At a program development meeting in LA yesterday, ABC introduced a new commercial format which would have actual paid commercials appear in media vehicles shown in the network's dramas and sitcoms. In other words, a character on a sitcom might be watching TV, an actual ad would appear on the screen withing the show and then it would widen out to the viewers TV and be viewed in standard fashion. The plan, still in development, would also incorporate print ads seen in magazines depicted in shows as well as ads shown on cell phones. Presumably, there wouldn't be official commercial breaks rather the commercials would be embedded within the show and appear individually rather than clumped together the way they are now.
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- A tipster attending OMMA Hollywood tells us R/GA Chairman and CEO Bob Greenberg told his VP of Visual Design Nick Law not to sit on a panel he was scheduled to participate in because, apparently, he's stealing too much limelight.
- Commercial ratings, versus program ratings, are fast becoming the gold standard and many, including Starcom CEO John Muszynski, will be using them in this year's upfront.
- If you're in search of an email address, Tattoo Projects has created Abalooba, and email address search engine.
- MTV's The Andy Milonakis Show which will premiere on a wide variety of digital platforms - including iTunes Store (www.iTunes.com), Amazon Unbox, AOL Video, MTV Mobile, MTV On Demand, MTV2.com, Wal-Mart Video Downloads and Xbox LIVE Marketplace for Xbox 360 - all prior to the show's on-air MTV2 debut on April 27th.
- Entries for international viral awards show, Germ, must be submitted by March 31.
- The New Yorker, Wesley Autrey, who saved a man from being hit by a subway train in January, is featured in a new colon cancer PSA campaign.
- T wallow in the oddity of Japanese culture, check out a few kinky commercials for Axe in Japan.
- Copyranter disses the Siemens' ongoing wannabee hipster campaign complete with headlines like "Bling Bling" and "Chill."
To promote the upcoming Canadian Filmmakers Festival March 22-25, GJP Advertising has created a campaign that marries popular films with good old Canuck goodness. The campaign consists of television and print. In the ads, the movies Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind are given the spin. We're not entirely sure we get the spin but, then again, we're told it's a Canuck thing. See the two spots here and here. The print ads are here and here.
Tian tells us comedian Eric O'Shea has some advice for creative departments the world over. O'Shea suggest selecting songs for commercials that actually have some relevance to what you are trying to sell. We won't spoil the fun by listing his suggestions. Just watch the video. We hope you will heed his advice. We guarantee your commercials will be far better.
We've since relegated Hostess to the banks of childhood memory along with Pixie Stix, Kool-Aid and other non-food food, but we actually did swoon when we saw this promotion for their new 100 Calorie Packs.
Plug in your Calorie Pack preferences and the 100 Calorie Crooner will sing a song that sits somewhere between the Beauty School Dropout scene in Grease and Sinatra's last live rendition of Strangers in the Night.
The denigration in standards from Sinatra to Grease to the 100 Calorie Crooner didn't escape us, but the gaping void left by lack of class is nothing that can't be filled with three mini-cakes (at 100 calories total! Come on).
Commendably persistent in its quest to spark the libido of speed-freak co-eds (previous attempts one and two), Mazda throws the weight of some slightly-below-indy Canadian bands behind a new virtual driving game.
Created by Fuel Industries, the courses were shot on college campuses and university students can choose between three.
We played the game and it seemed promising until we realized the speed couldn't be adjusted (from what we could tell, anyway) and we didn't even have to mess with the right or left functions. Just keep pushing the forward button and the car turns for you. If only real-life cars were that smart. Oh wait, Lexus might be.
Learn something from Candystand, the branded-game pros, or even Nokia, who really struck gold with almost the same idea. In fact, it was made by the same people.
Ew, a sloppy seconds campaign. Not cute.
American Legacy expands on their Become an Ex campaign with three spots on re-learning behaviour typically associated with smoking, like drinking coffee, driving and starting your day. The campaign is by GSD&M out of Austin, TX, a city where smoking is permitted in designated indoor spaces.
The ads feature bewildered middle-aged characters bumbling over said activities as they try renegotiating space without the soothing puff-puff. It's a little like watching Britney Spears stagger around like a bald Cyclops after her latest failed stint at rehab.
We just love when big companies usurp the ideas of others and claim to be the first at something when, in fact, very clearly, they are not. Why? Because we get to trash them for it. Had anyone behind the Gene Simmons Family Jewels show done even the tiniest bit of home work, they'd realize they were not, in fact, the first to launch an assvertising campaign. Far from it. They're not even the second. Or the third. Or the fourth. Do your homework, people. Damn, a simple Google search turns up 17,500 results!
While slapping panties that read "Gene Simmons Family Jewels"on 25 models and having them prance about tomorrow at the Hard Rock Cafe's Times Square location to promote the second season of Simmons' show, those involved seem to have forgotten this very thing has already occurred in the same city. NightAgency, which created the concept, did it for New York Health and Racquet Club. Kodak did it at a trade show in Boston. A Russian tire shop did it. MTN did it in Italy. And those are just the ones we've covered.
If you really must see this ill-name "first," hurry over to the Hard Rock Cafe in Times Square tomorrow, Thursday, March 22 at 12PM.
UPDATE: Our explanation seems to have caught someone's attention. The words "world's first" have been removed from the press release.
We're thinking bra sizes over in England must follow some metric other than that of the U.S. In this Bravissimo campaign, woman of various bra sizes hold placards stating their bra size. Oddly, none of the women look anywhere near as big as their stated sizes. We cold be wrong but the woman with 30F? She looks flat. Anyway, the editor of Adrants requires that all bra ad campaigns receive full coverage so we must comply with those wishes whether or not we agree. Take a look at the ladies individually here.
The odd hats at ATTIK hustle us back to Want 2 B Square, a macabre interactive world meant to promote the equally macabre (design-wise, anyway) 2008 Scion xB.
Like any interactive world there's a lot going on, a lot of which we've already covered (1, 2). But we did see something new we really like - this video entitled Boy Meets Girl. Directed by Sean Donnelly of Anonymous Content, two square-headed kids play "I'll show you mine if you show me yours" and instead of baring warped genitalia (as expected) they flip open one another's heads and explore the contents.
In the same twisted way that one could look at Secretary and call it "a gently bent love story," one could say Boy Meets Girl blithely expresses the innocence and exchange in that first boy/girl encounter. Gently bent, of course. We dig the campaign more and more.
Enough to nail a Scion? If they keep wooing us like this, we'll get there.
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