Gruesome, Twisted, Sick North Pole Site of 'Save Santa' Game

There just aren't many words that come to mind when describing this animated promotional piece from ID Branding, Ride Studio and Omatic Design called Save the Fat Man. Sick, twisted and weird might be a few though. Puking polar bears, orgiastic elves and cannibalistic gingerbread cookies are just part of the fun.

Jenna is the Perfect Girl For Your Friend

If you're a guy and you're feeling a bit down and dejected this holiday season or if you, man or woman, know a guy who is, Jenna is here to lift your/their spirits. Adrants reader David Shrager created a little site called Your Perfect Girl, that lets you enter your friend's name, what Jenna is supposed to like about him, what they will talk about at dinner, what your friend does for work and how the message will end. A video then plays and Jenna, with her intoxicatingly sweet voice, takes the friend out for the night. Possessing a fantasy-addled brain, this is the stuff we love. Be kind to your friends this year. Send Jenna.

UPDATE: Jenna loves us....really loves us:-)

Smirnoff Mistletoe/Swamp Thing Creature Nailed on Camera

Kevin at PR Blog keeps us updated on that mistletoe demonstration he saw recently. Shortly after our original post DIAGEO expressed concern via e-mail because they worried about kids' exposure to the alcohol-related event.

Impressive follow-up - we remain as gratified with the campaign as we were when we heard about the heckling children.

We're also pleased about finally getting to see the swampy mistletoe man with our own eyes, which was all we cared about anyway. He doesn't much look like he's wearing his favourite suit but everyone else seems to be having fun.

HSBC Puts Subcultures in a Tank for Local Critique

In this collabo between Cunning and JWT, passers-by can text opinions about paparazzi and fitness fads in exchange for the chance to win a digicam or gym membership.

We've seen the live mannequin thing before and while it never ceases to be creepy we like the execution of the idea here. It has the potential to be comically obnoxious which off-sets the creepiness. And guess who this is for? Our opinion-courting friends at HSBC. Aww.

First Flavor Makes Marketing a Matter of Taste

Inspired by the enduring Willy Wonka, First Flavor builds on film strip technology to create little taste samplers for food and beverage products for use in media kits, promos and soda machines.

The description of apple cinnamon oatmeal strips didn't bring the Wonka wallpaper scene to mind, which is what founder Adnan (himself somewhat Wonka-esque, though we can't quite say how or why) credits as his inspiration. Instead we recalled the three-course-meal gum, where Violet describes the flavors in vivid detail and then expands into a blueberry.

We don't think First Flavor does that but it's still pretty neat. The newscaster in the ABC video got to try some and not only was she impressed; she couldn't stop talking about the dieting possibilities of a zero-calorie taste explosion.

Bond Girl, X-Woman Says Be Nice to Dogs

Oh we just can't pass on featuring one of our favorite, over-the-top Bond girls Zena Onatop aka Famke Jansen who is appearing in a "Be An Angel For Animals" PETA ad. Famke and PETA want us to be nice to dogs this holiday season. The ad, shot by Andrew Southam, was unveiled at an event yesterday in LA at Runyon Canyon Park. So don't crate your dog when you go to the inlaws for Christmas this year. Call Famke and I'm sure she'd be happy to come over and watch your dog.

Holiday Cards See Nostalgic Twist

Sparked by a handwritten note marked "How do you ask a Ninja for a free hug?", Twist Image disseminates its take on the holiday card, which is less holiday card and more video collage of happy 2006 moments. Some inclusions: the "free hugs" guy, the live-action Simpsons intro, Animator v. Animation and the viral OKGo treadmill video.

Lee Hopkins claims this is the best Christmas card he's ever seen. While we think those are strong words, we're inclined to agree, and not merely because they remembered to include Ask a Ninja (which automatically grants all-star status). We wish the cats at Twist an equally happy holidays.

Y! SNOW Cards Mildly Madden with Mellifluous Mockery

In its continuing attempts to be savvy, Yahoo! Search Marketing jumps on the holiday e-card merry-go-round and sends all affiliates a Simulated Niceness of Winter (SNOW) card. The one they shot out struck us as a mere mockery of the quiet pain and suffering they imposed as they sat around re-tooling to "innovate" a la AdWords.

We'd like to trash them more along this vein but the SNOW card creation function is actually pretty nifty. The gadgets, slightly psychotic-looking characters and voice recording function recall a time when Yahoo! was cool and truly ahead of its days, a time when we enjoyed playing with them. So here's to hoping they do better this '07.

Smirnoff Gives Lost Stars Fresh Play, Children Point and Laugh

Smirnoff Ice's Save the Mistletoe is an amusingly long-way-around attempt to say Smirnoff brings people together (just like mistletoe - so stop ravaging innocent bushes).

While we remain unmoved by the plight of the sprig, the execution wins us over. By some curious witch magic the campaign features celebrity supporters that we thought were long dead or had found joy in covert day jobs. Natalie from The Facts of Life, Lisa Turtle from Saved by the Bell, Tiffany who crooned "I Think We're Alone Now" and even the Soup Nazi band together to protect the kissing plant from further appropriation by brute force.

That's not all. Kevin at PR Blog divulges having seen a swamp-like creature that was actually supposed to be mistletoe, getting heckled by children at a nearby ice rink for love of the campaign. We wonder which sponsoring celebrity burn-out he happened to be. We put our money on The Incredible Hulk.

Nasher Baits for Museum Attendance with Tantalizing Clue Game

Here's an eye-catching campaign. Agency Republik creates Illuminator, a series of time-released puzzles and clues whose answers lie in the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University.

The campaign will run twice in six months through newspapers, on the Illuminator site, on signs in the museum, and in a flip book at the museum store. Each clue corresponds to one piece of art; for example, this Missing poster speaks to Memories by Sheng Qi. And the image at left points to this guy.

The person who nails all 20 gets ... a free shirt. Okay, that kind of sucks. But the game is intriguing and possibly, yes, illuminating. If there's anything we learned about America post Da Vinci Code it's that you can only get people's asses into a museum if they have a ball of yarn to untangle - and possibly a cryptic murder case involving an albino, but you can't ask for everything.