Woody Harrelson Predicts end of World in 2012

Here's a weird one. Woody Harrelson dressed like homeless geek by the name of Charlie Frost. Something to do with $4,000 Super Bowl tickets, living on Jupiter, the Institute for Human Continuity, a global survival lottery and the apparent end of the world in 2012. December 12, 2012 to be specific.

OK, enough of that. It's promotion for Roland Emmerich's movie, 2012.

Best Buy Won't Match Circuit City Prices During Liquidation

One could interpret this Best Buy POP sign in two ways. First, it's simply a somewhat snarky statement about the demise of Circuit City and how, since Circuit City will no longer exist, there will be no prices to match.

Second, the sign could be a simple admission Best Buy can't possibly match Circuit City's liquidation prices because if it did, Best Buy could find itself facing liquidation. Likely it's the second interpretation and is based purely on the need for Best Buy to meet its own bottom line.

Oh Look! It's Another Advertising Parody

No, not that kind. This kind comes from Barats & Bareta, an online comedy team who've decided to take on advertising and, once again, confirm the notion the industry is a very, very strange place.

People, we must "adapt and embrace."

Barclay Turns Water Slide Commercial Into Contest

So there was the Barclaycard slide commercial, remember? It's the one where a guy the office strips down to his underwear andhttp://www.youtube.com/user/Barclaycardcreate commutes home in a giant water slide. And, because it's a commercial hyping Barclay's slideless card, the dude buys a lot of stuff on the way home just buy holding his card near the scanner.

And, yes, it would have been funnier it it had been Donny Deutsch going down the slide in that Speedo. OK, maybe not but it would have fun to watch. OK, maybe not. It would have been repulsive and made us vomit so thank you, Barclay for using some anonymous dude.

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Breaking! New Technology Turns Computer Screen Into Tanning Bed

To convince people of the dangers of skin cancer, UK charity SKCin, with help from Rubber Republic, has launched ComputerTan, a fake company and website that purports to have developed a "revolutionary new way to help keep you looking healthy, young and attractive in the office."

The gist? ComputerTan makes it possible to get a tan from your computer monitor. Activating the free trial loads a cool, full screen tanning screen which, after a while, delivers the punchline...in the form of disgusting pictures of people with nasty skin cancer legions. Gross.

But, it works. The effort hopes to make people aware of the fact skin cancer kills up to five people each day in the UK. There's a mobile app and even a line of products supporting the effort.

An infomercial-style video placed on YouTube hopes to lure visitors to the site under the guise ComputerTan is the real thing.

Post Mortems Armchair Quarterback the Super Bowl

- Here's a list of what has been dubbed The Top Five Most Socially Irresponsible Commercials od the 2009 Super Bowl.

- Collective Intellect has release a post-Super Bowl study examining the uses of social media during the game and found Pepsi to dominate the conversation with 19 percent share of voice. Adding Pepsi's SoBe and Doritos into the mix raises that figure to 40 percent. See a summary of the study here.

- Member's of AOL's FanHouse have chosen Coke's Picnic their favorite Super Bowl commercial followed by Budweiser's Fetch, Bridgestone's Moon Dancers, Budweiser's Clydesdale (unclear which one), Bridgestone's Potato Head, Doritos' Power of Crunch.

- New Media Strategies took a look at all the social media action that took place during the Super Bowl and created a report. There were 190,000 blog mentions and 49,000 tweets among other findings.

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(More) Mannequins Invade Manhattan

Last Friday, with help from 180LA, Sony deployed an army of "living" mannequins across Manhattan. Chic gamines, harder around the eyeline than usual, were seen sitting at cafes, Grand Central Station and elsewhere, blogging and updating Facebook pages from their VAIO P Series devices.

The campaign also had a Fashion Week component: the dummies were dressed by designers aiming to promote their wares in conjunction with Sony's wee VAIOs.

Hmm. Plastic chicks with hot tech toys, expensive shoes and limited maneuverability. How on earth did anyone distinguish them from the other Sex and the City groupies?

The French Want Their Whoppers Back.

And that's cool, because Grease called and wants its moves back. (Better give up the leather jackets, too.) Hostage swap, anybody?

Helpful cultural sidenote: that guy with the big white stuff around his head is not an angry mashed potato. It is God.

"Back in France," produced by Clipit and directed by Cedric Dubourg, is a sugary protest against Burger King's mid-'90s departure from French soil -- a tribute to how we've managed to enrich the developed world (and are working on the pending one) with our seductive meat patties. Also, it was short-listed at last year's Festival de Meribel. (BK, what do you really need Crispin for?)

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Puma King Aspires to 'Complement Your Character'

Each print ad in this Puma King series features a footballer (read: soccer-player) saturated in a theme shade, visually arresting imagery (three-headed dogs, eagles, dragons, elks) and the aforementioned tagline. See:

o Gold (at left)
o Black
o White
o Red

Diggin' the fantastical, slightly sinister four horsemen motif. It's such a romantic way of saying "our shoes come in many colours."

By the sublime Robert/Boisen & Like-minded/Copenhagen.

Kraft Pins Chicken Wings Shortage on Ex-Gov Blagojevich

Last week a local news channel reported a major supplier of chicken wings would be shutting down, resulting in a shortage of one of the Super Bowl's tribute snacks.

For client Kraft, Euro RSCG acted fast, seizing the story and making it the subject of an online video.

The result, "Blago stole my chicken wings!", was uploaded to YouTube on Friday, just in time for the big game. The screamer you see there is ECD Bill Mericle.

Hoping to imply the chicken wings shortage is due to consumers hoarding Kraft Ranch Dressing (still our favourite artery-clogging condiment), an enraged Mericle drives by ex-Illinois gov Rod Blagojevich's house and claims HE'S to blame. And dude really gets into it. We kind of want to be his friend now.

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