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Arnold Shares Agency Culture with Award Show Reflections, Tame Insights and Bad Rock

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Lest we perceive Arnold as naught more than a passel of salty stripper-lovin' pervs (that's how we like 'em!), the agency has decided to educate us on its "culture" with a series of online videos.

The first installment, which is understandably very boring (the better to fight the "perv" connotations), is all about the AdColor Awards, which took place in Boca Raton, FL in early November.

Listen to one employee wax poetic about the award show's "positive messages." And hear snippets of quotes from people whose titles include Change Agent, All-Star (like Magic at left), Innovator, Legend, and other monikers whose meanings we don't feel super-clear on.

Stay tuned for more episodes that feature different employees from its offices in DC, Boston and NY.

by Angela Natividad    Dec-18-07    
Topic: Agencies, Industry Events, Video



Rosie Gets All Snot-Nosed Over Blogger's Choice Awards

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Ever wonder what celebrities (including ourselves) do with the promotional packages you send them? Rosie O'Donnell put her reactions on video, for no less than a gift package from the Blogger's Choice Awards. We like how she gave us a full-face Chris Crocker shot for, like, two seconds.

Uh ... we don't think that's a giant pencil, Rosie.

by Angela Natividad    Dec-18-07    
Topic: Celebrity, Industry Events, Opinion, Video



Ed Byrne Says Recycle Christmas Cards, Glass ... and Sleigh Carbon?

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Recycling is the last thing most people think about over Christmas. Unless you're Ed Byrne.

The above video is worth watching for reasons besides the green guilt-trip, though. Looking for lame ways to mask your holiday alcoholism in the face of nosy and judgmental neighbors? Push play. (We took notes.)

This multi-use message is brought to you by Team Rubber for the Recycle Now group.

by Angela Natividad    Dec-18-07    
Topic: Cause, Celebrity, Good



Publicis Macedonia, Vision Firm Show Love For Same Stock Photo

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We've had fun over the years enjoying the pitfalls of stock photography and the seeming inability of those using it to, when warranted, sign for exclusive use. So it is with great pleasure we bring you yet another stock photography goof courtesy of Publicis Macedonia...or BlueStepStudio which had a hand in developing the Publicis site...or Ultralase, the laser eye treatment company that used the same photo.

Yesterday, we were tipped to the striking resemblance (um, identical match) of a model used in an Ultralase ad found on an AOL UK page and another used as the background image of the Publicis Macedonia homepage. Yup, there she is. Looming large, peering out from behind a frame created by her fingers akin to a film director framing a shot.

more »

by Steve Hall    Dec-18-07    
Topic: Agencies, Bad, Online, Opinion, Strange



Journelle Lingerie Creates Visual Feast of Beauty

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For Journelle's new "lingerie concept" concept store at 5th and 17th in New York City, WIKA Director Gabriel Winer shot five soundless films featuring New York women alluringly move about their apartments showing off their lingerie and their beauty. The films are being projected on a flat glass wall which separates the dressing rooms from the rest of the store.

First, we have Sam, the auburn-haired, freckled, girl-next-door modeling simple, white, tame underwear. Then, we have Aslin, an exotic looking brunette slowly going through her morning routine while offering us beautiful views of herself and the lacy black booty-barring lingerie that leads one to believe there's still a man in her bedroom.

more »

by Steve Hall    Dec-18-07    
Topic: Good, Point of Purchase, Video



Harley Davidson's Biker Claus Approves of Infidelity

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While it took us about ten tries, "I slept with my friend's wife" finally got Harley Davidson's Subservient Chicken-style Biker Clause to award us a place on the Naughty list. It's slow, not very smart but it's Harley so I guess we have to like it.

There also a Holiday Album recored by Hype client BWN that brings a biker rock, eighties hair band style of music to the MySpace page audio player. Yes, this whole thing's hosted on a MySpace page. And here we thought marketer's use of MySpace had gone the way of Second Life.

But don't listen to us. Despite what we may say about MySpace, it's still the big boy in the social networking neighborhood so it must be doing something right and marketers who see value in that must be at least sort of smart.

by Steve Hall    Dec-18-07    
Topic: Online, Social



iRobot Provides Mom Time For Mid-Afternoon Bestiality Quickie

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This iRobot vacuum commercial is about a month old but upon viewing, courtesy of Texan in Hippieland, we felt the need to ponder iRobot's apparent fixation with bestiality. Oh sure, the pigs in this ad are supposed to represent the dirty kids running throughout the house and the donkey is supposed to be the woman's ass of a husband. But, as TIH points out, showing the pigs run up the stairs where the iRobot vacuum clearly can't follow is not exactly the best illustration of product benefit.

And, the donkey in the bed at the end of the commercial who the site refers to as her "best friend?" What exactly is the message here? A clean house makes time for an afternoon bestiality quickie? Oh yes, it's all a big metaphor for family life and the put upon mom who has to deal with a house full of dirty animals but that ending is just really weird.

Are we over analyzing?

by Steve Hall    Dec-18-07    
Topic: Bad, Commercials, Strange



Arnold Continues Stripper Fixation With New York Pravda Party

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Perhaps taking a cue from Arnold's Boston office holiday party last year during which stripper antics were performed on a pole in Creative Director Pete Favat's office, Arnold New York management hired five strippers for its New York office party held at Pravda reports Agency Spy reports.

It seems the ladies stripped down to nothing but pasties and thongs leaving employees, Agency Spy reports, "shocked and horrified" with female employees "alienated" and male employees "guilty." While a full on strip show might not be the best entertainment of an office holiday party, pictures of the event make it all look like a harmless, burlesque-like show. In fact, the one lone female caught observing the so-called strip tease is smiling. Yes, smiling. Hardly indicative of "shock and horror." OK, so it's only one picture and to be fair, hardly indicative of the entire evening.

more »

by Steve Hall    Dec-17-07    
Topic: Agencies, Opinion, Racy



Next Time, Think Twice Before Taking on a Seven-Foot Beer!

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Continuing the current fetish for encasing humans in glass to make some sort of point (child slaves, sex trafficking, cell phones), Lime designed this effort called "Trapped" for DfT Drink Drive. It appeared in Paddington Station and will be touring the UK from the 13th to the 23rd.

As you can see, a giant pint glass is separating this forlorn man from his holiday celebrations. This dramatic symbolism represents how drinking and driving can screw up all your fun and games.

We dig that grimacing old man in the background.

Lime is part of UK-based Leo Burnett Group. Photo provided by ImageWise.

by Angela Natividad    Dec-17-07    
Topic: Cause, Guerilla



Karate Cop Goes on Throat-Chopping Rampage for Lucky Denim

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Wandering ever deeper into a tangly forest of camp, Lucky gives us Karate Cop, courtesy of Night Agency.

The ad says that in December when you buy a pair of jeans at Lucky Brand, you can get something of equal or lesser value for 50 percent off. Neato. Provided some plainclothes cop doesn't elbow you in the neck on your way out of the store. (But hey, seeing shag-heads in sweatbands generates that reaction in us, too.)

What's going on with the flannel?

by Angela Natividad    Dec-17-07    
Topic: Brands, Online, Spoofs



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