Hoping to target a multicolored crowd that's "losing touch with antiquated [...] ethnic messages," calling card company Rebtel partnered with Monsoon Media, creators of the decidedly-ethnic web comic strip Doubtsourcing.
At left is one component of what Monsoon came up with. Inspired by old-school Bollywood print ads, it features Rebtel CEO Hjalmar Winbladh surrounded by multi-ethnic folk on cell phones. And an Asian dude with a gun. (A more direct and permanent form of communication, I guess.)
"Great service, dazzling features and super cheap rates! Rebtel CEO Hjalmar Winbladh is looking to dishoom ripoff calling plans!" the ad beams brightly.
At first I thought I read that wrong, but the pressie says "dishoom" is the sound a Bollywood hero makes when punching a bad guy. Well then, all right.
Future iterations of the campaign include a web component, some sort of tongue twister, and a third ad where a forlorn mother guilt-trips viewers into calling neglected relatives.
...it does, and they don't wish you well.
Time has taught me to look forward to French PSAs, whose entertainment value outpaces (often dire) American counterparts while maintaining a lighter, friendlier feel.
This French PSA for colon cancer is less action-packed than the AIDS PSAs we've been so stuck on. Like a rerun of Osmosis Jones, the :30 spot takes users on an animated trip inside an apparently-healthy man's body, where a grinning cancer cell waits, eager to wreak havoc and whatnot.
Its object is to convince men over 50 to get tested for colon cancer -- which, if caught early, can in most cases (the ad says nine out of 10) be cured. Launched by the National Cancer Institute, it airs from September 14-October 8 across most major French stations.
- Recap of the McCain/Rachael Ray glee-fest.
- University of Georgia claims narcissists can be pegged by their Facebook photos.
- Save your soul -- and the rotting souls of others -- while microblogging. Way to multi-task!
- AIG yanks all corporate ad campaigns.
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In an online spot called "Bzzzz. Mini Clubman," a passel of geriatric houseflies gather 'round for the emotional funeral of an ex-buddy, whose death is characterized as one "every fly wishes for," "legendary" and "bigger than life."
What happened to him? He was flattened mid-flight by a Clubman.
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- Google's Sergey Brin started a blog. In the first entry, he discloses his risk for Parkinson's disease. The New York Times probes why he'd do that.
- British actor Paul Kaye plays Seamus Murphy, the shady proprietor of an airport car park, for another one of those not-yet-viral "viral" campaigns. This is for Holiday Extras, a travel website.
- Esther Lee departs EuroRSCG.
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To promote W., Oliver Stone's artistic tribute to America's favorite President (insert eyeroll here), Lionsgate launched the W. Mashup Contest on YouTube.
Use the clips and audio/video composition tools to create your own trailer. Oliver Stone himself gets to decide which is best.
The problem is, YouTube immediately removes entries upon submission. One entrant says, "all that remains of your genius contest entry is the phrase 'This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Lionsgate'."
Here is the hole where an entry should be. (In the event that Lionsgate is smart enough to fix this, here's a screenshot.)
A complex promotion for a man who, at the very least, was a complex leader. Maybe they're only suppressing entries by users suspected of storing WMDs.
Today I came across a banner ad run by the Newspaper Association of America, which seeks to reposition "the newspaper" -- a rolled-up, grayish mound of reading material that occasionally appears on the threshold of hotel room doors -- as "The Multi-Medium."
"Is newspaper old media or new media?" the ad asks, followed by an enigmatic, all-encompassing response: "Yes." Below the text is a woman whose newspaper appears to be feeding content to other media from a bunch of wires and cords. Cute.
Click-throughs guide the perplexed to Newspaper Media. With pretty imagery, plenty of data -- many of which are broken links -- and sentences that melodramatically start, "In a world where consumers are tuning out advertising...", the NAA hopes we'll start perceiving newspapers as less a stagnating medium than an abstract (but stable!) concept: "newspaper" isn't just where Gram finds the crossword; it is THE legit news source, offline and online (unless you're looking for data on why).
And the NAA can help you (yes, you!) advertise on both.
In defense of the NAA's position -- which could use some work, starting with those dead links -- print media isn't dying so very quickly. Newspaper readership grew 2.5 percent in the top 100 markets, according to a survey from earlier this year. And trusted newspaper brands increasingly dip into other so-called "new" media: mobile and internet, for a start. The New York Times even started embedding video.
See? Nobody's dying. Now go help Rupert Murdoch finance a new yacht.
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