Uniqlock Scores, Gawker Goes Gorilla, Rio Sees Future, Ludacris Flows Mobile

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- Repeating successes at One Show and the Clios, Uniqlo's "Uniqlock" (agency: Projector) won the Cannes Cyber Grand Prix. "Year Zero" for NIN (agency: 42 Entertainment) took Best Viral; "Sol Comments" (Mediafront Oslo) won Online Advertising.

- Gawker chose Gorilla Nation to sell its ads in Canada. The deal is exclusivo, no word if it's multi-year.

- Diggin' R&R's Tarot-style print campaign for the Rio Suites Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Adfreak isn't sold, though.

- WeMix and VoodooVox enable anyone to "drop a flow" (THEIR WORDS! NOT -- MINE!) from their phones and broadcast them. Ludacris is sponsoring. More cringey self-laud: "VoodooVox is the leading In-Call Media revolution." What does that mean?

- MTLB is upset about PETA, the one-sidedness of 30 Days (esp. the carnivore-meets-vegan episode), and changing people via persecution instead of supplying appealing alternatives to destructive lifestyles.



Weezer Wired, Hulk Whored, Philly Punks Out, Billboard Butters Up

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- Wired interviewed the director of Weezer's Pork and Beans music video, which is a whiplash-inducing tribute to 'net-ebrities.

- Apptera promotes The Incredible Hulk to callers who request information on Iron Man.

- I Can't Believe It's Not Butter! launched a site called Now We Know Better. Scroll over the vintage homemakers to see them magically turn into ... modern homemakers! The site's a dream destination for daytime TV addicts: game shows, girl talk and margarine.

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Samsung Reinterprets HP's 'Hands'

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I think Samsung missed the point of HP's "Hands" effort. "Hands" was cool because the hands in the ads belonged to people we could both admire and identify with. By exposing the contents of their hard drives, celebrities also shared the contents of their minds: how they saw the world and chose to make it their own, all in a style that resembled play.

Along that vein, Samsung gives us "Express Yourself" by Cheil Worldwide Canada. Its two ads, "Express Yourself" and "Hands," try replicating HP's idea but taking the human interest story out.

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by Angela Natividad    May-26-08    
Topic: Commercials, Mobile/Wireless, Outdoor, Poster, Television



Kids Trash Stale Minutes, Mom Gets Mad, in AT&T Rollover Minutes Ad

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I love this ad where a mother opens the kitchen trash and finds a bunch of little clocks: old AT&T rollover minutes that her kids don't want because "those minutes are from September!"

"They're rollover minutes, they're exactly the same!" she cries in exasperation. Then she delivers a one-sentence guilt trip that brought my mom's "starvation in the mother land!" speech to mind.

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by Angela Natividad    May-20-08    
Topic: Commercials, Good, Mobile/Wireless, Television



Alltel Wants to Send You on Vacation ... Just Hope It's Not to the ManCave

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To celebrate the second anniversary of its "My Circle" program, Alltel Wireless is giving a luxury vacation away to a My Circle customer and his or her family and friends.

Register at the My Circle Reunion website. You'll also have to text "CIRCLE" to 102102.

The vacation package -- which lasts four days and three nights, like a timeshare sweepstakes! -- includes a "special meal" by celebrity chef Ted Allen. The winner and his minions will also receive a new handset and a $200 Alltel gift card.

Off-topic, Alltel Wireless now claims to be America's largest network. I thought that phrase was handcrafted especially for AT&T. Guess anybody can use it.

by Angela Natividad    May-16-08    
Topic: Campaigns, Mobile/Wireless, Online



Mobile Phone Replaces Cue Cat in Magazine Interactive Feature

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Well, it's better than Cue Cat. Rolling Stone and Men's Health are testing a program whereby readers take pictured of ads and txt them to a number which returns offer information from the advertiser. Technology from SnapTell enables image recognition so snapped images are matched with the correct offers.

Not a bad idea. After all, it's definitely easier to simply take a picture than text a URL for more info. Nice way to track ad viewership as well.

Cue Cat attempted this years ago with a clumsy device that would plug into one computer and be used to scan a bar code in the ad. A web page with product information was returned. With near everyone owning a cell phone these days, there's no need for a separate device such as the Cue Cat.

by Steve Hall    Apr-28-08    
Topic: Good, Magazine, Mobile/Wireless, Opinion



Bendy Bare Asses Used to Advocate Mobile Service

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In Punta di Penna sent us this spot for Telecom Italia Mobile (TIM). Produced by The Famil for agency Euro Rscg, a bunch of people -- mostly naked, but not always -- touch their toes to a cover of the Beatles' All Together Now. All that doubling-over draws an association with the flip phone that appears at the end.

Quirky. Now let's see the splits.

by Angela Natividad    Apr-11-08    
Topic: Commercials, Mobile/Wireless, Strange



Teens Speak, Coke Fashions, McDonald's Mobilizes

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- Scarborough Research is expanding its consumer and media research services to include custom studies for youth and teen markets via a new Internet panel.

- If this catches on, you might be wearing that plastic Coke bottle you tossed in the trash a few months back.

- Seems like a lot of work but McDonald's has hooked up with Cellfire to offer mobile coupons.

- The is good news. BMW signed on as the exclusive premier sponsor of AMC's Mad Men when season two debuts this summer.

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by Steve Hall    Apr-10-08    
Topic: Brands, Mobile/Wireless, Research



Don't Stop at Shaking Your Ass. SHAKE TA LIFE.

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Viacom is the parent company behind a covert French mobile phone promotion called Shake Ta Life (probably the most wince-worthy Franglais EVAR), where, with one quick shake, phones do all kinds of wild and wonderful things to improve the lives of their MTV-enslaved owners.

An on-site phone customizing doohickey lets you select what you want a phone to do (make you sexier, make a kebab) and how you'd like it to look (girly, glamrock, gothic, geeky).

I put together a geeky kebab-making phone. That's the thing at left. It probably smells nice.

The brand behind the madness will be revealed on April 16th. Try not to stay up fretting over it. Instead, ponder on this: wouldn't it be cool if your phone had a foosball table?

by Angela Natividad    Apr- 9-08    
Topic: Campaigns, Mobile/Wireless, Online, Strange, Video



Interactive Milk Campaign Totally Shuts Us Out. Well Then, Soy It is.

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We really love neolithic sentences like "Get more cowbell," which is probably why the agreeably retro Get a Load of Milk site is so endearing, even though it's otherwise useless, because it's PC optimized and we're on a Mac.

At least the new mobile site works all right. Oh wait. No it doesn't. It's optimized for video-friendly phones like the Sony Ericsson K85i Rogers Vision, and our BlackBerry ain't that.

Do the milk men hate us? Come on, guys. We eat cereal too.

by Angela Natividad    Apr- 8-08    
Topic: Bad, Brands, Campaigns, Mobile/Wireless, Online