Chivas Regal Turns Fountains Green in Bucharest

In Bucharest, Romania, Chivas Regal has turned the city's fountains green and red in an ambient stunt one observer noted could very likely be mistaken for a Sony Bravia event as there was no obvious branding to clarify Chivas was behind the stunt. Still, an eye catching move.

Online Ad Spend Up 29 Percent, Games Measured

- Zenith Optimedia sees a 29 percent growth to $33.5 billion in online ad budgets for 2007 and 23 percent to $41.2 billion in 2008. Over the four year period 2006-2009, the organization predict an overall 82 percent increase for online advertising to 47.4 billion while all media growth for the period nets out to 13 percent growth.

- Sony and Nielsen hammering out a metrics method for online console gaming.

- Nokia has given Wieden + Kennedy the thankless job of handling it $300 million account just at Apple's iPhone is set to take over the world.

- Following the July 12 One Show Design Awards, the winners will be on display at the Chelsea Art Museum from July 13 to July 21. Viewing is open to the public or a fee.

Brightcove and Blip.tv Pitch OMMA Video Audience, Blip.tv Wins

If you're considering video as an advertising platform for your brand or your client's brand, here are two videos from coBRANDiT which captured presentations given by Blip.TV CEO Mike Hudack and Brightvove VP Adam Berry at the most recent OMMA Video Conference in New York. Each pitched their platforms to the audience and coBRANDiT's Owen Mack tells us an informal poll of the audience gave least ad-like Blip.TV the highest marks. Hmm.

Owen also commented that, much like everything else in advertising, most presentations had ubiquitous elements of T&A to spice them up. And who said sex doesn't sell? Most studies actually but why heed their results? Conference presentations are already boring enough. They can use all the help they can get.

Cars, Drums, Gladiators, Robo-Cops Mash It Up in Chimney For Sony Blu-ray

With the Blu-ray/HD-DVD wars well under way, it's apropos this new Fallon London-created, RSA Films-produced Sony Blu-ray commercial, Lasers, contain fighting gladiators. Shot in a working industrial chimney (a really big one) in Hungary with no natural light and illuminated only by laser beams, robotic cops and gladiators duke it out while automobiles are dropped on rain-drenched drums from atop the chimney. The commercial's plot? Your guess is as good as ours. Oh wait. Random Blu-ray-enhanced entertainment for the entertainment's sake.There. That's it.

Dove Draws Men to Forbidden Coves, Repels Us from Its Aisles in the Process

With all the work it's done to court the "we are woman, hear us roar" demographic, we harbor serious doubts that this viral for Dove is the genuine article. Really, do they even sell deodorant cans like that anymore?

It certainly gets the point across (only amazing sensory deception could bring a sexual partner that, uh, close), but we'd be understating if we said the ad only made us a little sick. (And what's with that chick's teeth?) Then again, we really liked the idea of man omelet, so...

MFI, IKEA Indirectly Face Off in Showroom Family Feuds

Our incognito amigo FishNChimps shimmied us over to these ads for MFI and IKEA, which used the same basic idea (families fighting over feral female teens) to promote the homey feel of their showrooms. Saatchi & Saatchi put together the MFI piece; the IKEA one is attributed to Crispin, Porter & Bogusky.

The MFI one is a little chavvier than IKEA's, rendering it believable to the point of discomfort until the angsty teen queen storms past a showroom attendant.

MFI's is somewhat more current; IKEA's hailed from 2002.

Nothing bespeaks familiarity like a screaming match with your mom, which is why it's a wonder grocery stores don't try pushing living room sets.

Garfield Group is Hiring. Small Wonder.

Somehow we thought that, with all the godforsaken noise that deluged us upon arriving at the Garfield Group careers site, the associated video would be all the more raucous and daring.

We're really touched by the notion that everyone eats lunch together and that somebody was clever enough to push product into the hands of enthused interns, but it's just ... flat. And the use of vernacular like "for jobs that totally rock" only served to accentuate the candle-in-the-sun effect.

And as Jay-Z so blithely said, "That shit don't even out."

Berlitz Bounces Back with Homoerotic Hammer-Time

We loved that "What are you ... sinking about?" ad by Berlitz, a language firm that does well when it comes to catching extra-lingual inconsistencies and showcasing them.

We haven't seen anything since, but we're thinking they held on the trigger until they could perfect something equally wry. And they succeed with not one but three new ads, the first of which is "Ken Touched This," a play on how language in pop songs gets manipulated by the eager chanteuses of non-natives - with awkward results.

'Hide This Thing' Wants to Create 'Easter Egg' Language

Like hidden dirty images in family-friendly Disney posters, easter eggs have always been a favorite of designers the world over to express, perhaps a twisted sense of humor or, simply, to just have fun. Now, apparently, Hide This Thing wants to create a community around the practice and even create a common visual easter egg language of sorts. Like a digital flash mob, Hide This Thing hopes to create mass appearances of various objects inside TV commercials, print ads, websites and anything else a creative lays his hands on.

We do wonder though if "making official" easter eggs doesn't detract from exactly what they are supposed to be: crazy one-offs that express something the individual was feeling at the moment of creation. You decide.

Parisians Go Jurassic to Promote Board Shorts

We think there's something delicious about these Sundek ads by Callegari Berville Grey, Paris. We have no idea what they have to do with surfwear, but something about dripping bodies (albeit with membrane, which ain't exactly sexy) and the promise of giant omelets makes us salivate in a manner most bib-worthy.

Variation here. The sex/egg combination appears to be a French favorite.

Update: Adrants reader Duncan adds depth to perception by noting the surfers must be sea turtles, which hatch on shore and live out the rest of their lives in the water. Ohhhh.