Some might say user-generated ad campiagns are so 2007 but not Samsung who partnered with Brickfish to bring us a video contest in whick people can submit their own versions of Pussycat Doll lead singer Nicole Scherzinger's single "baby Love." The contest is to promote Samsung's camcorder. The winner, determined by popular vote, will take home a Samsung 40 inch LCD HDTV and an MX10 flash memory camcorder.
Predictably, most entries are about as good as early round American Idol contestants but we're not going to not get all Simon Cowell nasty and ruin the fun. Rather, let's wallow in the amusement the YouTube generation gleefully shares with the world.
Brickfish has enabled and is tracking the viral spread of these video as they make their rounds off the contest site and into the internet ether. There's a cool chart that displays the spread and the viral path the videos took.
What is it about UPS that causes hot women to dress in sexy versions of the delivery company's uniforms and pose alluringly for the camera. The famed "UPS Girl" has been floating around the web for years dressed in high heeled boots, booty-baring, thong-like hot pants, a halter top and the signature cap. She's beautiful. She's girl-next-door cute and she's hot.
Apparently, UPS is just fine with this hottie sporting the company's brand. That is unless we've missed the cease and desists...which, of course would be stupid. What brand wouldn't want to have their face in front of every girl-obsessed person in the world? You can see all of her in all her glory here. To say she is fine would be an understatement.
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Mark Timms is creating what he calls "the first independent Super Bowl Commercial." He is appealing to the world at large for creative ideas and sponsorships. Check out the stars of the ad. (Don't worry, you won't know any.)
Timms is one of the three guys who put together the "first" consumer-generated Super Bowl ad effort some months ago. He explained that his partners weren't behaving like professionals, so he's doing it all by his lonesome this time around.
Gotta love CGA.
UPDATE: Commenters are calling Timms out as a spammer and scammer. (Yes, we checked the IPs, and yes, they're all different.)
Extra-extra, read all about it.
Trying to capitalize on the success OfficeMax has had with ElfYourself, American Express' new Holiday Rockstar campaign invites users to turn themselves into one of Oddcast's "virtual characters."
If you're not familiar, Oddcast creates those creepy characters whose eyes follow your cursor and start blabbing away without first asking permission.
Though songs from Mariah Carey's holiday album are strangely missing, the service also allows you to sing one of three holiday songs by calling a number. You can then send your holiday greeting to a loved one, most likely resulting in uncomfortable laughter.
However, when we tried uploading two different headshots, it ended in the window crashing, immediately evoking the disastrous SimpsonizeMe tool. Good thing there are back-up characters.
Dr. Pepper hooked up with YouTube celeb Tay Zonday to recreate his famed Chocolate Rain video to promote its new Cherry Chocolate drink. The new video is as goofy as the original but it's climbing the video charts fast. Currently, is resting in the number one slot over at Viral Video Chart. Whether or not it reaches the original's 12 million views is unclear at this point but we're guessing he's happy with the paycheck he got from Dr. Pepper.
The new video also features Mista Johnson aka Felonious Monk and an army of dancing booty babes. Since its debut November 28, the video has 566,000 views on YouTube. Thankfully, it's half the length of the maddeningly repetitive original.
Twin Peaks was a great show but it's been gone for 17 years. Yes, it's been that long but CBS and Paramount seem to think fans can't get enough of Agent Cooper and Laura Palmer and have asked Mammoth Advertising to help promote the release of the Twins Peaks Definitive Gold Box Edition.
The agency came up with The Twin Peaks Coffee Brew Competition which asks people to create coffee-focused video mashups. Show creator and legendary director David Lynch, himself, will select the winner who will receive a...year's supply of Signature Cup coffee? Uh, yea, the dude brands his own coffee. The winner will also get the DVD set, of course.
If you didn't watch the show, it was truly great. Well, at least the first ten episodes or so were. Then the show took an aimless nosedive off a cliff. Sort of like the contest entries we've seen so far.
- If you're into weird sunglass ads, this one's for you.
Shake Well Before Use pointed us to a proposal that took place on Halo 3. To win over his girlfriend, some dude spelled "Will you marry me?" out with weapons.
Everybody heard those geeky but true stories about people proposing to each other and getting married over that Halo 2 "i love bees" scavenger hunt orchestrated by 42 Entertainment. So it's probably fair to say love has always been always been part of Halo's architecture.
Adhering to its company mantra, "Any company that takes poetic license with its shoe designs ought to allow consumers poetic license with its website," UK-based woman's shoe company, Poetic Licence, has handed over website design responsibilities to site visitors who, with a set of tools, can craft a personalized version of the site which can also be used as the person's desktop.
Durhan, NC-based The Republik did the work for the U.S. launch of the shoe company
Red Bull has added yet another promo to its growing line of user-created forrays.
The company that brought us the annual flying wonder-ridden Flugtag and Art of Can contests is now asking UK consumers to write its next TV ad.
Called the Red Bull Tall Story Contest, the brand artfully positions yet another CGM pandering campaign as an a kind of literary contest, by asking consumers to write a "witty short story."
Entries should follow in the spirit of its long-running cartoon spots, where someone gets wings after downing a Red Bull.
Adverblog says Red Bull will be promoting the contest with half a million pounds using radio, print and online advertising, in addition to on-campus student promos.
For a dollar, you could get a Digital Panhandler to shit-talk somebody in an audio email. (As a courtesy to patrons, your identity will remain anonymous.)
Ain't technology great?
For other sackcloth-sporting brethren the premier Panhandler lends these words of encouragement: "Remember Digital Panhandlers you are not alone. Where ever you may roam in the matrix you will find a fellow Digital Panhandler."
In the end, that's all these ad-supported new-media-buzzing VC-hustling widget-builders are doing anyway, right? And why not? At least one guy's freshly-plush off the hype.
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