Naked PETA Babe or President Bush. You Decide

OK, here we go again. Tonight, you have a choice. You can tune in to President Bush's State of the Union address. Or you can blow it off and, instead, head over to PETA's 2008 State of the Union Undress during which a lovely lady envisions a PETA-powered nation while she slowly transforms herself into a "fur free" state of undress. It's NSFW but not until the end and there's a Safe for Work version too.

GoDaddy to Run a Super Bowl Spot, Downplays it with More Racy Rejects

Battering its usual "boo-hoo, we are too racy for Fox" shtick, GoDaddy sent us a celebratory pressie reading something like, "FINALLY, they've approved one of our deliciously naughty spots for the Super Bowl!"

The ad features Danica Patrick. And while GoDaddy didn't send us a teaser for that, it did send us one for yet another rejected ad called "Exposure." It's supposed to be a spoof of "a certain pop culture celebrity phenomenon" and Danica thinks it's really funny (we suspect she's contractually required to). See the whole thing here on game day.

Adrants' Diversity in Advertising Efforts Enter Year Two

We're in year two of our association with the Business Development Institutes's Diversity in Advertising efforts and want to let you know about two upcoming events. On February 12, we will host the Second Annual Advertising and Marketing Industry Job Fair at the Academy of Art Institute in San Francisco. On February 27, we will host the Second Annual Advertising Industry Diversity Job Fair and Leadership Conference at New York University.

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PepsiCo Turns Stat Quo Inside-Out with 'Enable'

Maybe because Nationwide cashed in like mad on its K-Fed pre-Super Bowl ad hype last year, everybody's releasing their spots before the drop.

We don't like the idea of opening our presents before Christmas day (which is what watching a Super Bowl ad a week in advance is like), but in some cases an early debut is a good thing.

That's the case with Pepsi's Bob's House, a Super Bowl spot by BBDO for its Enable campaign that composes a deaf world we're invited to watch from the sidelines. A silent ad is jarring, but it's weirder still to be passive observers of a community whose jokes we don't get.

Neat switcharoo on the minority experience. Can't wait to see what kind of response this generates on Super Bowl Sunday.

See the making-of, which, thankfully, isn't the usual self-congratulating "how I made my baby" swill.

Jeep Gets Cute With 'Ten Little Vehicles'

Hmm. It looks like Jeep has taken a cue from tobacco companies and given the Joe Camel treatment to its advertising. In this KNSK Hamburg-created commercial for Jeep, kids and adults alike are treated to a fairy tale world in which ten vehicles make their way across the landscape. Nine suffer problems during the journey. Can you guess which one completes the trip? Yes, we thought you could.

OK, fine. It's not tobacco tactics trying to get five year olds to buy a Jeep. It's just some good 'ol fun bringing back childhood memories to car buying adults. We like.

Rubicon Project Eliminates Ad Network Selection Headaches For Publishers

Making life easier for publishers struggling to keep up with the explosion of ad networks - now numbering over 300 - and the determination of which network will yield the best results, is the Rubicon Project. Launched eight months ago by Frank Addante, the company, today, announced series B finding of $15 million bringing its total to $21 million.

We've seen a demo of Rubicon and its really fascinating. For a publisher trying to best monetize inventory, Rubicon, in a nutshell, does exactly that. A publisher joins with Rubicon, enters relevant information of their site and, poof, relevant ads are selected from the 300 or so ad networks in the system.

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Consumer Reports Launches AdWatch Ad Review Series

Consumer Reports, which for a long time has helped people buy products that aren't crap, is now expanding its analysis of the advertising that pushes both good and bad products with the launch of CR AdWatch videos.

In a somewhat comical approach, host Jamie Hirsh takes a detailed look at the long-running Abe Lincoln/Beaver ad campaign for the sleep aid Rozerem. The analysis is level headed and if ads were required to provide equal time, this is the kind of advertising we might see on a regular basis. We review ads along the lines of how pretty they are and how effective they might be. Consumer Reports goes further and lets us know the other side of the claim.

Asics Goes Spiritual, Advocates Sound Mind and Body

In what it calls its "biggest and boldest marketing effort in company history," ASICS America Corporation tapped agency vitrorobertson to give us the "Sound Mind, Sound Body" campaign. More print here and here.

Maybe it's the soothing pastels. The ads are beautiful, don't get us wrong, but where BIG and BOLD are concerned they feel more like a Nike campaign on Zoloft. ASICS America could probably learn something about both "big" and "bold" from its overseas Onitsuka Tiger efforts, which -- we'd guess -- chose Ritalin as Drug of Choice.

Ms. Burned for Rejecting Israeli Girl Power Ad

Pro-femme magazine Ms. recently got a spanking in the Jewish community for rejecting the ad at left. It features images of three Israeli women in power: president Dorit Beinisch of Israel's Supreme Court, foreign minister Tzipi Livni, and speaker Dalia Itzik, above the words, "This is Israel."

The American Jewish Congress -- which submitted the ad -- said Ms. first approved it, then rejected it at the last minute under grounds it would "set off a firestorm," which, as often happens, it did anyway.

"Since there is nothing about the ad itself that is offensive, it is obviously the nationality of the women pictured that the management of Ms. fears their readership would find objectionable," deduced president Richard Gordon of the American Jewish Congress. (Because when people reject us without explaining themselves, it's obviously because we're brown.)

In response, Ms. pointed out Tzipi Livni's career and accomplishments are profiled in its current issue.

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'Anonymous' Launches Campaign Against Scientology

In what Tom Hespos calls "modern cyberwarfare" and "a significant social event ... people are going to be studying it for years to come," a group called Anonymous has targeted the Church of Scientology with, apparently, denial of service attacks, the downloading and publicizing of internal Scientology documents and a creepy video accusing the church of spreading misinformation, suppressing dissent and suing all who say negative things about Scientology. And we thought that Tom Cruise video was freaky.

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