For the Art-Loving Lecher Who Has Everything

Bored with postcards? T-shirt tired? Next trip to Paris, bring home a swathe of Mona Lisa condoms. They'll lend Renaissance mystique to your next one-nighter.

Digital Dives, Pessimism Pervades, Parker Prowls, Brand Gene Discovered

- David Armano has mapped the Agency Path to Enlightenment. From Cannes to creativity, it's all there.

- The economy's nosedive is taking a bite out of "experimental" media such as virtual worlds, mobile and widgets according to the Wall Street Journal.

- Economic negativity is now running rampant in advertising. Come on, people. A little "glass half full" optimism can't really be a bad thing, can it?

- George Parker is on a mission so save WPP by...um...buying it?

- McKinney has emerged triumphant from the agency smack down for the Sherein-Williams account.

- Repower America has sparked a heated debate on YouTube with its commercialhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmEUHeI7fzE urging us to break oils lock on government.

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AgencySpy Takes on Ad Age's 3 Minute Video

If you're sick of Advertising Age's 3 Minute Ad Age, check out AgencySpy's The Week in Advertising in which Spy Matt Van Hoven, blogger you've never heard of, does a pretty good job thrashing recent events in our beloved industry. Love the supers and the visuals. We like it. Do you?

Vincent Price Incarnate Lures Mouse to Cheesy Destiny

This is disturbing. Seriously disturbing. Like a scene out of a old Vincent Price movie, a talking mousetrap taunts a mouse on the prowl for the cheese bait atop the trap. With equal levels of confidence and outright psychotic insanity, the trap beckons to the mouse until...snap...the trap captures the mouse.

But that's not where the story ends. Oh no. As the trap continues to creepily taunt the mouse quietly listens then makes an important decision. It eats the cheese and, because this is a dairy product ad touting the category's strengthening qualities, lifts the mousetrap bar and scurries away to the dismay of the mousetrap.

There quote a few of these oddities over ar Must Drink More Milk.

Created by Tribal DDB Vancouver, the commercial is for the British Columbia Dairy Foundation.

Gossip Girl's Serena Vanderwoodsen Wants to Pick You Up

In a new pro-Obama commercial from MoveOn.org which plays out like a drug PSA, Gossip Girl Upper East Sider Serena Vanderwoodsen feels so strongly about Obama she says, "if you're ever out somewhere and considering about voting McCain, just call me. I'll pick you up. No questions asked."

While it centers on the not so correct assumption all McCain supporters are old and all Obama supporters are young, it does do an effective job spoofing a genre that has become ingrained in the minds of the younger generation, many of whom would love nothing more than to have Serena not ask any questions while picking them up.

'Goddess of Money' Throws Weight Behind White Collar Lunch Hour

This may sound improbable, but "goddess of money" Ivanka Trump (don't you love PR people?) gives a damn what you have for lunch at work every day. Enough to blog about it, even.

She's partnering with ConAgra for something called the Lunch Trade. I'm not sure what it entails (Handi-Snacks but bigger? City-wide buffets? Mass sandwich-swap? Anything goes!) but it'll reportedly "impact" 15,000 employees across NYC and Chicago.

Wow. Sounds almost like genocide. Keep reading her blog for more details.

Just Another Square in a Wide-Brimmed Hat.

Jake of Zoomdoggle is scruffy and cute, so you must love him. Do everything he says. In this case, find the 8000 Indiana Jones hats he and his friends have hidden all over LA, and take pictures of yourself being just as animated and ironic as he is. (Don't forget to tag them!)

Adrants reader Jay notes this apparently casual scavenger hunt was announced the same day Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull came out on DVD, so he's pegged it as a below-the-radar marketing ploy. "Wonder what they're going to do with all the pictures," he ruminates suggestively.

I'm sure we'll all find out.

UPDATE: Cunning's 'fessed to using Jake and Friends as vehicles for an over-arching Indiana Jones promotion. (Not in so many words, but I feel my assumptions are safe -- or if not, they'll be corrected with lightning speed. See comments.)

Nice save.

Hayden Panettiere: Voting for McCain Will Probably Kill Us All

Hayden Panettiere, the tortured chick on Heroes who can never die, joins an assembly line of celebrities hoping to affect your vote.

"There are three things think I all citizens should do: smoke cigarettes, vote for John McCain, and don't wear a seatbelt," she says with vigor, tossing in a few wild "FUCKs" for shock value.

You get the gist. Thank Funny or Die, creators of this and that high-larious Paris Hilton for President video -- another effort that makes Obama look incidentally good by making McCain look old and out of touch.

Attire Distracts From NASCAR Sprint Cup Promo

There's a lot going on in this NASCAR Sprint Cup promo. Atop a sea of mobile homes there's a barbecue...(short shorts)...a pool...(short shorts)...choreographed porta-potties...(short shorts)...an air show...(short shorts)...video gaming...(shorts shorts)...beer drinking...(shorts shorts)...dancing...(shorts shorts)...cheering...(short shorts)...lounging...(short shorts)...a pink flamingo...(short shorts)...and, of course, the NASCAR Spring Chase Cup. And shorts shorts.

Painting Pilot Finishes Off Wordless Billboard

Air New Zealand's running a new campaign called "Is it just a kiwi thing?", characterized by unusual guerrilla stunts. (See cranial billboards. Yes, the PR woman says, those are real tats. I'm shaking my head right now.)

To promote its launch, a B747 pilot alighted upon an unfinished billboard in London, sporting a paintbrush and some splashy blue paint.

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