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Recession be Damned! ad:tech to Rock San Francisco in April

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OK, wake up people! It's time for another ad:tech. This one will be in San Francisco April 21-23 and will be packed full of content and networking opportunities. Some of the highlights to expect during the three day conference:

Ogilvy Worldwide Vice Chairman Steve Hayden, Hulu CEO Jason Kilar and Wikipedia Founder (some would argue co-founder) Jimmy Wales will keynote.

A series of Boot Camp sessions will offer up real world dos and don'ts when it comes to digital media and the tricks of the trade.

ad:tech Brand YOU forums and seminars will help people evaluate their skills, become better leaders and broaden perspective.

The exhibit hall, as always, will be packed with hundreds of companies for you to speak with and do business with.

more »

by Steve Hall    Feb-24-09    
Topic: Industry Events



Ladies, Need A New Bikini For Summer? Buy Some Doritos

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Who knew Doritos had so many uses? They can help get a guy whacked in the balls. They can provide the power to rip a girl's clothes off. And now they can function as the latest fashion on the beaches this summer.

Or at least in a Peruvian ad that imagines such a scenario

by Steve Hall    Feb-24-09    
Topic: Good, Outdoor, Poster, Racy



Helpful Blogger + Brand Idiocy = Social Media Disaster

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Oh wait. Didn't we just write that headline? Here we go again. Or is it "there you go again?" I can never remember what that Reagan dude used to say all the time. Anyway, here's the deal.

In a blog post, Jason Roe pointed out a fluke on the Ryanair website that made it possible for someone to book a flight and not be charged for it. He didn't actually book a free flight but he wanted the error to be made know.

How did Ryanair react? As if a Mastercard blowjob ad, pricelessly:

10. Ryanair Staff #1 Says:
February 19th, 2009 at 5:25 pm

jason!
you're an idiot and a liar!! fact is!
you've opened one session then another and requested a page meant for a different session, you are so stupid you dont even know how you did it! you dont get a free flight, there is no dynamic data to render which is prob why you got 0.00. what self respecting developer uses a crappy CMS such as word press anyway AND puts they're mobile ph number online, i suppose even a prank call is better than nothing on a lonely sat evening!!

Sweet, huh? But it gets worse. Upon confirmation the above comment did, in fact, come from a Ryanair employee, Ryanair spokesman Stephen McNamara said:

more »

by Steve Hall    Feb-24-09    
Topic: Social, Strange, Weblogs, Worst



Killed Ideas to Give Your Creative Masterpiece New Life

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OK so you've landed the perfect client for whom you've been jonesing for years. They're about to launch a new product line and have a huge marketing budget to support the launch. (OK, just pretend the economy doesn't suck and they actually do have huge marketing budget.)

You concept the most amazing idea you've ever concepted and present it to them. During the presentation they praise it. They love it. They fawn all over it. They pontificate about how it will introduce a sea change within their industry and how it will skyrocket the company to greatness. Everyone fist bumps each other at the end of the meeting and the client promise to call with final approval the next morning.

Then...

The call comes...

more »



Now You Know How It Feels Like to Get Motor Neuron Disease

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Trapped. Unable to escape. Unable to control your self. Helpless. Dignity stolen. Dreams evaporated. Life as you know it, over.

Nothing but you, your wheelchair and your life...such as it has become...locked in a prison. With no escape.

There are powerful PSAs and then there is this PSA for the Motor Neurone Disease Association.

by Steve Hall    Feb-24-09    
Topic: Best, Cause, Creative Commentary



Elephant Makes Unwanted Airport Landing

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If the International Fund for Animal Welfare had their way, Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey wouldn't have elephants in their circus. You wouldn't find them in zoos. And they certainly wouldn't be making landings like a jumbo jet returning from an overseas flight.

But, that's exactly what happens in this commercial which informs us that animals are not souvenirs.

But, wait. Is it OK to use elephants in television commercials? Or is that just effective CGI at work?

by Steve Hall    Feb-24-09    
Topic: Cause, Commercials, Strange



Gekko Finds G Spots For Women

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Increased heart rate. Gasping breath sounds. Curling toes. Trembling legs. Quivering torso. Tingling skin. Dripping wet lips. Increased urgency. Vocal outbursts.

Wait, what? Get your mind out of the gutter!

What did you think we were talking about?

This is a commercial for hotel and restaurants location service G Spot.

Seriously, what were you thinking?

Though if you do choose to watch the commercial, you might want to do so with earphones on.

by Steve Hall    Feb-24-09    
Topic: Commercials, Racy



Ashton Tweets, S/Urge, Libel Revisited and the ow.ly-Twitter Hustle

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- zOMG: grainy shots of Ashton and Demi! This cinches it: following celebrities on Twitter is almost as rad as following them around in real life. (Diggin' how the NYT actually quotes Kutcher's tweets, as if to prove THIS IS ALL REAL.)

- Gmail went down early this morning, and it's like the universe exploded.

- We actually ate this.

- BrightKit, a management/metrics dashboard for multiple Twitter accounts, changed its name to HootSuite and went pro-bono. (That is, it's no longer trying to charge a fee for services.) To compensate, it's selling display ad space above webpages whose links are shortened via ow.ly (HootSuite's version of tinyURL) -- meaning you could, in theory, make money (or build brand awareness...?) by spreading Twittersphere link-love.

- Fake Steve Jobs makes "wah" noises over monetizing blogging.

- Coca-Cola's Urge looks suspiciously like Coca-Cola's Surge. Remember the aftertaste on that stuff?

- Wedding the Sex and the City model to kitschy "Cathy": just one more lovechild the universe didn't need. Especially in the name of Baked Lay's.

- "True statements can be libelous if published maliciously." Wait ... what?!

by Angela Natividad    Feb-24-09    
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Celebrity, Events, Online, Social



Sony. Bravia. Zoetrope. (Don't Act Like You Didn't Just Reflexively Twitch Your Cursor.)

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If you've seen one Sony Bravia ad, you've got the blueprint for all of them: seize upon the easiest way to illustrate a product's raison d'etre, then magnify, until the crowd whose attention you so wistfully coveted has been submerged by your idea.

"Zoetrope" is no different -- and just as compelling as its predecessors. (See "Bunnies," see "Thread," see "Bubbles.")

For Sony's Motionflow Bravia TV, Fallon/London built the world's largest zoetrope: a rotating montage of static images viewed through small slits. (See? More fodder for Guinness.)

We got teaser material for the work last December. It was filmed a month prior in Venaria, near Italy's Turin. View the spit-shined final product below.

more »

by Angela Natividad    Feb-24-09    
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Commercials, Events, Good, Guerilla, Online



World Almanac Explains Why David Cook's on the Cover

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And it's exactly as boring as the title of the post suggests. The sad part is, this video is the most popular of World Almanac's two (and counting!) attempts to go viral.

We'd rather watch the Sonic Hearing infomercial 42 times. And on that same note, we'd rather peruse the infinitely-less-useful Guinness Book of World Records than pick up the World Almanac.

It's hardly the same value proposition, but both are relative time-wasters and have about the same chance of falling to the wayside. The difference is, pop culture is loaded with people and advertisers that are still going out of their way to get into Guinness.

more »

by Angela Natividad    Feb-24-09    
Topic: Bad, Brands, Campaigns, Online, Promotions, Video



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