'Rumble in the Jingle' a 'Trailer Crashers' Sequel (Hmm, That Rhymed)

Oh look, It's Trailer Crashers with new clothes on. Yes, Samsung is out with Rumble in the Jingle, a Christmas-themed, make-your-own-movie-trailer thing to promote...um..."awareness of the company's Blu Ray offerings."

Gotta love how the three star's "headgear" kind floats awkwardly above their faces. The (intended?) cheesiness succeeds (sort of).

Affiliate Summit West Party List Grows

If your off to Vegas in mid-January for Affiliate Summit, you might want to keep track of all the parties that coincide with the conference. Thankfully, the job's been made easy with this Google Calendar (click Agenda to see all the events) tracking all the known social events occurring during the Summit.

Currently, there's parties sponsored by Buy.at, oneNetwork, ShareSale, Paulson Management Group and Affiliate Summit themselves which hosts two Hospitality events for those who actually want to talk and do business without shouting over loud music and having the inebriated spill drinks on them. See? Something for everyone.

Check out the details at the calendar. There's two events that involve bowling. Not exactly your average ad conference fare. Could be interesting. If you're going, I'll see you there.

What is it About this Holiday Season that Just Screams 'RODEO'?

Riffing off an idea first presented to us by Lucky Brand Jeans, agency Bernstein-Rein gives us the Reindeer Rodeo, yet another holiday game where the objective is to keep a skittish elf on a bucking...

...well, I'd hate to ruin the surprise.

Learn from Davo: Slow Down, Stupid.

@dirkthecow introduced us to What Davo Loves, a responsible-driving initiative for Queensland Transport, Australia.

The site's put together like a generic profile page for a dude called Davo. At right is a montage of people he loves, and at left is a video of him fondling his new car, lamely named "Rex."

All frothy fun, right? That is, until the car careens out of the video frame and slams into his collage of friends, fracturing their faces like so much cheap glass.

more »

Mortar's Recession Solution: A Spork, Some Booze and Pocket-Sized Luck

Instead of sending over a typical holiday card, Mortar went the extra mile and sent us a Holiday Recession Kit.

It is amazingly practical.

Tools for survival include Top Ramen ("It got you through college, it'll get you through this"), a Magic 8-Ball, a Spork ("Perfect for Top Ramen, or digging your way out of prison. Or defending yourself in prison"), matches, edible packing material, and a wee bottle of VooDoo Spiced Rum, which is pretty self-explanatory.

All it's missing is a single cigarette and some rope.

Healthy Choice Makes Awful Choice With 'Asian Inspired' Dinners

Uh Oh. Once again, a less than clued in marketer has rankled sensibilities by using tired stereotypes to promote product. A new site from ConAgra has been created for the brand's Asian Inspired Health Choice. It's lame. Truly lame. But we're going to give the floor to our reader who had this to say about that:

"Where do I begin? The ad people who came up with the 'lonely fortune writer' idea should be fired. The brand manager that approved the concept and execution should be fired. Anyone who approved this work should re-evaluate their values.

Not only is the work insulting to Chinese/Asians and Chinese/Asian Americans (what with the awful accent, broken English, and idiot like antics), but it also completely degrades the brand and product.

more »

Ad Banner Catches Text on Fire

Here's an inventive online (and offline) creative implementation to promote heating device maker Gaz Metro. On the internet, the text surrounding Gaz Metro banners turns red when it the mouse is rolled over.

Offline in newspaper, ads at the bottom of the page were integrated with editorial so that text, as it was online, is altered to, in one case, turn red and, in another, blur as if heat were rising from the banner.

The agency, Touche PHD, tells us the altered text in the newspapers was part of the actual editorial rather than it being either a fake story or greeked.

Closer Look Makes Adrants Even More Amazing

We'd like to thank our friends over at Closer Look for making Adrants even more amazing that it already is with their kick-ass Amazing Amazer design tool. Every agency should have one of these. After all, who doesn't love some twinkling sparkle in their advertising?

Give is a visit. Make your site (and your photo too) way more amazing than it already is.

AdGabber Grows to 6,500 With No End in Sight

Since I couldn't have said it better myself, I'll just give you a taste and link to the rest. As many of you may know, Adrants has a sister site called Adgabber. It's a social network of sorts and it's where we house all the ads we feature here on Adrants. It's a thriving community of 6,500 members who discuss things in forums, post pictures, add videos, write blog posts and do everything else you could imagine a social network allows for.

Ning, the company that powers AdGabber, recently highlighted AdGabber on its blog and wrote, "Members have started discussions about the highlights of working in advertising, debated whether Ugly Sweater parties are simply marketing ploys and posted videos about corporate marketing strategies. Members can discover creepy ads, guidelines for radio advertising and even a warm and silly welcome for a new member."

more »

PETA Takes Fur Hags in Virtual Snowfight

In its ongoing mission to condition otherwise-normal citizens into forming violent knee-jerk reactions toward people that wear fur or (le gasp!) eat animals, PETA's created this holiday snowball game.

It's sorta like hitting groundhogs with a hammer, except you're pitching snow at "fur hags" like Madonna (10 points), Donna Karan (+25) and the Olsen Twins (+50!). But watch out for Grandma and Generic Blonde! Hitting either of them could cost you 50 points apiece.

Idle good times. Just wish my mouse moved faster. Oh, and while the game is characterized as a "snow fight," nobody else throws snow back at you, which I thought was funny, because, you know, zealous institutions always see antagonists where none exist.