Recession Makes Me Want to...Shop!

This weekend, I noticed a local store window with several signs promoting its blowout "economic stimulus sale." Dominos has similarly launched a "recession-buster deal." I even saw Craigslist postings using the recession as a marketing message.

IMHO there's nothing better than reminding me of our country's financial woes to entice me to spend more money. Sure, the economy's tanking, but at least now I can get 20 percent off everything!

Wild Posting Wordplay Delivers the Beef

So...how do you get the word out about your grass-fed meat? No, not that kind of meat you vegan sicko! Beef meat. From cattle. That kind. OK, so how do you get the word out? Well, you slap wild posting up all over the city, of course. And, you tweak your copy so it mirrors lines from popular movies, song lyrics and ad slogans.

This approach yields "I love the smell of grass-fed beef in the morning," So grass-fed a caveman would eat it" and "Say hello to my grass-fed friend." The work was created by Olive for La Cense Beef. There's also a microsite with even more wordy witticisms.

Social Media Measurement Tool Hypothesized

Though, according to Alisa Leonard, there really isn't such a thing as social media since all internet media is, by definition, social, Alisa has crafted what cold be the ideal social media analysis tool to peer inside this oh-so-conversational segment of media.

Mashing together share of voice, sentiment (via Summize), tonality of conversation, weighted influence, tag aggregation, authority, page rank and much more, Alisa has put forth the building blocks for what would appear to be the holy grail of social media measurement. All she has to do s get it built.

Audrey Tautou the New Chanel No. 5 Girl

Following the footsteps of Nicole Kidman, actress Audrey Tautou will step into the starring role of a Jean-Pierre Jeunet-directed commercial for Chanel No. 5. Tautou is best known for her appearances in Amelie and in The Da Vinci Code with Tom Hanks. The commercial will air in early 2009.

Optimum Online Continues Giddy Happiness

Optimum Online continues its freakish frivolity with a new commercial that's as over the top as all the rest. In this one, we get a dolled up housewife getting her thing on as she sashays about the house singing the virtues of the company's triple play offer while supported by back up singers.

Yes it's over the top but if you know anyone that gets this excited about their cable/internet/phone service, please, please, please let me know. I simply have to meet one of these people in person.

Commercial Parodies Get Spotlight

Ooo, ooo, ooo! Who doesn't love a good parody ad? Well, Nerve's collected 50 of them and put them all together in a list of The 50 Greatest Commercial Parodies of All Time. Most are From Saturday Night live but there are a few from SCTV, Dave Chappelle and other places.

There are goodies such as Eddie Murphy's I Wanna be a Ho, Phil Hartman's Colon Blow and Gilda Radner's Jewess Jeans. Check them all out here and then let us know which one is your favorite.

Yet Another Nippleless Ad Messes With Nature

From favorite new site, Photoshop Disasters, comes this oddity. On Swedish lingerie site, Mer Kroppanara Mode, a model is seen wearing a bra that isn't meant to cover the breasts, rather to simply support therm. The model's nipples have been erased leaving her with odd looking, nippleless breasts.

A Jordache ad featuring Heidi Klum did this back in March and it was equally disturbing. Breasts have nipples. Are we suddenly supposed to believe they don't? Quick freaking us out, people! See the full on freakishness here.

Sickos Suck Face With Mentos Hottie

There's really nothing else to say about this Mentos site on which you can choose a hottie of your liking, pop a Mentos and then have a virtual tongue twirl with the girl. Except, of course, to say that if you actually do go through with this, place your lips on your screen and embrace your computer like you've been missing the love for weeks, you are one sick sicko!

Renegade Espouses Marketing as a Service

It would be easy to toss off this Renegade video which espouses its belief marketing should be a service to consumers rather than an intrusive method to get people to buy stuff. It's not new and it's been voiced by many an agency eager to illustrate they know marketing has to engage, enable conversation, provide benefit, offer participatory experiences and provide a service that goes beyond an excuse simply to sell product.

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Israel's Iturn Creates GPS-Enabled Search Engine

To illustrate the benefits of it GPS device, Israel's Ituran, with help from Shalmor Avnon Amichay/Y&R Tel Aviv, created a GPS-like visual search engine. Using offline GPS technology, Ituran mapped 300 Israeli sites, their relationships to one another and "mapped" it all for easy navigation.

While we can't read a thing on any of he sites, the process seems to work quite well offering up an alternative to the typical way of browsing the web and searching for destinations. This video explains it all.