Language Barrier Causes Alien Attack

At first, we were ready to cast aside this little online "game" for Steape Travel Translators but the more we clicked, the more we laughed. Who knew French dining could be so humorous? Who knew translation was so important to getting a good meal? Who knew ordering desert could result in an alien attack? Indeed.

Coke's 'Happiness Factory' Does Second Life Press Play

Brentter has the full story on Coke's Weiden + Kennedy-created Happiness Factory film which made its "global premiere" in Second Life yesterday. The three and a half minute film (oops, sorry. we're drinking the Kool-Aid here)...um...commercial follows the travails of a Coke factory worker who travels across Happiness Land in a quest to get the factory working again.

We passed on the story yesterday since anything remotely related to Second Life makes us laugh...uh...sorry. We should have said "take less seriously." After dumping millions into Second Life six to 12 months ago, didn't marketers conclude it was a waste of money? Call us callous but YouTube has greater reach than SL by far. Oh but, oops. The vid is on YouTube also...with a whopping 434 views. Hmm.

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Mr. T is for Virtualization. Anymore Excuses? Punk, We Didn't Think So

Mr. T, the earring-sporting punk-squasher from our '80s childhood, occasionally makes quirky ad appearances in which - to our surprise - he never seems to age.

And neither do his cameos seem to share a rhyme or reason. In a complete 180 from that last Snickers jaunt he did (see link above), he's just appeared in a string of Hitachi ads for virtualization technology.

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Lookie Lookie, Another Gleeful Low-Budget Marketing Campaign by Google

It's amazing to us the lengths some people will go to accommodate all the creativity Google allows them to employ.

Perhaps because the smug techies got bored with their hand puppets, the search engine/marketing mavens/whatever-else-have-you's have launched a collaborative video campaign for Gmail. All you have to do is print out the little red envelope and send in a video of yourself passing it on in some creative way. If you express sufficient esprit de coeur, maybe they'll add you to the final cut.

There are a few here.

In the end this is going to make a really neat (deliciously viral) ad that (once again) demonstrates with what ease Google can pwn its competitors by harnessing collaborative energy without the needless expense of an ad agency.

< / sarcasm >

New VitaminWater Campaign is Neither Powerful Nor Glorious

In tangent with Don McNabb and "some weird old guy" (who looks a lot like Orville Redenbacher back from the grave), VitaminWater put together a campaign called The POWER and the GLORY.

The ad pokes fun at drama-ridden film trailers with heavy voices and against-all-odds themes prevalent in underdog action films. We think it's corny, actually, and have only this to say in response.

Sprint helps You Wait Less...and Wonder

While we're not sure how Sprint's Waitless, which offers up time-saving tips, has anything to do with selling phones or phone service, we did find out how to tie our shoes faster, pour Ketchup quicker and quiet a crying baby. Distributed by Jun Group Productions, several YouTube videos point to the Waitless website at which you can watch all the videos and try to figure out what the hell any of this has to do with selling phones.

PETA: All Skin is Equal Fare for the Butchers

We haven't covered much on PETA lately but JWT Kuwait just sent us some work they did for the animal-lovers. A couple of variations are here and here.

The process of segmenting human flesh for the manufacturing of goods is all very Holocaust. But then again, this isn't the first time they've put people on the meat slab to make a point. Guess it's okay if you're vego.

'Billboards are Idiots' Protesters are a Mite Confused Themselves

Here's an interesting one. Billboard Advertisers are Idiots is an effort to get billboard advertisers to stop "blighting" the landscape with their ads.

The whole thing is a little muddly - offending advertisers are listed as "not idiots," with an image of the board and contact info of the media planner if available. The idea is to wage peaceful war by calling these people and getting them to promise not to advertise on billboards anymore.

Apparently this move wasn't the greatest, considering around August the site seems to experience an identity crisis. It decides to call it quits, and then comes back, determined to be ridiculous and not vindictive.

Well ... good job!

KickFlip Brings Skateboarding Beat-box to Deskside Thrill-Seekers

The music on this new Candystand game, dubbed KickFlip, is annoying as hell but unavoidably catchy. Like the interns who will undoubtedly be blowing office hours playing it, its single set of lyrics keeps chanting, "I want to skaaaa-ya-yate."

There's also an Extra ad that precedes the game in which a guy who looks suspiciously like an ad douche sticks some gum in his mouth and starts dancing under the transfiguring power of strobe. It physically hurt us.

Zwinky Has A Party, Others Label It Spyware

While our Zwinky friends are out with a new commercial for their tween-focused avatars and online chat world, several YouTubers have created videos advising people to beware of Zwinky and its toolbar claiming the installation dumps spyware on one's computer.