We have to admit there's something about Altoids we just like. A lot. For Valentine's Day they've taken their running Curiously Strong theme and added a curiously twisted BDSM thread.
In a dark take on Herbal Essences' bubble-gum anti-Cupid campaign, Altoids embraces Cupid in all his glory ... and gives him a pair of handcuffs. And because ambiance is 9/10 of a good show, they've even opened up temporary Altoids Chocolate Shoppes, prime purveyors of their devilish chocolate mints, with darkened windows and threesomes hidden in the wallpaper. The stores are in NY, Miami and Chicago and will remain open until tomorrow at 10 PM.
Aside from the product there's not much branding going on and the prevalent hearts have slashes down the middle that recall melting chocolate. We are afraid of the (whip-wielding, leather-clad) part of us that says "YES" too readily to this bad-ass positioning scheme, which was concocted by Bigheads Network in tangent with Gigunda Group. All it needs is a cross-brand relationship with Lelo and it'll really be in business.
Bandages are one of those categories that nobody pays much attention to - and they should, because anybody who's anybody has a box or two in the house. People just don't do enough to make them interesting.
That's why we admire the effort behind these nifty bacon bandages by Accoutrements. What is it about putting a slab of meat on a wound that makes you feel 10 times more awesome? We're not really sure, but in the unlikely event that meat bandages fail to make you feel cool, don't worry: there's a free toy inside.
Doesn't the thought just fill you with a glow? We just want to run out there without our knee pads and do something crazy, like climb fences with that prickly stuff on top.
We're seeing a lot of work where the background of an ad is incorporated into the ad itself. This Chandon Rose billboard, which lends new meaning to the notion of community activity, is a good example.
Check out a further shot here. Thanks bunches to Adrants reader Janine, who caught this in NYC recently.
So we're looking at this commercial in which an older couple is having a conversation but it's subtitled because, well, after you're in a relationship for a long time, one assume everything's already been said but e can't figure out what the ad's trying to say. But the end of the ad with it's tagline, "A real relationship is built over time," all is apparently explained. While it's true a solid relationship does take time to build but as a person looking for banking services, does anyone want their bank to take 40 years to "understand" them?
Oh screw that, the ad's funny. The ad was created by Duval Guillaume in Belgium.
According to CSX Transportation it's common for co-eds to wander drunkenly onto traintracks in dead of night and die grisly railroad deaths that often involve bright lights, loud noises, metal on flesh and decapitation.
(We've also heard this happens to koalas in the wild. Drunk off eucalyptus, they fall off their trees and are often hit by cars. But that's a digression.)
To get the word out to college students, agency Exit10 of Baltimore distributed wallet-sized bottle openers that portray a man being decapitated when used. We thought this was a silly idea until we actually saw the bottle opener. Now we just feel very uncomfortable. "This is what a train can do to your body," reads the sober black text against the metal finish.
The sight of it made us rub our necks and put down our requisite Adrants martini. Dude. Talk about a buzzkill.
It's not the first time a political candidate will have used social networking as part of a campaign strategy, but it's probably the first time a political candidate has ever created his or her own social networking site.
Enter My Barack Obama, a social networking space dedicated to users who'd like to help Obama get into the White House in '08. He also has a MySpace that's of course not made or endorsed by him but by some very serious fan out there who happens to have little to do but make thousands of friends on his behalf.
There's not too much you can say to trash a guy who acknowledges his own lack of qualifications and admits to doing drugs in college. But we've all seen how internet influence can make or break you. A word of warning, Obama: remember Howard Dean.
To promote the Patriot, Jeep gets cozy with Marvel Comics and their built-in audience of former geeks, geeks-in-training, pop aficionados, and mutants like us (we turn everything we touch into AWESOME).
The campaign site includes a progressive comic-drawn adventure scrawled by Bing Cansino. Users can input their own storylines as the tale progresses. The winning tale gets penned by Cansino and may result in an autographed original page sketch.
Yeah, it's consumer-gen. Again. But it's way better than Jeep Compass and that strange bobble-head/karaoke stuff.
It's become part of the 20-something cliche to leave college and see the world. That's why we think the STA Travel 193 campaign by Night Agency is doing so well. Upon the contest's end a winner will be selected to become a "world traveler" over a two-person trip to four countries.
The campaign features a little Flash globe with clickable videos where you can watch people talk about their experiences in a given country. It's a little like being back in college again, watching those EAP kids give speeches about how their lives have changed forever post beer-chug in Munich.
With next to no media money spent this invitation has garnered over 6000 leads for STA in its first week. Now how can we possibly have an immigration problem when everybody's just raring to leave?
In step with the photo booth motif, Danish agency We Love People (what a friendly name!) has created what it calls a Remix Nature installation for its client Ecco Shoes. The installation contains three sets of three TV screens. One for the head, One for the body. One for the feet. When people walk into the container their picture is taken and the person can "remix" their images for each of the three body segments with those of others in the booth.
The booth supports the footwear makers 2nd nature shoe line and will be placed in Copenhagen, London and Stockholm during Fashion Week and then in Singapore afterwards. The campaign will culminate with a Remix Nature event at which international DJs will perform using images collected from the booth. Check out more images of the installation here.
If lust doesn't do the job for you this Valentine's day, Swatch suggests voodoo. And if the voodoo fails, at least the apple of your eye will have a neat new watch and a weird-looking stuffed toy.
Swatch is running a neat little Valentine's Day campaign with love voodoo master Eddy G Lazaro. In this video he shows you how voodoo love Swatch watches are made. It's not nearly as action-packed as it sounds and there are no shrunken heads, but he does do that neat eyes-rolling-back trick. And each voodoo love Swatch comes with a bonafide voodoo doll.
What can beat that? We're at a total loss. This is just a notch better than smacking your partner on the back of the head and dragging her by the hair into your cave.
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