It's no secret we've loved Barbarian Group from the start. From the first time we heard of them back in the days of Subservient Chicken to its more recent work for CNN and Dove, they have always impressed. And not just with their work but with who they are as people.
So we're super pleased they were just named Creativity magazine's Digital Company of the Year.
Co-Founders Rick Webb, Robert Hodgin, Keith Butler and Benjamin Palmer are amazingly talented. Boston office President Bruce Winterton is a great guy. Uber PR pro/Director of Communications Eva McCloskey does a stellar job telling the agency's story. They host amazing parties. What's not to love?
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This Christmas card from Manchester-based AHD imaging in which an out of work computer-generated character, AHD168, finds itself homeless and destitute strikes a cord. With this one video, AHD has accomplished two things; it's wished everyone a Happy Christmas and it's looking for work, something a lot of companies are doing these days.
So come on, help out an unemployed animation (company).
In this tiny burg populated by upright-standing pickles, the townsfolk come out, don hats and carol for the viewing pleasure of omnivorous predators.
All's well until a giant hand reaches down and takes a big noisy bite out of a baby pickle -- right after his solo. The savage! Mangled bits of soured cucumber fall from the sky, a disturbing yellow stain splashes across the snow, bystanders vomit relish ... and the miracle of singing dill becomes a wretched crime scene.
By Firehouse/Dallas, which, as of this moment, are the only people we want to invite to our birthday party.
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Of Burger King Boxers' inclusion on TippingSprung's Best Innovations & Worst Line Extensions survey, Laura Ries toled BrandWeek, "While people love the Whopper, they don't want to parade around in underwear that says, 'This is where my big, fat ass came from.'"
According to the survey, 45.5 percent thought the Burger King underwear line extension was the single most inappropriate line extension. Also topping the list were Kellog's hip-hop street wear and Kanye West's travel site.
Seriously. What was burger King thinking?
To prove how far it's willing to go to help you save, FirstBank encourages holiday spendthrifts to snap digital photos of its ads -- and repurpose them as presents.
The idea's a lot funnier than it sounds. At left is an outdoor ad with a generic piece of art, which you can photograph, frame and pass on to unwitting (or undeserving) family members.
Other cheapskate gifts include a star adoption certificate (which we're actually thinking of using) and a homemade jam label.
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In a world where bigger is better, size matters...and socks have multiple uses, Belgian retailer Deleye Fashion is out with an ad that majestically embraces the world's obsession with size.
Created by DDB Belgium, the ad is a nod to the world's collective inferiority complex but let's not be negative here. Is there really anything wrong with striving to be bigger, better, stronger and more intelligent? OK, that last one is stretching it a bit. After all, this is an underwear ad. How intelligent can it possibly be?
Last year Canon ran a series of ads where tennis pro Maria Sharapova follows her dog Dolce around, snapping an endless string of doting pics the way pet owners like to do.
This year, we see the fruits her labors reaped: this new spot depicts PowerShot-toting fans racing over to the tennis star -- and taking pictures of Dolce instead of her.
Maria's not happy about that. But on the cheery up, Dolce's apparently lost the ability to think out loud in a Spanish accent.
For every cloud, a silver lining.
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- Geek rigs maternity device to tweet when his unborn baby kicks. Probably the earliest instance of Twitter use EVAR. (Thanks, Atif!)
- Collateral Damage's top 10 marketing blunders of '08. There's way more than 10 ("It was a very good year for very bad things"), and the top two are tied. Go figure.
- Deep Focus does FlightLipDub.com -- the new online home for Flight of the Conchords.
- Free Will Power aims to safeguard "the future of pro-choice America." There's spoken word poetry! And a T-shirt contest!
- It's a site on the hunt for beautiful ads.
- Another advertising socnet.
- Best and worst of AdFreak. If you consider what Collateral Damage's worst marketing campaign was, you can probably guess AdFreak's best ad of '08. We'll give you a hint: celebrity mashup.
Getting its Scion on, Leo Burnett Dubai has created a new commercial to kick up Chevrolet Aveo 5's cool factor to 18 to 30-year-olds and to remove the vehicle's stigma as a fleet car.
Produced entirely in the UAE - uncommon with most production outsourced to Eastern Europe or South America - the spot certainly does make the car seem attractive to one particular target audience: the canine. How that translates to the desired 18 to 30-year-old will remain to be seem.
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OK, wow. It's not like the massively co-ordinated, perfectly-timed thing hasn't been done many times before but timing a bunch of microwave ovens to render Jingle Bells is impressive.
We have AKQA to thank for this.
And we hope no one was inadvertently radiated during the creation of this "epic."
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