Times Square Gets Visit From Music-Toting Inflatable Monster

Flickr user brandongerena captured a few pictures of the Pepsi Monster which made its debut in Times Square yesterday to promote the brand's music giveaway on Amazon MP3 which will offer 3.25 million DRM-free songs for download. The monster's now traveling to Phoenix where it will say hello to those in and around the University of Phoenix stadium. See images here, here and here.

Man Boobs Obscure Various Body Parts

For a woman, not being able to see her feet without leaning over her protruding breasts could, by some, be considered a good thing. For a man with man boobs, not so much. Norwegian fitness center Oxygo Gym is in touch with that sentiment and has illustrated it nicely in this new newspaper campaign which broke January 19.

Created by Oslo agency 2008scandinavia, places the viewer in the eye of the beholder...a highly motivational position from which said beholder can relish in the disgust of their man boobs. Others have commented on another body part that's being concealed by this dude's belly but, for once, we're just not going to go there. Besides, we know you're smart and can figure it out. And, we really, really don't want to go there.

Cheetos Ditches Chester, Goes Underground

When we think Cheetos, we think Chester Cheetah, who vibes like an old guy in shades that hangs out at high schools, says hip phrases and eats cheesy snacks.

Chester is fucking creepy. Plus, he was always trying to get his (presumably Cheetos-stained) fingers on other people's food.

Probably because Frito Lay has finally caught on to the creepiness that is Chester, it gives us Orange Underground (not to be confused with Weather Underground, the radical leftist terrorist org), courtesy of Goodby Silverstein.

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Yuzu Sushi Morphs Assvertising into Spare Tire Advertising

For a little taste of non-traditional advertising, Canada's Yuzu Sushi gives us...spare tire advertising. Yes, spare tire advertising. Perhaps they figure assvertising was a bit too...oh...in your face whereas the ass end of a car would be less offensive and, well, more effective. After all, most people stare at the ass end of a car much more often than they stare at the ass end of a woman lifting her skirt so you can see the branded underwear she's wearing.

Minnesota Lottery Ads Capture Store Clerk Geekism Perfectly

The sad thing about this new Colle + McVoy-created campaign for the Minnesota State Lottery is that there really are real people in the real world just like the ones depicted in three new commercials. You've met them. They might work at your local convenience store, the local Best Buy or, perhaps, CompUSA. You know the type. The ones who look so goofy you can't believe they don't, themselves, believe they look goofy. Or the ones who say and do things so strange you can't believe they don't, themselves, know they sound and look like an idiot.

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Student Envisions Future of Interactive Television

Television has always been the proverbial "lean back" medium with information flowing mostly in a one way direction from the TV to the viewer in a non-interactive manner. That's changed a bit over the years with the arrival of video on demand and other semi-interactive capabilities. However, it's never progressed to the interactivity of the web and it's still unclear whether or not it should aspire to that level of interactivity.

The current passivity of TV hasn't stopped people from attempting to add interactivity to the medium and it hasn't stopped Koen, a student at Working Tomorrow who created this demo of clickable TV whereby a simple click of a product in an ad of product placement brings up information and ordering screens. It's not really new but it's interesting to see how different people execute the same idea. Whether or not TV ever progresses (or should progress) to this stage remains unclear.

Big Agency Idiocy Explained

In support of his ongoing theory the advertising industry is filled with BDA's aka Big Dumb Agencies, George Parker has unearthed an interesting analogy that involves monkeys and classical conditioning. The net result of this exercise explains perfectly why BDA's (and most other big companies) can never get out of their own way and achieve greatness.

So if you want to laugh and, at the same time, realize that, yes, you too just might be one of those monkeys trapped in a perpetual hell of repetitive behavior without knowing why, give this a read.

Sometimes a Profession (First Mangles, then) Chooses You

A girl named Mandy promised this video would reveal the COOLEST ROBOT EVER! We were skeptical but later decided she was right. Sure it won't shave your balls and get you off, but it will do a silly little dance. And it looks cuddly.

Here's another spot where robotics author Daniel Wilson, the star (and creator) of both videos, gets smack-talked by an automated phone system named Diane. We think it's just a cheesy way for him to represent his alma mater and show off his iPhone.

If you find yourself moved by the Carnegie Mellon alumnus' emotional subservience to robots, check out RoboU. CM's robotics unit could apparently use some new junkies.

McDonald's Ends Report Card Advertising

Everyone bitched and McDonald's listened. Under pressure from the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and 2,000 angry parents, the fast food giant haspulled the advertising it had placed on Seminole County, Florida's report cards. Graciously, McDonald's will still pay the cost of printing the report cards, the initial reason given for the ad placement.

Pocket Geek Game Tests Management Skills

We really like when business to business advertising leave behind the idiotic metaphors that so pervasively fill their advertising and, instead, opt for something, well, more fun. For power plant and air traffic control software developer QNX, Fuel Industries created The Pocket Geek, an online game whereby the player acts as manager to a developer for a five day project. In the game, a set of management tools helps the manager keep the developer fed and his productivity up. Between each day, there's an IQ quiz. Unfortunately, we blew the pocket geek up after just two days. Guess we suck as a manger. It was fun though.