Alphabets & Architecture Make a Killing on Scrapped Letters

What do you get a monogram-happy couple for the holidays? A framed mash-up of their names!

Remember when mashing up mismatched letters was the sole domain of serial killers and passive aggressive molotov cocktail waiters? Whatever happened to those days?

Digitas Health Brings Snowflake-Shaped Hope to Cancer Patients

What do you give the person who's got everything? A snowflake full of hope, courtesy of Digitas Health.

The Hope Lodge is a campaign to bring holiday cheer and free shelter (at 22 different locations) to people undergoing cancer treatment.

Some Tribes Share Love by Pissing on Snow

We get a lot of holiday stuff from agencies, but rarely do we earn (is that the word?) a personal greeting from, like, one agency guy who happens to love us just that much.

Edward from JUXT Interactive is one exception. This year, he sent us an interactive greeting card where, to The First Noel, a bunch of dudes piss a message into the snow.

Nothing like the pairing of religious music and insult to fill us with glee. Aw shucks, Edward. Check your lawn tomorrow morning.

And make your own bio-friendly snow messages at Golden Tidings!

PETA's Holiday Snow Globe Shakes Up the Naughty

For its holiday card this year, PETA is offering you to get your aggressions out against those who've done some not so nice (in PETA's mind) things this year. You can choose from Colonel Sanders, Mary Kate and Ashley, Anna Wintour, Kate Moss, Michael Vick or Dick Cheney, stick them in a snow globe and shake the crap out of them. Good, clean fun. Have at it.

And yes, it's becoming clear there won't be much "real" news in the ad biz until next year.

JWT Asks Ad Industry to Help 'Christmas Story' Doofus Detach Tongue

Simple, brainless fun. That's what's so special about this year's JWT holiday card. For a while there, we thought the ad industry had decided to forgo the annual rite of creative passage known as the holiday card but now we have so many submissions we just don't know what to do with all of them.

We like this one because:

A. It arrived via email with a single URL in the body of the email. No lame sales pitch.

B. It's actually good in the most simple of ways. You get to hlep that A Christmas Story doofus detach his tongue from the light pole with various items like a blow dryer, a spatula and a chain saw.

C. You don't have to log in.

D. Even your buffoon on a boss who still refuses the Internet will amount to anything can work it.

Promotional Hack Loses Footing, Stumbles Across Snapple Site

[16:55] meeboguest722271: Hi there.
[16:56] meeboguest722271: I'm trying to get the word out about a great site redesign I stumbled across and as an avid reader I thought this would be a great place to start. How do you recommend I do that? The site is www.snapple.com

Why do people do this? Do they think we are dumb? Are we to believe someone actually "stumbled across" the website of a tiny little company called Snapple? By accident? Do they think we are so stupid as to not see through their lame promotional efforts? Is it so hard to simply say "we were involved in the redesign of" or "we are helping promote" Snapple's new site and we'd love to take a look at it."

more »

More Proof that UK Media Ain't Nothin' Like the US

To promote the relaunched BBC iPlayer, BBC illustrates its tagline -- "Making the unmissable, unmissable" -- with this spot.

For the click-lazy, it's a :60 clip of David Attenborough talking about the brief, shining moment his team captured a snow leopard on camera. Unlike the team, which waited for three years on eggshells to get this special shot, the iPlayer will let you watch "unmissable" stuff at your leisure.

For :60 we sat on the edge of our seats, waiting for a punchline.

Don't the words "snow leopard" just beg for a punchline?!

Picnicface Bitchslaps Us with Powerthirst Rocket Edition

If you, like every other college student suckling from Facebook, enjoyed the first Powerthirst ad -- a spoof on testosterone-rich energy drink ads that make ridiculous promises -- then you'll be marginally interested in watching the spot for Powerthirst Rocket Edition, brought to you by Picnicface and College Humor.

Now your favorite non-existent drink comes toting new flavors (MANIMAL! FIZZBITCH! GUN!) and new words for your lexicon like "beveryman," "preposterone" and "douche-fag."

And not only will you be preposterously good at sports, you'll win at irony, art and "everything forever!"

Testimonials added for effect.

Wieden UK Builds A Forest For Christmas

Here's a few agency holiday cards we haven't seen yet. As one commenter pointed out, there seems to be far less of then this year than last. Either that or no one's sending them to us for fear of receiving some kind of negative rant. Oh come on, we never do that around here!

Oh but wait, we have to. Any holiday card that requires you to log in...well...that's just too much effort to exert just to celebrate the holiday season. Oh but wait, it's for a good cause. Yes, Wieden + Kennedy London's Wieden's Woods provides some sort of green-friendly tree growing thing. Oh, and over there in the UK, they don't mess around with the whole politically correct "holiday" thing. They just come right out and say it: Merry Christmas.

more »

Toastvertising Rears its Crunchy and Delightful Head

Unless the Virgin Mary toast phenomenon counts, we don't see much of a future in toastvertising.

(A moment of emotional wrestling: We once had a Hello Kitty toaster that burned a Hello Kitty-shaped head onto our bread. That was actually pretty awesome.)

Anywho, Martijn at Fresh Creation's got the meat on toastvertising, as well as the making-of video for the Book of Spam/toast ad linked above.