-26-07    
Topic: Good, Magazine



Domino's Rips Off CarMax Campaign With YouTube Video Series

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Last October, used car dealer franchise CarMax launched a Boone/Oakley-created television campaign which, among other things, featured a 16 year olf gorl freaking out at her father for buying her a car that was the wrong color. Flash forward to January and a multi-video campaign for Domino's pizza cribs the idea with, yes, a daughter freaking out when her father presents her a car that is not the color she wanted. So much for innovation.

To be fair, the Domino's campaign extended the idea by following the video of the freak out with an apology video from the teen, a video of her explaining she was going to sell the car to someone for $9.99 and - hold your breath - yet another explaining how she got a better deal at Domino's with its Anything Goes Deal.

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by Steve Hall    Jan-25-07    
Topic: Campaigns, Online, Video



Kazaa, Skype Guys Unveil More Strangely-Named Web 2.0 Fodder

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The creative minds between Kazaa and Skype bring us Joost, which, like previous offerings, merits a pronunciation lesson: "yohst," not "juiced," according to AdCritic. We think we liked it better when it was The Venice Project. Then again, the founders' names aren't any easier: Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom.

Joost makes it so you can watch TV on the internet. That's one less excuse for getting out of our cushy desk chairs. Now all we have to do is eliminate the need to walk to the fridge. Friis and Zennstrom, you're working on that, yeah? Try to make the name easy to pronounce. Better yet, make it so we only have to twitch our faces to convey the idea to one another. Once the movement of our limbs becomes totally elective, we'll want to get rid of language next.

Update, 1/26/07: Joost's PR firm just informed us that, contrary to AdCritic's opinion, Joost is pronounced "juiced" and not "yohst." Glad we got that settled once and for all.

by Angela Natividad    Jan-25-07    
Topic: Online



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