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FirstBank Makes Ski Mask Joke. Oh, How Gauche!

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Colorado's FirstBank hopes to nail younger customers by pushing its mobile banking product.

"Its simple goal is to demonstrate a commitment to the youth market, by going to them where they are," the pressie explained. But we suspect the choice of media buy -- just Colorado ski resorts -- had as much to do with TDA Advertising's one-hit wonder of a slogan as the demo did.

"Bank in your ski mask without getting arrested," the ads deadpan. Yeah, that's not gonna work in a shopping mall.

by Angela Natividad    Feb-13-09    
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Outdoor



Man and Robot Have Earnest but Unconvincing Pizza Debate

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Not completely sure what to make of this one. For pizza franchise Mr. Jim's, AdWise put together this weird ad where founder Mr. Jim goes head-to-head with "Doughby," his dough-making robot.

In the space of :30 they start randomly arguing about whether it's dough, or "the toppings and the crust!", that makes a pizza great.

But given that crust is composed of dough, and the company slogan is "It's the crust!", I guess Doughby wins. Or both win. Or maybe it doesn't matter, and we should all hit Pizza Hut for some stuffed-crust action, because that's really more our speed.

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by Angela Natividad    Feb-13-09    
Topic: Brands, Commercials, Strange, Television



The Internet Makes Bullying Really Easy

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Sort of like that "be careful what you upload" commercial during which a girl finds a less than chaste picture of herself on the school bulletin board and pulls it down repeatedly only to find it put back up again, this German anti-cyber mobbing commercial illustrates the ill effect of online bullying.

Alas, internet or no internet, kids will be kids and kids will be cruel. It's not right but it's just the way it is.

by Steve Hall    Feb-12-09    
Topic: Cause



It's the New WTF Blanket!

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You've heard of the Snuggie, right? No? Well you're missing out on one of the coolest new fashion ever to hit the ... television in the form of a stupid infomercial. But forget about the actual infomercial and watch this parody. Did we say PARODY? Yes, we said PARODY. Get it? Parody!

Anyway, now that we've clarified that minor detail, check out the What the Fuck Blanket.

by Steve Hall    Feb-12-09    
Topic: Good, Spoofs, Strange



Sky's the Limit if Your Face is THIS Famous

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Joining the distinguished ranks of Dame Edna and Fergie, Hello Kitty is lending her likeness to MAC cosmetics.

"We are thrilled to partner with a brand that shares the vision of offering an innovative, authentic and transforming experience to our loyal fan base," said Janet Hsu, who said some similarly frothy thing when Sanrio announced its partnership with McDonald's earlier this month.

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by Angela Natividad    Feb-12-09    
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Packaging, Sponsorship



Yep. Sippin' the Coraline Kool-Aid Pret-ty Heavily.

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Visit the deliciously dollhousey Coraline website. Enter the house, then click on the picture frame if you want to stitch buttons onto your face. Plenty to choose from, and each set of buttons is coupled with curiously thought-out descriptions. (That's the appeal of Coraline's marketing strategy: in keeping with the handmade motif, everything feels tailored to you, even things that obviously aren't.)

Once done tweaking and zooming your button eyes, download and save; embeds are available for MySpace and Facebook.

We also came across this Coraline Nike Dunks Giveaway offer. Okay, that's some pretty deep product whoring, but oh! we want them, just to have them, just because everything Coraline reeks of tasty dark girlwitch magic.

by Angela Natividad    Feb-12-09    
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Good, Online, Promotions



Stone Tweaks Twitter Stance

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Co-founder Biz Stone wrote a blog post that elaborates on a suggestion he made earlier about monetizing Twitter. The crucial stuff:

"Twitter will remain free to use by everyone--individuals, companies, celebrities, etc. What we're thinking about is adding value in places where we are already seeing traction, not imposing fees on existing services."

So businesses already using Twitter can chill: they won't be charged extra for what they're already doing. Stone seems to be saying -- and we write that tentatively, because he leaves a lot of room for interpretation -- that only add-ons will cost anything, unless he means Twitter plans to bring ad support to high-traffic areas. (Hot hash tags and Summize search results look prime for this.)

"[We] hope to begin iterating on revenue products this year," he added.

Sounds like Jeff Bezos et al. are starting to tap their watches.

by Angela Natividad    Feb-12-09    
Topic: Online, Opinion, Social, Trends and Culture



'We Want People to Be Screaming from Houses Across the Country'

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Guerrilla Comm and Silicon Alley Insider scooped us on this Onion spoof on Sony: its complex, overambitious product line, and utopic rape-your-eyeballs ad strategy.

Imagine all that in a news brief coloured by the profane angst-rage you suffer once you finally get that "motherfucking time vampire"* home. (Oh yeah, language NSFW.)

"Maybe the Onion was inspired by 'BD-Live,' the confusing and ill-advised plan to integrate Blu-ray disc watching with instant messaging," said Alley Insider. And the sad part is, that crazy POS was real.

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by Angela Natividad    Feb-12-09    
Topic: Brands, Good, Online, Spoofs, Trends and Culture



The Homestead is a House of Cards, Say Radiohead and Shelter

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Two days ago we mentioned Radiohead was donating one of its songs to a homeless shelter. Last night we got the footage.

The song is Videotape from In Rainbows, but the ad itself is called "House of Cards" -- the name of another In Rainbows track. Only the melody is used, adding an urgent tempo to a panning shot of a city, where a number of homes and skyscrapers are composed of cards that slowly begin to plummet.

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by Angela Natividad    Feb-12-09    
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Cause, Celebrity, Commercials, Good, Television



If It Doesn't Seem Very Bright, That's Because It's Not.

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Then again, LA Gear has never been the sharpest tool in the marketer shed.

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by Angela Natividad    Feb-12-09    
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Guerilla, Online, Video, Worst



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