Caribou Coffee Employs Wise-Ass Pumpkin

We love a mildly wise-ass, witty repartee between two animated characters. Especially when they're selling us delicious drinks from Caribou Coffee. Created by Colle+McVoy, these five commercials star a "wisecracking pumpkin and a dimwitted gourd" named jack and Gourdo respectively.

You can view them all in their wisecracking glory right here.

Hugh Hefner Still Gets The Girls. Well, At Least in Commercials

There once was a time Hugh Hefner carried a level of cred untouchable by all others. He had it all. A successful business. All of life's material pleasures. And any woman he wanted. Yea, he still has all that but lately, with his increased appearance in advertising, the man has been diminished to a sad characature of his former self. Now he's just a horny old man in a fancy bathrobe.

What's up with all his commercial appearances? Does he need the money or is he just selling out like every other celebrity on the planet? yea, the man still has a sort of jokey appeal and when seen in a commercial, the reaction still nets a little chuckle and grin. But really. What happened to retiring gracefully?

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National Preparedness Month Preps Us For '2012'

We're diggin' this new ad from Ready.gov by Cramer-Krassalt for National Preparedness Month which encourages people to be ready for any kind of disaster the universe might throw our way. Even the inexplicable, gravity-defying kind. As a family and all their belongings are tossed about in slow motion, an announcer asks, "What if a disaster strikes without warning? What if life as you know it has completely turned on its head? What if everything familiar becomes everything but?"

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Lingerie Thermalized, Whitehouse Facebooked, 911...Again

- Just how hot can lingerie advertising be? Thermal imaging hot!

- Not all families have the financial wherewithal to support their kids' childhood sporting desires. Thankfully, Canadian Tire's Jumpstart program can come to the rescue.

- Whitehouse website gets Facebooked.

- Can't get enough 9/11-themed ads? Check out Adland's collection including a strange one for Moscow News.

- AT&T explains why their service sucks...and what they're doing to improve it.

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ad:tech Chicago: Sharpie, Ben & Jerry's Squeeze Merit Out of Social Media Sphinx

My last ad:tech Chicago session was the Social Media Industry Forum, presented by Geoff Ramsey of eMarketer.

The sesh had a festive air for many reasons, not least that it was Ramsey's birthday. ad:tech's Warren Pickett burst in near the end to furnish him with candle-lit cupcakes.

But the company was also lively: we had a frothy, sometimes cynical and perennially candid band that included Digital Marketing Manager Katie O'Brien of Ben & Jerry's, President Rick Murray of Edelman Digital (which does interactive stuff for B&J's), PR/Social Media Manager Susan Wassel of Sanford Brands (here to rep Sharpie), and Digital Strategist Akash Pathak of DraftFCB, which worked with Wassel to bring life to Sharpie's label.

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Ass-Based Ads Tapped...IN THESE TOUGH ECONOMIC TIMES

As we seem to have said here many times over the past week or so, in these tough economic times, companies are resorting to all manner of silly pomp and circumstance to pimp their wares. So to announce to the world...OK, Australia... it will cease to charge booking fees, online travel agency ZUJI Australia has chosen an old standby: assvertising.

Apparently people all across Australia are dropping their pants to "uncover the online fees." We're not quite sure that's the best method for delivering the message but it did result in a PR stunt which shared with Australians hot-assed women (and a few men) in their underwear parading around central Sydney.

And what's not to love about some hot ass once in a while?

Hey Wait. Aren't Hunger Drives Supposed to Feed People?

OK so how do you raise money for the hungry? You spend a lot of money erecting tables and 200,000 place settings. And rather than actually feed 200,000 people, you just use the whole thing as a fund raising stunt which, in and of itself, isn't a bad thing. It just might have been a bit nicer to actually feed the hungry as well as call attention to their plight.

The stunt comes from Y&R Israel. It's for the Charity Organization and consisted of 1.3 kilometers of empty dinner table.

Where's the beef?

Need A Vegas Fix? Go to Blogworld in October

Please pardon this commercial interruption (unpaid and offered because we're nice and we're going to be there anyway):

From October 15-17, Blogworld & New Media Expo will hit Las Vegas. The event will cover blogging, podcasting, social media,online video, music, TV, radio, gaming, entertainment and communities.There will be more than 50 seminars, panel discussions and keynotes not to mention two days worth of exhibit hall fun.

Check out the conference website here. If you decided to attend, use the promo code ADRANTSBW. It'll score you an additional 20% off the rates. Do this before the expiration of early bird discounts on 9/14 and the savings will be bigger and better.

I wouldn't be pimping this if I didn't think it was a great conference. It is and I'm going. And besides, it's Vegas and who doesn't want a little Vegas in their life once in a while?

See you there.

More Mad Men Mockery Misfires

Wanna watch the world's worst Mad Men promo/spoof? Well, here it is courtesy of Landline TV. We have no idea what they're trying to accomplish with this :60 riff on the AMC series but one thing's clear. It's bad. Really bad.

Can we just leave Mad Men alone and stop obsessing over it. Perhaps enjoy it rather than continuously mock it as if we, the ad industry, are the only people who enjoy the show?

Yawn. Groceries Sold With Stop Motion

OK. What's up with the whole stop motion thing? Sure, it can net cool results but why go to all that trouble when you can just film a commercial regularly and save a lot of money in the process? After all, everyone in advertising is lazy right? And clients are always bitching about how much everything costs.

Oh wait, they're creative too. Sadly, they're derivative as well. Which...is why we get the same thing over and over and over again.