Roadside Flowers Call Attention to Online Reality Show

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If you were driving to work last Friday in Cape Town, you likely saw something along the side of the highway that didn't look quite right; patches of blue and yellow cellophane flowers and tiny little windmills. No, Disney didn't invade Cape Town with It's A Small World but Can You Twist, South Africa's first online reality show which transitions episodes offline with real life, ARG-style endings.

Some of the real life endings include flowers handed out to 250 women around the country and a bank "break up letter" newspaper ad in which underlined words spelled out the site's URL. Wouldn't it be nice if you really coculd break up with your bank and leave all your debt behind? Now that would truly be a great reality show.

by Steve Hall    Jul-29-08    
Topic: Guerilla



Live Unbuttoned, Make Waves, Cause Fender-Benders

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"Runaway jeans cause car crash" is the fourth installment of Levi's "Live Unbuttoned" campaign. (Also see backflipping into jeans, which was unexpectedly successful, and helium jeans.)

It was put together by Feed Company, which also did the Ray Ban "Never Hide" thing (remember "Guy catches sunglasses with face"?), which is great to see on paper considering people wasted plenty of time drawing comparisons between "backflipping into jeans" and "Guy catches sunglasses with face." Now you at least will know for sure: It's the same company. Tell all your friends.

by Angela Natividad    Jul-29-08    
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Guerilla, Viral



Lotus Won't Just Fit You with Features; You'll Get a Little Character, Too

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Check out Faceless People, for which a bunch of, well, faceless people appear in high-profile places all over England.

By wading through a sea of faceless folk on FacelessPeople.com, you can read up on the specs for the new Lotus Evora. Tagline: "True character in a faceless world."

Diggin' the creepy guerrilla effort (imagine getting on the bus and sitting next to somebody WITHOUT A FACE!), but I also think it's pretty bitchy to claim to have a premium on character. (Why spend $80K for character when a jagged scar does it for free?) Thanks to Adrants reader Tom Quinn for sending this over.

by Angela Natividad    Jul-22-08    
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Guerilla, Strange



Oreo Turns Elevator Into Milk Dunking Machine

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OK, this is kind of cool. Using a glass elevator with a giant faux Oreo cookie attached to it that dunks into a faux glass of milk when the elevator hits the first floor, Oreo has done a nice job creating interest with the use of alternative media. Hmm. Anyone feel like Oreo cookies and milk now?

by Steve Hall    Jul-22-08    
Topic: Good, Guerilla, Outdoor



Wonderbra Could Make Basoomas a Transit Hazard

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Flipping on old jokes about front-heavy women, Wonderbra added a yellow safety line behind the one that appears in metro stations.

That's right, Miss Full-Frontal-Since-This-Morning. Get used to stepping a little further back, 'cause you know those boobies are gonna get in the way of the Five line. Reason #4304983098 why it's better to just embrace your surfboard self.

Via the PhotoShelter blog. Agency: Euro RSCG/Singapore.

by Angela Natividad    Jul-22-08    
Topic: Brands, Guerilla



Product Placement in Porn Advocated, Pennies Pitch

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- The FWA has announced its 2008 Site of the Year judging panel. Some idiot named Steve Hall will be one of the judges.

- Chuck McCarthy has a few ideas for those of us in advertising. Not one to overlook a missed ad opportunity, Chuck thinks branded background images on those distorted login codes would be a great medium, Justin Timberlake's Sexy Back could be turned into Snackin' Back for a cracker brand and energy drink product placement in porn would be hot.

- A dude thinks the back of pennies are a great medium. He was right. After affixing his URL to the back of fifty pennies and distributing them around New York, business boomed.

by Steve Hall    Jul-21-08    
Topic: Celebrity, Guerilla, Product Placement, Racy, Strange



Not Every Suicide Note Looks Like a Suicide Note. (Some Look Like Kate Moss)

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For the Looking Glass Foundation, which assists adolescents with eating disorders, DDB, Canada launched a PG-rated but poignant awareness campaign in British Columbia.

The "Pencil Marks" PSA features a girl charting her waist-slimming progress with pencil marks on a wall. The agency also distributed broken toothbrushes in baggies that read, "Attempting to purge, Jane B. broke a toothbrush off in her throat and choked."

See, if you're gonna be all pro-Mia, you need to get over your squeamies and use a finger.*

more »

by Angela Natividad    Jul-18-08    
Topic: Campaigns, Cause, Commercials, Guerilla, Online, Television



Driverside Pays Parking Tickets, Cars Go Zen, Actresses Put Brand Icons Out of Work, Gary Busey Becomes GotVMail Mascot

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- Jezebel compiled a list of the top 10 female product advertising icons -- and the actresses that could replace them. That Mrs. Butterworth's/Queen Latifah one is hella funny. Now you: go forth and laugh.

- Driverside.com, which sends reminders for auto maintenance and calculates repair estimates in your area, is paying parking tickets off for 100 San Francisco inhabitants. Register at the above link and check back July 25th to see if you're among the scott-free parking violators.

- Gary Busey's objectively bananas, and here's proof. If you're planning to argue, I've got three words for you: stupid, misfortunate placenta.

- Neat water campaigns: submerged-society ones for Australian brand Insight, quiet dreamscape ones for Diesel.

- BooneOakley is behind State Farm's "Experience Peace of Drive" car wash campaign. (Apparently you also get a free massage.) More from the effort: bathing car, car and yoga, car and cucumber, car and candles, car and acupuncture. (Kinda cool. I had a fat friend whose mom made him visit an acupuncturist to induce weight loss. It didn't work, but he kept telling her it did because he found the needles soothing.)



Grassvertising at Wimbledon, Green Patriots in Cleveland, SAG Deluges Idaho, Coca-Cola Rents-a-Blog

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- To jazz up its Wimbledon sponsorship, HSBC commissioned two artists to make photographs out of growing grass. Brings a freakish new angle to "watching grass grow."

- Cleveland-based? Go be a patriot. A green patriot.

- Former CEO Carly Fiorina of Hewlett Packard is among the contenders for VP under McCain. George Parker is hella bummed.

more »

by Angela Natividad    Jul-10-08    
Topic: Cause, Guerilla, Newspaper, Political, Promotions



2 Clever Ways to Drum Up Empathy for Female Genital Mutilation

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- Hit the honeys where it hurts. Effort by the Association of Women Against Genital Mutilation.

- Stitch up a rosebud. Because where our ladyparts are concerned, we just love ourselves a flower pun. Effort by Amnesty International, variant ad at Copyranter.

Now that you've been primed, here's some reading on female circumcision. (Because while the image of a dirty blade in new panties might make my eyelid twitch, it doesn't really tell the whole story.)

by Angela Natividad    Jul- 9-08    
Topic: Cause, Guerilla, Magazine, Strange