Doritos Litters Beach, Calls it An Accident

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While we really, really want to believe all those bags of Doritos strewn across a North Carolina beach found themselves there accidentally after a container fell off a ship but we're having a hard time dismissing the notion this is a publicity stunt. Yes, we're all about conspiracy theories here but we agree with Coolzor who writes, "I think it's news items like this one that call for a 'yeah we knew, it was all planned' claim from the Doritos management."

by Steve Hall    Dec- 5-06    
Topic: Strange



Advertising Just Got Harder, Dan Wieden Worshiped

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That double-entendre-laden Reach and Frequency video from Elvis & Bonaparte has resurfaced, this time, on a site with its own specialized URL: www.reachfrequency.com. The seventies porn-style video about Tucker Swallow & Rockhard is full of the usual word play including our fav: the insertion order. Along with employees Buck Thrustwell, Nikki Swallow, and Candy Canal, Dan Wieden gets some interesting props in the elevator.

by Steve Hall    Dec- 5-06    




Submarino Does that Traveling Ball Thing

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Where do soccer balls go when lost? All over the place, apparently. For client Submarino, agency Santa Clara produced this little ball ad out of Casablanca. We liked the whimsical song in the background because it made us think of Kermit the Frog.

Someone we know called this "yet another masturbatory effort from creatives that want to make movies instead of ads." After that we couldn't help but wonder - does that make a good ad then? - Contributed by Angela Natividad

by Angela Natividad    Dec- 5-06    
Topic: Good, Online, Television, Video



Million Dollar Homepage Guy Returns with Pixel Lotto Thing

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Alex, the college student who made good with the Million Dollar Homepage idea that none of us could believe we didn't think of first, is back post-million with a philanthropic offering. No, that's not the right description.

Pixelotto, in a shade slightly more garish than the Million Dollage Homepage, promises to make a millionaire out of a hopeful ad clicker. All this fervent ad clicking presents an incentive for advertisers to keep investing in this pay-per-pixel insanity we thought would die and stay dead after Alex had enough money to get those socks he wanted so badly. Will the pixel Boy Wonder do it again? - Contributed by Angela Natividad

by Angela Natividad    Dec- 5-06    
Topic: Games, Online



Thumb-vertising is the New Second Life

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It's been a while since we've added to our "vertising" list but, today, we have a new candidate: thumb-verstising. As part of a new Sara Lee Coffee campaign to promote the company's "coffee pods" that turn into a drink when pumped with thumbs, the brand co-ops thumb-vertising, a movement that offers up thumbs as the next great medium. The site is complete with all you'd normally find on an new ad medium's site: services, case studies, diagrams, surveys and, for those willing to lend their thumbs to the cause, a chance to win a Wii. It's reported "thumbers" are rising subways across Europe holding their thumbs up for hours, promoting thumb-vertising clients. There have been several reports of marketers running towards thumb-vertising trampling those still scurrying for yesterday's medium of the moment: Second Life

by Steve Hall    Dec- 5-06    
Topic: Campaigns, Good, Human, Spoofs, Strange



It's Always a Good Time for a Twisted Video

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The holidays are fast approaching. With that in mind, a representative at LAVA Communications, Australia sent us a few bizarre videos they put together to celebrate the season among civilized kind. If we thought Canada was the go-to country for farcical antics and shenanigans galore, Australia may just blow them out of the water.

First comes a video depicting what we figure must be a common misunderstanding around this time of year. And of course there's nothing nicer than licking your own balls to soothing holiday music. Not that we'd know, of course. - Contributed by Angela Natividad

by Angela Natividad    Dec- 5-06    




California Bus Stops Stink...Like Cookies

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Yesterday, bus shelters in California started smelling like chocolate chip cookies as part of a Got Milk campaign. The smell comes not from actual, fresh-baked cookies but from New York-based Arcade Marketing's Magniscent adhesive stickers. Great. As if there weren't already enough drooling kooks at bus stops already. Now everyone's tongue will be hanging out, dripping saliva and jonesing for cookies.

UPDATE: A bunch of cause group idiots with nothing better to so than make life miserable for the rest of us complained and got the campaign pulled because of the so called damage the scent could do to "chemically sensitive" people.

by Steve Hall    Dec- 5-06    
Topic: Good, Outdoor



Boxer Needs Really Big Hot Pastrami Up His...Nevermind

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Not even ten seconds into this video in which a boxer tells his corner man he's got nothing left and needs something big, something really big, we're already yelling at the screen, "Bend over loser and take it up the ass like a man!" Then we realize it's not some cheesy porn flick, it's a Nemer Fieger-created, Twist-directed Subway commercial for the chain's new Big Hot Pastrami sub. Seriously. We know it's just us but the combination of "needing something really big" coupled with a bulging, footlong object made our mind go to an entirely different place than a Subway restaurant.

by Steve Hall    Dec- 5-06    
Topic: Bad, Commercials, Strange



Chrysler Gag Ads Out Again

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- If you love to bitch about the importance of Cannes-winning creativity versus creativity that actually sells stuff, you might like this Effie webcast tomorrow featuring Carl Johnson of Anomaly, Chuck McBride of TBWA\Chiat\Day, Greg Stern of Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners and Paul Woolmington of Naked Communications.

- In case you missed it, here's (1, 2) those Chrysler ads that slipped out "by mistake" and was then "pulled" by the automaker.

- While crapping all over recent campaigns he feels are really bad such as Charmin, Pepto-Bismol, Mucinex and ExxonMobil, Scott G says the ad industry should simply stop hiring people who create these ads.

- Deep Focus has done some extensive work for HBO's Rome that pits two protagonist characters, Atia and Servilia against each other with dueling online sites in a celebrity smack down of sorts.

by Steve Hall    Dec- 5-06    
Topic: Commercials, Good, Industry Events, Strange



Ill Effects of YouTube Beget Illish Agency Holiday Invite

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Back the in day when YouTube was just a twinkle in those soon to be billionaire's eyes, ad agencies used to produce professional, high quality, elegant Christmas (excuse us...Holiday) cards and videos. Kinda like the work they produced for their clients. Now, post-YouTube orgasm, every agency (we're not going to mention Agency.com) seems to think it has to go out and buy a shitty video camera, hand it to an intern, tell hem to shake the camera on purpose, edit the thing with a sledge hammer and barf up some consumer-generated crap and pass it off as some sort of uber-cool, hipsterati-laden creation...kind of like the work they now produce for their clients.

Speaking of barf, TBWA backward slash Chiat backward slash Day New York upchucked a video to YouTube full of tasty projectile chunks - an apparent highlight of their 2005 Christmas party - as an invitation to this years party where, we assume, all kinds of bile will blow. Do they want people to go to this party?

by Steve Hall    Dec- 4-06    
Topic: Agencies