If we thought pet enthusiasts couldn't get more bizarre then we were wrong because Purina just broadened the landscape. On the Toronto-based Talking Pets mini-site, pet owners can further distance themselves from the rest of humankind by sending "purr/woof mail," posting pictures of their furry friends and even gauging their Pet IQ's.
"It's unique in that it approaches the world from a pet's perspective," explains Christina Yu, VP and Creative Director at Lowe Roche. To be honest we're not too sure the local siberian husky would be receptive to having his grin admired and emotions dissected over the internet, but whatever. Purina knows better than we do. - Contributed by Angela Natividad
Having already raised $61,931, a "hopeless romantic" has created a site called My Super Proposal where he is trying to raise enough money to buy a Super Bowl commercial in which he will propose marriage to his girlfriend. The URL of the site is, of course, registered anonymously so punditry on whether this is real or the machinations of some brand will have to wait. Acknowledging thaefact there are some pretty dedicated (weird?) people in this world along with mischievous marketers bent on doing the next coolest thing, it could go either way. We'll just have to wait and see.
If you've ever wondered why anyone would sit in front of a webcam, talk randomly about almost nothing and then upload it to YouTube for all to see, dive deep into the world of social media with this video about the whole trend. Sure, there's a bunch of wackos out there and most of the stuff is irrelevant but that's not the point. The point is, styles of personal conversation are changing and there's no going back. I once had an art director ask me to stop sending him emails because the notification of arriving emails distracted him from his work. Can you imagine a world without email? Perhaps there will be a day when we can't imagine a world without this new form of video communication.
Copyranter amusingly analyzes the dating site wars comparing Match.com's more conservative style with True.com's approach which calls for each model to have one cup size larger than the former. Copyranter also wonders just how effective Match.com's paper cut outs are as compared to True'com's bulging cleavage. Pardon us while we visit MySpace to see if all that True.com cleavage affects us in any way.
Fans of YouTube may not have to worry about their baby getting sucked up into the Google void and corporatized because now we have PhilTube. Some dude named Phil has created a YouTube look alike and has videos up that poke fun at popular videos such as the Star Wars Kid and LonelyGirl15. Of course, this isn't the next YouTube at all. It's the creation of Phil McIntyre to parody YouTube, poke fun at social media and to promote PGM Artists, his company that represents production companies to agencies and media companies.
If you didn't know who Phil McIntyre or PGM were, you'd have to do a bit of digging to see what PhilTube is all about but as promotions go, we applaud it. There's no fist bumping here - although, perhaps PhilTube should spoof the Agency.com video - and the content is amusing enough. We're told Hart+Larsson is behind he creative on this one.
Monster has launched a mildly amusing time-waster called Foot in the Door, a game in which you hurl feet at potential co-workers as they open their office doors. While the game is fun, we're not sure throwing feet at potential co-workers will garner you much respect if you do happen to get hired. Now, throwing feet at co-workers you already work with...that's another story.
If your sick of that long-winded account director blathering on endlessly in a pointless meeting about a client's brand vision, mission, essence and position, you might have a little fun sending them a link to Elmo's Potty Time, an Animax Entertainment-created game that, well, teaches people when it's time to stop what you're doing and take a break. Unfortunately when we played the game, we couldn't help Elmo out. See, in one scenario, Elmo is jump roping and he stops to say he needs to go to the bathroom and you're supposed to click any key to help him go. Trouble s, no key worked so the poor guy kept asking until the game let him go by himself. We'd sure like to see the version of that game where you can hold Elmo hostage until explodes all over his friends. Now, that would be funny.
GM's Pontiac division is the next mainstream company to join the one million strong Second Life community with the creation of the soon to be launched Motorati Island where residents can engage all kinds of automotive-related projects such as the construction of racetracks and dealerships where the Pontiac Solstice will be on display.
Just like a weblog, Second Life is becoming the marketing tactic du jour for many marketers. Unlike a weblog, brand activity in Second Life may actually generate sales for brands since, in essence, it's an actual, psuedo-real world with currency that changes hands. We're not sure someone's going to actually buy a car in Second Life for their first life yet but it won't be long before that happens. Second Life could very well become the replacement for that dreaded online "service" brands provide their customers called customer service. While brands' rush to blogging and podcasting didn't seem to net much in the way of revenue, Second Life's focus on commerce, just might become a practical and profitable market for all involved.
We opened our email this morning and found a letter from Stephen King entitled "I Know Scary." We thought, yes, that is true. And then we read on:
Dear MoveOn member,
If I know anything, I know scary. And giving this president and this out-of-control Congress two more years to screw up our future is downright terrifying. Thankfully, this national nightmare is one we can end with--literally--a wake up call.
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To promote its new electric razor Nivea launches Stay on the Good Side, which is pretty much intended to make the scruffier sex cream at the thought of looking like this man. Note condemned (possibly hung over) guy just behind him. Or maybe it's whats-his-name from Agency.com?
We find Nivea's cleanshaven sex object creepy - unearthly, even - and we don't think it'll be long before irate men everywhere erect their own version of a Dove Evolution campaign.
And what's going on with the Clancy ad to the right of the website? Whose ingenious idea was it to use a scruff-friendly sponsorship to pay for a clean faces promotion? We won't even touch the fact that it's for a sweepstakes called Splinter Cell. - Contributed by Angela Natividad
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