European mobile carrier Orange has this pay-as-you-go program that lets users define their own reward system. To promote it, Fallon/London tapped Reuben Sutherland of Joyrider, who came up with "Grabber."
In the spot above, transparent orange balloons, shaped like random animals, float enchantedly up toward the skylight of a factory building. (This setting was labeled "timeless," which I guess is true, given that we never quite run out of deserted warehouses.)
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My sister, who's way into video games, sent me to YouTube.com/ExperienceWii, where users can watch footage from Wario Land: Shake It!.
The :45 video had major nostalgic appeal. I remember playing Wario games on Super NES and even on Virtual Boy -- where, in addition to wreaking havoc on a titillating infrared world, Wario also wreaked havoc on my vision.
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- T-Mobile debuts first Google Android phone, thereby changing face of mobile forever, etc., etc.
- Wieden and Starbucks break up.
- Wrigley sells advergaming goldmine Candystand to Funtank. No word on why the service, which CEO James Baker of Funtank called "great viral marketing," was sold. Maybe it was just time to cash in.
- Biggie Smalls hits the big screen. "Too bad we're not in middle school anymore," says a twenty-something colleague. "I'm imagining the tears ... and the hugging."
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- Google's Sergey Brin started a blog. In the first entry, he discloses his risk for Parkinson's disease. The New York Times probes why he'd do that.
- British actor Paul Kaye plays Seamus Murphy, the shady proprietor of an airport car park, for another one of those not-yet-viral "viral" campaigns. This is for Holiday Extras, a travel website.
- Esther Lee departs EuroRSCG.
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"I'm a PC and I sell fish!"
Say what you will about the Microsoft/Seinfeld ad campaign (or "Phase I" of a grander design), it's hard not to like these fresh-out "I'm a PC" ads.
The spots -- quirky, friendly and feel-good -- debuted last night during The Office. See all three below.
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Crush/Toronto, the fine folk that produced the promo work for Douglas Coupland's The Gum Thief (kicking off our love affair with his books), partnered with Blok Design/Mexico City to produce the opening title sequence for Arte en Construccion.
The latter is a Mexican TV program that "[examines] the creative process of leading artists in Mexico."
The score is playful, almost exploratory; the visuals are well-shot and deliciously tactile: grains of sand, vibrant pink against dull landscapes, thread being manipulated between metal points. Thankfully, it's also short, so you can enjoy all its charms without holding that wry grin for over a minute.
On October 2 in Times Square, Netflix kicks off a five-day movie-watching marathon. The objective: to make the Guinness World Record for most consecutive hours spent watching movies.
Provided you don't die of sleep deprivation, drowning or electrocution,* winners get "undeniable notoriety associated with holding the title of world champion," plus $10K, a lifetime Netflix subscription, and a Popcorn Bowl trophy -- the first of its kind!
But jobless film buffs be warned: the current record-holder, Ashish Sharma of Mathura, India, will also compete. The time to beat is 120 hours and 23 minutes.
To promote the marathon, DECON produced three spots for TV and three for online. The online ones are pretty much the same as the TV ones, except more to-the-point (see?).
Each ends with a huge Netflix logo, followed by the ominous words, "The training has begun." Titillated? Is your calling calling? Enter on Facebook.
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When you've got nostalgia on your side, you'd be damn silly not to take advantage.
Bowing to this philosophy, WONGDOODY is promoting the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards by compiling collages of popular TV characters from the last 60 years. See banner ads, a ginormous collage (tagline: "one night. everything you love about tv.") and a fun bus wrap ("Everybody on TV is going. Are you?"). It's so Universal Studios!
The campaign, "Where TV Comes Together," will run until the broadcast of the 60th Primetime Emmys, which airs Sunday Sept. 21 at 8pm EST.
In the meantime, it should guarantee some good clean time-wasting fun. Use the ads to play a makeshift version of Where's Waldo?, except with Captain Kirk and Miss Piggy instead of a stripey-shirt dude you don't even know.
Copywriters Brian Pierce and Nik Bristow of Fitzgerald+CO/Atlanta are embarking on a wince-worthy mission: following the route of the Cannonball Run, they'll drive across the nation without a single stop. Not for fuel ... not even to pee. (Although I'm sure at some point they'll gracefully pause in order to switch seats.)
All this to promote Willie Nelson's brand of biodiesel, aptly named BioWillie. The mission's been dubbed WillieRun and you can follow the hijinks (of which I'm sure there'll be many) from their blog.
Seriously though, no pee break? I refuse to believe it. You guys have gotta be carrying empty Gatorade bottles or somethin'.
Find out for yourself at their kick-off party, which takes place Sept. 22nd at the XR Bar. More details at the blog link above. And big-ups to Brian Thompson for passing this news along.
Well, everyone got what they wanted. Those zany Bill Gates/Jerry Seinfeld ads (see 1 and 2) are out of the picture and now we'll never see what they were building up to. That upsets me. Then again, I didn't whip out the $10 million for Seinfeld.
In their stead, Crispin's hired a dead-ringer for John Hodgman, the stodgy but lovable "humorist" who personifies PC in Apple's "Mac vs. PC" ads. (See Hodgman pose as free pizza in the most recent spot. He's so cute!)
According to Engadget, the new effort is a direct rebuttal to the "Mac vs. PC" ads, which have become part of popular culture. One even starts out with the John Hodgman lookalike saying, "Hello, I'm a PC, and I've been made into a stereotype."
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