Sharpies Cuts Through Crap, Gets to Point

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Sometimes a well-written, polite letter just doesn't cut it. It certain times, what's needed is the purest, most unfiltered expression of thought and what better devive to transfer that blunt thought to a piece of paper than a big 'ol sharpie. In a new Brand Buzz-created campaign, that's exactly the message. There's no need to waste time with fancy words when you can quickly scrawl out your thoughts with a Sharpie.

A collection of :15's broke February 19 on national cable and print will hit March issues of Better Homes & Garden, Family Fun, Parents, People, Sports Illustrated, Martha Stewart Living, Redbook and Oprah.

See the ads here, here, here and here.

by Steve Hall    Feb-27-07    
Topic: Cable, Campaigns, Commercials, Good, Magazine



Kraft Encourages Naughty Microwave Habits with Site for Co-Eds

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Aware of the average college student's ongoing state of starvation, Kraft puts together University of St. Arvin, where users can auto-generate depressed letters to parents and otherwise scam their way into some Easy Mac.

Our memories of dorm room subsistence are vivid and not very pleasant. We haven't touched Easy Mac since. But even if processed insta-food is behind us, microwaving stuff that shouldn't be microwaved is not.

We're glad we've been given the opportunity to experience this small pleasure from the safety of our own monitors. What can't a computer do for you today?

by Angela Natividad    Feb-27-07    
Topic: Brands, Good, Online, Promotions



Vitali Domesticates Gay Marriage

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In support of equal marriage rights, agency Young & Rubicam, Chicago join forces with director Max Vitali of HSI Productions. The resulting smile-coaxing spots crush the notion gays will do nothing but cross-dress and debauch if permitted to marry.

The series comically emphasizes the familiar and occasionally frustrating domesticity we all experience after a given amount of time with our partners. We also dig the candid tagline, "Gay marriage is just like yours. Only gay."

Thus inspired we thought it would be nifty to add "Adrants is just like you. Only sexaaaaaay" to all future marketing efforts. We find it catchy.

by Angela Natividad    Feb-27-07    
Topic: Good, Online, Television, Trends and Culture



Jennifer Love Hewitt Struggles to Find Bra That Fits For Hanes

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If you're a fan of Jennifer Love Hewitt and watch her CBS Ghost Whisperer show on Friday night, you know she loves to wear some of the oddest fashion as well as tease us with her cleavage. In fact, she's always loved the attention paid to her chest and has said, "My breasts have a career of their own. I just accept them as a great accessory to every outfit."

Her breasts are now a featured accessory for Hanes' new Hanes All-Over Comfort Bra with Comfort Straps, a product women of her shape can appreciate. Hewitt has appeared in Hanes campaigns before and been featured in our own spoof story but this one, created by Martin Agency, is, as the press release states, "targeted at women who have specified a need for a bra that offers no-slip straps and no pinching or sliding."

more »

by Steve Hall    Feb-27-07    
Topic: Campaigns, Celebrity, Magazine, Television



Live Rats Join Yum! Family at Greenwich Village KFC

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We all have to deal with vermin from time to time, but rarely do we have to fight them for our fried chicken, dolphin v. man-style. This is what patrons of a KFC in Greenwich Village had to do when a deluge of vermin ran a rampage across tables, chairs and trays.

Graham and Jamie fill us in on the story and include a clever little comic where PR guys (of course) save the day. Because in the end, tons of rats generate tons of press for KFC and "Customer Mania!" parent company Yum! as a whole. You just have to know how to spin it. No advertising is bad advertising ... right?

by Angela Natividad    Feb-27-07    
Topic: Brands, Events, Television



Spoof Features Launch of Microsoft Zune Phone

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Jeff Burkett points to a hilarious spoof of a Microsoft Zune Phone commercial in which "Steve Ballmer" does the informercial-style thing hawking all the supposedly wonderful things about the Zune including Windows Paint, MS-DOC Executive Appointment Calendar, a clock and a RAM driver...all for $9. What's even funnier is a video of the real Steve Ballmer laughing at the $500 Apple iPhone and tossing it off as some sort of over-priced phone no one will buy. If memory serves, the iPod was pretty expensive when it first came out. I guess we'll see who's right over time.

by Steve Hall    Feb-27-07    
Topic: Spoofs



Descente Really Cuts to the Chase

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Protect Your Penis, shout an otherwise boring-looking set of banner ads.

How do you not click? The following page hit us with massive text reading, "I'm not a real doctor, but I still care about your genitals." The message is flanked by a studious guy in a deceptively doctorish coat, smirking at us.

An elderly stranger expressing interest in our genitals is generally cause for alarm (we are modest, after all) but somehow these ads for Descente bicycle shorts just rub us the right way.

Like Mike at BRILF, we think Descente should take the campaign to the big leagues: virals, podcasts, medical information, what-have-you. If much ado can be made about male cramps, then by gad this too can join the ranks of the mushrooming pseudo-pharma community of advertising! Factory Design Labs is the proud penis presenter of this campaign.

by Angela Natividad    Feb-26-07    
Topic: Good, Online, Promotions



Bikinis in Winter? Yes, It's a Japanese Airline Ad After All

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It's not often you see an airline ad that goes the route of the bikini. Its also not often you see an ad of any kind that gives a bikini-clad girl a suitcase and has her walk down the sidewalk in the middle of winter with a big smile on her face while intrigued passersby watch curiously. Then again, this is Japan and they do all kinds of interesting stuff there. It's an ad for Jetstar airlines.

by Steve Hall    Feb-26-07    
Topic: Strange



Experiential Forum Launches Benign Wiki Discourse on XM (Not the Radio)

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Because for some strange reason we'd all prefer incestuous think tanks to trolling malls and listening to people chat about which AirMaxes are hype, the same cat who brought us Swivel Media brings us the Experiential Marketing Forum, a global indy forum of marketers and students who'd like to dissect Experiential Marketing (XM).

Here we find a sedate wiki-style space where brilliant minds can discuss the "burgeoning experiential marketing industry," possibly the precursor to a policy-pumping spin-off a la WOMMA. Word of mouth, apparently just one tentacle on the XM octopus, is so yesterday compared to this zany interactive (cough-cough-consumer-generated) brand thing.

Can't wait to see what kind of pop philosophy and patchwork policy rolls out of this bad-boy.

by Angela Natividad    Feb-26-07    
Topic: Agencies, Industry Events, Research



23 Digs Deep in Audience Psyche, Uses Friends to Freak Out Friends

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The Number 23, a New Line Cinemas movie having to do with obsession and paranoia, spreads the disease with this interesting would-be viral.

How it works: fill out information about a friend, then enter his e-mail. Friend receives relatively innocuous e-mail asking him to play a game. He's asked for his birthdate and favourite number.

The information you entered about him is then revealed to him in a creepy and intimate manner, along with applicable tie-ins to the number 23.

We dig the idea but considering the Adrants-specific demo was probably made for Adrants Steve and not Adrants Angela, we were more bewildered than scared.

We have no wife to kiss. Unless the game predicts the future, in which case we're super weirded out. We didn't think we swung that way.

by Angela Natividad    Feb-26-07    
Topic: Online, Promotions