eBay Tattoo Auctions Get High Fashion Treatment

We just love the wittiness of fashion designers and their ad agencies who come up with eBay tattoo auction knock-offs like this ad for Francesco Biasa who, apparently, is trying sell handbags by placing tattoos (likely fake) on the naked bodies of models. Isn't high fashion a beautiful thing?

Tremor Rebrands, Launches Seizure-Inducing Banner Campaign

During Advertising Week and with a seizure inducing online ad banner campaign, online video advertising firm Tremor Network has announced a rebranding and name change to Tremor Media to better describe its shift from online ad network to full blown "online video solutions" company for advertisers and publishers. You can catch the campaign in print on back covers of Adweek, Mediaweek, and Brandweek magazines and those siezure inducing banners online at Adweek, MediaPost, imediaconnections, MarketingVOX, MediaBuyerPlanner and, yes, right here on Adrants.

While our ad department, once again, "forced us" to run this campaign, there seems to be a nice tie in with the whole "tremor" thing. The banners say 'a seismic shift in advertising." Get it? Seismic? Earthquake? Shaking? Spasmodic banners? OK, forget it. That's a stretch. We're just trying to justify accepting their business. It'll all be over in a week.

Diversity Is More Than A Magazine Insert

Copyranter pokes fun at yesterday's New York Times Magazine Leadership on Diversity advertising section which served as a platform for companies to pontificate about their sensitivity to diversity and the actions they've taken to insure they are fair to all. Copyranter particularly liked the ad from the Department of Homeland Security which featured an image of a Muslim woman. While poking fun, Copyranter also points out a truism in our industry, writing, "Half of the ads lamely crammed the word Diversity right in the headline, as some very junior (and very white) copywriters just outta ad school spent about five pissed off minutes working on this lowly assignment before handing the first two lines that popped into their heads into their creative directors. Whew. That's outta the way. Onto the much more important men's body spray print ad."

Very white indeed which is why Adrants has partnered with Business Development Institute to host the Advertising Industry Diversity Job Fair and Leadership Conference to tackle the currently very hot topic of diversity and what agencies are doing to make sure they are fair in their hiring practices. Now, it's been said other industries offer much higher pay and much better future opportunity than advertising so what minority (or majority for that matter) in their right mind would choose advertising over, say a Wall Street job? Well, that's what the conference hopes to explore - is the industry all white because it is being exclusive or is it because that's the natural order of things in the old boy's network?

Geeks Try to Stop Alltel's My Circle Plan

Like a scene out of Mallrats, four guys in this commercial for the Alltel Wireless My Circle plan plot a way to stop the "call ten friends for free no matter what plane they are on" feature because, after all, who could possibly have more than ten friends? Created by Campbell-Ewald, the spot is part of the wireless company's second campaign called "Sales Guys" which follows the initial "Icons" launch campaign. Beyond television, the campaign will include radio, print, event marketing, online advertising and webisodes. Be sure to check out the geeks on the Alltel website along with "Chad" who attempts to get in touch with competing wireless company CEO's to tell them about the My Circle plan.

Cordant Technologies Ad An Odd Premonition of 9/11

Appearing in Business Week a couple months prior to 9/11, Adrants reader Jim Lolis wonders if the creative team on this Cordant Technologies ad for its Howmet Castings division's jet engine airfoil technology was Al Qaeda. It looks pretty foretelling to us. Of course, yes, it's just another coincidence.

Pizza Campaign Treats Girlfriend Well

Here's a witty ad campaign for a pizza joint called Toppers from Shine Advertising. With copy like, "Every pizza is made with tender loving care. The exact same way we treated your girlfriend last night." Not exactly family friendly Bertuccis but way more fun. See the work here.

Harvey Nichols Fashion Ads Deliver High Fashion Messaging

We're sure there's many different levels of inner meaning to these Harvey Nichols ads for its Beauty, Womenswear and Menswear lines sent to us by Adrants reader, Susannah, but we won't bore you with our analysis. Rather, we'll just point you to them and you can interpret them yourselves. DDB London did the ads.

AdWeek Rips Off Subscriber Who Didn't Subscribe

We'll caveat this whole story first by saying B.L. Ochman realizes she should have noticed the monthly fraudulent charge that's been hitting her credit card each month since January. Ochman saw the $19.95 charge recently and noted is was for a subscription to AdWeek to which she never subscribe Noting the account had never been logged into, AdWeek acknowledges the apparent mistake but would only agree to refunding three of the nine months Ochman was on the subscription list.

Knowing Ms. Ochman well, AdWeek would have done well to simply refund the entire nine months because B.L doesn't just let these things slide. It's not the amount, it's the principle that irks her and, in true Ochman form, she's written a letter to MasterCard calling he charge fraudulent, hunted down VNU CEO Bob Krakoff to send him a copy of the letter, cc'd New York Attorney General Elliot Spitzer and notified us right here at Adrants. Not that we carry any weight.

For a measly $179.55, one would think AdWeek could have swept this quietly under the carpet. But nope. On the day after visiting Boston's Hatch Awards, our hangover just won't allow us to concentrate on real news because this stuff is so much easier and so much more fun to write.

High School Athlete Social Network MyStack Launched

There's a social network for everyone and now there's one for highschool athletes called MyStack from teen athlete magazine Stack. Just like MySpace and every other net out there, MyStack lets people create a profile, list intersts, connect with other athletes, upload videos of high school games and create goups based on sporting interests. MyStack also intends to make the site a place for high school athletes and college recruiters to connect. It seems, though, one needs to pay $26.99 per year and receive the magazine to join MyStack.

Women Forcefully Arrested In Vogue Italia Pictorial

Ever vigil for sexual imagery in any form, Shake Well Before Use directs our attention to a promotional pictorial for Vogue Italia that hearkens overblown, 9-11ish security. The 15 photos in the slideshow depict women in various stages of, well, arrest. Of course, this is high fashion so that trumps any sort of irate reactions in terms of political correctness ot the degradation of women for commerce