Online Game Aids Determination of New Revels Candy Flavor.

When wandering through the aisle of any given grocery store, it's fairly easy to be overcome by the 6 billion types of cereal, 26 versions of Triscuits, 152 brands of potato chips and enough different kinds of ice cream to make one's head explode from brain freeze. So it is with welcome relief Masterfoods' Revels is keeping its flavors to a minimum.

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Poker and Basketball Converge in Online Game

If you're into basketball and online poker, you might like this new game from Raid Bet called Can You Basket. In the game, you control the shooting of three animals and the net passes back and forth on the screen. The game's creators say it's a "viral game" so it's clear, even at this very early stage, it's going to be a stellar success because, after all, calling something viral makes it so.

Newsflash! Marketers Want Knowledgeable Agencies!

Sapient, who, it seems, hasn't been in the news since the digital boom of 1999, is out with a sponsored study of chief marketing officers which resulted in the creation of a "top ten list for agencies of the future." At the risk of boring you with the details of a study that offers no new insight, here's the list:

1. Greater knowledge of the digital space. (Seriously? That's a stunner!)

2. More use of "pull interactions." (Oh yes they did. They created a new buzzword for social media)

3. Leverage virtual communities. (Apparently, none of the surveyed CMO lived through the Second Life debacle)

4. Agency executives using the technology they are recommending. (It would certainly be nice but, in most cases, it's never gonna happen. By definition, most senior management is disconnected from reality.)

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For Some Brands, Nudity Has A Proper Place in Advertising

If you're in the business of selling items of, say, an "adult" nature such as lingerie, pornography and sex toys, you can't really expose your wares in your advertising. Beate Uhse AG found an ingenious way around this unfortunate fact with this directional billboard featuring four naked women with all the OMG-you can't-show-that-in-public parts neatly covered with an arrow.

The creativity - or the prurient persona of the work's creators - behind this one is to be applauded. Show the "product." Make it easy to find said "product." The work was created by Cayenne.

Clinton Welcomed, Digg Tops, Dell Games

- Bill Clinton received a warm...and appropriate...welcome message from a local Denver strip club during the Democratic National Convention.

- Want to quit your job in style" Check out Droga5's Quit in Style site they created for the YoungGuns Award.

- Pingdom examined traffic for ten social media sites over the last year. Digg still tops the list but the piece points to some interesting trends.

- Agency GCI Group and game developer Launchfire Interactive have created several online games to help promote the Dell Latitude E-Family line of computers.

- Damn Receipt aims to achieve brand love by hooking up people and brands. The site allows people to upload a copy of a shopping receipt. Marketers can visit the site and pay the person.

Tom Clancy Too Dense? Cozy Up with a Twiller

New York Times journalist Matt Richtel has invented a storytelling format called the Twiller. The idea is for Twitter users to follow fictional characters -- which some already do anyway -- as they progress though a plot.

It's not the worst idea ever, and when my friend Atif first explained it to me I thought, "Hey, that sounds sort of like Memento."

Except Twillers are a long-term commitment. Richtel's been developing his plot for the last two months. Follow @mrichtel, tweet by grueling tweet, as he works out the narrative kinks.

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Don't Look Now, But I Think that Cow is Judging You.

Some people have been known to buy the cheese endorsed by happy cows. Considering cheese is, like, the fruit of their loins, I guess that makes sense. But can cows also be trusted to select your next car?

Fiat thinks so. In the Dutch spot above, a cow moos off a VW Golf and a Ford Focus, but desperately bellows "Bravooo!" (listen closely!) when one happens to idle by. Tagline: "Uitgesproken," which means something like "distinct" or "pronounced."

Adverblog says the spot hasn't yet hit TVs; it's currently only circulating the 'net. I think it's goofy, and not in a good way. But once it hits TVs, maybe it'll prove a success by merit of its lean-in factor. (You know, when listeners lean in and go, "Wait, what?")

DoubleMint: The Official Gum of Candy Ravers!

Just when you thought the jingle was dead, Wrigley's broadcasts this catchy rewrite of Chris Brown's Forever for DoubleMint. Doesn't it make you wanna dust off the pink wig and bust out with some liquid?

But that's window trimmings; DoubleMint's also improved its value add. In addition to chew factor, it apparently also:

- doubles as a hacky sack!
- leaves a comet trail!
- comes in slimmer, sexier packaging!

And here we were thinking the brand was a one-trick pony.

Minnesota Residents Alter Lifestyle in Preparation For Republican Convention

Following Denver's Obamamania at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, the Twin Cities are preparing for their own slice of mania by urging area resident to properly welcome the Republican party. Quite often when big events come to a city, be it the Olympics, a major trade show, a Presidential visit or, yes, a Presidential convention, a city likes to put it's best foot forward to properly welcome its guests. Sometimes that includes bending a city's - even life's - realities to properly accommodate as this UnConvention commercial depicts.

Just as China rolled out the red carpet for the world the last few of weeks, Minnesota residents are ready to welcome the Republican party with open arms even if it means slightly altering their lifestyle for a few days or so.

Idiotic Levi's Commercial Ignores Innate Appreciation of Beauty

This Cutwater-created commercial for Levi's is stupid. Yes, it's not polite to stare and objectify by either sex but come on! We are all human. We are all sexually attracted to one another. It's natural. It's innate. It's normal. Just admiring the beauty of another human doesn't mean we are all lecherous sex maniacs deserving of a body slam. Sometimes it's just nice to look at and appreciate pretty things. It isn't always about dirty thoughts

And by the way, the pretty things who get looked at, male or female (which, by the way, that stupid PC ending in the commercial is just stupid), shouldn't always assume the onlooker is out for anything more than the pleasure one derives from looking at a beautiful painting in a museum.

Cut the scrap, Cutwater. Your sunglasses idiocy was better than this!