« Last week 9-Mar-08 | This archive, pg:  1  |  2  |  3  |  4  |  5  |  6  |  7  | Next week 23-Mar-08 »

JellyBeats: The Musical Meme that Should Really Be a Snack Food

acid-house-jellyfish.jpg

Check out the JellyBeats, which are like jellyfish you can alternately identify with and fantasize about eating. Each is themed with a genre of music (folk, easy listening, acid house -- wouldn't it be funny if that whistle was a pacifier?) and comes equipped with its own playlist.

The JellyBeats represent Aardman and Digital Outlook's attempts to cash in on the 14-18-year-old crowd. They launched on Bebo last week. Individual JellyBeats come with film shorts, downloads, special dances and lingo. And they're all embeddable on other social networks. ('Cause if you can't be everywhere at once, you FAIL.)

by Angela Natividad    Mar-17-08    
Topic: Online



Because Get-Togethers, Shindigs and Casual Encounters are SO craigslist.

alice-dinnerparty.png

For interior design site mydeco, TAMBA put together a swanky Facebook app for all the users that are getting too old to cash in on their .edu cachet.

The My Dinner Party widget enables users to create a "dream dinner party" with famous and fictional characters, as well as actual friends. (Then again, everybody's equally actual and fictional when they can all appear on your Top 8. Which is also an app!)

And because no inet offering is worth anything unless it comes with opportunities for validation, friends can change seating arrangements, organize private fetes and rate the dinner parties they attended. How fancy. These days, any plebe can play blue-blood. Who'd've guessed that Wonderland would be so ... democratic?

by Angela Natividad    Mar-17-08    
Topic: Brands, Online



'Fetch' Didn't Happen. Neither Will 'Shmmom'

shmmom.jpg

The movie American Pie made the term MILF famous. You hear it everywhere. Even where you shouldn't like in kid's movies. Somehow we don't think the same will happen with the term Shmmom or Smoking Hot Minivan Mom. Yea, we know. It's a mouthful. Leave it to a local car dealer to think up this crap.

by Steve Hall    Mar-17-08    
Topic: Commercials, Strange, Worst



Warriors Unite Against Dance Factions. Blame MTV.

warriors-on-youtube.jpg

Imagine The Warriors took place in present-day Manhattan. But replace the vicious gangs with refugees from Flashdance.

Before you virtually bitchslap us and go, "Why would we EVER do that?!", be forewarned: somebody already has.

Can -- you -- dig -- it?

The client: MTV.

by Angela Natividad    Mar-17-08    
Topic: Commercials, Online, Spoofs, Strange



Philly Tries Targeting Gay Tourists. Well, Better than uwishunu.

philly-thumbnail.jpg

Philly is angling for the gay vote. The Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation just launched "Get Your History Straight" followed by the tagline, "...and your nightlife gay," which -- in tangent with SouthWest Airlines -- will populate creative with gay locals.

At left is Matthew Izzo of Matthew Izzo Boutiques. See the full "We Your People" ad.

Others will appear on gophila.com/gay and on southwest.com/gaytravel. Check out Philly's other campaign, uwishunu.

by Angela Natividad    Mar-17-08    
Topic: Campaigns, Magazine, Poster



Underwear Brand Gets Visual, Musical Mashup

bonds_youth.jpg

We get it! We get it! It's a mashup! An underwear mashup. And, in case we didn't already realize that from the pantheon of colors in this ad, we've also got myriad musical styles to hammer the point home for those of us who might be visually impaired.

For Bonds Youth, Sydney's The Campaign Palace created the ad

by Steve Hall    Mar-17-08    
Topic: Commercials, Good



PI Rock Radio Station Lacks Requisite Rock Savvy

80sladyboy.jpg

AdFreak drew our attention to this ad for Philippine rock radio station NU107, which betrays pretty negligible knowledge of rock music. And logic.

The text reads, "The 80's: When looking like a ladyboy got you all the ladies." Imagery: what looks like a Kiss band member ... with boobs. (An homage to Marilyn Manson?)

More creative -- and a small dissertation on Kiss, Poison, rock-dandy dress codes and lack of actual boobage among male '80s rock band members -- at AdFreak.

It's really too bad everybody can't be Chuck Klosterman.

by Angela Natividad    Mar-17-08    
Topic: Bad, Poster, Radio, Strange



Paris Hilton Wants A New BFF, Ziff Davis Bankrupt, Ad Age Socializes

Paris-Hilton-46.JPG

- On the outs with Nicole Richie for some time, Pars Hilton wants a new BFF and MTV has launched a new reality show to help her find one.

- DDB Barcelona brings out hand string games to somehow illustrate how its cars are built. We sure hope they're made of something stringer than string.

- Ziff Davis Media, publisher of PC Magazine among others, filed for bankruptcy citing falling print ad revenue and subscriptions as the reason.

more »

by Steve Hall    Mar-17-08    
Topic: Celebrity, Magazine, Social



Was That Xanadu or A Nomis Soccer Shoe Ad?

nomi_bots.jpg

If you want to see a really, really weird ad about Nomis, logos, trophies, attention, sponsorship, endorsements and boots then you really need to watch this quirky video for Nomis boots (we call them sneakers here). The ad was created by Johannes Leonardo, a new agency founded by former Saatchi & Saatch EVPs Jan Jacobs and Leo Premutico.

by Steve Hall    Mar-17-08    
Topic: Good, Strange, Video



Kenneth Cole's 'Awearness' Whores For Peace, Love and Understanding

kenneth-cole-hiv.jpg

Rehab, the cats behind Gap's Sound of Color effort, just produced a series of videos for Kenneth Cole's most current campaign "We All Walk in Different Shoes," put together by Kenneth Cole's in-house creative crew.

As always with Kenneth Cole, the campaign exploits the language of fashion to raise awareness for popular social issues. (Or maybe it's the other way around.) At left is the creative for Regan Hofmann's HIV video. See other shorts -- including stories about a Sikh businessman and a duo of Israeli and Palestinian film directors -- at KennethCole.com/Thinkers.

And here's the campaign blog, Awearness, which generated winces all around with the all-caps tagline, "To be aware is more important than what you wear."

We dig Rehab's audio/visual spin on an old Kenneth Cole agenda. But we can't say we're crazy about using tacky puns like "Awearness" to generate trendy cause mojo.

more »

by Angela Natividad    Mar-17-08    
Topic: Bad, Brands, Campaigns, Online



« Last week 9-Mar-08 | This archive, pg:  1  |  2  |  3  |  4  |  5  |  6  |  7  | Next week 23-Mar-08 »