iPod Observer reports Microsoft was behind the creation of the iPod packaging spoof we had here earlier that slammed Microsoft for its overuse of design elements, snips and other call outs on it's packagaing. The video spoof demonstrated what an iPod package would look like if it came from Microsoft. Microsoft spokesman Tom Pilla told iPod Observer, "It was an internal-only video clip commissioned by our packaging [team] to humorously highlight the challenges we have faced RE: packaging and to educate marketers here about the pitfalls of packaging/branding,"
Nothing this funny, whether created internally or externally, is able to be contained. While the video has been removed from YouTube, you can view it at Google Video.
If something can attract 60 million to it, there must be something goo about it. We;re thinking that's the thinking behind the USA Network's launch of ShowUsYourCharacter, a site that features character from USA shows but also mimics the social community aspects of MySpace and other similar operations. On ShowUsYourCharacter, visitors can dig deep into the profiles of their favorite characters and then set up a profile of their own to highlight their uniqueness.
While the site is about creating a community, the network is also hoping to collect and identify profiles of unique individuals who, upon submitting a video and statement, will be selected as winners with the Grand Prize winner appearing in an on-air USA campaign. With Tagworld, Facebook, MySpace, Orkut, LinkedIn, Friendster and others, there seems to be no end to people's willingness to place themselves in front of the world for all to see. No doubt, USA will see return on this effort.
We love PSAs. We especially love PSAs from countries outside the U.S. where creating an ad that dramatically delivers the message isn't hampered by left, right, middle-winged cause groups that feel anything beyond a shot of a smiling baby will be offensive to...well...some small minority no one's ever heard of. So we gleefully share this Berlin-based public serviced announcement encouraging bicyclers to wear helmets.
Boston agency Hill Holliday has tossed its traditional site and launched a weblog. No, they didn't just add a blog to their already existing site, they ditched it entirely. Well, almost. They've done a wonderful job incorporating some of the usual capabilities and portfolio items into the header of the blog using Flash. The beauty of this approach, what many agencies still need to discover, will catapult Hill Holliday into the "conversation" about advertising. The site will get natural Google love, Technorati love and proliferation throughout the blogoshere's link-fest, something a static agency site can never achieve. And, most importantly, potential clients will get to know how HH thinks rather than how well they write website copy.
Other agencies such as W+K have great weblogs but we're not aware of any other major (yes, smaller ones have) agencies that have gone the all-blog format. We think this is great and we welcome HH to the conversation.
Lincoln Mercury, which previously launched a serial Internet-based movie called Meet The Lucky Ones, is launching two new webisodes featuring the Mercury Milan mid-size sedan and the new Zephyr, Lincoln's first entry-luxury sedan. The first installments of the five-week Web series debut today at LovelyBySurprise.com and TheNeverything.com, bringing together stars from Oscar-winning movies and hit television series, including "Grey's Anatomy," "A Beautiful Mind," "Amistad" and "Walk the Line." Written and directed by Kirt Gunn, they tell the story of an author whose fiction overtakes her real life. The two sides of the story are presented on two separate Web sites - one by Lincoln, the other by Mercury.
Our brief review of the work interests us. This isn't your standard web video stuff. This is stuff you'd expect to see on TV or in the movie theater. If this is truly where advertising is going, we're all for it.
This is just one of those ads that would cause so many complaints in America that, well, it's not running in America. It's running in China. To say this ad attracts attention is an understatement. See more "executions" here.
Here's an interesting ad for BIC found by Creative Criminal. You don't see outdoor ads like this very often but you should. It's definitely attention-getting.
What may once have been a one off is now a bonafide ad unit. Late last year, the New York Post emblazoned its Page Size with a Sex and the City watermark. Today, E! News is all over Page Six. We liked the ad unit back then and we still like it. Bucky Turco spotted this one for us.
Here's one of those ads you can lay on the table in front of the client with complete confidence you've done nothing too scurrilous. When the client's facial expressions turns to one of shock and embarrassment, you can feign innocence and ask, "What? It's just a mouse on a piece of paper." And with a wicked glimmer, add, "Why? What do you see?"
Ideas for bra ad concepts are as endless as Peter North's "product." There's no end to the way you can manipulate society's obsession with breasts into an ad campaign. While these concepts aren't rocket science, most good concepts aren't. They work because they are simple. And these ads for Wonderbra are very simple. One is playful. The other pokes fun at the relationship between breasts and shirt buttons. What more can really be said about a bra that hasn't a;ready been said?
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