LG's 'Life's Good' Selects 20 Would-Be Ad-Making Finalists

The LG Life's Good UGC contest is coming to a close and out of almost 920 entries in toto, prime meat has been whittled to 20.

Each won a Chocolate phone, or a portable DVD player if they happen to be living in Canada. A winner among them hasn't yet been chosen by viewers.

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Google Refuses to Accept Cheney Impeachment Ad

Flying in the face of its own ad acceptance history, Google has refused to accept an ad from the Northeast Impeachment Coalition and YaliesForImpeachement.org which calls for the impeachment of Vice President Dick Cheney. Writing on Daily Kos, Ralph Lopez reports Google explained its denial of the ad in an email which read, in part,"At this time, Google policy does not permit ad text that advocates against an individual, group, or organization. In addition, this policy does not permit the advertisement of websites that advocate against a group protected by law."

Directly conflicting with that statement are ads currently running on Google that do, in fact, relate to the impeachment of Cheney along with ads that call for the impeachment of President Bush, anti-Bush t-shirts and other ads that run counter to the statement regarding Google's policy against accepting ads which "advocate against a group protected by law."

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ad:tech's Pacha Party Revisited Photo-Style

If for no other reason than to prove those who work in the ad industry know how to party, DM Confidential has an extensive photo album of the ad:tech Money Makers Party held at Pacha in New York City a couple weeks ago. We wrote about it all here but all the pictures sucked. We really need to hire a real photographer with a real camera rather than our little Casio Exilm for these events.

Actually, it's not that our camera is bad. It's just that people think you're some sort of freak if you walk up to them and ask to take their picture if you have a tiny little camera as opposed to 20 pounds of photography equipment hanging around your neck. Which is why we didn't have a lot of great shots of the event. That and we were drinking, dancing and talking (shouting) with friends on the dance floor while Rob Base did his thing.

Anyway, we missed a few good shots and it just wouldn't be fair not to share them.

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Student Track Stars Win Wendy's Promo for Heisman Moment

Remember that Wendy's/Takkle promo called My Wendy's High School Heisman Moment?

We just heard word that the contest is over. Winners include Lauren Phipps of St. Louis, MO and Briggs Orsbon of Convoy, OH. In exchange for their willingness to bare their moment of glory, they'll be going to NYC for Heisman Weekend this December.

If we'd known that playing sports in high school could lead to this kind of exhibitionist glory, we'd have been playing strip tennis for YouTube instead of spending our afternoons making drinks at Starbucks. Oh, well. R is for Regret.

Blockbuster Gets Nostalgic for Holidays in Heartbreaking Last Stand

In Christmas Dinner, a bustling family talks to each other with nothing but quotes from movie classics, presumably rented at Blockbuster.

Nothing warms our hearts like hearing a little girl go, "Say hello to my little friend!"

Cute ad (courtesy of DDB, Toronto), but will it save Blockbuster from deathwatch status?

Instead of Buying Gap Gear, Improve Your Vocab for Charity

An ad-supported page called Free Rice, sent to us by Jamie from Virginia Tech, improves your vocabulary and donates 10 grains of rice to the hungry at the same time. Free Rice is the sister site of Poverty.

So far Adrants has managed to get 30 grains of rice donated. We would've had more by now, but who would have guessed "hardtack" meant "biscuit" and not "thug"? Come on.

And we're not even going to try guessing for "collywobbles."

Led by MTV, Virtual Beauties Get the Lewd Eye

MTV, Ford Models and Elizabeth Arden are conducting a cattle call for the best-looking avatar. You can enter from the virtual world for The Hills, a TV show.

It was probably stupid to think even the virtual world would be exempt from aesthetic groping by the "culture makers." But hey, at least it's a lot easier -- and maybe less morally constricting? -- to get work done to meet the standard. Whatever it is.

Motorola Continues to Give Away Crappy MOTORAZR

Does Motorola really have such a gigantic back inventory of MOTORAZRs that they have to continue giving them away for free? It seems they've been doing this for years even though everyone knows the phone sucks (OK, so it's not as bad as the original RAZR). This time it's Alltel hocking them in a Campbell-Ewald created, Santa-themed animated spot who consults one of Alltell's four "sales guys" on what the hot gift will be this year.

Uh, sure, Santa, the not-so-new MOTORAZR that's been collecting dust on the shelves ought to do the trick for Jimmy and Sally. Whatever. We have the new RAZR and it rocks. iPhone? What's that?

Craigslist Ads Booked, WOM Hits $1B, Ad Age IDEA Reviewed

- All those fake ads on Craigslist have now made their way into book form with the publication of Johnna Gattinella's book, My Year on Craigslist.

- Advertising for Peanuts lays down the law when it comes to consumer-generated content: not everyone wants to interact with your product.

- Marketers now spend one billion on what, previously was free: ord of mouth marketing.

- A Heroes fanboy created some mock Vespa ads using images of the Claire Bennet and Ando Masahashi characters.

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Lowe's Labels Chistmas Trees Family Trees, Blames Creative Process

In the first of what is sure to be many holiday advertising fuck ups, Lowes is taking heat for calling Christmas trees family trees in one of their recent catalogs. "Come on kids, let's go take a nice family trip down to Lowe's and pick up a family tree for the living room. After all, it's nice to stick a tree in the house isn't it?"

Lowe's has apologized for what it is calling a "breakdown in our own creative process." Um, right. Like no one noticed the non-sensicle heading, "family trees," above a shot of those cone shaped trees people like to put decorations on and presents underneath? Were human resources' PC police running the creative department the day the catalog was created?