Mrs. Butterworth Plays Wingman to Geico Customer

Think only experienced TV spokespeople wield influence? Yeah, Geico agrees. So to supplement the tale of an apparently ordinary customer, it ensured success with an old-school icon: Mrs. Butterworth. (You know, the maternal maple syrup bottle.)

I love how she tosses in that random "hot pancakes" reference. Good stuff by The Martin Agency.

Entourage Buses Sport Chrome on the Wheels

To promote the Sunday premier of HBO's Entourage, a series that enlivens the imaginations of freeloaders everywhere, Creature pimped out public transport.

Buses in NYC were wrapped with Entourage creative and outfitted with ostentatious chrome rims featuring the series logo. Way to bring LA to Manhattan!

Attesting to the show's success at engaging its demographic, one of the rims has already been stolen. The others will be auctioned off after the promotion.

Meetup Says 'Unplug Your Friends'

For those of us who live our lives online with a collection of Twitter, Facebook, Pownce, Flickr, Second Life and Linked In accounts, this new Unplug Your Friends effort from Meetup says we need to overcome out addition to the screen and rejoin the real world. A commercial in which a closeted geek discovers there's a world beyond his collection of screens and online friends supports the effort.

It's trippy and surreal but it makes a powerful point. There's a world out there that isn't digital and it can be a very friendly place. The creative comes from freelance CD team of Julie Lamb and Phil Gable. Curious Pictures in New York produced the work which was directed by former agency creative-turned animation director Rohitash Rao.

Thirsty African Kid Invades TV Studios for Water

To promote "Music for Life," whose theme this year was the dearth of drinkable water in some countries, the Red Cross and Studio Brussels let loose a thirsty black kid, who invaded TV studios and stole sips out of TV personalities' glasses.

It's hilarious. He just races onstage, gulps water down, and races off again without a word. Nobody can keep a straight face, and one chick just looks totally lost.

A video montage of the effort was put together and disseminated under the catchy name "Black boy wants water." As the Guerrilla Communications blog points out, it kept people awake -- and better still, got its point across.

The effort purportedly raised 3.3 million euros for drinkable water. It also won two golds, a silver and a titanium award at Cannes this year.

Hot Dog Seeks Safety in Dorm Room Bed

Some people will do anything for a hot dog. Well, or a Wienerschnitzel hot dog, that is. Here we have a college girl chasing her Wienerschnitzel down the dormitory hallway (yes, she's chasing a hot dog) and into the room of an unsuspecting guy. The guy, of course, taken by the girl's ample curvature and sweet face tries to put the moves on her while the little Wienerschnitsel dude seeks hiding under his sheets. Yes, it's a very weird spot but oddly watchable...in a weird way.

For Mere Pocket Change, 'East Touch Magazine' Lets You Into Its Pants

From September to October, Levi's "Live Unbuttoned" campaign invades newsstands and 7-Elevens in Hong Kong.

Agency TBWA\TEQUILA partnered with East Touch Magazine to outfit its next issue in miniature 501s. Mag-lurkers will literally have to unbutton the jeans just to finger a copy. Bonus points if you can fit in them!

There'll also be a guerrilla effort in Causeway Bay, where customers can experience the "Live Unbuttoned" campaign live and, uh, unbuttoned, which I think just means they'll be able to try jeans on in a tent. (I'm hoping there'll also be a lively music component. Chinese gen-yers love free music -- who doesn't? -- so it would make sense if Levi's also promoted its free music downloads there, too.)

For Some Brands, Nudity Has A Proper Place in Advertising

If you're in the business of selling items of, say, an "adult" nature such as lingerie, pornography and sex toys, you can't really expose your wares in your advertising. Beate Uhse AG found an ingenious way around this unfortunate fact with this directional billboard featuring four naked women with all the OMG-you can't-show-that-in-public parts neatly covered with an arrow.

The creativity - or the prurient persona of the work's creators - behind this one is to be applauded. Show the "product." Make it easy to find said "product." The work was created by Cayenne.

Samsung Gets Weird With Beauty Queen, Penguin, Crownfish

What do a penguin, a beauty queen and a crownfish have to do with each other? Nothing unless they are the main characters in a Samsung commercial in which a Penguin rescues the beauty queen who has just caught herself a Crownfish.

It's all very weird. Very noir. And it all points to Samsung's See the Whole Story website.

TNT Raises Toll Booth Bar on Labor Day

So Labor Day weekend is upon us here in the States. It's the time when we're supposed to remember, uh ... what was it? Oh yeah, laborers.

Labor Day originated in 1882, when the Central Labor Union of New York City aimed to create a day off for working citizens. It became an federal holiday in 1894.

Today, we mostly treat the holiday as another excuse to get in our cars, sit in traffic and scream at fellow citizens in an attempt to make our way to islands, beaches or mountainous regions to squeeze out that last ounce of summer before autumn slaps us in the face with colder weather, back to school insanity and, usually, a heavier workload.

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Frankenstein Wants Unprotected Sex

When it comes to getting yourself tested for certain kinds of STDs, you can be reasonably sure the tested parts are your own and you have a pretty clear history of the part's activities. That is unless you are Frankenstein about to have unprotected sex with his first love in this Danish commercial.

Now if I could only remember that "detachable penis" song from like 20 years ago.