- The American Legacy Foundation and 45 other groups have written a letter to RJ Reynolds asking the company to take Camel No. 9 off the market claiming it is "nothing more than a veiled attempt to sell more cigarettes to girls and young women."
- The film The Ten is getting MySpace play courtesy of Special Ops Media.
- The Advertising Softball World Series has launched a new website introducing its 25th silver anniversary tournament party that will be played out this October 7-11 in Las Vegas.
- Austin has launched its first intractive marketing group, the AustinIMA. To celebrate the launch, the organization is holding an event next Thursday. Roy Spence and Yvonne Tocquigny along with speakers from Austin Ventures, nFusion, Sicola Martin, and T3 will address the group.
- Disney's Family Fun and Wondertime have reported ad page increases of 28 and 61 percent respectively.
- Imus may return and so may some advertisers. Like this is s surprise.
Our favorite post Civil War relic Don Imus is back after reaching a settlement on Tuesday that frees him to get back on air at a new station, four months after calling the Rutger women's basketball team nappy headed hos.
"He's more valuable now than before the controversy," says founder Michael Harrison of Talkers magazine. "He was such a focus of media attention for so long that his career has been reinvigorated, and he's in a position to sort of reinvent himself -- to make himself more pertinent and even more interesting."
Racist slurs spouted by major media figures are indeed demonstrably interesting. Consider our other buddy Mel.
Well hell, if nothing else, maybe Nike will get another campaign out of it.
When someone sends us some "virals," which by itself a complete non-sequitur, we usually hover precariously over the delete button but this "viral" from Romania sparked our interest enough to watch it to completion. If you've ever had dentist office fears and enjoy over-the-top horror references, you just might like this commercial for Orangina.
At first, we were ready to cast aside this little online "game" for Steape Travel Translators but the more we clicked, the more we laughed. Who knew French dining could be so humorous? Who knew translation was so important to getting a good meal? Who knew ordering desert could result in an alien attack? Indeed.
Brentter has the full story on Coke's Weiden + Kennedy-created Happiness Factory film which made its "global premiere" in Second Life yesterday. The three and a half minute film (oops, sorry. we're drinking the Kool-Aid here)...um...commercial follows the travails of a Coke factory worker who travels across Happiness Land in a quest to get the factory working again.
We passed on the story yesterday since anything remotely related to Second Life makes us laugh...uh...sorry. We should have said "take less seriously." After dumping millions into Second Life six to 12 months ago, didn't marketers conclude it was a waste of money? Call us callous but YouTube has greater reach than SL by far. Oh but, oops. The vid is on YouTube also...with a whopping 434 views. Hmm.
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Bob, Bob, Bob. What are we to do? What will we have to write about come Super Bowl 2008 without GoDaddy drama? If we can't highlight your GoDaddy girls and the seemingly insurmountable obstacles over which you hurdle to get your spots on the air, what's a poor Adrants editor to do?
Oh sure, there will be some other dude who tries to propose to his girlfriend during the game. No doubt, there will be another slew of consumer-generated crap to slap around. And, of course, there will be another Snickers Kiss-like shocker to leave those without the humor gene aghast. Robert Goulet might even make another appearance. And let's not forget those skeevy direct to consumer commercials about old men who can't control their bladder. Or robots who commit suicide. Or scandal courtesy of CareerBuilder who will fire Weiden + Kennedy after their spots fail to place in the USA Today Super Bowl Ad Poll.
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The distinguished self-made caste of Elvis impersonators have finally been permitted into Mecca. Graceland managers will be appointing a "tribute Elvis" set to perform in a way that suits the king, which is open to interpretation - but no tacky, no kitschy and no "ridiculous spoofs" which will be hard, considering those characteristics comprise most mental pictures of a would-be rhinestone king of rock 'n roll.
"Ultimate Elvis," a contest for finding the first tribute performer for Graceland's 30th anniversary, consists of qualifying rounds worldwide, with 24 contestants making Memphis and 14 enduring elimination last Sunday.
The winner will be chosen this Friday, the 30 year commemoration of Presley's death. Said anointed one will nail $5,000 in cash, a shopping spree of equal value through Graceland, a $3,000 gift certificate for a better Elvis jumpsuit, a championship belt and other stuff.
We couldn't make this kind of shit up.
Mr. T, the earring-sporting punk-squasher from our '80s childhood, occasionally makes quirky ad appearances in which - to our surprise - he never seems to age.
And neither do his cameos seem to share a rhyme or reason. In a complete 180 from that last Snickers jaunt he did (see link above), he's just appeared in a string of Hitachi ads for virtualization technology.
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You may want to watch out for the deceptively simple-seeming John from Cincinnati - even if it's just to see the main title sequence, whose creative director, Angus Wall, was also behind Big Love, Rome and Carnivale.
A collaboration between Rock Paper Scissors and A52, the opening is unique in that it gives nothing away (not even main characters!), leaving us stewing in feelings of surfer's nostalgia and little more.
Check it out here. It starts out slow and, for some reason, occasionally brings Flipper to mind - then it kind of grows on you. All in all it ain't a bad way to burn a minute.
Update: We just got word from Jetpacks, DarnellWorks and reader James that the show got canned yesterday. Suxors. But apparently it was good, so if you want to rally for another season, hurry and try saving it.
It's amazing to us the lengths some people will go to accommodate all the creativity Google allows them to employ.
Perhaps because the smug techies got bored with their hand puppets, the search engine/marketing mavens/whatever-else-have-you's have launched a collaborative video campaign for Gmail. All you have to do is print out the little red envelope and send in a video of yourself passing it on in some creative way. If you express sufficient esprit de coeur, maybe they'll add you to the final cut.
There are a few here.
In the end this is going to make a really neat (deliciously viral) ad that (once again) demonstrates with what ease Google can pwn its competitors by harnessing collaborative energy without the needless expense of an ad agency.
< / sarcasm >
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