Zima Doesn't Pimp, It Moms Your Ride

Don't know how we missed this but back in January, Zima launched a video called Mom My Ride in which three guys at a repair shop give their special version of Pimp My Ride to a minivan. Complete with scratch marks, sour milk, spilled soda, jammed CD player, broken mirror and duct tape, this minivan gets the full makeover. Definitely one of the more ingenious and amusing ways to sell soda....or whatever the hell Zima has turned itself into.

Nothing is Hidden in This Car Dealer Commercial

Catch Up Lady points us to what is perhaps the best car dealer promotion we've ever seen. Of course, that might not be saying much as we avoid their marketing like the plague but go with us on this one. Clay Automotive, located just outside of Boston, has created a hilarious but very informative video in which the seven ways car dealers take you are explained. Citing several terms associated with buying a car such as hosed, porked, betrayed, cheated and slammed, a very round man explains how Clay Automotive makes car buying a pleasure buy...yes...undressing. It's a metaphor, of course, for Clay Automotive's opening it all up and hiding it from the buyer. We say brilliant to this one. We just might travel to Clay to buy our next car.

Initiative Urges Industry to be Environmentally Friendly

Vancouver agency smashLAB has launched Design Can Change, an initiative that urges designers to become aware of the affect they have on the environment. On his blog, Eric Karjaluoto offers some stunning numbers, writing, "...if you are a member of the AIGA, you take part in purchasing or specifying over $9 billion of printing and paper per year. At the risk of sounding obtuse, I have to say, 'That's a lot.' Let me give you another number: 81 million tons. That's the amount of paper waste you and I helped generate over the past year. How about this one? More than a million. That's how many species are expected to be at risk of extinction by 2,050 as a result of global warming. Another? $11 billion. That's the average cost of climate-related disasters in Europe during the 80s and 90s."

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Hookers, Surgeons, Cooks Discuss Top Ten Requests

Yesterday, MTV Latin America launched a new campaign to promote the network's evening series "The Ten Most Requested". The campaign was created by Miami-based creative agency la comunidad, and directed by Jorge Colon of production company Letca Films.

The spots, which were shot in Miami, focus on the top 10 requests a variety of professionals receive while on the job. For instance, in "Surgeon," a plastic surgeon in the midst of operating on a patient recites a litany of his most popular improvement requests - including breast implants, male enhancement, and nose jobs.

There's only so many ways you can talk about a top ten anything and, for us, this is one of the more inventive ones but, as always, we're sure you'll tell us we're full of shit if, in fact, we actually are. And unlike Bob Garfield, we don't claim to have got it wrong only a few times. Check out the three spots here.

Miller Looks, Youth Conferences, Asbestos Does WTC

- Miller is looking at five agencies after exiting Crispin: Saatchi, Y&R, Mother and two unnamed agencies.

- On July 16-17, youth-focused YPulse will host a conference called The 2007 Mashup which will cover all aspects of youth marketing.

- Hadji Williams gets a nice review for his book, Knock the Hustle: How to Save Your Job and Your Life From Corporate America.

- Copyranter dug up an old pro-asbestos ad that touts the material's fire-retardant qualities and features an image of The World Trade center. Particularly prescient is the ad's headline which reads, Whenthe fire alarm went off, it took two hours to evacuate New York's Trade Center."

- Mr. Clean has launched a consumer-generated effort and is offering $10,000 to th person who creates the best 60-second ad. Nothing like getting what would normally cost about $100K for a tenth of the cost.

- In Belgium, you can Rent A Wife. Actually, you can rent a lot of stuff.

MTV Blurs Ad/Content Line With New Programming Block

We'd have to see it to render fair judgment and we missed its debut opting instead for Survivor and John Hughes Sixteen Candles which unintentionally sucked us in as fast as people are leaving Agency.com but last night, MTV debuted its mixed up programming block. The block merges programming with advertising and intertwined them in a heightened fashion purposefully aiming to blur the line between entertainment and commerce.

MTV describes it thusly, "Interweaving show content and the commercial experience, MTV's Thursday Night Block will present continuous engagement for the MTV audience - where shows will merge into one another, and programming content will play in commercial time - throughout a continuous 2-hour block."

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Happy Belated, Pied Piper of Technology

The slightly-more-considerate cats at Wired inform us that yesterday marked the birthday of Dean Kamen, born in 1951, holder of over 440 patents, and inventor of the first portable insulin pump at the blooming age of 25.

On a more contemporary note Kamen is the inventor of the Segway -- you know, that zany fat-wheeled thing that was going to replace walking and is now the transport of choice for security guards and theme park attendants.

Few can put significant contributions to the betterment (or at least the leisure) of mankind to their names. And even after the Segway crack, we really, really do mean that. So happy belated April 5th to the Pied Piper of Technology (don't look at us -- Smithsonian magazine said it first).

Low Profile Contests Stick Out for 'The Economist'

The Economist was a 2006 Print Ad winner at the London International Awards for this sparing scratcher. The agency responsible is Ogilvy & Mather, Singapore which, judging by the Levi's Copper programming-throwback microsite they did, has a flair for the basics.

We dig a sparing and direct message and thought of tossing in an insinuation of nostalgia-laced laziness just for kicks, but decided we'd hate to be buzzkills for this method. Advertising could use more of it. Plus, the bold red block is growing increasingly synonymous with The Economist, which can't hurt them any.

Though if we were an ad firm working for The Communist, we'd be kind of pissed.

Clothing Increases Discomfort to Help Avoid Discomfort

In case you don't experience enough anxiety, discomfort or outright panic in your life, check out these spiffy duds by the InsideOutside project. Depending on your settings the clothing "heats up or cools down uncomfortably" if you come within shooting range of something you'd rather avoid: pop concerts, alums of rival schools or CCTV farms, for example.

Because while the iPod has been a Godsend in terms of tuning out immediate environment, it doesn't help us avoid things we dislike that haven't quite hit our line of vision yet.

We should really just ensconce ourselves in bubbles. Made of steel.

Match.com Looks Us in the Eye and Propositions, We Reject

The cool thing about True.com is that their campaigns are racy, generally consistent and immediately recognizable. Those three components are kind of a big deal when you're trying to brand build.

There once was a time when Match.com was cool, but they've since run in a thousand confusing directions. We were surfing around this afternoon when we came across their latest shot in the dark.

This guy invites you to stare. Then he turns around and starts talking to you. Like, out of the ad, to you. Then he goes, "What are you waiting for?"

We looked around. It wasn't 2 AM. We weren't between scenes in a Lifetime movie. There was no local-singles 800 number to dial. And we were confused.