Maybe knowing that a bare ass is at least the quickest way to get our attention, Toto's Clean is Happy shows us the backsides of its spokespeople before we ever see their faces. (Which makes things sort of awkward when we finally do.)
And we could have dealt with that. What we couldn't deal with was the smiling woman telling us a bidet is all about relaxation and wellness as she sat, perkily perched, atop a toilet.
The site was put together by the Jonestown School of Advertising. Must have been a pretty hit-or-miss project. For every classmate whose junk in the trunk we wanted to gawk at when we were in school, there were at least 10 that we hoped would keep theirs stashed.
Martijn over at Fresh Creation pointed us to this ad for Videotron, which sought to emphasize the HDTV experience with a crash test dummy.
We dig the voice-over and the concept, but why haven't crash test dummies been retired to the annals of old-school yet?
We never get tired of a rip on boy bands, especially when the pith is as thinly-veiled as it is on Fruit Guy Fans, a site for a Fruit of the Loom-sponsored boy band whose costumes are just as fruity as its music.
The concept's actually pretty sound, resisting the urge to go over the top like so many other parodies (or not) tend to. Download MP3s for would-be one-hit wonders like "You Can't Overlove." Our favorite is "Dream."
Thanks Bill for the heads-up and the bad poetry.
This really takes egocasting to the next level. For those who find even virtual networking a problem, Brando gives you USB Virtual Friends, which enable you to invest a little plastic buddy with all the qualities you really need in a desktop partner. Including a photo.
Far from a mere memory-logger, these dolls give you a virtual world where you are master. Give them personalities and your choice of over 100 preprogrammed dialogues for communication.
Available in Virtual Boyfriend, Virtual Girlfriend ($17, respectively) or sets ($30).
There's nothing dirtier than a self-righteous agency that dips into unarguably unethical practices to nail, uh, unethical practices.
So with that completely objective introduction, we present you with Miivi.net. "Hey," you say. "That site doesn't exist." That's because it was taken down after a "D'oh!" by the MPAA, which realized, the hard way, that pirates - real pirates - stick together.
With help from an equally pompous agency called Media Defender, the MPAA launched fake movie torrent Miivi, which promised "fast and easy downloading all in one great site." The real purpose of the great site was to catch sinners in the act of sinning. There was even an app that simplified the downloading process.
Pirate Bay called shenanigans, leaking news of the gross deception to ZeroPaid. The site got pulled shortly thereafter.
Dumbasses.
The Simpsons' Mr. Burns has hacked into the Flight Log of David Neeleman of JetBlue to show him what it really takes to run a successful business.
"Your rates make a mockery of the corporate greed our great confederacy was built upon," Burns snarls. Oh how we LOLed.
It's a rare brand that can tap into pop culture and incorporate iconic personalities without making asses of themselves. In this case, JetBlue makes good. We look forward to the next brittle wrist-slapping.
We were screwing around on some foreign news site when we saw the banner at left and thought, "Hey, Smokey Bear! Can't believe that guy is still around."
Out of curiosity, we hit www.smokeybear.com and found a creepy video that involves a child singing some song about forest fires, coupled with imagery of a spark igniting stenciled animals and a forest.
Smokey's Vault is a feature that brings Smokey into 2007 with a bunch of hip little spigot-thingies. There we discovered that Smokey was an actual baby bear that in 1950 rolled charred (and orphaned) out of the forest after a (clearly unprevented) forest fire.
And that's way more about fire-shy Bear than we ever thought we'd know. Those spigots, or at least that Bambi-esque banner ad, are clearly very effective.
In its ongoing attempts to demonstrate it does have a sense of humor, Microsoft put together Easy Easier for potential Forefront users in Canada.
The premise is actually kind of cute, as you learn how to defend your operating system against the likes of ninjas, secret agents and legions of the undead. But as usual with Microsoft there's laggage like mad and just an overall "Please love me!" feeling.
Let's be realistic. Artsy qualities aside, one of the biggest selling-points for European films in the US market are the sex scenes. The hot, steamy, sometimes seamy or wholly improbable sex scenes.
With that in mind, YouTube user EUTube released a montage called Film Lovers Will Love This!, in which a bunch of steamy moments from EU films (well, mainly Amelie) are knitted together to join in one harmonious slogan: "Let's come together."
Supporters call it a celebration of European cinema but British Conservative MEP Chris Heaton-Harris called it a "cobbling-together" of "44 seconds of soft porn" that wastes taxpayers' money and does nothing to solve the European film industry's "image problem."
We figure it's a little lopsided to glean quotes from a British publication when it's the Italians, Spaniards and French doing all the grunt work. After all, where do you find those racy PSAs we love so much? Not at the home of Big Ben.
It's not just brands hawking friends on MySpace anymore; it's products too. For a free milkshake promotion to cool the summer months, Southern brand Krystal put together the Krystal Lovers Lounge, a MySpace page for those who know nothing gets the heart racing (or slowing?) like whipped milk on ice.
While it won't do jack for your waistline, the MilkQuake page does include eco-friendly tips like admonishings to "Switch off your computer and any lights not in use."
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