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Holiday-Style Frozen Pole Game Baffles

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It's official. Two makes a trend so the rebirth of the send-to-a-friend time waster is upon us yet again. Following Ceiva's Sit on Santa's Lap, Mullen has created Frozen Pole, an upload-your-face, choose-your-wardrobe, send-to-a-friend thing. It's purpose? To get your tongue stuck on...wait for it...a frozen pole. You know. Like in the movie.

One might assume this little effort could be for some sort of fireball-style candy or some hot chocolate brand or a even reverse logic effort to promote travel to the Caribbean. But no.

It's for...voice recognition company Nuance which is introducing a new product..

Hello? Hello? Anyone? Can some one explain this? Or at least point out my utter stupidity at not grasping the concept? Because it wouldn't be the first time my stupidity got in the way of grasping a concept.

UPDATE: Someone has saved me from my own idiocy. Apparently, though it wasn't clear when I did it, I've been told "when you send message to someone from the site, it translates what they are saying with their frozen tongue into a readable holiday message."

by Steve Hall    Dec- 3-08    
Topic: Games, Online, Strange



Franck Ribery is the New Pink Panther

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Wieden + Kennedy/Amsterdam reprise the intro to The Pink Panther with this catchy spot for Nike's Mercurial Vapor IV.

"He's a gentleman, a scholar, he's an -- acrobat!"

Cheeky. Wait for the tooth-gleam at :47. Makes me wanna watch soccer while cuddling a plush Ribery doll.

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Laptop Tattoos, Adult SocNets Exiled, Wal-Mart Roves for Digital Agency

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- Wal-Mart's looking to unload its $40 million digital ad account. The shortlist includes Resource, Digitas, MRM, R/GA and Razorfish.

- Digital Mad Men! Watch. Watch. Because Vince Kartheiser talking Caturday is probably the funniest he's been in his short career so far.

- Dell cracks open Design Studio -- where users can pay $75 to get a unique image "permanently tattoed" onto their laptop lids. o_O That's a slightly steeper commitment than the peel-off-friendly GelaSkins.

- Arby's brings hard-ons. I really hope they don't put this on TV.

- MySpace does video streaming on mobile phones. With ad support.

- As of January 1, adult social networks will not be permitted on Ning. (Pretty good) reasons listed in the link.

- YouTube cobbles together digital chamber music orchestra.



Sexploitation for a Bike. It's Almost Genius.

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Titus -- whose luxury mountain bikes can range between $3370 and $7495 -- hopes to appeal to young, budget-taut users with a campaign tagged "It's worth a second job."

Each print piece manages to be slightly humiliating without leaving the kiddie park. A delicate balance. See variants:

o Phone sex operators
o Nude model

Food for thought: with $7495, you could buy three Macbook Pros, 32 iPod touches or 94 white earbuds. (Lisa Simpson would die of envy!)

Or, hell, you could get one of these.

Not that we care where you spend your hard-earned shekels; we're just putting it in perspective.

By TDA ADVERTISING & DESIGN/Boulder.

by Angela Natividad    Dec- 3-08    
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Magazine, Poster



'Here Comes Pete, the Meat Puppet!'

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When this is over, don't look at us and go, "What the hell is Diesel smo-kin'?" because we sure have no idea. (To be fair, smiles cracked when coke, whores and other misfortunes drove Pete the Meat Puppet to eat one of his own legs.)

One ad like this is quirky. But two? It's practically a spree.

For Diesel by FarFar and Legs. Reception's been mixed, but at least one person on YouTube seems to think the company's intentions are heart-healthy and noble.

All-singing, all-dancing meat magic below the drop.

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by Angela Natividad    Dec- 2-08    
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Online, Strange, Video



For Blurb Project, Ammo Hunts Wound-Licking Creatives Down on craigslist

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Blurb ("Real Books. Made By You.") is on a quest for castrated creative pitches, which it plans to compile in a volume called Killed Ideas Volume 1.

God knows this well of slighted egos is full to overflowing. But Blurb isn't in the creative industry, and apparently has no idea where to find its minions, so it's enlisted Ammo Marketing ("Stimulating Enduring Brand Conversations") to twist Ad Land's tap and get entries flowing.

Ammo in turn published this ad on craigslist, soliciting for city-based Mad Men that'll elicit saucy entries from colleagues.

It's a creative pitch for failed creative pitches!

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Stella Basks Paper World in Warm Beery Glow

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Lowe Roche/Toronto and Psyop have put together a devastatingly charming holiday ad for Stella Artois.

In it, a Geppeto-esque craftsman builds an elaborate paper dove. When night falls, she flies off his desk and descends upon a sleepy paper town -- all to park a snowflake (or is it a star?) at the base of a Stella Artois goblet, glowing like the Christ child.

Make haste and see. Users on StellaArtois.com, where the video serves as an intro, can also send "paper" stars -- glorified beer invites -- to friends. Options for appropriate "tone" include Custom, Poetic, to the Point and Sincere.

I picked Poetic.

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by Angela Natividad    Dec- 2-08    
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Commercials, Good, Online, Television



CLIOs Hit Vegas, Baby!

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Is it the imagination or is every industry conference moving to Vegas? Hey, no complaints. Vegas is fun. Really fun. Yes, for its 50th outing, the CLIOs will be held in Las Vegas over the course of three days and will be broken into five distinct events.

The five distinct award shows are:

  • Moving Image Awards - recognizing Television/Cinema/Digital & Television/Cinema/Digital Technique mediums.
  • Emerging Media Awards - recognizing Content & Contact, Innovative Media, Interactive, and Integrated mediums.
  • Print & Radio Awards - recognizing Print, Radio, Direct Mail, Poster and Billboard mediums.
  • Design Awards - recognizing Design mediums.
  • Lifetime Achievement Awards - recognizing the outstanding and ongoing contribution of an individual who leads the industry forward.
Miami Beach is fun but seriously. It pales in comparison to Vegas. See you there.

Get your entries in. The Call for Entry deadline in January 23, 2009.

by Steve Hall    Dec- 2-08    
Topic: Industry Events



No, No. He Doesn't HAVE Crabs, He's HALF Crab.

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This random spot by Heat/SF for Electronic Arts depicts a tragic sk8erboi who can't play Skate It because he has crab claws for hands.

"All my friends play it. They say it's rad. It's just my dad married a ... crab."

Collective awwwww. Sucks to not be able to live the dream. But hey, he'll get over Skate It, and you know what they say about men who like fish.

By Green Dot.

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by Angela Natividad    Dec- 2-08    
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Commercials, Games, Strange, Television



Ozzy Osbourne Faces Off with WoW's Prince of Darkness

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The ad cash just keeps pouring in for Ozzy Osbourne. Fresh off that Samsung spot for Leo Burnett, he's enlisted with Mojo for a World of Warcraft promotion.

The more blitzed he is, the better. And it probably only helps when he makes batshit-insane statements like, "Well, maybe you're the one who's been riding a fucking CRAZY TRAIN!" while teetering. (In case you didn't catch that with your ears, captions -- now a staple for Ozzy cameos -- have been included.)

At spot's end, WoW's "What's your game?" slogan is modified with yet another bleeped-out F-bomb.

Just another piece of high art by production company Green Dot Films. The latter called it the most-viewed spot on YouTube this weekend. We don't know about that, but ratings have been generous.

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