Hilary Duff is the new Ad Babe. She's cute. She's wholesome. She's not Britney. And she'll be featured in a new ad campaign from Hasbro breaking this week. The campaign will promote Hasbro's new VideoNow, a portable personal video player. Following that, Stuff by Hilary Duff, a new line of clothing and accesories will hit stores this Fall.
New Ad Babe, Duff, will also promote a Hilary Duff pre-paid Visa card for kids age 6-13 in the Fall as well. The girl is seriously busy. Apechild, maybe you need to add Hilary to your "Event Counter" like the Olsen Twins.
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Flavour Advertising of Toronto has extended Bacardi's fun "On the Inside" bar theme to a television ad campaign. The agency took unscripted footage filmed in Canadian bars and created ads in a successful attempt to get away from canned looking liquor/beer ads.
Go to the site, click Enter, Creative, Television, then Bacardi White to view the commercials.
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Magic Johnson has entered into a spokesperson deal with Ford Motor Company
Ford's Lincoln and Mercury units have signed basketball Hall of Famer Earvin "Magic" Johnson as its new spokesperson. The multi-year deal will include national broadcast and print ads. Financial terms were not revealed.
Magic will appear in ads for '04 model year vehicles, starting late this year. Young & Rubicam, Dearborn, Mich., will be the lead agency overseeing the partnership, but UniWorld, New York, Lincoln Mercury's African American AOR, will create the first advertising. Ford spent $146 million on media for its Lincoln banner in 2002, per TNS/CMR.
Johnson will principally support Lincoln vehicles, rather than the Mercury lineup in advertising. Darryl Hazel, president of Lincoln Mercury, said Johnson was chosen because, "He's an icon of American culture. He appeals to a wide range of people." Hazel said Lincoln Mercury isn't using Johnson merely as a promotional image. "It's a true partnership," he said, adding that Johnson has expressed interest in buying into some dealerships as well. "It's being explored," he said.
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Jeff Bercoviki of MediaLife reviews the August isses of Playboy, one of the first under the helm of new editor, James Kaminsky. He doesn't like it much:
"For the past couple decades, it has been like the middle-aged swinger at the party, sure that his leisure suit and mustache are the ticket to picking up chicks, unaware that he has become something of a joke.
Now imagine if someone were to take that middle-aged guy, slap a backwards baseball cap on his comb-over and swap his polyester trousers for baggy Levi�s.
That pretty well summarizes what James Kaminsky, Playboy�s new editorial director, has done since taking over last fall."
Ouch! I think I'll stick with Maxim.
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MTV will launch its new ad campiagn for MTV2 with the tagline, "It's not MTV, it's MTV2". Trying to not look like an actual commercial, the spots portray a fake TV show with a plastic baby doll voiced by a grumpy dude and controled by a guy moving it's arms. The campaign will run for five weeks beginning next month on DirecTV and Dish Network systems as well as local cable and broadcast.
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Many magazines don't like to co-brand because sometimes it devalues their primary brand. Well, Maxim isn't thinking that way and we should all get ready to see Maxim and their logo everywhere. Maxim will have TV specials, cell phone services, hair cream, chairs, sheets, towels, etc. Could they maybe put the cover models everywhere too?
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Aside from the Honda Cog spoof, there haven't been any great ad spoofs floating around lately. Remember PUMA, or Victoria's Secret or Mastercard? That's what I'm talking about, people. Where are they? Where have all the spoofers gone? So, this is my challenge to all you ad spoofers out there: FIND! SPOOF! SUBMIT!
Pick an advertiser, spoof the ad, and submit it to Adrants. If you want to be famous, leave your name. If you want to be anonymous, that's fine too. I'll never tell.
Need an idea? You could have fun with those Skechers ads. You know the ones with the girls all sitting around looking cool in there Skechers. What if it became a Skechers orgy?
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From the ever vigilant trend-watcher, Trendwatching.com, there are some newly coined trends to discuss. The first, Digital Embrace, is the counterculture reaction to Digital Denial, a term coined by Forrester to describe the movie and music industries denial of the digital revolution. Again, it's the consumer who will be in the driver's seat. Not big corporation trying to protect their anachronistic business models.
Other intriguing trends to watch are Transumerism, catering to the traveling consumer; Online Oxygen, the need for constant connectivity to survive; and Pulse Publications, another term for the ever growing world of weblogs and their ability to cover every possible angle of every possible topic out there at all possible moments in time.
Check out TrendWatching.
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Outside Magazine has partnered with The Away Network to create OutsideLife, a web site to help outdoor lovers shop stores, find gear, and book trips. Those members who make a purchase on the site or at a physical store generates a donation to a charity of the member's choice. It's all done through on-site registration including using members credit card number to track members purchases. Every time a member purchases, a percentage of that purchase goes to the selected charity.
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So I could put this little image up on the left of a bunch of cheerleaders and tell you it's the next hot spot from some beer company. Or, I could tell the truth and let you know it's a very G rated commercial from Kodak about digital photography. Sex does sell... just not every week.
Aside from sex, this week from Ad Age's TV Spots of the Week we have talking animal tails for Frontier Airlines, Jason Alexander in the last of his KFC commercials, a hot chic kickin' with Charlie's Angels for Cingular (she has all her clothes on), a wierd spot for Hampton Inn, a woman obsessed over color for a hospital, some old dude picking cereal boxes off a tree for Kellog, and Volkwagen "dumping" for its new Transporter.
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