Oregon-based Johnson Cowan Hanrahan in Portland, Oregon has created a Holiday-themed site for its knife client Gerber Blades. The site, like those Holiday calenders with a chocolate for each day in December, offers gift ideas which are a bit out of the norm. Gift ideas range from using a bushy-tailed woodrat as a tree ornament to creating a smoothie out of a Bison to killing a bear to make mittens out of its paws to stuffing a rabbit in a box to make a jackrabbit-in-a-box to using skunk meat to make French-fried skunk. Not unsurprisingly, making these gifts requires the use of a knife. It's sick. It's funny. We like it.
Connecticut-based Outhouse Communications has created a site for Operation Respect CT called Cut the Bull, a site that urges respect among kids, teens and everyone while hoping to eliminate bullying. At the website visitors can spread respect in various ways by making a unique, one of a kind custom respect poster, by sending friends respect notes, by downloading ringtones and by purchasing a "No Bull Shirt" T-Shirt. Outhouse is using billboards to promote the site.
Jordan Buntain sent us a site he created that's aimed at unemployed copywriters and offers tips on the kind of jobs they might try as they wrestle through the difficulty of being unemployed during the holidays. Several suggestions include becoming a Christmas Movie Screen Writer, a Street Musician, a Sandwich board Advertiser or a Scammer Spammer. By the way, Jordan is unemployed as well. Give him a look and give him a job.
Doing some nice work for Honda UK, Wieden + Kennedy has created The Power of Dreams, a mini-movie set to the tune of "Dream the Impossible Dream," that takes the viewer through the history of Honda from its launch of the Super Cub motorbike in 1958 to its invention of the ATV in 1970 to a motorcycle with an airbag to roadsters, speedboats and the cars of today. The movie leads to The Power of Dreams site on which the history of Honda is detailed with each product receiving highlight through multiple microsites. There's also a an enter-to-win contest for a balloon ride over New Zealand. The site puts a nice wrapper on the package that is Honda.
Richard Branson really does own everything. We knew he was airline guy and cell phone guy but we didn't know he was train guy too. To promote Branson's Virgin Trains, glue London has created a series of online films (they call them viral but we'll see if they earn that moniker) which illustrate how much smaller Britain has become because of Virgin Train's fast service. The first film unleashes a giant cock (no, not that kind you freak) on an unsuspecting British neighborhood to, you know, show how small Britain is compared to, um, a giant cock.
The films were shot by web guys Ben Wheatley, Joel Veitch and Rob Manuel through Tomboy Virals. The first film "Cockerel" was released this month, with the rest to be released at regular intervals up until the World Cup eight months from now. blue has placed all the films neatly on a microsite called Little Britain for our viewing pleasure.
Everyone's got a viral these days or, more correctly, a piece of creative they hope goes viral. Now even the hair loss people are getting into the game. For New Zealand's Propecia, a prescription pill for hair loss, Insight NZ has created an online, satirical look at what could happen to men with hair loss if they don't take action. Called League of Thinning Men, visitors to the site are introduced to a little interactive world where they can check out the ways of men who prefer a good comb-over and a cup of well-stewed tea. All of which Propecia hopes will convince men with thinning hair to abandon the site, head over to Propecia's site and grab a bottle of their hair saving pills.
With its Chrismahanukwanzakah holiday greeting, Virgin Mobile has attempted to cover all its politically correct, religious bases but really has just further segregated things with these videos. Humorously, of course. And you've gotta love the 1-888-ELF-POOP helpline.
OK, this is getting boring. Very boring. Whoever handles the Maxtor account has created yet another Subservient Chicken rip off and this one sucks. The guy doesn't to anything. Can the entire industry just acknowledge the Crispin Porter + Bogusky scored with this tactic and just move on? Apparently to drum up interest in their hard drives, Maxtor has created Loser Loser loser - which they should have called Boring Boring Boring, a site that has all the usual stuff; the afformentioned Subservient Chicken rip off, a personality test, advice for losers from some guy named Dr. James Callahan and loser horoscopes. The one unique thing this site does have is ads. Yup. Ads for Maxtor. Funny. Sponsor your own viral site. Now that's kinda new. They actually sell ad space on the site. Not that anyone would actually buy.
TBWA/Chiat/Day has created two spots, directed by Monkmus of Hornet, for Sony's PSP. Both promote the PSP as a device that can be played outdoors. The first spot, Dustballs, has a couple of, yes, dust balls talking to each other. One is trying to convince the other he doesn't have to be stuck inside watching Carpet. he can do it outside. The second, Squirrels, has two squirrels talking to each other. One tells the other he doesn't have to be stuck inside playing Nut. he can play it outside. get it? Sony wants us to know we can use its PSP outdoors. Next.
Flipping the tell-me-what-to-do, Subservient Chicken style viral and turning the television into a sexual object, Philips UK has launched Ambilight, a site voiced by a woman cooing sexually laced phrases while images of a television and a lingerie-clad female are intertwined. The site asks visitors to answer four questions about themselves in a manner so non-threatening that before you know it, you've told Philips your age, income, email address and whether or not you live in the UK.
The site was developed to promote Philips' Cineo flat screen televisions and along with the engaging Q & A, the site enters you in a contest to win one of the new TVs. While some will toss this off as "been there done that," there's something about this site, even though it doesn't invent anything new, that keeps one's interest. Well, if you're a guy it does. Perhaps there's a version for women floating around somewhere too. Nice work.
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