Baltica Sets Beers Astride Metro Poles

Genevieve at VLAN points us to this effort to win Baltica beer drinkers on the metro. Maybe we're delusional but there seems to be something totally sexual about the way the beers are perched. Like ... do they move?

Aw, Second-Lifers Can't Run Amock Anymore

The moment we heard somebody actually made money on Second Life, we knew it was only a matter of time before the smut trades came barging in, followed by regulations galore.

Linden Lab cracks down on casinos, and a source tells us their stock market's pretty much gone to bust.

Second Life is starting to sound a lot like first life. Nix the laggage and cool costumes, of course. The debate over which is actually worth living remains a personal preference.

Talking Socks, Mike and Mike Take on Athlete's Foot

MS&L Digital helped launch this weird new site called Get Your Game Feet On, a perhaps dead-on attempt at making Novartis' Lamisil AT Gel more jock friendly.

We weren't deeply moved by hosts Mike and Mike's feel-good product pushing (it's really hard to take feet seriously) but we kind of liked the hoop shot game and thought the talking socks were sort of funny. That is, until we remembered Lamb Chop and got really bummed out. It's not every day that your favourite talking sock dies.

HBO Brings Sopranos Closer to Home

To promote their Sopranos DVDs, HBO gives us two spots entitled Pole and Hair.

Pushing the objective of "[Bringing] home the Sopranos -- permanently," spots include insider nods to the Badda Bing strip club and Paulie Walnut's skunky hairdo. They were directed by Harvest Films' Baker Smith for Venables, Bell & Partners, and edited by Phoenix Editorial & Designs.

Unless you're an avid Sopranos watcher you're probably going to be all "OMGWTFBBQ?!" That's okay, because that's part of why they're so funny. We often stare sadly up at our ceilings at night and wish we were born in the mob. Sure there's sporadic death and violence, but the mobsters' otherwise zany antics (oh, and piles and piles of black market money) seem to make decent compensation.

Milk Earns Passionate Flair with Promolac

In lieu of your typical "Got Milk?" stint, Promolac ties milk to everyday passions. Who'd have guessed the stuff of cow udders could be sexy? Not us. Then again, sex and dairy aren't strangers, and it's definitely less "eh?" than this.

Put together by Eva of Santiago, Chile, the copy reads "I drink." Adpunch has more from the same campaign. The others aren't sexy, but they're pretty to look at, and we were getting tired of that bland family sitcom humour-type stuff people are always pulling to push milk.

Ideocracy Brings Idiotic Non-Ads to Fox Ad Space

As of April 9 Fox aired its first non-ad-supported, non-promotional content, aimed at making commercial breaks more entertaining (and thus effective) advertising environments.

This all sounds lovely and nice but the result of this thought process is a series of 8-second bits starring a Greek-Lithuanian taxi driver named Oleg. Oleg is the pet project of Ted D'Cruz-Young, founder of firm Ideocracy, previously of Saatchi and Saatchi and BBDO.

Check out spots one and two. We're not that turned-on by them (dude reeks of Borat, except he's less funny) but hey, it's Fox, so maybe the world at large will sit riveted on their couches waiting for their next hit of the taximan-stereotype's confuzzling accent-ridden reverie.

New Social Networking Site Victim of Boston-Style Marketing Stunt

Not that we need another but if you feel you simply don't have enough online personas, there's another place for you to place one, B4class. Created by 18-year old North Quicy, MA resident Sofia Loginova, the site's unfortunate claim to fame, to the chagrin of Loginova, will now be yet another Boston-based marketing stunt gone wrong even though Loginova had nothing to do with it. This morning, unattended backpacks were found in Newton North High School which prompted a Aqua Teen Hunger Force-style lock down until it was determined the backpacks contained only promotional references to Loginova's B4class.

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Doe-Eyed Kashmir Kids Gaze Longingly Out of Grocer Freezers

The people of Norway get a surprising little treat in the frozen section of their local grocery stores. This strategically-placed UNICEF poster is meant to raise awareness about the sub-zero living conditions of poor children in Kashmir. Copy reads, "The children of Kashmir are freezing" and the concept belongs to Dinamo Reklamebyra of Oslo, Norway.

We think the campaign is borderline clever but doubt it will inspire much emo checkbook-busting. At best it may just make Norwegian moms think twice about getting frozen pizza.

PROMO Launches Advergame for Advertisers

Inspired by the menagerie of ad-smothered games, someone took it upon himself to go, "By gad - we should make ad games for advertisers!" This dangerous stream of thought yielded the PROMO Marketer's Challenge, a drably-coloured trivia challenge on the ad industry -- complete, of course, with ads.

The purpose of the game is to get talk out about PROMO magazine, which covers promotions and integrated marketing and is prepping for a relaunch. Redesign teasers are interspersed not-so-subtly throughout; in fact, we've played enough times to merit a free subscription CPM-wise. Are you listening, PROMO? Your SPREADS are engraved behind our EYELIDS.

Ads Framed, Animals Right, Adobe Creates, Gremlins Insure

- Here we go again with yet another million dollar homepage thingy. This time, companies can buy one frame, yes, one frame of a video for $39. It might be cheap but no one's gonna see it.

- All animal rights efforts don't have to be as in your face or as off-putting as PETA. Animal Rights Stand takes a very different approach.

- Adobe's got a cool new site promoting its Creative Suite 3. On the site you can use the tools and build an actual website. EVB created.

- Weird. Just weird. Gremlins in Progressive Direct commercials.

- Former FCB CEO Steve Blamer is now CEO of Creston, a UK marketing holding company.