Panasonic Teams With YouTube For Video Contest

Climbing on the YouTube juggernaut, Panasonic has teamed with video service in a promotion that will offer a 50 inch plasma TV and digital camera to the person who, at the end of a four week period is deemed to have created the funniest short film or home video. Apparently, those that review the entries over the four week period are also eligible to win a digital camera. The promotion was created by Lime PR and Reindeer.

Pontiac Charity Drive Offers G6 Convertibles As Prizes

Pontiac, in partnership with failing "The Apprentice," is donating $500,000 to major charities nationwide in a campaign called Raise the Roof. Beginning May 30th at 12 PM, Pontiac will ask people to help donate a half a million dollars to their favorite charities. Pontiac, in turn, will make the donations. Those show choose to donate will have the chance to win one of two G6 hardtop convertibles. The winner gets one and the winner's favorite charity gets the other.

Budget Rent-A-Car Relaunches Up Your Budget Treasure Hunt

On June 5, Budget Rent-A-Car will re-launch its Up Your Budget Treasure Hunt game. Last time, physical clues were placed in 16 cities around the country with online videos hinting at their location. Upon finding the clues, winners would receive $10,000. This time, the game is "armchair" so everyone can play without leaving the comfort of their home. The contest will last for four weeks. Each day, Monday though Thursday of each of the four weeks, clues to a virtual journey will be provided. Contestants, using the clues, will guess the length of the journey weeks' journey and offer up their answer Friday. The person guessing the exact mileage or the closest to it wins $25,000. Second place gets $10,000, third gets $5,000.

The game, as it was before, is blog-based and users will be encouraged share their stories as they hunt for the contest's clues. The contest will be promoted with a nationwide, live-read radio buy and an online buy on the BlogAds blog advertising network. The campaign was concepted (oops, conceptualized) by Cendent Car Rental Group's (Budget's parent company) Becky Alseth and IMPAX Marketing's Jay Arnold and designed by Design4Results' Komra Moriko. The blog ads can be viewed here.

'Entourage' Ari Gold Site Beats A Dead Chicken With A Hammer

OK. We like Deep Focus and we like HBO. We especially like HBO's Entourage so when we were sent a link to a promotional site at which you can get get an interview with Ari Gold for a position in his new agency, we had high hopes for the site. Let's put it this way. Can we, as an industry, right now, right this very second, put a lid on any project even remotely similar to Burger King's Subservient Chicken? And, for the love of GOD, can we please stop trying to latch onto something that was over the day after Crispin Poprter + Bogusky launched that site?

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Vodafone Mobile Office Solutions Destroys Desks

To celebrate the uselessness of a desk in the of the mobile office, Vodafone is promoting its mobile office solutions with a site that lets you choose a desk and then watch it be destroyed by a compacting machine. Hey, it's something to do.

Fashion Brand Takes Sex-In-Advertising to Orgasmic Conclusion

We know the French aren't hung up about sex the way we Americans are who only hint at it in advertising and media in the most politically correct, conservative manner. While we might get our kicks out of America's version of a sexy ad such as Paris Hilton slithering over a Bentley for Carl's Jr or the Cleaning Hunk cleaning homes nearly naked for Xtra Pine or even Axe's many sexually laced ads but there's way more than a kick to be had from this promotional website for French fashion brand Shai which takes sex all the way to its full-on, X-rated orgasmic completion.

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FivOnFriday Recaps the Week In Advertising

Floyd Hayes from CunningWork has put together FiveOnFriday, which he says will become a weekly video update covering the world of advertising, marketing and cool stuff. In this debut show, Hayes highlights recent campaigns both online and off, recent news and Nike's iPod sneakers. If you want a quick hit on what's up in the world of advertising, The quality is low but it's the first one so give it a chance. You can view the debut episode here.

Production Companies Deserve Credit Too

It's usually the agencies that get all the glory when it comes to television and video production but without directors, producers, sound engineers and special effects expert, most TV spots would still be in story board form laying around the creative conference room next to half empty lattes. So, from time to time, we like to call attention to those behind the scene that make your spots pretty. This time, it's Stardust Studios which did some work for R/GA on their What's Your Game About? video featured on NikeBasketball.com. In the video, Kobe Bryant, Jason Kidd, Vince Carter, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobli, MVP Steve Nash and others do their thing while Stardust does theirs. Give it a look.

Little Black Book Keeps Record of Hotties And Axe Booty Tones

Axe is at it again. This time they've launched Booty Tones, ring tones that are matched to 15 hotties, each of which is noted in a black book. It's always a good thing if a girl causes you to write, as on did here, "Can't belive I was able to get out of bed this morning." Check them all out here from the Demanding Diva to the Head Case to The Tease to the Ball n' Chain to the Eager to Please and more.

HP Gets Personal In New Campaign

Speaking about the computer as if it were an extension of one's self, HP has launched a new ad campaign that celebrates (over analyzes?) the relationship between computer and human and how it is "one of the most personal things you own," " your own broadcast network," "your private media empire" and "it's your life." There are tinges of past Apple campaigns the the recent HP images campaign embedded in this campaign. One spot, hosted online, ends with a virtual desktop which you can drill into as if it were your own. Unfortunately, one of the spots ends with that nasty, consistency-ruining Intel ending. But, with all the monet Intel throws at computer makers just to show that logo and sound bite, we're stuck with that for a long time.