BMW Encourages Anticipation for Magic Do-All Something-or-Other

The promo is appropriately called Anticipation On Approach and the slick German masterminds hope to keep us guessing until mid-January. Although we think we'll give our brains a rest and stop thinking about it right now. We're fairly sure that in a year or two whatever fascinating doodad they plan to bless us with will be stock in every new vehicle that slides off the conveyor belt.

Eau de Emo Draws Mascara-Stained Tears

Ad Freak tips us off on this dandy little spoof for emo cologne which, with its drama-filled mod vibe, skinny ties and stars of ambiguous sexual orientation, assures emo lovers everywhere that if it isn't enough to bleed emo out of your tortured wrists you can always leak it out of your very pores and accost innocent bystanders with emo aura.

We don't even have to smell it. The very thought makes us want to cry.

Monster Works at Finding Work by Asking Why We Work

Asking for consumer opinions and airing them as ads is super trendy, and Monster hops on the clue train with Monster Works for Me, a campaign running on just about all iterations of traditional media to ask us why we do what we do.

Created by Brand|Content out of Boston, it "recognizes the multiple reasons why people work and the passion that drives them," says agency CEO Doug Gladstone. "In short, no matter what you do, or what you'd like to do, Monster has the tools and resources that can help you find the right match, so you can be successful at whatever you pursue."

While we can't claim it pulls much creative weight it certainly moves the long-dormant Monster in the right direction as people are more interested in what they have to say than what companies have to say anyway. And it definitely helps to play mirror. So cheers to Monster.

Hotpants + Cleavage + Wal-Mart Git 'R Done For Country Singer

If you're into the whole cowboy-up, redneck, git 'r done scene and want to assume Danny Griego's new Wal-Mart Girls single is just a marketing ploy by his record label, Miramonte Records, to get his new album into Wal-Mart, you just might like this music video (does not seem to work with Firefox) featuring the sort of Wal-Mart girls you will certainly never see in an actual Wal-Mart. Except for the ones that dolled themselves up for Playboy. Ad Age couldn't help themselves.

The video aired twice as an ad during last week's Independence Bowl and is said to be a ploy to boost consumer demand at Wal-Mart forcing the overtly conservative retailer to allow hotpants and boobs onto their CD racks. Of course, the record label denies it's a ploy, Wal-Mart has distanced itself but did say it may carry the album if demand warrants.

2006 Viral Video Moments Remembered, 2007 Moments Predicted

Kevin Nalty from Will Video for Food has created two fantastic lists. The first, Top 10 Viral Video Moments of 2006 gathers together 2006's shining moments in viral video from Google's purchase of YouTube to the LonelyGirl 15 sensation to the Diet Coke Mentos craze. The second, Top 10 Online Video Predictions for 2007 offers up some insightful crystal balling about what's in store for video in 2007. From the convergence of online video and television to YouTube killers to six-figure amateur online videographers to citizens reporting news live via video, the year is sure to be an exciting one.

Remember, hardly anyone had heard of YouTube this time last year. For those hopelessly out of the loop, that's former Rocketboomer and current ABC'er Amanda Congdon in the picture.

Canada Convicts Inebriated Excuse-Makers in Youtube Ad Effort

Canadians always have clever drunk-driving PSAs. That's one thing they consistently destroy us over.

A series of shorts on Youtube encompasses their CounterAttack effort, which highlights excuses typical of drunk drivers in a disturbing setting: the situation when things go awry. Excuses are scrawled like last words across gravestones or on street signs beside totaled vehicles, for example.

The campaign is subtly clever and not garish or too obviously impressions-hungry, a typical characteristic of Youtube efforts by other major entities. Experience the savvy here, here and here.

Truth Gets Keen on Blogs, Starts a Xanga

Known for its guerilla marketing magic, the hard-hitting Truth recently got a clue about blogs and started their own on Xanga.com. This is in contrast to the many sites who prefer to blog exclusively on their own servers or homepages, a good move in our opinion because of Xanga's sizeable built-in audience.

The campaign's been around a couple of months and is advertised heavily on Xanga's front page, visible to a serious chunk of the Truth demo as Xanga sits in the top 15 most-visited websites for the American teen demographic (per their own research). Entries range from scandalous calls to action to news on concurrent campaigns like their back hair effort.

We dig the idea but the blog could do with a better writer as the content's a bit dry and hardly does dignity to Truth's razor-edge persona.

Volvo Courts Negative Vibes to Generate Gen-Y Thought

Volvo's Free Will campaign is a collage of consumer opinion about its C30 hatchback. While this concept isn't new, airing negative views as adstuff (er, kind of) is.

The campaign also includes video shorts that viewers can rate upon seeing. One features an audience throwing tomatoes and heckling as a burlesque woman unveils the C30 on a theatre stage.

The campaign's gone strong in the UK for a year. Ford global ad director Tim Ellis says the effort aims to get the up-and-coming 25-35 demo to do some thinking about the C30 and develop a relationship with Volvo based more on honesty than is typical in brand relationships. "In research, we learned that people feel as if we are really talking directly to them, so they consume [campaign offerings] and engage [them] differently than other typical advertisements," he explained.

Cheers to Volvo for their bravery. We look forward to seeing how it turns out even if we don't find the C30 that cute. (See? Works on marketers too.)

T-3: How About Some Penguin Tipping to Kick off Your Season?

Here's what we think (er, hope?) is our last holiday card of '07. T3 The Think Tank sent us a game in which you pose as an elf and tip penguins.

Far from the benign polar friends we met in Happy Feet, the birds talk trash and also emit holiday wishes from T3 employees when you knock them over. (We located T3 founder Gay Gaddis' wish. It's for nice penguin shoes.)

Great incentive for a little digital abuse. The game is simple but strangely addictive.

Adrants Explodes with Orgy of After-the-Fact Holiday Promotions

Post eggnog haze, it's come to our attention the holidays are fast winding down. So we're cranking out the last of the jingle bells-oriented marketing efforts of 2006:

- Do New Years with Hard Rock and help save the music. Because somebody has to. Soon. Help. Please.

- This Santa Session from Dailey makes you pity the extra work Santa has to put in for perfectionist consumer culture. At what other point in time could you viably tell your favourite mythological character, I'm sorry but I don't think you're hitting the alliteration right?

- Santa + fleet of Porsches + wreath-bearing bull = happy holidays to the plush-ass execs feeling fresh post-bonus. Brought to you by the big ballers at Jack Morton Worldwide.