Perhaps there really is some sort of cultural brick wall between New York City and Canada or at least between Montreal's National Bank marketing team and the rest of the entire world. In a laughably out of touch press release, the bank claims it is "once again on the cutting edge of advertising with a colourful new event: a flash mob, used to promote the Bank's role as the presenting sponsor of the Rogers Cup tennis tournament." Colorful new event? Hello? Flash Mobs came and went three years ago, my Canadian friends. It's 2006 this year, not 2003. If calling a three year old trendlet cutting edge weren't bad enough, the bank isn't even conducting a flash mob. All it's doing is unleashing 40 young women dressed in tennis apparel who will roam the streets of Montreal during rush hour August 9 passing out tickets to a tennis match at the Rogers Cup August 12 to 20. Idiots. That's not a flash mob. That's street marketing.
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Once again, underwear retailer Freshpair stormed New York City's Times Sqaure with its annual booty and breast fest all in the name of reminding people they really should get rid of those skid-marked undies and ill-fitting bras and drop some coin for a...uh...fresh pair. Check out all the images and video over at YesButNoButYes.
JWT Toronto has created an ambient (the word everyone outside the U.S. seems to use instead of guerilla) campaign for its client Purell, a hand sanitizer lotion. The campaign uses a simple but what would seem to be effective approach by placing stickers on magazines in doctors offices with copy such as "Thumbed through by sick people since September 2005" and "Gently sneezed on since October 2002." The stickers point to a website, washyourhands.tv, which explains the benefits of Purell. Nice work.
Creating a shopping mall campaign is usually right up there with creating a BRC for LCGC magazine but it looks like the folks over at Minneapolis-based Colle+McVoy had fun with this campaign for the area's Taubman Center shopping malls. The campiagn has a simple message: "Go." Go shopping. Poking fun at those who haven't shopped in years hence own a wardrobe worthy of a 50 year old trying to look fashionable as a chaperon at a high school dance, the campaign's message shame people into updating their wardrobe.
The campaign will appear outside of the shopping malls and consist of customized signage, door hangers, Transtops, train wraps, hot air balloons, coffee cup wraps, dry cleaning bags, bowling clearing arms, restroom mirrors and a Website. Check out the creative here.
To help spread the word about celebrity blog portal ChatWithAStar.com, a "Blogmobile" will travel throughout New York City today including Bryant Park, Union Square, Madison Square Park, Columbus Circle, etc. allowing fans to stop in and blog with their favorite celebs or pro-athlete on their way to work, during lunch or on the way home.
For the Blogmobile's launch, several New York Mets will be on hand to launch the Blogmobile, including pitcher Billy Wagner (a partner in the Chat With A Star venture), First-baseman Carlos Delgado, Shortstop Jose Reyes, Center-fielder Carlos Beltran, pitcher Tom Glavine, Manager Omar Minaya, as will Boxer Gerry Cooney, The Amazing Kreskin, Dominic Chianese, Steve Schirripa, Julia Styles, Venessa Minnillo, Carolina Bermudez, Mocean Worker, former NYC Mayor David Dinkins and supermodel Beverly Johnson.
Going a bit retro, Nicktoons Network is giving kids everywhere a chance to learn about animation through the distribution of flip books that play back full-motion clips from two of the net's new original animated shows.
The flip books will be distributed free to kids all summer during Nicktoon Network's first cross-country mobile tour, held at Comic-Con International and during the Nicktoons Network Animation Festival at Nicktoons Studios. The flip books are a product of Flippies, an Adrants advertiser and a company that's doing some interesting things with an old-school medium.
- On July 22, ML Rogers Art Director Bryan Murphy had some fun with his Find Bryan Murphy Project for which he posted images of his location in Manhattan, placed them on his blog and challenged people to find him. Of course it was all tied to a Yahoo and Dell promotion.
- Cool, new not-a-phone-company Helio has a couple of spots racking up some decent views on YouTube (here and here). They've always got a gatefold print campaign running in Entertainment Weekly, GQ and others.
- This is so incredibly bad but so is the compulsively obsessive belief anyone would actually want a pair of sneakers that came from a mid-eighties movie.
- Orbitz has a wedding microsite where you can upload a photo, choose a wedding dance and send it to a friend. Of course, along the way, you'll be told about travel deals on honeymoon destinations and general wedding travel.
- Hmm. Yet anoher ad blog launches.
- Chicago's Beachwood Reporter pokes holes in the math behind a Wal-Mart campaign opposing a city ordinance that sets special minimum wage for large retailers.
To promote its Shark Week, airing July 30 - August 4, Discovery Channel has hung a 446 foot long inflatable shark atop its Silver Spring, MD building. They're calling it the biggest Shark Week stunt ever. To accompany the inflatable, street teams with pun-filled names like Bight University Chewleaders, will roam the streets of New York. A team of surfers with surf boards will wander about apparently to create intrigue or to cause New Yorkers to wonder if The Day After Tomorrow or Deep Impact are coming true. Bight University Faculty members will quiz New Yorkers on their knowledge of shark fact and myth. If we have a choice, we'd rather be approached by the Chewleaders rather than some surfer dude or some pocket protector-wearing professorial type.
We're not quite sure a vehicle tricked out to look like an office with Vodafone branding all over it does a very good job promoting 3G wireless services. After all, if all those 3G features are so great, why would anyone need an office in the first place? Yea, yea, yea...we get the whole "Gee, look...it's a mobile office" thing but all it does is...oh screw it...it's kinda cool. Don't listen to us.
Instead of encouraging people, as they previously did, to steal things from a billboard, Vancouver's ReThink has created an outdoor poster installation that encourages people to place things on the posters which have been outfitted with pedestals to hold things. The work, which carries the tagline "art that you can feel," is to promote Sculpture Biennale, an art show, made it possible for passersby to become artists as well.
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