Fair Trade Groupies Toss Wares in Aisles Six and Seven

The Max Havelaar Foundation, a coalition of fair trade producers and initiatives worldwide, is using this video to promote fair trade practices.

I'm not really sure what's going on, aside from that a bunch of subversives seem really unhappy with what they're finding at the grocery store.

Alternatively, they could just be looking for buddies to play catch with. Reason #458 to take up Ultimate Frisbee.

Sci Fi: Just as Good as 'Gossip Girl,' Except Not Everyone's Human. Problem?

Oh my. These ads for the Sci Fi channel make me want to adopt a sweet little potbellied alien. And name it Oliver. And maybe homeschool it.

The tagline: "Open your heart to science fiction. Adopt Sci Fi." Agency: BETC EURO RSCG 4D (thanks, in:fluencia!).

See the short version, but it's the long one that made me the suffer the angst of shedding genre prejudice. Anime overload, here I come.

Bogusky Flattered, craigslist Countersues, Home Depot Goes for the Gold

- Fast Company loves itself some Alex Bogusky. Enough to compare him to Jesus. No word on whether the author washed his feet with her hair.

- Shelf that silly Microsoft morale video. "It's here and it's hot! Home Depot Solid Gold!"

- To combat the eBay suit, craigslist countersues. Then the nanny found their babas and put them down for a nap.

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Its Trump Card Played, Crocs Gets Gimmicky

Having generated reluctant admirers with its "Ugly can be beautiful" campaign in 2005, Crocs now gives us "What a Croc!" -- which has guts in spades, and occasional moments of flair, but is otherwise far less coherent.

See insane screaming man and the pretty pretty princess. The latter is the result of a collabo between Crocs and Jibbitz, self-styled "the official Crocs shoe charm." And you thought those Godforsaken mules couldn't get any uglier.

Thanks AdFreak for bringing "What a Croc!" to our attention.

Million Dollar Homepage Knock Off to Deface Hillside

If it weren't bad enough an army of wannabes copied, unsuccessfully, Alex Tew's very successful Million Dollar Homepage, now there's a dude who wants to spread that filth all over an actual hillside, as in a real-world hillside in Austria.

Thomas Kager, a 34 year old software developer plans to sell both pixels and actual real estate on a 10,0000 meter portion of a hill. As the press release explains, "Kager's idea is to market squares of virtual advertising space on his website to companies and individuals who, after their purchase, will receive one square meter of real outdoor advertising space for a five-year period."

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Layoffs Abound, Accounts Lost

- AgencySpy reports layoffs occurring at Chicago's Critical Mass including creative director Mike Rezac and at Seattle's Publicis West office.

- An insider shares news JWT Canada may have lost the Kellogg business due to a "global Realignment." Don't you just love the phrases people create to describe layoffs and firings?

- Bulldog Reporter PR University, today, is presenting an audio conference entitled "Blog Pitching Update for PR: Top Tech Online Influencers Reveal Advanced Blog Relations Practices"

George W. Bush Unites Globe in Shared Mockery

In the course of his Presidency George W. Bush has both enraged and made us laugh, often at the same time. We've seen plenty of ways where his unique talent has manifested in reactionary advertising. Sometimes the results are funny, sometimes they piss us off, and often they do both at once.

Either way, it's become impossible to leave the States without a good sense of humour -- or an iron-on maple leaf.

Ivan of CreativeBits put together an invaluable collection of print ads where Bush is the star. This close to November, it almost makes us fond of the guy -- the way you grow fond of a stooge you're about to screw over in a drug bust.

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Finally Those Subway Tunnel Walls Get Used for Something

Imagine sitting on the northbound Metro Red Line between Hollywood/Highland and Universal, reading whatever's in your lap, when all of a sudden a Speed Racer trailer starts playing just outside your window.

"WTF," you might say. "Even underground, LA's infested with movies."

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You Can't Blame InGrid for Trying. You Can, However, Resent It

InGrid Home Security recently tapped video site National Banana -- whose online offerings include "Gay 4 Obama" and "Spitzer Call Girl Resigns" -- to help build some saucy new ads.

Yeah.

See the results of the collabo on InGrid. The idea behind the spots is to compare InGrid's sexy "wired" home security with the cumbersome systems of yore. The out-of-touch dad/embarrassed-young-daughter gimmick was not lost on us.

Horrid.

Homebuilder Plays Matchmaker. Garsh, that's So Hip.

"Hey Adrants! I don't know if you'd be interested or not, but this homebuilder is hip." (Signed "anon.")

An email like the one above is a really good way of guaranteeing we will quietly hate your company even before we're exposed to its creative. Anyway, check out Shapell Matchmaker, a Shapell Homes campaign that pairs people to their ideal corner of suburbia.

See cheesy video. (Was Bruce Campbell busy?) I took the website quiz, which was kind of fun. My perfect match was the Glens in Gilroy.

So not hip.