Sewer Straws Call Attention to World Water Day

Calling attention to World Water Day, Intermon Oxfam placed king size straws in the the manholes of Madrid, Barcelona and Zaragoza with the message "would you drink from this water? Thousand of people haven't got other choice." The work was done by CP Proximity Live Spain. See more images here.

Self-Referential Church Ads Remove Stuffy Stigma With Humor

Adrants reader John Brock sent us this amusing radio commercial, created as a joke by church member Mike McKenzie, for Birmingham, AL St. Andrew's Episcopal Church. The spot mirrors the tone and style of those monster truck "Suuuundaaaaaaay" commercials replacing the the usual auto-speak with church-speak. While it's not an official commercial for the church, it has been heard by church leadership who may decide to air it. There's also an airline version of the spot.

Church is stuffy. Life used to be stuffy. The two went hand in hand beautifully. Today, life isn't stuffy but church remains so. Just as the United Church of Christ, one of the most liberal mainstream churches, did with its "we accept all" gay-themed spot, the Episcopal Church, Catholic church without the pope and circumstance, could surely use some self-referential humor to attract jaded, modern Americans through the doors on Sunday.

Gatorade Highlights Underdog Mexican Football Player

Amid the legal wranglings between Coke and Pepsi over the Powerade/Gatorade calorie thing, life goes on in the form of a new Gatorade commercial featuring Rolando Cantu, a Mexican who some said would never make in in the NFL. Well, he did and he's now playing for the Arizona Cardinals. It's the usual "underdog makes good" story but that's what sports fans like. The work was created by two-time Ad Age Multicultural Agency of the Year Dieste Harmel & Partners in Dallas.

Chicken of the Sea Ruins Own Commercial

Some marketers just don't know when to leave a good thing alone. Last summer, Chicken of the Sea launched an interesting commercial that mixed sex appeal with humor in the form of a hot chick strutting through a lobby wearing a miniskirt and an exposed, very flat belly. She has all the guys drooling until she gets into the elevator, the doors close and she lets her gut bulge out with the joke being she wouldn't have that gut if only she had eaten tuna.

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Scripps Network Celebrates VOD Benefits With Four Spots

Concrete Pictures has launched four goofy spots promoting Scripps Networks' Video On Demand offerings. Designed for HGTV On Demand, Food Network On Demand, DIY On Demand and Fine Living On Demand, the spots feature Sally Ordinary, Felicia Fraidycat, Desperate Dan and Annie Active each demonstrating wht VOD can turn your life around.

Deflating Balls Illustrate Negative Effects of Steroid Use

Last night Major League Baseball and the Partnership for a Drug Free America held a press conference to announce a new public service campaign against steroid use. The campaign will consist of television, radio and print work created by BBDO New York. The first spot broke last night and focuses on the harmful effects of steroid use including shrinking manhood as illustrated through deflating balls. Witty.

Agency Partner Directs Junkie XL Music Video

This made the rounds last week but it just fell off our radar because, well, it doesn't really have to do with advertising except that the director of this music video for Junkie XL, Glenn Cole, is partner and creative director at LA agency agency 72andSunny and the very very persistent PR person had some influence as well.

Oh, to connect the dots even more, the PR person tells us it's a "cool ad story because the video's director Glenn Cole and Junkie XL first hooked up together in 2002, when Glenn was a CD with Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam and hired Junkie XL to remix the Elvis track 'A Little Less Conversation' for a Nike World Cup 2002 commercial. The two have remained friends and frequent collaborators ever since." It's all about who you know.

Ultra Festival the Usual Brand Fest

FYE, Budweiser, Absolut Spirits, Starbucks Hear Music, XM Satellite Radio, Beatport, DJ Magazine, New Times, DJ Times, M8, Hollywoodpoker.com and BPM Magazine. They've all signed on as sponsors for the eighth Ultra Music Festival held at Bicentennial Park March 25 in Miami. XM will broadcast the event live. Absolut will have a VIP lounge. Now everyone go to Miami and shake it while being bombarded by corporate logos.

Social Networking Sites New Celebrity Training Ground

Oh, it's been what, a few days since we lobbed a piece of pointless editorial fluffery at you simply to put an image of a hot girl on the site? We don't want to break our track record so we'll give you this little piece about how nobodies rise from the muck of MySpace to celebrity status. Yes, MySpace member Tila (Nguyen) Tequila, who says she has the world's most popular MySpace page has graduated to the April cover of StuffMySpace Makes magazine. This at the same time Ad Age's Simon Dumenco says obsession with celebrity is dying and Gawker has asked readers to stop sending in C and D list celebs for its Gawker Stalker feature. As long as your hot and you have a camera on you, you are a celebrity.

Goodyear Says Changing A Tire Can Kill You

In these three spots, Goodyear uses fear/shock factor/humor to illustrate just how dangerous it is to change a flat tire and just how much better it would be if all cards had Goodyear run flat tires.