Burger King Launches Branded Xbox Games

Collecting together its various personalities from Brooke Burke to Subservient Chicken to Whopper Jr. to the King himself, Burger King has launched three Xbox and Xbox360 games loaded with Burger King branding. One game is all about racing. Another involves sneaking up on hungry people to offer them Burger King food. The third involves a theme park bumper car ride.

Stolen Chair Urges Spain's Prime Minister to Stand Up Against Poverty

In Spain, a video created by Tiempo BBDO Barcelona which shows two guys sneaking into the contry's parliament building to steal the chair of Prime Minister Zapatero has racked up over 421,000 views on YouTube and created a media frenzy with coverage in El Pais and Spitting image. Part of a United Nations campaign against poverty, the message left in place of Zapatero's chair reads "Zapatero, get on your feet on October 16 to protest against world poverty" which ties nicely to the stolen chair since, without a chair, Zapatero would have to stand the next time he went to parliament.

The video was believed to have been real by the media until the agency issued a statement to the contrary. Yes, it was staged. Part of the video was shot in parliament. The window the two climb through is not the parliament building. The shots inside parliament are the real deal but they didn't steal the actual chair, instead, using a prop. Real, unreal or otherwise, it certainly got the desired attention and media coverage for the cause.

VW, Slash Get Together, Give Away Guitars

At this rate, there will be approximately 116 Volkswagen commercials floating around by next year if Crispin keeps up its current pace. In this next outing, Volkswagen has partnered with guitar maker First Act in a promotion called V-dubs rock to give everyone who purchases a particular model with a guitar that features a seat belt as the strap and a plug that lets you tap into the vehicle's audio system. To show it all in action, former Guns N Roses guitarist Slash - now with Velvet Revolver - rocks out. Not that everyone wants a guitar but it's still a nice promotion all the same.

Campaign Aims For One Less Pregnant Smoker

In an apparent first, we have an anti-smoking campaign that speaks to an audience that doesn't live on the left or right coast and have "whiny little brat" tattooed to their upper middle class, teenage forehead. Set in somewhere in middle America, this "don't smoke while pregnant" commercial comes from American Legacy and Ad Council and was created by Austin's GSD&M. It very simply illustrates a thought that goes through a young, pregnant mother's head and the resolves she makes to change her lifestyle for the betterment of her baby.

The campaign, which includes print, is tied to a website called Great Start where tips and help are offered for those interested in quitting.

Loch Ness Monster Uses Toyota to Bait Stupid Joggers

Here's a pretty funny ad in which a jogger becomes food for the Loch Ness Monster after wandering transfixed over to what looks like a deserted Toyota Vios. Everytime we see Nessie's head snap back after swallowing we can't help but smile a little. Hey, you didn't think monsters ate? Somebody's got to pay for all those free photo opps. Our favourite part is when it pokes its head back out of the water to neatly set the decoy back up. - Contributed by Angela Natividad

'Friday Night Lights' Shows Promise, Heart

Europe loves futbol. America love football. Both games bring out competitive spirit and national patriotism. After viewing NBC's airing of Friday Night Lights, we feel we have to say never before has a TV show done such a wonderful job illustrating the love for and importance of a sport. A spin off of the 2004 Billy Bob Thornton movie of the same name based on H.G. Bissinger's book about the Odessa, Texas Permian High Panthers, the show brings to light small town America's love for the sport and the importance it plays in everyday life. While American soccer is alive an well on the fields of suburban America, that sport is unlikely to ever overtake the intensity of and love for good 'ol American football.

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Munchies, Brownies, Eyedrop Shelf Talkers Support Marijuana

With help from Spinach (the agency, not the food), pro-marijuana group NORML placed shelf talkers in grocery stores directly adjacent to the very products seemingly associated with feeding yourself weed. Very nice media placement, indeed. See the creative here.

UPDATE: Spinach contacted us and would like to clarify that it was a local chapter of NORML they worked with and not the national, parent organization. The work was pitched on a project basis to a local chapter which decided to go with the campaign. Beyond that, Spinach informs us that even though the local chapter approved the work and decided to use the signs, the agency is now seeking verification the local chapter actually used the signs.

With 'Huge Flavor' Comes Huge Portions

While this Draft FCB Interactive-created site for Applebee's does a great job highlighting four new "Huge Flavor" dishes, the site (and every other American restaraunt site) should really be called Huge Portions since each featured dish looks like it could feed an entire family.

Sobey's Cures Masochistically Obsessive-Compulsive Behavior

If you ever feel like your life is in a rut and your days are filled going through the same masochistically obsessive-compulsive routines over and over and over so much so that you can do them blindfolded or in complete disregard to alternative routines, you might want to go see a psychiatrist. Or, you might want to watch these ReginaldPike-produced commercials from Vancouver's ReThink for Sobey's food stores.

Target Offers Personalized, Customized, Localized Weekly Ad

To make it even easier to merch you, Target provides an option to receive a Weekly Ad via e-mail. If it were any easier they'd buy the products themselves, wrap them up and send over a pair of cute chicks in red uniforms and a gigantic Target truck to deliver them to you along with beer and hell, why not, maybe even a cheese calendar. But of course you have to do the buying, otherwise all Target's efforts are moot.

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