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Yawn. No Wait! Oh, God. I'm Gonna Puke! Where's the Toilet?

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So yesterday, we yawned and practically fell asleep after watching one of Danica Patrick's new Boost Mobile commercials. Today we experienced an entirely different reaction. And it wasn't pleasant. In fact, we had to run to the toilet and puke after watching Danica sign some "great racks" in another iteration of the TV campaign.

"What You think this is wrong?", asks Danica. Yea, we do, girl. We really do. Reverse stereotypes be damned. Let the women wear the miniskirts, high heels and bikinis. We're quite fine with men wearing completely unstylish pit crew ump suits. Anything. Just can they please keep their clothes on?

by Steve Hall    May-27-09    
Topic: Bad, Campaigns, Celebrity, Commercials, Good, Racy, Strange



Gawker Bleeds, Oxfam Goes to Cannes, FarFar Lion Found

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- Chicago's O'Hare airport has a new website! (Some people think this sort of thing is important. Who are we to judge? Oh wait, that's our job)

- Yawn. Men dress up as women in Danica Patrick's new Boost Mobile Unwronged commercial.

- Soft drink\ company, The Feel Good Drinks Company, commissioned Loose Moose to turn a stop-frame animation created for them by one of their consumers into a national TV
campaign.

- smashLAB's Eric Karjaluoto thinks design has become commoditized but he has a solution

more »

by Steve Hall    May-26-09    
Topic: Agencies, Industry Events, Online, Opinion, Video



Hubspot Slaps Down Pets.com Sock Puppet

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Hubspot cutie [Ed. please refrain from your lame chauvinistic remarks] Karen Rubin takes on the Pets.com Sock Puppet in an interview on the importance of inbound lead marketing versus, well, lame, wasteful Super Bowl advertising.

by Steve Hall    May-26-09    
Topic: Video



Troy-Bilt Reaches Out, P2P-Style, to Contemporary Gardeners

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Troy-Bilt hikes its ad budget up 50% from 2008 to $1.8 million, springing for a folksy little tune called "Shinin' Down", which can be heard in its ads or on hold with its tech team. Download it for free at troybilt.com.

The ad itself is a modern nod to a young and trendy generation of gardeners, which I guess downloads MP3s in addition to steering tractors with a grin. It will appear nationwide across popular networks, including HGTV and DIY. This is Troy-Bilt's first TV push in five years.

Feels authentic. Don't you just wanna race outside and fertilize something? (*checks pocketwatch*) Still plenty of time left in the day to indulge that inclination.

Work by Marcus Thomas/Cleveland.

more »

by Angela Natividad    May-26-09    
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Commercials, Good, Online, Television



Denver Egotist Takes Stand Against Brand Molestation.

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"The big, fat, silver torpedo that is the Chipotle burrito is as iconic (in this city, anyway) as an Absolut bottle or a Converse shoe," lauds the Denver Egotist, bringing to mind billboards that have taken us by surprise more than once.

"So what better way to start off a brand new campaign than to ditch the thing you're most famous for in favor of a bland, new Taco Bell-styled menu and some insipid value statements that are saturating the market in this shitty economy. Oh, and how about a new logo, too? Something that could sit nicely on the shelf at Target with the other Archer Farms produce?"

more »



Danica Patrick Reluctantly Lives Out Every B-Porn Fantasy. Ever.

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In its latest abuse of its sponsorship, and our eyeballs, GoDaddy sticks racer Danica Patrick in another situational porno-to-be: after pulling her over for speeding, a blonde cop -- bless her heart -- starts stripping down to show Danica she has what it takes to join her horde of URL-buying ad wenches.

Always a team player, Danica fakes it like this whole thing is mildly uncomfortable for her. The ad cuts out in typical GoDaddy fashion; you'll have to see the rest on the homepage after May 24th.

Past Patricksploitation: Danica baring beaver, Danica showers on command (complete with hot grade school teacher!), Danica confesses to enhancements.

more »

by Angela Natividad    May-22-09    
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Commercials, Sponsorship, Video



Imagine if Everyone Saved On Your Phone Was a Crayon.

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Wouldn't you be bummed if all those contacts melted, their ability to bring waxy bright colour to your life lost to you forever?

Of course you would. That's why you should download My Contacts Backup, a US Cellular offering, for free.

Such is the logic of "Crayon" -- simple and pretty, if a little counterintuitive. Work by Publicis & Hal Riney/SF for US Cellular. Production by Biscuit; post-production by Arsenal FX.

more »

by Angela Natividad    May-22-09    
Topic: Brands, Commercials, Promotions, Television



Reason #34958409 Why You Should Burn Home Videos Pre-Dating '95

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Director Nir Bashan of Reactor Films/LA just sent us its latest work for AquaNet, one of those unfortunate brands whose persona is condemned to retro.

Leveraging that, Reactor -- in tandem with Buck Productions -- busts out with what looks like early-'90s footage of two kids with Highly Unfortunate Hair, lip-syncing to Vanilla Ice's Ice Ice Baby.

It tickles.*

Where are these guys now? It doesn't seem right to laugh at a contemporary's childhood trauma without the victims sitting here, in the flesh, fighting to maintain composure.

Tagline reads "AquaNet: Keeping it stiff since 1991." We're treated to one last finger-pose before the video cuts. Fucking rad.

more »

by Angela Natividad    May-22-09    
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Video



Cree Lures Beautiful People Out of Fluorescent-Bathed Purgatory

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Cree taps into the desolation that comes with spending most of your life under office light, which has a special way of making everything look aggressively bland: an atmosphere that first suppresses you before driving you to violent insanity.

To a melancholy melody, casualties of cogdom are depicted in a languishing state, broken by words whose candidness, whose charm, coincide perfectly with an uplifting chorus: "There's so much beauty in the world. Just not in your office."

more »

by Angela Natividad    May-22-09    
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Commercials, Good, Television



Visine Wrings Fresh Tears from Fairy-Tale Captive

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Mix the charm of The Elves and the Shoemaker with the Napoleonic Lilliputians of Gulliver's Travels and you've got "Kitchen," the print piece by JWT/NY for Johnson & Johnson's Visine.

The visual relates a myth about how all those tears get inside a wee bottle of Visine. Look closely: tireless miniature men conduct tear-gathering work around the frozen face and body of a glassy-eyed woman of normal size. Cut onions litter the table before her; elsewhere, tiny labourers bear buckets. One leans over a giant funnel and pours the harvested fluid into a Visine container.

"Natural tears formula. Don't ask how," the piece reads, crimson scrawl on a well-worn hanky.

Dark and beguiling, like good fairy tales often are.

by Angela Natividad    May-22-09    
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Good, Magazine



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