Boots Drug Store Makes Gorgeous Super Moms

It's not often standard fare drug store cosmetics, housekeeping and high-glamor are mentioned in the same sentence but in this David LaChapelle-created Christmas commercial for British drug store chain Boots, they seem to go together gorgeously in an intriguing over the top sort of way.

Dropping Prices, Increasing Sexiness Sell Pontiac G6

In this art director's visual wet dream for the new Pontiac G6, the ever declining prices and increasing speed and sexiness of computers, music equipment and telephones are cited as an analogy to the less expensive and supposedly sexier G6. Created by Leo Burnett Detroit, the spot kinda gets the message across but does anyone really believe cars can get cheaper and a Pontiac cold be classified as sexy?

Homeless People Could Live In A Car For A Week Too

There's a law somewhere that says two makes a trend and with Chevy joining Nissan in the "our car is so awesome you could live in it" thing, we officially have a trend. As you know, some dude is living in a Nissan and making a "film" about it. Opinions as to how and when and ad somehow became a film aside, the series of "films" is supposed to endear us to the vehicle and the glory of its comfort.

Now, Chevy, with its Livin' Large in Aveo, is following eight college student teams across the country for a week with webcams and blog entries. Everyone gets to vote on which team lives the "largest." Wow. Cool. Yea, road trips are fun and we've had our share back in the day when every friggin' move you made wasn't commercialized.

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Calendar and Map to Guide ad:tech Party Goers

If you're in New York for ad:tech or you're heading there and want to make sure you don't miss any of the parties, we've put together a Google Calendar and a Community Walk map to help you locate all the parties. It's not an exhaustive list but it's all we know for now. If you know of other parties that should be added to the list, send an email to tips@adrants.com and we'll get it added. Have fun. See you there.

Fiat Panda Commercial Confusing But Funny...Sort Of

When we first watched this spot from Keta Keta for the hyper fuel efficient FIAT Panda, we didn't get it. That's probably because Keta Keta tells us the logic of the spot works on three levels: fuel consumption by the West indirectly funds terrorist activities, Panda saves so by buying it people are aiding in the fight against terror and finally, if we call owned Pandas, people like Osama would be washing windshields instead of carrying out terrorist acts. Well that hurt. That's too much thinking. The spot's still weird enough to like though.

Hot Chic Points Out Addictiveness of Cigarettes

Using the delightfully lustful imagery of the typical male fantasy, this American Legacy commercial aligns the allure of cigarettes to that of the hot neighbor next door. The spot is part of a new multi-city health program aimed at acknowledging the difficulties of quitting smoking and offering resources to make the job easier. The spot points to BecomeAnEx.org where those resources can be found.

College Notebooks Become Ad Medium

If there are still college students who use notebooks versus laptops for note taking then a new company called Unotes just might have an interesting new method of advertising to the hard to reach demographic segment. Launching in January, Unotes plans to take the lowly 5-subject notebook and turn it into an ad medium selling glossy four color divider pages, the back cover and watermarked pages and using that revenue to provide the notebooks to students for free. There's a charity angle as well with part of the proceeds going to First Book, an organization that provides books to children of low income families. We've seen the prototype and we like what we see. The program will role out nationally in September.

Along with Unotes notebooks, the website yet to launch Unotes.info will offer a virtual world of sorts which will mimick a college campus and college town complete with, yes, embedded brand promotions and other good stuff such as branded ringtones, MP3s, screensavers, wallpaper, buddy icons, video clips and advergames. It's not up yet so we can't comment on its viability though it's intended specifically not to be a Facebook-like place but rather an environment full of deals which studdents can seek out.

Ogilvy & Mather Soothes Troops Prior to Bloodbath

George Parker had a bit of fun with a leaked internal memo circulated within Ogilvy & Mather last week following their loss of the Wal-Mart account to Draft/FCB. The gist? Pump up the troop's morale prior to the inevitable headcount slashing. A good read.

'Appetite for Destruction' ads play on 9/11 Turf

At the corner of Rector and Washington in New York, Giovanni's Atrium has begun a storefront campaign that's generating more attention than restaurant windows usually get. Showcasing "The happiest Happy Hour south of ground zero," its posted menu includes lines like "Hot and Cold Antipasto Table to tantalize your appetite" ... "for destruction?" quips Gawker.

Hey, marketing's competitive in the Big Apple. They definitely got our attention. It's advertising in bad taste, but we can't help but ask ourselves if it's actually bad advertising. - Contributed by Angela Natividad

Ashlee Simpson Launches Skechers Line, Can't Speak

Ashlee Simpson, who seems to be morphing into some kind of plastic representation of her older sister Jessica, has hooked up with Skechers to launch a new line of footwear. During the launch announcement a few days a go, she said, "Skechers is brand that is not afraid to going the beyond. I look forward to representing Skechers clothing line; I also hope to add a few more pairs to my wardrobe," causing some to wonder if English is her first language. Whatever. She looks way better with blond hair and whatever facial/nasal adjustments she's had than her former I-Must-Look-Different-Than-Jessica look she forced upon us earlier.