If you were driving to work last Friday in Cape Town, you likely saw something along the side of the highway that didn't look quite right; patches of blue and yellow cellophane flowers and tiny little windmills. No, Disney didn't invade Cape Town with It's A Small World but Can You Twist, South Africa's first online reality show which transitions episodes offline with real life, ARG-style endings.
Some of the real life endings include flowers handed out to 250 women around the country and a bank "break up letter" newspaper ad in which underlined words spelled out the site's URL. Wouldn't it be nice if you really coculd break up with your bank and leave all your debt behind? Now that would truly be a great reality show.
"Runaway jeans cause car crash" is the fourth installment of Levi's "Live Unbuttoned" campaign. (Also see backflipping into jeans, which was unexpectedly successful, and helium jeans.)
It was put together by Feed Company, which also did the Ray Ban "Never Hide" thing (remember "Guy catches sunglasses with face"?), which is great to see on paper considering people wasted plenty of time drawing comparisons between "backflipping into jeans" and "Guy catches sunglasses with face." Now you at least will know for sure: It's the same company. Tell all your friends.
It's Dork Dodge! In this RPG game by JC Penney, you're a college girl trying to leave the dorm, where a hot but insecure love interest is waiting. Your job: to emotionally castrate the losers in your way. (Attacking them with items from Penney's Dorm Life line is usually a safe bet.) "Losers" labeled by Penney's include -- but are not limited to -- an incest-friendly hick, a Swedish exchange student, a bodybuilder and a goth.
Don't be too gentle or they'll follow you (dork cling!), thereby destroying your chances of a tasty hook-up forever. In that case, your best option is to ask a friend for help. (Oddly, the friends are as douchey as the men.) And don't dally too long or Mister Bouquet-of-Flowers out there will ditch yo' ass. (He's on a very tight schedule.)
But aww, it's the tech era, and some of these squares are cute. My favourite pick-up line: "Did you know 'NERD' stands for Never-Ending Rendezvous ... with Destiny? Look it up."
Put together by EVB San Francisco. If for some odd reason you're now into the Penney's Dorm Life line, see Facebook page. I just love me a furry pink picture frame.
There are those who are obsessive about cleanliness. There are those who have a tongue fetish. And then there are brands. Rarely, if ever, do the three entwine. Until now. Courtesy of this branded YouTube video comes something that is simultaneously sexy and gross...not to mention very weird.
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MTV and Nokia are partnering for a documentary about the 2008 Cannes Young Lion Film Competition. 26 teams from all over the world will be followed; the four that get top views on YouTube will be featured in the documentary.
Get a glimpse of Team USA. Then do yourself a favour and close the window at 1:00 or so, because 6:20 is a loooooong time unless you're friends with these guys, or their moms.
What ruined it for me was that feeble Spartans leotard action at the beginning. "Hey, guys, come on. I didn't agree to wear this, even though I'm wearing it. You cheated. I win. Grumble grumble."
Son: Dad, what's that?
Dad: It's an ad.
S: But it just looks like a plain piece of paper.
D: No, it's an ad.
S: Well what's it an ad for?
D: I 'm not sure but I know it's an ad.
S: How do you know?
D: Because there's nothing offensive about it.
S: So ads can't be offensive?
D: Oh no. Not at all. And that's how I know it's an ad.
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His name was Paul Potts. During his unexpectedly spellbinding audition on Britain's Got Talent, he touched the hearts of viewers everywhere. (Really. I don't know if it was his voice or the pop show context or what, but I've never seen anything like that on American Idol.)
The crescendo: Before he went on to win the show last year, he was a mobile phone salesman. So now T-Mobile's using his defining moment in a German ad campaign. (Nice touch with the little girls and businessmen crying over their mobile phones.)
The closer (translated from the German): "Life gives us extraordinary moments. The beauty of it is that we can share them." What a charming lesson in opportunism.
See "Declaration," a :60 ad for Scion's "United by Individuality" campaign by ATTIK. The visuals wed two media cliches: a fleet of cars converging purposefully on one road, and an anarchist leader bleating to somber street warriors from a makeshift platform in the dead of night.
Also, something in the music brought Kevin Costner to mind.
Remember when Scion was nasty and unapologetic about being an individual? I miss that.
- See trailer for Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging, a movie guaranteed to alter the tween lexicon for at least six weeks: mutti! Vati! Snogging! Nunga-nungas! Facsimile of a fax of a scam! Saliva-ville. Hits US theatres this October.
- And speaking of a whole lotta words that mean nothin', Spam makes like Weekly World News.
- Plaid wraps up the weekend on the West Coast. "Wash down the bitter taste of capitalism" -- with Coke and pizza?
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Hmm. Let's see if we can drag this "OMG, it's gay bashing" Snickers kerfuffle out just a bit longer and try to snag a few more vociferous comments. Hey, Advertising Age is doing it. Why not Adrants? Rather than move on, much like the rest of the non-ad world has..if they even heard the whining in the first place, Advertising Age decided to do...yes...a trend piece on banned ads adding to Snickers the Verizon Pit Bull ad and the swearing Churchill Insurance dog.
Is this really what the industry needs to spend its time debating? Oh wait, of course it does. That's all this industry does; bitch about the work of others' while inflating ego balloons over their own. And that's before the cause groups enter the debate.
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