Witch Uglies Down, Reporters Get Mauled, Public Health Stickers Litter Life

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- Milk makes baby-eating witches insecure about their looks. Dude. Did she just try passing her wart off as a mole?

- Cops with Slingbox and a bullhorn wreak havoc. "Haaands up. COME ON, THREE POINTER!"

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OMG! Degree Wants to be Your BFF!

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Ten years after it would have been, perhaps, at least a tiny bit OK, there seems to be a sudden onslaught of marketers becoming BFFs with txt and chat-speak. From McDonald's with its coy use of "R U Ready" copy to AT&T's subtitled conversation between mom and daughter to Frito-Lay's failed gt2kno jack, everyone wants in on teen chat slang.

If that weren't enough, Unilever has launched a campiagn called Degree Girl OMG! featuring Disney Channel's High School Musical star Ashley Tisdale complete with the solicitation of shadenfruede-like OMG moments...which, if the moment is OMG enough, could get you a visit with Tisdale herself.

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by Steve Hall    Apr- 8-08    
Topic: Bad, Good, Online, Social



PubMatic Launches Online Ad Network Pricing Service

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Want to know what other advertisers are paying to advertise on websites? As a publisher, want to know how to competitively price your ads? Now you can with PubMatic's AdPrice Index, a new service that gathers eCPM data from 3,000 website on a monthly basis. The index is compiled by independent statisticians Dr. Albert Madansky and Dr. Michele Madansky who found:

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by Steve Hall    Apr- 8-08    
Topic: Online, Research, Tools



90 Spots Scratch Surface of Massachusetts Delights

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The Massachusetts Office of Travel & Tourism went on a $4.5 million spree and produced 90 different ads, shot by Mullen, to illustrate Massachusetts and its uninspired "It's all here" slogan.

Each spot is a quick-and-dirty tour of things in Massachusetts you might want to experience: kayaking, the Mayflower, the Norman Rockwell Museum, the Franklin Park Zoo, Chatham, Provincetown... Geez, naming all this stuff is tiring. See it all live on MassVacation.

You know what would really have spiced this whole thing up? A Mooninite or two, Where's Waldo?-style.

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by Angela Natividad    Apr- 8-08    
Topic: Campaigns, Commercials, Online, Packaging, Promotions



Geico Caveman Finally Peaks, Begins Slow Humiliating Decline

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And he's channeling John Travolta! (Thanks, MTLB.)

There you have it. Fame makes everybody a dancing monkey. Or it could just be SXSW aftershock.

by Angela Natividad    Apr- 7-08    
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Online, Strange



Sony Bravia Embraces Blogs, Blank Palettes and Bubbles

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Sony's PR people sent The Bottom Rung some teaser shots for the 2008 Bravia campaign. Instead of deluging us with color like in previous ads (yarn pyramid, technicolor bunnies), looks like Bravia's gone soapy, sudsy, foamy white.

Magically delicious. Where childproof fantasy places are concerned, a bubble bath world is right up there with a bubble wrap city.

by Angela Natividad    Apr- 7-08    
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Good, Online, Promotions



You Know What Makes a Great F*ck? A Lexus

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Check out Blue, Dots and Blips, three ads by ATTIK for the Lexus IS F. The trick is to drive home the message, "The new Lexus is F."

And what is F?

"F is everything you thought we weren't," the saucy new microsite confidently croons.

Okay, then.

by Angela Natividad    Apr- 7-08    
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Commercials, Online, Packaging, Television



Once You Go Black, You Go Jeff Dahmer. Wait, What?!

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That probably generated traffic trouble.

The sex-and-candy action took place last month in Sao Paulo, when 40 panty-clad girls stood eating chocolate body parts in public places. Pics appeared on Irresistivel.net, which pinpointed their locations and Orkut profiles via Google Maps.

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Charity Sexes Down, Fanboys Get Website, Make Your Own Mexican, Alkies Go on Tour, and Go Get Yourself Fired

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- YAI, a charity for people with disabilities, used easy sex to bait youth into volunteering. Gawker spread the word and YAI pulled the campaign, to the chagrin of ad-heads and volunteers alike.

- Adidas and EVB, SF have launched an NCAA fanboy site called March is Brotherhood. Learn chants, read coach blogs and make coaches call your friends.

- itzbig thinks encouraging passive aggressive employees to get fired will help them find better careers.

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by Angela Natividad    Apr- 7-08    
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Games, Guerilla, Online, Promotions, Video



Devon and Amanda Denialer Drop in on Toronto Life

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Had another run-in with the Denialer family, the stars of Mackenzie Investments' "Burn Rate" ad campaign, over the weekend.

Last time it was with Mama Denialer, who spends to ease her pain because she's too Botoxed to cry. This time I moused over her spawn, sitting sandwiched in a skyscraper ad on Toronto Life. Devon gave the page a once-over and snarled, "Every moment we spend on this page, you're keeping me from shopping."

"Life is so unfair," Amanda agreed with a sigh. I wanted to comfort her because part of me is scared she'll graduate to other forms of cautionary advertising. Hang in there, Amanda. Buy some Skechers or something.

by Angela Natividad    Apr- 6-08    
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Online