AIDS Awareness PSA Chronicles Zesty Kink-Romp

TBWA, France is responsible for this AIDS awareness ad, the third installment of what apparently started out a slightly more charming series. Thanks go out to FishNChimps who, as usual, knows how to send us home happy.

We love love love love love love love PSAs from the French. They're masters of the subtler message delivery arts.

Chivalry's Not Dead, Cosmo to the Rescue

Most of us have done that (transparent) thing where we text a friend and beg them to call with a life-altering emergency so we can ditch a date.

To rid us of the inconvenience of praying for follow-through, Cosmo hosts a call-back service that enables serial daters to pre-set a time for the phone to ring.

Because the ringing effect just ain't fancy enough, you can select the type of caller you want, too.

Consider the potential. This doesn't just make date-ditching easier; it also makes check-skipping more convenient. And it would probably make a unique morning wake-up call too.

The function is powered by Moderati and can be accessed at the mobile component of the Cosmo site. The service costs a dollar and, we suppose, saves you some dignity.

Thanks go out to Snackable Content, who knows how the single do suffer.

Fox Wakes Us Up with Angry German Kid

We don't know whether or not it's important to be the first brand to appear on a nanosite dependent entirely on video players, but after clicking on the link (resting at the deceptively named Bore Me) we know we are not going back to sleep.

Dude. That kid is pissed off. Then again, you could be singing in German (which at some point he does) and still sound like you're about to rend somebody's limbs off with your teeth.

Backstory: 20th Century Fox is the first brand to appear on the video player-hosting nanosite Bore Me. They'll be pushing interactive for 28 Weeks Later, a film that's supposed to be scary but probably won't be as addling as the screaming German spawn.

Industry Newsletter Adotas Sold

Today, rumors were afloat industry newsletter Adotas had been sold. A quick IM to Founder and Publisher Pesach Lattin confirms the rumor but Lattin wouldn't say to whom the publication was sold only that "small group of industry execs" were involved. He promised full details of the sale would be released Monday.

Lattin has sold his position in Adotas outright and will no longer be involved with the online newsletter. Lattin, long involved with online publishing including the famed AdBumb told us the reasoning behind the sale. saying, "After 6 years of publishing interactive advertising publications, I have decided that it is time to focus 100 percent on Vizi|Media and our growing business." So there you have it. The man behind the often controversial AdBumb has left the publishing building for different pastures.

Heineken Wastes Our Time With Stupid Cannon Game

When we're presented the chance to launch ourselves out of a cannon to any destination in the world, we tend to get a bit excited. After all, that Outpost.com gerbil thing was pretty cool. Well after no less that 15 clicks and a seemingly endless collection of forms, buttons, drop down menus and a final challenge to enter personal information, our desire to hop inside the cannon quickly waned. For fuck's sake, marketers, if you're gonna offer up some silly time-waster, the least you could do is make it simple.

If you care, this whole cannon thing has something to do with Heineken, the UEFA Champions League Final and various prize packages. We know we're shirking our journalistic duties here but if you really want to see what happens when the cannon goes off, you'll have to slog through the site on your own,

Robert Goulet Says Don't Believe That Silly Nut Company, Eat My Snooze Bar

Continuing their Emerald Nuts twisted quirkiness, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners has launched Goulet Bars, a site on which Robert Goulet tells us not to believe "that silly nut company" which says he messes around with people's stuff while their asleep at the office. Rather, he has your best interests at heart and wants you to eat his Snooze Bar which will help you go to sleep, not finish your work and thereby lower people's expectations of you so you won't have to do a lot of work in the first place. Love that logic. Goulet rocks!

On the site, you can download some sweet Goulet lullabies to ease you into that work-reducing, afternoon nap. You can also check out the nutrition section which responds to Emerald Nuts' "propagandist" nutrition literature by countering "Health is a non-issue. As a regular Snooze bar eater, you will spend close to 90 percent of your life asleep so who cares what kind of shape you're in for that other 10 percent." Hmm. Now there's a diet worth trying.

The whole thing is the perfect anti-sell that sells. Or at least we hope it does. Trouble is, or own unscientific testing of Emerald Nuts versus big boy Planter's, sadly, leaves Emerald Nuts on the lower rung of the taste ladder. No matter. All we care about here is cool advertising and Emerald Nuts has it in spades over Planter's who can't sop messing with that iconic nut in a tuxedo dude.

Computer Quote Insurance Makes Racing Game. Big Shocker

This is how Murphy's Law works. Soon after we finish ranting about the plethora of racing games already floating about in the ether, another avails itself to us. This one, however, is special because it contains spiffy surprises that are revealed when you speed or otherwise misbehave (it's for an insurance company, after all).

And note the demented version of the benign but neurotic Chevron persona.

We are not amused. Why doesn't anyone make gaming variations of Tetris? Those blocks have nothing to do but serve as ad space. And the Tetris-obsessed have nothing to do but stare at the blocks. Consider the marketing opportunity.

BMW Drags Us Ever So Slowly Across Europe with Animated Race

BMW recently launched Pursuit Across Europe (PACE), an animated drag race that takes place between Lisbon and Prague. Developed by Interone Worldwide Hamburg and artist Dirk Hoffman, it's actually a fairly clever way to introduce couch potatoes to new vehicle technology like brake energy regeneration and electric power steering.

If only it didn't lag so much. But maybe that too is a unique new BMW functionality, with esoteric yet explanatory nomenclature like Heightened Atmospheric Awareness.

Off-topic, we maintain that everybody makes a racing game and it would be really neat to have someone focus his or her energy on putting a really good car-washing game on the market.

eHarmony Not So Harmonious, Says Chemistry.com

A new dating site by Match.com goes head-to-head with eHarmony by leveraging the latter's tendency to reject clients who are gay, "unhealthy" or even just obstreperous.

Chemistry.com says "Come as you are" with TV and print spots featuring eHarmony rejects. They've also got a blog for airing every relationship-oriented topic imaginable, appropriately (that is, vaguely) called The Great Mate Debate.

To demonstrate its commitment to individual happiness, Chemistry.com gives users five free matches. And that's great, because if people change their minds as often as Match.com changes its campaign strategy, those freebies will come in handy.

Odwalla Tests Spelling Ability With Be Soy Smart

Every once is a while it's healthy to have one's spelling ability tested. It's sort of like going back to high school minus all that clique-ish, cafeteria-style segregation or Mean Girls-inspired hatred. Helping us leave the high school years where they should be, Odwalla and game show champ Ken Jennings have partnered to create Be Soy Smart, a spelling bee site that tests ones spelling metal. We particularly like the tiny disclaimer at the bottom of the site which reads, "We're not saying Soy Smart will make you smarter, but it's a smart choice for vegetarian soy protein and Omega-3 DHA, an important brain component."