42 Below Promotes Vodka With Russian Bride Contest

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Cheeky New Zealand vodka marketer 42 Below is at it again. This time the company is highlighting its Stil vodka with a "Win A Russian Bride" competition complete with video and print ads. Geoff Ross, chief executive of the 42 Below company, explains the promotion thusly, telling the Sunday Star-Times, "For the single Kiwi bloke who might not be an All Black or very good looking, this is a chance to get hooked up with somebody pretty hot. The ideal woman for the Kiwi bloke is one who keeps him fed and looked after all day and meets all his needs."

Of course it's all a tongue in cheek joke but, predictably, not everyone is taking it that way. View the video/ad here.

by Steve Hall    Feb-28-06    
Topic: Campaigns, Commercials, Good, Magazine, Strange, Television



Diet Mountain Dew Says Don't Be Fooled By Name

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Mountain Dew has launched a new campaign created by BBDO New York for its Diet Mountain Dew. The campaign, which breaks this weekend during NASCAR and in March issues of Sports Illustrated and FHM, consists of a television spot and four prints ads shot by Sasha Waldman which carry the headline, "Don't Be Fooled By A Name" and the tagline, "How Dew Does Diet." The television spot explores whether Diet Mountain Dew is as much of a thrill as regular Mountain Dew and the print ads, as the headline indicates, encourage people not to get hung up on the term "diet."

The print ads bring the message home clearly. The TV spot not so much. We had to watch it a few times before we realized the guy in the water with the shark was actually the guy drinking the Diet Dew. But that's just us. You can see all the print work here and the TV spot here.

by Steve Hall    Feb-24-06    
Topic: Campaigns, Commercials, Magazine, Television



Campaign Illustrates Armageddon-Style Results of Security Breach

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B to B advertising always gets sloppy seconds in the media so we're going to send some clean love to Hanft Raboy & Partners which created this interesting print campaign for its security software client Fortify Software. The print ads feature a forward looking time line highlighting less than desirable results based on a security breach. From the simpler loss of job and, as a result, having to live in one's mother's basement to full scale SkyNet-style Armageddon, the campaign, while exaggerating the extremes, clearly illustrates what can happen in a world run by computers. See all the ads here.

by Steve Hall    Feb-21-06    
Topic: Campaigns, Creative Commentary, Magazine



Bubbleheads Promote Bubblicious

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This is just freakish but we love it. It's a campaign for Bubblicious created by Duval Guillaume in Brussells. See the other ad here.

by Steve Hall    Feb-21-06    
Topic: Campaigns, Good, Magazine



Magazine Ad Illustrates Wonderbra's Cleavage-Enhancing Qualities

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Adverbox highlights a pretty inventive magazine ad for Wonderbra that interactively illustrates ehat a good bra can do for a woman's cleavage. See all the images here.

by Steve Hall    Feb-20-06    
Topic: Good, Magazine



Magazine Distributed Via Water Bottles

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Boing Boing points to a story about a college student whose idea of placing a magazine in a removable label of bottles has gone into production. The student, Joanna Wojtalik came up with the idea to bypass traditional distribution channels and formed ModernMedia Concepts to bring her idea to life. The company's first magazine, iLove will be female focused and affixed to bottles of water sold in convenience stores, grocery stores and gas stationsaus throughout Australia.

by Steve Hall    Feb-20-06    
Topic: Magazine, Point of Purchase, Publishing



Mary-Kate And Ashley Olsen to Front Badgley Mischka Fashion Campaign

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Perhaps in an effort to dispel their dowdy look and to get fashion critic Richard Blackwell to lay off dissing the pair, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen have signed a deal with designers Mark Badgley and James Mischka to represent the label in an upcoming ad campaign. The ads, photographed by Gilles Bensimon in the Presidential Suite of the St. Regis Hotel in Manhattan,, will grace the pages of Vanity Fair, Vogue, Elle and InStyle beginning with April issues. The collection is said to be a bit more colorful then the sister's usually drab outerwear.

by Steve Hall    Feb-16-06    
Topic: Campaigns, Celebrity, Magazine



Dutch 'Glamour' Promotes Spring Fashion Issue With Stiletto Run

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To promote Glamour's first spring fashion issue in the Netherlands, BSUR Concepting has developed what is sure to be an extremely funny event; the Glamour Stiletto Run. The event, part of a broader campaign which includes television, print, online, viral and buzz, will take place March 9 in an Amsterdam shopping district where women will race 75 meters in high heels. BSUR plans to take over the as yet undetermined shopping spot for an hour and award the winner with 10,000 Euros. Now that's a promotion to be seen. You can view the promotional site and commercial here.

by Steve Hall    Feb-15-06    
Topic: Good, Guerilla, Magazine



DVR-Resistant 'Smushed' Ad Grabs Attention

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While fast forwarding through the ads in a recent episode of "The O.C.," an ad from the Office of National Drug Control Policy's National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign caught our attention with it's DVR-resistant, slow-cut tactic. The ad, with only four "segments" is called Smushed and is part of the Office's Above the Influence effort. Apart from catching our attention by appearing as a "still" while fast forwarding, the imagery of a girl who looked like she'd just stepped out from under an industrial compression-like machine also caused us to stop, rewind and watch the ad.

The ad itself dealt with issues of peer pressure to be cool, to fit in, to drink, to get high, to be popular, to never say the wrong thing. This ad is one of six currently running on MTV, Fuse, The N, FOX, The WB, UPN and others. The online component appears on Yahoo, GameSpy, IGN and print ads appear in 23 magazines including Teen People, Skateboarder, J-14 and Playstation. The entire collection of spots, all of which are very good, and print ads can be seen here.



Internal Email Gives Details on Time Inc. Layoffs

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Gawker has the full details on who and what will get cut from Time Inc.'s Guild Union. Among the cuts are 13 from Time, nine from Fortune, seven from Sports Illustrated, four from Money, seven from Pictures Collection, one from Fortune Small Business and none from People or Life. The full memo detailing Guild cuts can be read here.

by Steve Hall    Feb- 8-06    
Topic: Magazine, Publishing