Last Friday, with help from 180LA, Sony deployed an army of "living" mannequins across Manhattan. Chic gamines, harder around the eyeline than usual, were seen sitting at cafes, Grand Central Station and elsewhere, blogging and updating Facebook pages from their VAIO P Series devices.
The campaign also had a Fashion Week component: the dummies were dressed by designers aiming to promote their wares in conjunction with Sony's wee VAIOs.
Hmm. Plastic chicks with hot tech toys, expensive shoes and limited maneuverability. How on earth did anyone distinguish them from the other Sex and the City groupies?
"Carry the Torch" is an animated cause spot meant to encourage Canadians to "Create a better Canada." The song is called Shiny Happy Relay; lyrics appear below. (It is such RetroJunk fodder.)
A TotalWork effort developed by BBDO/Toronto and Proximity/Canada, the spot depicts RBC's "Arbie" character kicking off the Torch Relay in the top half of the North American continent.
Canadians that feel the fire can register at rbc.com/carrythetorch, enabling them to take hold of the actual Olympic torch as it crosses their borders.
more »
The press folk representing Anheuser-Busch sent us a passel of teasers for this year's Super Bowl. Slapstick takes a backseat to dramatic setup; all punchlines have been saved for Sunday.
Here's three:
"Clydesdales: Generations," an American immigration story starring last year's heavy-hoofed underdog. (They're milkin' this bad-boy for all its worth. The Clydesdale appears in at least two more spots: one circus-themed, another featuring his old Dalmation buddy.) By Waylon Advertising/St. Louis.
more »
So what does Las Vegas do in a down economy which has caused a precipitous drop in visits, halted construction and caused casinos to file for bankruptcy? It invites (and pays for) an entire town to travel to Vegas and documents their every move.
All 358 residents of Texas town Cranfills Gap traveled to Las Vegas and experienced everything the town had to offer. The whole adventure is captured in a series of videos and has been all over the news.
This morning we got a press release announcing the launch of a riotously ironic! ad agency called WTF & Associates, spearheaded by president/CEO John Bristol.
Bristol says the objective is "to revolutionize art and culture." His team is purportedly also "putting the finishing touches on an ingenious multi-platform campaign" for a high-profile client.
Natch, we made a noise along the lines of "WTF...?", then visited the site, aptly hosted at wtfass.tv.
Click on the doors to watch some dementedly-cheery talking heads (in the style of this TD Bank Theatre campaign) make bullshit agency talk. And if you're patient enough, you may hear the actual pitch for said "high-profile client."
Clueless as to who? Find out below the drop.
more »
The New England Aquarium's "See Turtles" campaign is an appealing exception to the no-pun rule. (Also, we like an effort that doubles as justification to take hallucinogens.)
Variants include Droplet, Water Tower and Rooftop, which will appear in magazines and newspapers.
Online banner ads -- which are also cute, if a little Clip-Arty -- include Snowman, Cocoa and Car. (Forgive us if these links break; they're hosted by Mullen.) These are slightly different from their print counterparts: in them, ordinary things take the shape of turtles over time, taking advantage of the 'net's ability to seize roving eyes. Frankly, the print stuff is better.
Work by Mullen/Wenham, MA. There's also radio material, which we didn't get to hear.
In an all out effort to accost, uh, make the public aware of its new logo and celebrate the "next generation's" apparent positive outlook for the coming year, Pepsi has unleashed itself upon Times Square with a week-long promotional extravaganza.
This past weekend, Pepsi, with street teams and a Times Square billboard takeover, featured its new Refresh Everything message of hope, optimism and a world made perfect through the rose colored glasses of advertising. A new television commercial, Wordplay, also made its debut.
more »
Apparently Fallon is so bad-ass it would melt down One Show Pencils, Clios, Cannes Lions and even an Emmy -- all those paperweights you slave so hard for -- just to celebrate its staying power.
The You Are Fallon project represents 30 years of creative work and also commemorates the agency's move to a new space. Existing and former employees donated awards they won while at Fallon, then sat back while the gold, silver and bronze bits were melted into a 175-pound plaque that simply proclaims, "We are Fallon."
Kinda cool that people unloaded enough trinkets to produce 175 pounds' worth of Fallon love. Provided the plaque isn't one day lifted by a disgruntled (and extremely strong) ex-creative, it's like being immortalized into the fabric of your second home. See making-of.
If serendipity brought you to Croatia's Zagreb Zoo last week, you could've seen lions! and tigers! and bears! ... and hipsters!
Agency Bruketa & Zinic parked "fashion beasts" in a cage to showcase Puma Sport's 2009 collection. And they didn't just stand around, either; sometimes they sang. These efforts, so different from the usual dolphins-catching-fish or monkeys-throwing-poo, were rewarded with heavy gawkage.
We've seen people trapped in cages or store windows before, typically for more sobering reasons: to combat human trafficking, or fight for pigs' rights, or promote the objectively unloveable Dodge Magnum. In any case, we thought the fashion beast thing was a neat way to captivate both parents and kids -- which aren't typically receptive to noisy marketing messages during family time.
- Pepsi blocks other non-alcoholic beverages from entire first half (!!!) of next year's Super Bowl. And Halftime! Now that's just gluttonous.
- To promote its Scott Shop Towels ("like paper towels but way tougher," the PR folk explained), Kimberly Clark goes on safari for grills gone wild!.
- Bill Green lends valuable insight on how to gain a near-instant boost in Twitter followers.
- Evil Dead -- the Musical.
- If the Peanuts crew were an ad agency, Lucy would be the obnoxiously bitchy, but refreshingly honest, Christmas party organizer. And Linus would be an AD. (The security blanket should've been the tip-off.)
- Powder Blue trailer strips Jessica Biel down to her bare minerals. Eat your heart out, Natalie Portman! (Neither link is SFW.)
- Burger King's King loses wallet.
|
|
