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Bike Hero Puts Pedal to Punk Rock.

bike-hero-image.jpg

This looks like fun. And before you self-harm on account of your incapacity to contrive something this cool with nothing but gamer love and idle time, take comfort: it was apparently pretty well-funded.

Paul Isakson -- better known as @Don_Draper -- says the faux fan effort is actually a promo for Guitar Hero World Tour. Created by Droga5 under the madflux facade, it's already had nearly 520,000 views in its first 24 hours live on YouTube. I'm sure Feed Company is dying of envy.

Thanks @RobertGorell for passing us the link and agency info.

UPDATE: Steve Coulson persuaded us to call Feed Company and find out if they're the genies behind "Bike Hero." The person we talked to was all evasive and weird about it, so we called one of Feed's contractors and got bonafide confirmation: YES, Feed Company seeded the vid for Droga5.

No surprise, I guess; who besides Feed disseminates astroturf amateur vids that people actually watch?

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by Angela Natividad    Nov-20-08    
Topic: Agencies, Good, Online, Video, Viral



Snowflakes That Stick Together...Promote Utah? Apparently

utah_snowflakes.jpg

This, by far, has to be the strangest tourism ad we've ever seen. Talking snowflakes? Who "hook up?" And awkwardly complain about it? Well it's Utah and there's a lot of snow there so it kinda makes sense. Kinda.

by Steve Hall    Nov-20-08    
Topic: Strange



Legs Dance, Lingeries Lies, Photoshop Amputates

office_legs_dancing.jpg

- This...has nothing to do with anything. Call it a commercial break from all the...uh...commercials when through at you every day.

- And that video still of a woman in sexy lingerie? Just a tad misleading?

- Stranger tactics have been used to sell things but paint ball guns for...a coffee maker?

- Seriously. How the hell do you make a Photoshop error as obvious is this?

by Steve Hall    Nov-20-08    
Topic: Commercials, Strange



Shocker! American Apparel Uses Nudity to Sell Clothing!

aa_nude_reverse.jpg

Once again, nudity in advertising brings back good old-fashioned American outrage. To which, we offer our standard reply: Why so shocked? Nudity is natural and beautiful. And, not to mention, normal.

Of course, using it to sell products is another story but still. Is it really so horrific to show nude people in ads? After all, given the length of time humans have been on the planet, clothing is a pretty new concept. This ad is just getting back to...ahem...the natural way of things.

by Steve Hall    Nov-20-08    
Topic: Racy



'Sibling Rivalry' Makes Artistic Contribution to Zune Arts

zune-arse.jpg

It's bloody disgusting. And knowing that, you can probably guess all that paint isn't coming from a Kelly Moore bucket.

by Angela Natividad    Nov-20-08    
Topic: Consumer Created, Online, Video



'Unworry' Brings 'Unclevers' Out of the Woodwork

australia-unworry.jpg

Riffing on some vague notion that Australia isn't sophisticated enough to conceive of "exotic" naturally-grown foods or handbags worth more than cars, the NRMA's "Unworry" ad invites simple Aussies to "uncomplicate, unstress and" -- naturally -- "unworry."

"We we once dubbed the Clever country, now I'm afraid we're the Un-clever country," whines the guy that sent this to us. "Our poor schooling has finally shown it's head in the workforce and is being broadcast without a comment."

...Was that supposed to be a joke?

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by Angela Natividad    Nov-20-08    
Topic: Commercials, Strange, Television



Crush, Dentsu Canada 'Visualize' Lexus IS F

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Provided with little more than an audio file of the Lexus IS F on the go, production company Crush was asked to visualize what the sound would look like. This is the result of that.

Pretty, and effective in its lack of language. I especially like the smoke circles. Last few scenes cut briefly to the car, the logo, the slogan: "The pursuit of perfection." Clean.

And infinitely more coherent than "F is everything you thought we weren't."

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by Angela Natividad    Nov-20-08    
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Commercials, Television



Watching Toyota's Saved by Zero Will Kill You

saved_by_zero_ring.jpg

Wow. Spoofs are getting better. Earlier today, we shared a hilarious rif on the Motrin babywearing commercial which highlighted the latest fad: really big boob jobs, the back pain they can cause and how Motrin can help.

Now, we have a great spoof of that incredibly annoying Saved by Zero Toyota commercial that's had everyone ranting for weeks. It's done ingeniously with scenes from the movie The Ring.

The Toyota folks must be loving all this hatred. Nothing like an annoying, shitty commercial that keeps going and going and going and...oh wait...that's kind of annoying too. And there's been plenty of spoofs on that one.

by Steve Hall    Nov-19-08    
Topic: Good, Spoofs, Video



Motrin Eases Pain of Women With Giant Breasts

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Motrin is getting its money's worth. In reaction to this past weekend's mommy blogger debacle which had babywearing moms rebelling against the company for its apparent belittling of the mommy/baby bonding practice, Motherhood Uncensored it out with a spoof of the notorious Motrin Babywearing ad.

The spoof, in perfect homage to the original, advocates for women adopting yet another "fad," the boob job. The bigger, the better. And no matter what kind of type of boob job a woman gets or how big she gets them, Motrin will be there for her just like it was for al those women who engage in the "fad" known as babywearing.

by Steve Hall    Nov-19-08    
Topic: Spoofs



Coach Tom Carries Staples into Social Media Scene

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Staples is running a campaign called Gift it for Free, where 10,000 people could "win" any purchase they make at the store between November 16 and December 24.

To promote an already-feeble promotional effort, the marketing team invented a fictional character called Coach Tom, who from what I can tell just wanders around dispensing advice on winning to people that aren't interested, like Tai Chi practitioners and the Kings. At some point in his didactic prattling, he'll toss in a ramble about Gift it for Free, which doesn't visibly spark any interest in his existence.

Feels forced and campy. Also, the videos are too long. But whatev, see requisite YouTube, Facebook and Twitter pages. (Remember how everyone used to build a MySpace page too, and now nobody bothers? Sign of the changing times.)

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by Angela Natividad    Nov-19-08    
Topic: Bad, Brands, Campaigns, Online, Promotions



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