So there's this YouTube video contest called The Savvies Make the Logo Bigger points to that asks people to submit videos illustrating how they plan to become Dollar Menunaires just like the stuck-in-the-seventies dude in the contest video does by showing how to save money by turning an old pair of jeans into a pair of shorts...too short shorts, that is.
One of the best responses we saw in the five minutes we gave ourselves to witness this not so bad piece of CGMish marketing came from YouTuber JamesatWar who shared with us how to save money by using less toilet paper.
In partnership with BlogAds, PETA has launched an ad writing competition which seeks to find the best BlogAd-style blog ad to promote its websites such as GoVeg.com, FurIsDead.com, LettuceLadies.com, and StopAnimalTests.com.
The winner will be determined by the very subjective metric of "most likely to drive traffic to PETA's Web sites."
Running from September 4 through September 24, ten finalists will be chosen, with the winner receiving a $500 Apple gift card. There will also be a People's Choice winner.
Finalists' ads will become part of the BlogAds campaign.
Continuing its campaign to boycott American Eagle, Unite Here, which claims American Eagle Outfitters fails to enforce its Code of Conduct at one of its Canadian shipping Warehouses has launched a Counter Marketing Contest as part of its American Vulture cause. The contest seeks video submissions from people which comment on, parody or satirize the retailer's current marketing efforts.
It began it's quest in New York's Union Square back in July with rally outside one of the chain's stores with its version of the American Eagle, the American Vulture.
For those seeking another reason (besides Facebook) to screw around at work, just ask for a Mac.
The Art of Office brings Mac users back to Apple's roots as a graphic design darling. Here, artists can upload stuff they've created on the Mac Office suite (Word, Powerpoint, Excel) for creative critique in the vocal cult of Mac elitists.
Some (well, most) seem promising but are kind of a letdown. Like this. We expected an all-singing, all-dancing extravaganza, but all we got were a bunch of gigantic eyes staring at us.
Then again, we didn't think Office allowed for much creativity along this vein, so it's impressive even while it disappoints.
So Best Buy's got this contest running called TechUOut. Upload a video about why your dorm room needs some techie refurbishing, and you could win $15,000 for a Best Buy shopping spree. So yeah, imagine nailing that new iPod, humoring yourself over HDTV and indulging your lust for Molly Ringwald films all in one big fat wad-blow.
Not all entries are a waste of infinite tube space, though. We liked this one, which just goes to show there's still plenty of audience creativity to milk in the vast universe of CGM.
ELLEgirl.com and Warner Bros. Consumer Products recently bowed ELLEgirl goes Tweety Chic! campaign, a contest inviting wannbe fashionistas to create a tunic design for Tweety. Powered by user-generated content company Brickfish, the contest will award the winner with a tunic of her (or his, we assume, for for so inclined) design created by L.A. stylists Cristina Ehrlich and Estee Stanley of Miss Davenporte along with a weekend trip to Beverly Hills to stay at the Mondrian hotel, a gift bag filled with $500 in Tweety goodies and the...wait for it... chance to blog about the weekend on ELLEgirl.com.
Two years ago we'd just call this an online contest. Now we have to call it a social media-enabled, consumer/user-generated/created content/media campaign. Remember when an integrated campaign was dubbed "synergistic"? Yup. Everything's the same. We just have new blatherific labels for the same old shit.
Anyway. You still here? What are you waiting for? Beverly Hills? $500? And a chance to be a blogger? What's holding you back?
Los Angeles freelance art director Brian Engleman thinks the consumer-generated content craze has gone too far and illustrates this by creating an entry in the Heinz ketchup contest which offers $57,000 to the winner. Oddly, Engleman's entry is one of the best we've seen so far. Well, in terms of production values. And insiderish humor.
At the risk of being un-PC (oh we never do that here!), we do have to wonder if there wasn't a bit of an inside joke here with the casting of the token hottie and token African America who sit by the hot tub as Chris Lusti completes the spot by advising, "Next time hire an ad agency." OK, shoot us now but we're just wondering. Maybe they're just part of the crew. OK, we're gonna shut up now.
Anything to get people to care about Current TV. Al Gore has hooked up with Cameron Diaz to introduce its ":60 Seconds to Save the Earth" contest which calls for people to submit :15, :30 or :60 PSAs urging people to care about the climate. The winning spots will air on Current TV and on MySpace's Impact channel. So if you're feeling green and have the CGM itch, this is your chance to get something on the air as opposed to having it trashed by the client.
For those of you tracking the many purposes a weblog can serve, you can now add house building to the list. DIY Network will air a new show August 16 at 9PM called Blog Cabin which will document the building of a log cabin which was built with guidance from bloggers contributing a DIY Network weblog over the course of several months. From roof style to window selection to fireplace, bloggers logged over 4 million suggestions and votes during the project. They even alerted the apparently forgetful building crew a window had not yet been installed. Check out the entire project here.
While we can appreciate the effort put into this DraftFCB Irvine online work for Taco Bell, Fourth Meal, which presents itself as a late night resource for night owls, it's a bit kludgey considering the hundreds of other similar online efforts which have come before it. Doing the Taxicab confessions thing, visitors can ride a cab around the city, check out late night hot spots added by users and record their own confessions for upload. Maybe Dunkin' gave us a decaf this morning by mistake but this just isn't hitting us.
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