Anti-Drug Ads Move to YouTube

Bucky Turco tells us the government, perhaps hoping for some Lonelygirl15 or NewNuma love, has taken its anti-drug campaign to YouTube posting twelve videos. Some are the as that have been running for a while. Others are from the Department of Health and Human Services' Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration which are sure to be riveting. Yes, YouTube is where the kids are so perhaps this will spread the anti-drug message further.

Remington Celebrates Pubic Beauty

Taking body grooming and fashion to an entirely different level, this three minute video created by Grey Worldwide and The Viral Factory and co-directed by James Rouse nonchalantly illustrates the potential beauty that resides between a woman's legs and celebrates it like any respectable high fashion designer would. With tongue firmly planted in cheek, this three minute video for Remington is most definitely not your father's shaving commercial.

This is an ad that's not an ad that is an ad. Only the production staff and actors knew what was up. The audience had no idea. This is an ad that's actually fun to watch. This is an ad we really like.

Forgetting to Remove Clothing Tag A Good Thing In Street Campaign

We've all seen a person at some point who looked like an idiot because they forgot to remove the tag from that new piece of clothing they just bought. It's kind of like the fodd stuck between the teeth thing. Well, with this street campaign for Marshalls, forgetting to remove the tag is exactly why this Chicago street campaign is so interesting. The retailer sent a team out to roam the streets with gigantic price tags affixed to their clothing, making them impossible to miss and drawing attention to the clothing itself. We're told call ins to radio stations were also part of the stunt to further increase awareness. We like. See other images here.

CBS Promotes Fall Line Up on Free411

Soon to make "regular" 411 service a thing of the past because of its obscenely high cost specially on mobile services are services like Jingle Networks' 800-FREE411, a 411 service that gives you the number without a charge and occasionally plays an ad prior to giving you the number. Most ads are mercifully short like this collection from CBS which is promoting its fall lineup with the service. Rather than paying as much as $1.50 or more simply to get a phone number, listening to a :10 seems like a very fair exchange. We think these services have legs particularly in a world full of TiVos, ad blockers and cell phones.

Pizza Campaign Treats Girlfriend Well

Here's a witty ad campaign for a pizza joint called Toppers from Shine Advertising. With copy like, "Every pizza is made with tender loving care. The exact same way we treated your girlfriend last night." Not exactly family friendly Bertuccis but way more fun. See the work here.

More Windows Live Messenger Videos Released

Earlier this month, we pointed to one of three videos promoting the benefits of the new Windows Live Messenger which touted the benefits of new means of communication over old. Here's the other two along with the original on a fancy little site created by AKQA and produced by Maverick.

No, Lexus Did Not Intentionally Use 9/11 Imagery In Ad

Al Pacino once said in Godfather III something to the effect of "As soon as I'm out, they pull me right back in." That's how we feel about this manufactured conspiracy theory we were going to ignore - originated in a MediaPost opinion piece by Eric Sass - that a new Lexus commercial somehow uses 9/11-like imagery. This is a waste of time. Everyone is reading waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much into this. What...all ads shot in NYC that show the skyline will now be accused of treading inappropriately on 9/11? Please. Yea, there's two cars in the commercial. It's hardly as symmetrical as some claim nor in any way reminiscent of 9/11.

If you want to complain about an ad that reminds us of 9/11, why don't we look at the Cingular billboards with the two bars extending upward from the board. Those ads have been running for years. Sure 9/11 sucked. It always will suck. It will always a sad day in our history. But to think marketers are maliciously trying to make fun of 9/1 is just indicative we all have way too much time on our hands to analyze this crap.

Arnold Gets $250 Million Or $150 Million From Progressive

We love it when the media duel to beat each other to the punch with their email alerts. At 12:37PM, Ad Age tells us Progressive Insurance has handed it's $250 million account to Boston's Arnold. At 1:00PM, AdWeek tells us Progressive Insurance has handed it's $150 million account to Boston's Arnold. So which is it guys? $250 mill? $150 mil? That's kind of a big difference. Do tell. Progressive?

Teen Queen Returns, Hollywood Director Returns, Jesus Returns

- Anastasia Goodstein is expanding her youth focused Ypulse to include networking events, a new blog aimed at parents of teens, consulting and speaking. We missed her teen insight while she was at CurrentTV and we welcome her back.

- The Art Directors Club is naming Janet Froelich, Issey Miyake, Nancy Rice, Bert Stern, Art Spiegelman, Nicholas Negroponte to its Hall of Fame.

Writing in MediaPost, Eric Sass thinks the imagery in a recent Lexus commercial featuring two cars racing through New York City is to reminiscent of 9/11. We understand the point but we just don't see it.

- We're not so sure an Oscar winning Hollywood director making the move back to shooting commercials is necessarily a step up but that's the step Barbara Kopple has taken with Nonfiction Spots.

- The New York Times says in its new campaign These Times Demand the Times.

- Lebron James helps a couple white boys get down with it for MTV's SPorts Blender.

- Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners is continuing their "Secret Decoder" campaign for Mini USA that involved a secret code mailing to owners. If you're not an owner, Brent has the code for you here.

- Here's the new Apple ad from TBWA\Chiat\Day promoting the new colors for the new iPod nano.

- Altois is giving away its new Curiously FUssy tin designed by New York artists Lindsey Adelman in a drawing.

- In a video interview with CoBRANDiT, Rocketboom's Andrew Baron reveals he can get $80K per week for a sponsorship now. Amanda who?

OK, here's another one of those spots we were talking about before that uses celebrity sports figures to sell shoes.

- Ironic Sans thinks reverse product placement - fake movie/TV products - is the wave of the future.

- Jesus sighted on MySpace page.

- In some sort of viral movie trailer contest, Scott Rankin won for his spoof of the Tom Cruise movie Cocktail which he re-named Caaktall.

- alls-based Six Flags is having a cockroach eating contest to drum up business.

It's Official. Hot Pregnant Women to Replace Stupid Men In Ads

Two makes a trend and and now it's official. Hot pregnant women are the new advertising hood ornament. Following the formerly reported ad for SEAT Altea car maker which featured a hot pregnant woman adorning the hood of a car, hot pregnant (photoshopped) women are now promoting Nova Shin beer. Or at least we think that's what they're promoting. It was odd enough to have a pregos Demi Moore and Britney Spears on magazine covers. Now we'll be seeing them in ad everywhere because, of course, pregnancy is a beautiful thing, right?