Be a pal, Commit Your Friend.
This is a promotion for The Dark Knight, sponsored by Verizon and put together by Oddcast and Moxie Interactive. Using the same feature-pinpointing technology Nip/Tuck used to make you hate your face (but in a fun way!), the site weds a person's features seamlessly to a loonie in the Arkhum Asylum.
Um, neato.
I have no friends worth strapping down, so I decided to commit Mark Zuckerberg. Afterward I felt sorry. His trusting face, staring out at me from the confines of a strait jacket, was just too much to deal with.
He hardly looked like himself.
So I had some Haagen-Dazs ice cream (try it now, save some bees!) and now I feel better.
The DHSMV and the Florida Rider Training Program are looking for cool ways to get bikers to dress more visibly. So they launched Ride Proud Dress Loud.
The associated print ad campaign -- put together by Kidd Group -- features bikers in various shades of yikes! and oh my!. There's also some wince-worthy flaming-leather action. Great balls indeed.
More ads here.
Our source at Kidd says a lot of hardcore bikers are pissed about the campaign. Well hell, sour grapes, it could always be worse. Good stuff from Kidd though. I like a little colour on my burly man.
If you were a fan of Buffy: The Vampire Slayer or its slightly traumatizing spin-off Angel, you might get teary with glee over Acts I and II of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, an effort by creator Joss Whedon to raise crowdsourced funding for a web-only show. (See trailer!)
Dr. Horrible, played by Neil Patrick Harris, is a singing supervillain. He uses the blog to share his dreams of dominating the world and joining an elite frat, the Evil League of Evil, whose membership he'll probably never earn unless he defects for a series that takes itself more seriously, like True Blood.
"If you're gonna get into the Evil League of Evil you have to have a memorable laugh," insists Dr. Horrible, who looks like a cross between Doogie Howser, MD and Butters masquerading as Professor Chaos.
more »
Idle insanity mashes up with everyday banality, colorful media and schizophrenic graphics in Stunningly Harmful Artlikes, six audio-visual vignettes that may in fact cause you harm.
The series brings Being John Malkovich to mind: media artist Jason Nelson is pretty much letting us glimpse a mundane world through his compulsively musical mind. Along the way you'll see or hear appropriated snatches of songs, games and imagery seen elsewhere but out-of-context.
more »
- Nonesuch Records redesigned its site so artists can "directly" interact with fans. Created by Sisu and branding partner Axiom.
- We were checking email and minding our own business when Gay List Daily suggested we put a cock in our mouth. "Or 32 if you're feelin' crazy." It was appalling. And then we realized they were talking about tooth tattoos -- the low-key variation of a rapper's grill, but just as expensive if you're fickle.
- ABSOLUT Vodka is doing some weird shit right now. Its current online video campaign features Tim and Eric from Tim and Eric's Awesome Show, Great Job. (It's totally off-putting, but you gotta stick with it.) "I only made cookies for three..." Bloody hilarious. If you're not down with Tim and Eric, you're making baby Jesus cry.
more »
Amber Lee Ettinger -- better known as Obama Girl -- is seriously amazing. She didn't just shake her ass for politics; she turned that ass-shaking into a recognized brand.
Mochila is partnering with Barely Political, Obama Girl's parent, to promote online political coverage of the 2008 Presidential campaign. The pair will sponsor NetRoots Nation 2008 in Austin from July 17-20.
more »
I'm kinda digging Viking Smackdown, a game Hello Viking put out to celebrate its one year anniversary.
I'd probably like it more if I could play it though. (You can only play from an iPhone or iPod touch with sassy tilting capabilities. And as the "sorry, fuck off!" message states, "Shaking your laptop just won't cut it.")
Here's the next-best thing (not really): a video about the game! (Scroll down.) I'm digging the awkward vibe and bare feet.
Treehugger sent us news that the ad at left, which depicts a Volkswagen Polo Blue Motion chained to a bike rack, violates EU law by failing to disclose fuel consumption and CO2 emissions data.
And it isn't just the one piece. All creative from VW's current campaign, which promotes its "environmentally friendly technology," is being challenged by the Association for Protection of the Environment and Nature of Germany (BUND) as illegal under the above stipulation.
Not to say the VWs aren't actually fuel efficient; apparently, though, you can get your wrist slapped for not making it clear enough. Weird world.
Peroni's PR dude sent us the pitch for "Calendario," a new campaign tasked with depicting Peroni as a "timeless classic" and "Italian style in a bottle." (Well, hell. If you can get Italian style in a bottle, I suppose you would find it in the liquor aisle of your local grocer.)
We were then given a link to the Peroni website, where we found zip-zero on "Calendario." What we did find was Peroni's branded rendition of La Dolce Vita: 60 seconds long, stuffed with Peroni billboards and loaded with second-rate models that lack the five o'clock shadow and fleshy life of Federico Fellini's original cast.
That's what you'll find here -- if you can wait long enough for the damn page to load.
I went to Toronto last weekend and attended a dinner party hosted by Shannon Stephaniuk of Glossy Inc. If you're a blogger, a production company or one of her agency clients, you probably know her well. She's the PR person who actually presents advertising in a format journalists like (and cover lavishly):
(subject line.)
PICTURES!
LINK TO (DOWNLOADABLE) CREATIVE!
LINK TO CREDITS!
To other PR people: Why is this formula so hard to grasp? Just today I got a fucking one-page essay from Peroni's PR folk, pitching me on its new "Calendario" campaign, and then NOTHING. What, I have to email back to see the creative? Oh wait, there's a tiny link to the site right at the bottom near the fine(-as-hell!) print. Once I give my birthdate and location, I can hunt "Calendario" down myself -- if Peroni was smart enough to post it there at all. (What ho, it wasn't.)
But I digress.
The dinner party took place Friday night at Nyoob and featured a handful of Toronto-based media and ad people. The guestlist is posted here and so are the photos, if you want to see what havoc ensued.
Quotable highlights from the party are below.
more »
|
|
