Leroy Jenkins Video Becomes Toyota Tacoma Commercial

Our friend who, sadly, we haven't seen in a while, The Silly Girl, gives us the recent Toyota Tacoma commercial fashioned after the famed Leroy Jenkins World of Warcraft video which made the rounds last year. Good stuff. That is if you play the game. We're betting more than a few people who saw this on TV uttered a collective WTF?

Colbert Invades NYT to Verbally Dismantle Icons, Heroes, Presidents-to-Be

We always knew elections were partly spectacle but nothing beats Election '08 (unless you live in Belgium).

If only to prove how desperately our political society needs a clue, Stephen Colbert appeared as a guest columnist for The New York Times this weekend to trash-talk everyone relevant, including Obama and Jesus, and suggest that what the world needs is him (or his new book).

Read it all here. And to think we honestly believed we were the only ones drinking on the job. Ain't blogging grand?!

Newsweek Redesigns, Obama Girl Successes Shared

- As Time did earlier this year, Newsweek, today, has unveiled it's redesign which includes (shocker) longer stories with fewer but bigger pictures. A rate base reduction is under consideration as well.

- Saatchi & Saatchi ECDs Jan Jacobs and Leo Premutico, creators of the Wendy's Hot Juicy Burgers campaign have left the agency.

- This is kinda dumb but if you want to see the faces of Alex Bogusky, David Droga, Erik Vervroegen affixed to the bodies of models on the cover of Playboy, you can see it all here.

- Obama Girl creator gives us tips on what makes for a successful viral video. And it's not just big boobs and a nice ass. Although that helps quite a bit.

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Long Island City's Powerhouse Puts Ads on Booty

Continuing his asses-in-advertising and real estate advertising series, Copranter brings us this ad for Powerhouse Condominiums in Long Island City. Perhaps this is just trivial trashy or perhaps it's brilliant. After all, everyone looks at a nice ass. Women do to see how they measure up and men do because, well, men are men and their behavior needs no explanation.

Japan Gets Pink AxeBusters

We all know how much the Japanese love their manga and how kinky they can be so it makes perfect sense they get their own version of the Axe campaign with their own fighting hotties presented Charlie's Angels-style. There's even a 16 year old hottie because, well, the laws about that sort of thing are different over there. We tried to play the game but we set of some sort of alarm. Perhaps they don't want Americans getting in on the fun.

High Off One Grand Entrance, DHL Vanishes into Horizon

We were hanging out at Advertising Week after this session when we came across Marc Lucas, the one-time ECD at Ogilvy, Manila.

It's not often ECDs want to talk without attacking us with blunt objects first, so we hung out for awhile and chatted. Eventually he started talking about DHL, one of the brands he worked with.

We don't know too much about DHL aside from that the trucks are yellow and it's got a huge client base in Third World countries. But apparently it tried holding its own against the States' Big Two for awhile.

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'Elements of Persuasion' Boasts Time-Honored Elements for Success

When in doubt, nothing wins people over like a good story. Playing the bard is a standby for good CEOs and, we think, great marketers.

That's one reason why we found Richard Maxwell and Robert Dickman's The Elements of Persuasion so interesting. It doesn't just emphasize the importance of telling tales to persuade; it does so from a branding and sales perspective, without neglecting the importance of listening, and sharing plenty of relevant stories along the way.

It's also compact, easy to read, and orange. How do you beat orange?!

Canadians -- of All People -- Put the Bridle on Seduction

Few things are funner on a Sunday than the prospect of watching 10 Canadian shorts on seduction. (Apparently Canada's inherited more from the French than just a moody passel of Quebecois.) But there's more to do on the Sundance Channel's Art of Seduction site than sit around watching politicians lie, pretty people lamenting their genetic burden, and devious webcammers (all of which we did).

The seduction style quiz was among the funner surveys we've taken in awhile. As an added incentive to blowing 20 minutes on 40 questions, the site strokes your ego with an illustrated seduction guide for your type. Yum.