BannerReport A Database of Banners

If you've ever seen an online campaign and wanted to see it again you are usually out of luck. Tari Akpodiete's BannerReport is here to help. Boasting 15,000 images, BannerReport allows you to view and search for banners based on size, type, style and keyword. Try it.

Absolut Extends Brand to Music

Most likely in reaction to the fact that everyone in the world has seen an Absolut bottle, the vodka company is extending its brand interpretation by setting the bottle to music. Absolut has launched Absolut Tracks, a website that features various musical producer/DJs musical representation of the bottle. Each producer has created a "song" along with an explanation of the interpretation. If this representation of the brand becomes as embedded as the current visual campaign has, this opens up a whole new world of marketing opportunity for Absolut.

Everything from radio commercials with nothing but the music to ring tones to iTunes downloads to nightclub dance tracks. In any manner that sound can be heard, Absolut can deliver its brand "imagery." Let's hope they move past the current crop of electronika though.

Maxim UK Gets Hot Dates For Readers

Big Boobs For Big Bellys

Perhaps desensitized by the plethora of semi-nude hotties gracing the covers of most men's magazines these days, guys are heading elsewhere, hurting many lad magazine's circulation numbers including Maxim UK. Greg Gutfield, the new Maxim UK editor, wants to bring men back and to do so he's offering readers more than just pictures of sexy women. He's offering up their curvaceous glory in the flesh.

In return for offering beautiful women to be photographed and appear in the magazine, they must agree to go on a date with a reader. Good news for the guys. Not so good news for the girls. We all know maybe one percent of male readers of Maxim could be considered hot. The other 99 percent are fat slobs imagining they are hot while drooling over the pictorials. Let's hope, for the women's sake, they get to see pictures of the men. It's only fair. Afterall, does a woman want to date a guy that has as much stomach cleavage as she has breast cleavage? Thanks to Charley Brough for the tip.

Human Locator Adds Life to Advertising Displays

Human Locator is a camera-based technology that tracks the motions of humans in ways that can them be used to control advertising signage as they pass by. As described on their website, "The Human Locator analyses a camera feed in real time, sending detailed information about people's location, size, and movements. This data is then used as input to control projections, video, graphic animations, and sound. The Human Locator offers a complex analysis procedure and precise controls for accurate tracking in a variety of conditions. The variables it outputs can be used in an infinite variety of ways." In essence, it's another step towards the advertising world depicted in the Tom Cruise movie Minority Report.

ESPN's 25 Best Sports Commercials

ESPN has rounded up the best 25 sports commercials in the last 25 years.

Topping the list of commercials selected by an ESPN panel is the Mean Joe Greene commercial in which he throws a jersey for Coke. Topping the list of commercials selected by ESPN SportsNation users is Jordan and Bird for McDonald's.

Robots Marketed With NYC Street Walk

Fearing miniature I Robots had taken over Manhattan, Gothamist obtained pictorial proof that the robots are only 14 inches tall and simply walking the street in self promotion. The robots, called Robosapiens, are manufactured by Wow Wee and sell for $99 and have 67 functions and "throw, kick, dance, kung-fu, fart, belch, rap and more." Please don't make them any bigger.

Adrants Billboards: Anti-Bush Copywriter Fired, Olympic Organizers Pissed At Playboy

Copywriter gets fired for voicing his anti-Bush opinions at a event to which a client supplied tickets.

Olympic organizers angry over a special Greek edition of Playboy in which female atheletes, voluntarily, no less, appear semi nude along with healines such as "2004 seconds of ecstasy" and "Go for a Sexathon gold"

The IOC is barring athletes from reporting their own Olympic experiences online - unless they already have a non-Olympics specific website. Even then, they must wait until the games end. Thanks to Charley Brough.

Copywriter Paid to Make 'Un-biased' Cable Versus Satellite Decision

Diamond Morgan Northend Alber, a Palo Alto based ad agency for Comcast is using one of its copywriters to both write and appear in an upcoming Comcast ad campaign that will chronicle the copywriter's exploration of cable versus satellite. Jamie McGinly is the copywriter who currently has DirecTV satellite but will try Comcast and write about his experiences. Ultimately, the campaign will conclude with his final choice. Will McGinly be able to be impartial when his agency is being paid by Comcast for the campaign? That's what David Lazarus wonders.

We wonder too. If McGinley chooses satellite over cable, will the conclusion to the campaign even make it to media? Will McGinley keep his job? Will Comcast keep Diamond as their agency? If, in fact, McGinley does choose satellite over Comcast's cable, we'd love to see Comcast allow the campaign to conclude, eat some crow, and use that conclusion to spin a new campaign that would point by point address the differences and alter their service offering accordingly. If Comcast kills the campaign, it will come out anyway that they had something to hide. The only real way for Comcast to win here is to suck it up, cross their fingers, see it through to the end and react in an honest fashion.

Queer Dogs, Aliens and Heavy Weights in Commercials This Week

Ad Age rounds up this weeks TV Spots of the Week beginning with an over the top take off on Queer Eye for the Straight Guy for Hartz in which a dog and a cat get the full gay boy treatment.

Then there's this freaky girl freaking this guy out at a gas station for both Volkswagen and IFC. Weird. Just weird. Moving along, we have a bunch of Olympic hurdlers avoiding traps in a spot against the illegal wildlife trade with the requisite solemn voiceover.

Shop 'n Save promotes its Saturday circulars giving its shopper a "cart-up" on the competition. IAG's most remember spot is for Pizza Hut with grandma promoting the new Twisted Pizza Hut pizza in the way most grandmothers do - eat, eat more. The Navy preys on the minds of young, video game enthralled boys explaining the Navy is more fun because it has real rockets. Finally, an Olympic weightlifter successfully lifts with load but them drops it a few floors too far on top on an unsuspecting couple who has just parked their car wondering if their car insurance s good enough. Allstate says it could handle the mess.

'Vitals' Promises To Be Different Than 'Cargo'

"It's not about showing the 50 raincoats," says Zee. "It's about showing the best three." That's how new Vitals Editor in Chief is setting Vitals apart from Cargo.

The magazine promises to be more about upscale lifestyle as it relates to shopping and products rather than a comprehensive list of all 350 products available in a particular month.

Even in the face of Cargo's successful launch, advertisers are buying into the Vitals conpect. The debut issue, which features Matt Damon on the cover, will contain 80 ad pages.