Popping the Question Made Easy

Amsterdam's Black Magic Marker has made it really, really easy for a guy to ask a girl one of the most important question he will ever ask in his life. With all the pomp and schmaltz of a Hallmark card, reminders of trips to Italy, that love can conquer anything, that new paths in life can be traveled together, no longer will guys have to fret over the most important question in life and how to insure they get the proper answer.

Atlantic Asks the Tough Questions ... But Oh, Where Are the Answers?

Operating under the premise that "there are too many rote answers and not enough good questions," The Atlantic launched Think Again, for which rhetorical questions are posed in neon lights, foregrounding deserted industrial spaces.

Right now these ads are all over Internets. Videos, blog posts and photo variants are available on the site.

We like it -- it's a simple, but still eye-catching and occasionally even witty. Some we've seen:

o Should women settle?
o Why do presidents lie?
o Is the doughnut doomed?

Lately ad land is all about the rhetorical questions. (Maybe it's the economy.) See Google's T-Mobile G1 spot or those weire Ask.com pieces.

Speaking of Ask, it recently ran a banner ad campaign that posed questions, then invited people to click for the answer. The act brought them to Ask.com, where the answer appeared with a prominent heading and image.

That's one tactic that would've made The Atlantic's campaign better: if you could click on the banners and find news articles directly related to the question, maybe addressing it from multiple sides. As it is, the ads only bring you to the Think Again subsite.

Lots and Lots and Lots and Lots of Holiday Greetings.

- n-tara's greeting card (at left) solicited donations for Speedway Children's Charities.

- Ace Hardware's Ace Your Face lets you personalize kitschy holiday greetings.

- Holiday jihad fireworks.

- ATTIK's extra-extra customizable Times Square holiday marquee.

- Hungry Man's Amazing Jake sings ape-tastic Christmas Carol. From his ass. (NSFW, and also objectively ugly.)

- The requisite vintage holiday hello!, courtesy of your friends at Big Tobacco.

- Colle+McVoy build 3D mountain hideaway.

- CPX Interactive sends digital holiday card with snowball-throwing holiday game.

CPX Throws Snow Balls, N64 Kid Promotes Ballet

- CPX Interactive wishes everyone a happy holiday with Balls of Snow, an online snowball fight.

- The Nutcracker Ballet at the Royal Opera gets Nintendo N64 Kid treatment. Weird.

- Frederick Samuel who blogs over at Advertising/Design Goodness just found out he's one of the 3,500 Omnicom employees let go. Help a guy out if you can.

Guy Sells Wardrobe to Advertisers For 365 Days

The "human advertising trend," which involves the selling of parts of one's bodies or personal items to advertisers has been around for quite sometime. Mostly, initial examples were one-offs followed by many unsuccessful followers. Mostly, they were laughed at because, well, it wasn't "real" advertising. Now, with most forms of advertising in upheaval or on the brink of failure, marketers are much more receptive to trying new things.

This receptiveness has allowed web designer Jason Sadler's I Wear Your Shirt to be well on it's way to a complete success. With I Wear Your Shirt, an in the flesh-style PayPerPost, Sadler, 26, will wear a company's shirt for one day every day next year. Off to s good start, 145 days have been sold so far.

Sadler has attractively priced his offering with each day sold at "face value." In other words, January 1st costs $1 and so on. Most days through April have been sold to date. Sadler stands to make as much as $66,795 if he sells all 365 days.

more »

Target Picks the Perfect Presents.

Reminding us yet again that it's the best thing to ever happen to December, Target launched a swingy, charmed-life kinda ad for its Holiday Gift Finder.

In it, a postmodern Santa in a snowed-in aluminum tower locates the perfect gifts for Wifey, Child, Token Ethnic Friend and Skeptical Mother-in-Law, right from his laptop. Each present is beautifully wrapped and received with an acceptable degree of gratitude.

"That's Christmas wrapped!" quips an endorphin-soaked voiceover.

Because why ask over-obvious leading questions like "What do you want?" when you can pop psychographic data into a form, then peruse a list of age-appropriate products? Wow. Gifting is now as easy as advertising on Facebook.

We'd totally use the service, too, if FirstBank hadn't already handled our gift issues.

more »

Alabama Gets a Workout from 'Biggest Loser' Roger Shultz

Scale Back Alabama is a yearly campaign to encourage state inhabitants to shake off some love handles. Those that register for the program, which is free, are encouraged to lose 10 pounds in 10 weeks -- which isn't improbable to do in a healthy way, provided you have resources and encouragement.

This year, Alabamans are getting a little help from Roger Shultz, a finalist from The Biggest Loser. To promote the effort, Luckie Underground -- the basement-confined baby brother of Luckie & Co. -- launched "Gettin' in Shape," a playful PSA with its own YouTube channel.

Witness while a very large dude dressed like the Heart of Dixie pumps iron and selects fruit with conviction, all under the peppy direction of Shultz.

See that victory dance at the top of the library steps? That could be you, my friend.

more »

DZ Nuts Turned David Zabriskie's Tights into Freedomware.

Cyclists have it hard down under. All those hours pushing pedals literally chafes balls, which is funny from a distance but sobering enough that the condition requires an anti-irritant, aptly called "chamois cream."

To contribute to the well-being of fellow bikers, pro cyclist David Zabriskie developed a cream called DZ Nuts -- pronounced "deez nuts," a colloquial expression defined as "The large, sweaty, hairy dangling spheres of man-hood containing future illegitimate seeds that swing violently in the wind when slapped."

more »

Walmart Delivers Christmas Glee

If only every house was this nice and every kid this cute. Wait, what? this is advertising. Of course every house is perfect and every kid a cutie. Especially if it's...a Walmart commercial? Hmm...maybe it's because everything at Walmart is so cheap everyone can actually afford to have a nice house.

The cute kids? Not sure Walmart has much control the cuteness of its customer's offspring. That power comes from, yes, an ad agency...where all kids are cute and perfect and where every slice of life tastes perfect.

Created by The Martin Agency, the spot, Christmas Morning, is airing this week. And for even more of the perfect life, check out the Stock Up on Joy, a microsite the agency created for Walmart and Coke.

Life. Is. Perfect.

Sony Style Invades City with Edible Electronic Surprises

We're not really sure why, unless it's a pun on "Sweet," the spot's last word.

However you feel about sticky streams of chocolate dripping from the sky, the track in the ad is gratuitously cute and almost excuse enough to watch it a few times.

Directed by Tronic for Sony; music by Nylon.

more »