Lollapalooza kicks off August 3-5 with an awesome line-up including Modest Mouse, Lupe Fiasco, Pearl Jam, Daft Punk, Interpol and others.
Heavily sponsored by AT&T, which wants really badly to shake its rotary vibe in favour of something more Cingular, the event courts Palooza enthusiasts by inviting one and all to "tell us what you'd like to see, hear, eat, feel, drink, buy or hug." (Because it's not just any Lollapalooza, it's your Lollapalooza.)
To whet the appetite, throw together a PaloozaHead, an animated widget that features your face or a mash-up of favourite band members. Yes, it's creepy but no creepier than anything else already out there. (That Mel Gibson menorah still gives us the shakes.)
Watch for the laggage, though. We checked the backs of our computers at least four times to see if someone had wedded us back to 56K as some sort of nasty joke.
Here's a pearl of wisdom that strippers have been leveraging for as long as they've existed. The most current issue of Wired invites enterprising voyeurs to take a peek at radical transparency -- new buzz for an old strategy that, every few years, gets re-toted as the Grail.
Open up to rivals? Get honest with customers? Admit failures? Who does this stuff? Wired says smart businesses do and it's "sweeping boardrooms across the nation"! That may be true, and blogs and wikis may dramatically contribute to the eye-opener, but it's hardly a new game. Warren Buffett's been doing it forever (ever read his love letters to the shareholders?) and Santa from Miracle on 34th St. (circa 1947) did it too, to Macy's chagrin. Oh, and then there were strippers. Don't forget the strippers.
Post-Evolution, soap ads strike us as a bit lacking in the imagination department. But Lux Provocateur goes above and beyond the call of duty.
We were dazzled by their charming and innovative stop-motion stint, and they win us over twofold with Neon Girl by Santo, Buenos Aires, the same heartstring bandits responsible for the previous ad, and Danny Kleinman of production company Rattling Stick.
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Ogilvy art director Dustin Duke pairs up with the team at Mr. Wonderful to put together some PSAs for Out in TV and Film (OTF), an organization whose URL is as unwieldy as feelings about coming out of the closet.
The object is to get gay and lesbian members of the entertainment industry to go public about their sexual preferences, providing a buffer of support that strengthens as others step out too.
The spots will air at the Queer Media & Entertainment Conference and on the OTF website, in addition to the LOGO and here! Networks. Check out the first two, featuring actress and comedian Judy Gold and veejay Kim Stolz of mtvU. They're candid and occasionally funny, so here's to hoping they do the job.
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Oh look, Sony's got another Bravia Balls ad. Oops, sorry. Pardon our confusion. We're easily suckered by such similarities. When ever we see colored balls flying though the air we can't help but think of Sony's...uh...balls. But no. This isn't a Bravia Balls ad. It's a Nintendo commercial breaking Monday, April 16 introducing the Pokemon Diamond and Pokemon Pearl games.
Leo Burnett created the spot entitled Pokeballs which features children in a variety of different locations watching Pokeballs fall from the sky in anticipatory amazement. After Sony Paint, we were in the mood for another ball spot but, alas, this isn't it. Nintendo's got Sony by the balls now.
Last fall Crowne Plaza Hotel hired Fallon Minneapolis to kick up a golf affinity program along with the hotel's Invitational at Colonial PGA Tournament. The agency put an odd combination of golfers together such as David Feherty, Natalie Gulbis, Dan Jenkins, George Lopez, Lee Trevino, and Alice Cooper and filmed the results. Alice Cooper in a conference room talking about golf is just way, way out of place. But, it seems to work. There's several spots in the series. One can be viewed here.
Some print campaigns are just so odd they make you stop and look. This Killer Jeans effort is one such campaign. Touting its Immortal Jeans line, we've got a Disney Test Track/crash test dummy-style approach with the required auto babe. We've got the hipster base jumper and we've got a mine sweeper crew. Get it? Dangerous situations? Killer Jeans? Good. We didn't want to have to spell it out for you.
Bates Enterprise Mumbai created the campaign.
Beamvertising is back and bringing the Ninja Turtles to life outside the big screen.
For the Brazilian film Tartarugas Ninja, the beamvertised Turtles enacted a mini-rescue against a building, utilizing its actual dimensions, which made the show that much more realistic. We admit it came as a comfort to us to watch them in live action. We have always wanted them to be real.
Putting that reverse psychology argument to rest, Mt. St. Vincent University contends it worked for them -- and they have data to prove it.
Alongside Extreme Group MSVU launched Good Thing, a campaign that courts savvy new students by telling them not to attend the university because it would ruin their small class sizes and good vibe. Shirts were printed with "Seriously. Don't come here. We've got a good thing going."
Featured at Empire Theatres, a popular hangout, and online, early creative consists of sharp graphic design (1, 2, 3) then, later, more casual animation (4, 5, 6) instead of ho-hum study-on-the-lawn photos. Nice work.
Apparently future co-eds thought so too. Applications leaped 7.8 percent and visits to the site saw an 18.5 percent jump compared to the same time in 2005. Who'd have guessed disinterest -- even feigned disinterest -- is magnetic?
For only the second time ever, USPS customers can vote on a stamp. This kind of opportunity is reserved for the few and godlike -- Elvis was one such special occasion. This time we get to choose from 15 possible Star Wars options. The winning selection gets glory in mass production come summertime.
This goes in nice tangent with the R2-D2 mailboxes slated to populate post offices nationwide later this year to celebrate Star Wars' 30 year anniversary.
We enjoy the Jedi Shipping/Mailing Master theme on the USPS Jedi Master website. If the US Postal Service is going to go all the way with this thing, they might as well trick out local postal workers in Jedi garb. They can even burn open our mailboxes with light sabers. That would be awesome. We might vote for a stamp then.
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