Snapple Balloons Fly Above Bryant Park

Three helium balloons rose above New York's Bryant Park today in an apparent promotion for, well, something. Flickr user thefangmonster snapped these shots (1, 2)

ExatTarget Wins, Advergirl Dislikes Man Laws, Contextual Goofs

- Email marketing provider ExactTarget which, yes, advertises on this site, is happy to announce the company's co-founder and CMO Chris Baggot was awarded Best Email Markerting Blog for his blog, Chris Baggot's Email Best Practices.

- More "Get A Girlfriend ads from Axe.

- Advergirl is happy to be a girl and isn't too pleased with Crispin Porter + Bogusky's Miller Lite Man Law campaign. If we were a girl, we'd agree.

- Someday, this industry will figure out contextual advertising but, for now, we will still have to deal with ads for movies called Water placed next to stories about tragic floods.

Hey, I Was Expecting A Hooker, Not A Papa Johns Pizza Guy

When you travel a lot and sometimes find yourself peering out that tiny little fish eye hole in your hotel room door, you don't usually expect to see the Papa Johns pizza delivery man staring you back in the face. It's a little off putting especially if you don't expect it but that's exactly what Saatchi & Saatchi dod for Papa Johns and they got an awards for in at Cannes. Nice work.

Red Lipstick Adorns New City Coffee Cups

If you're one of the few people daring to grab a cup of coffee from a New York Street vendor, you may receive a cup that looks like a woman wearing red lipstick has already used the cup. Makeup retailer Sephora, with help from PromoMedia Concepts produced coffee cups branded with a store opening message along with an imprint that makes the cup look like it's been sipped before. It certainly grabs the attention. After all, no one wants to drink out of someone else's coffee cup and this lipstick sure does make one look closely to make sure it's just an imprint and not the real thing.

Countdown Campaign Promises to Debunkify

Ah, yes. Another mysterious site with a countdown clock. Don't the creators of these sites, in this case, according to Whois information, Cincinnati Ohio-based hyperQuake, know this has been done a million times before? Do they think we will actually care what the countdown leads to? Are they so bold as to assume there is something unique about what they are about to announce? Oh wait. Of course they do. This is advertising and when we create cool campaigns like this we just know the entire world will be jonesing right along with us.

The countdown site, called Debunkify, is accompanied by a video on YouTube and billboards and TV ads in several Ohio locations. The billboards proclaim, "kill the myths before they kill you" and the site indicates all will be revealed July 10. OMG, we just can't wait. Can you? Yawn.

Sidewalk Marketer Calls Attention to Human Rights

While in New York for the BDI Online conference called Web Video Goes Mainstream, I was on my way to meet a friend for lunch and on the way, I was approached by a guy representing The Human Rights Campaign, an organization that "envisionas an America where gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgenderpeople are insured of their basic equal rights." To fund the organization, he, of course, was trying to get people to donate. While I might donate, I told him I'd be happy to give a worthy cause some publicity. So here it is. Street marketer calls attention to equal rights for all.

The Coffee Bean Unleashes Mascot Roomate

We love when we get little tipster emails from people that say things like "Thought you should check out this new site..." and "Viral marketing at its best" because, inevitably, it's not and we relish the opportunity to squat down and dump all over it like a 400 pound slob who's just had an enema. This, unfortunately, is not one of those times. This viral, and we do call it viral because we're sure it's been paid for or influenced by The Coffee Bean, follows the antics of three roommates as they terrorize a fourth who is a mascot called Mr. Ice Blended for West Coast-based The Coffee Bean.

The site, Masot Roomate, has a bunch of videos that show the guys pulling various pranks on the mascot from attacking him on the job, impersonating him, placing his hands down their pants and mascot mascotnapping him. Without fail, all the guys have MySpace profiles which look like they were all recently created and, for the most part, all have the same friends. In another section. Another section of the site, called "5 mascots we wouldn't ever fuck with" explains why the Kool-Ais Man, The Fruit of the Loom Guys, Grimace, McGruff the Crime Dawg and The San Diego Chicken are off limits. Only an unleashed creative type would obsess over these icons and write such lines as, "I spent my formative years with my junk cradled in the safe confines of their white cottony briefs" about the Fruit of the Loom Guys.

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'Deadwood' Does Poker, True Eschews Bikinis

- Artie Lange's promoting his upcoming movie with a NSFW pinball game which is actually kinda fun.

- Just as marketers are beginning to spread their seed all over MySpace, Thought of A Technocrat analyzes MySpace Bulletins and reminds us it can be a very seedy place indeed.

- HBO is promoting the last season of Deadwood with an online virtual poker saloon and game called Dead Man's Hand.

AdJab calls to our attention the stupidity of some of the latest work from Mike's Hard Lemonade which involves a guy holding a bottle in front of the camera and making it talk. With the word "hard" in the name, there's far better things they could have done than this.

- Once again, IKEA has taken its retail locations directly to people, this time dressing up trains as if they were one's living room.

In a newsflash of epic proportion, Copyranter reports online dating site True has placed an ad on the Internet that, stunningly, does not show a woman wearing a bikini.

Atlanta House Branded to Promote 'The Simple Life' On E

Well, it's happened. A couple years ago, we said the proliferation of advertising would, one day, reach the point where people's house would be painted with a brand's logo as part of an ad campaign or promotion. To promote the Simple Life on E, an Atlanta house was decorated with the E and The Simple Life logos and the shrubs in front have been trimmed (likely pre-shaped fake bushes) to spell "Sundays". Oh sure, the whole house is just one big purchased promotion and, likely, it's not the first but it's the first we've seen. It's actually done quite well. Particularly nice job on the "broken" window. We wonder what the neighbors think though. A second photo can be seen here.

Adidas Makes Art For World Cup

With World Cup mania taking over the world, Adidas has taken over the ceiling of a train station in Cologne, Germany and painted a beautiful fresco-style painting. This is the sort of advertising-as-art creative dream about every night.