So I woke up this morning and heard on the radio that John McCain's getting sued for using Running on Empty, a song by Jackson Browne, in one of his anti-Obama ads without permission. That McCain, what a maverick.
I doubt he's losing sleep over it though, because another artist, John Rich, actually digs McCain enough to give him his own song. It's called Raisin' McCain, and while it bears a slight satirical resemblance to Raining McCain in name and subject matter, Rich's effort is actually not a joke.
That's some catchy shit right thar. And is it just me, or do sequins give our star-spangled banner a little more oomph?
One-time babykiller Gary Oldman is back on the hunt -- this time, for glory. Following in the footsteps of Rosario Dawson and Neil Patrick Harris, the actor is starring in his own web series, The Gloryhunter.
UPDATE: Looks like Oldman's not in The Gloryhunter after all. (We never got to see it; Silverlight is not our friend.)
Oldman appears in an ad for ITV's live football (that is, soccer) programming. See ad.
So weird seeing Oldman kick soccer balls around after trying to off Natalie Portman in a bathroom. Guess that's the way of things.
- Diggin' these Beijing Olympics-based efforts for Mini Cooper and Samsung. Well, the Samsung one might have confused me if I saw it in person, but the Mini rickshaw thing is pretty dope.
- Should Starbucks engage in latte art? American coffee snobs, a subculture Starbucks helped create, would probably argue yes -- if it's at all serious about maintaining luxury cachet. (Which I increasingly doubt it is.)
- More Michael Phelps ads by Visa. PS -- Phelps scored a perfect eight gold medals in the Olympics this summer. It's so exciting, I'm starting to get spam about it.
- So I guess Verizon is not that into disco.
- Rainbow tribe daddy Brad Pitt is launching a body wash in partnership with Kiehl's. The product will cost $16.50 market, he'll appear in no ads, and 100 percent of profits will go to JPF Eco Systems, a green charity he and Kiehl's started together. How sweeeeet.
Tailor a piece of Americana to your global village!
Coca-Cola's chosen ATTIK to help interpret its brand across a number of events: for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, for Coke's Christmas 2008 effort, and for Ramadan in Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Indonesia, Morocco, Tunisia, and other countries with a great many Muslims.
At left is the official Ramadan packaging, courtesy of ATTIK/Leeds. Tell me that doesn't make you feel more pious.
Who says Twitter is a worthless web 2.0 time waster with absolutely no redeeming value? Were it not for Twitter, USA Network's Burn Notice would have escaped...um...notice thereby depriving many (well, at least one) of its many enjoyable aspects; a local native gone Hollywood, the dude from those horrifically campy Evil Dead movies, Sharon Gless who rocked the 80's with Cagney & Lacey and the adorable-turned-impossibley-hot Gabrielle Anwar. Oh, and then there's the plot which, well, doesn't really matter because these four actors would be good in anything.
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Brandchannel's Brandcameo, which conducts product placement in film studies, found Ford appeared in 57.7% of number one films from 2007 to 2008. This year, Ford won its third brandcameo Award for Overall Product Placement for its consistent presence.
From the study, Brandchannel's panel selected the following winners in an online poll:
Most Mouthwatering, placement most likely to prompt an immediate purchase: Louis Vuitton in Sex and the City
Perfect Fit, best chemistry between a brand and a film: Manolo Blahnik and Sex and the City
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And unlike other cars, which wave their ostentatious extras in your face, you can't even see the excess tooshums. Because you know why? It's made up of service, so says the tagline: "The extra Volkswagen part on every Volkswagen. Volkswagen service."
Nice repetition of brand name!
By production firm Czar, NL and DDB for Volkswagen.
Claussen, which has asked us for years to judge pickles by their snap, takes its chances on online "viral" advertising with this video for its "World's Most Excellent Pickle" campaign.
The premise: a series of "pickle fitness" tests were conducted. The footage was boring, so two comedians were tapped to ad-lib over it, Mystery Science Theater 3000-style. It is not funny, and the sight of pickles being systematically snapped by the accordion-looking machine only left us with a dull, empty ache in our chests: is this our lives?
Yeah. Yeah, it is.
And I like how on YouTube, the video is disseminated by "funnystuff75." Way to be obvious, Mister Obvious.
Imposed on us (and now YOU!) by Draft FCB.
What's the best way to get attention and promote Australia's Queensland as a winter vacation destination? The same way you'd get attention or just about anything else: hot guys and girls in swimwear flashing passersby on the street. It's simple. It's low budget. It catches attention. It's fun. Why over engineer when you don't have to? And who doesn't like to ogle a hottie in the morning?
Like full on spam, this email screamed, "Catastrophe hits live during the broadcast of a Direct Insurance commercial." After quickly checking Twitter (what? that's where all the news is these days, people) to make sure there was no actual catastrophe, it became apparent this was yet another ploy for publicity.
The release continued, "During a live broadcast of the Israeli 'American Idol' show, a Direct Insurance commercial for catastrophe coverage burnt up before the eyes of avid viewers. After burning, a simple slide appeared: We apologize for the technical difficulties but catastrophes can happen to anyone".
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