Muppets Appear in Charity Spot

PuppetVision points out New Zealand charity, CanTeen, an organization supporting young people living with cancer has launched a spot featuring the Muppets singing their famed "Mahna Mahna" song to promote National Bandanna Week and the group's green CanTeen bandanna. FCB created the commercial and got Disney in LA to quickly approved character usage and then shot the spot just two days later with the Muppets cast.

Burger King Gets Farked, Sells Halloween Masks

Burger King has scored a branding coup. It's Burger "King" has been Farked. After being posted to Fark October 4, there are hundreds of images of the "King" taking on all sorts of personas such as the Army's "I Want You" guy, Bush's Supreme Court pick, Santa, Jesus, Larry King, Colonel Sanders and even Ronald McDonald himself. Not to be one-upped by it all, Crispin Porter + Bogusky is capitalizing on mask mania with the launch of BK Masks, a site where visitors can buy masks of the King himself and the famed Subservient Chicken. Wouldn't it just be sweet for Burger King and CP + B if this actually took off and kids across the country appeared at your doorstep wearing these masks? That would be successful marketing.

Magazine Lures Guys With Cars and Girls

Promoting a the Australian men's magazine Explode, Soap Creative has launched a "customize your ride" game, called Bling My Bomb, in which visitors choose their vehicle and customize it selecting color, wheels, graphics, engine, plates, horn, your street scene and yes, the hottie that will ride with you. Sorry, ladies, this one's for the guys. Besides, you probably don't want to visit a site that treats women like hood ornaments. Oh please. After all, it's all just fun and fantasy for single-minded guys. That said, Explode will be happy to know we actually spent a significant amount of time on the site crafting our ride.

McDonald's Hosts Net-Wide Breakdancing Contest

Here's a fun little time-waster from McDonald's. Pick a character, listen to the beat, whack a few numbers keys on your keyboard and, homey, you're breakdancin'. After practicing, visitors can log in and compare their dance move scores with others. That's it. Simple. No overbearing marketing crap. Just plain fun.

AstraZeneca Provides Breast Cancer Education

AstraZeneca recently launched a Disease Awareness program aimed at enhancing awareness of the risk of breast cancer recurrence and how to reduce that risk among survivors. The program consists of a television commercial called "If You Were My Sister," an interactive Web site called , and an educational information kit, all featuring real women who are breast cancer survivors. The campaign encourages the public to learn and share critical information about the risk of breast cancer recurrence.

The site, developed by MBC, allows women to read general information or answer several questions about their individual situation and then read information specific to their situation. Lest we forget this is marketing, an email address is, optionally, requested at the end of the questions. We're sure AstraZeneca's drugs are promoted here somewhere but, aside from the separate corporate site, we couldn't find it which, of course, is refreshing.

Absolut APeach Launched With Video Series

To introduce its new Peach flavored vodka, Absolut has come up with a series of quirky videos that reveal how Absolut APeach, as they call it, was created. The first episode reveals it was created by accident after the company had planned to introduce Absolut Cinnamon Roll only to find out Wyrskybogg Vodka had already release the same flavor. So, it was back to the drawing board with the company's top secret development team, originally formed in 1982, pulled back into action to create a new flavor. Dry wit ensues.

iPodMy Baby Launches Baby Clothing Line

Boozhy points to iPod My Baby, a site that sells baby clothing emblazoned with the Apple iPod control wheel. Some brands have so much consumer love. Or at least the acknowledgment that a popular brand can be leveraged for personal financial gain.

IKEA Says Leave Work Early

Somehow advocating leaving work before the workday ends as being a good thing, IKEA is running a commercial in England which celebrates a guy leaving the office at 3PM. Of course, it's trying to celebrate that there's more to life than work and IKEA kitchens can add to that life. There's also a site that highlights important events that people may have missed because they work too much such as Prince Charles being married to Camilla Parker Bowles, the Spice Girls break up and the fact Tony Blair is still Prime Minister. There's other fun stuff like a Work-Life-Balance Meter and a calculator that, oddly, displays how much less one has to work if they spend money on an IKEA kitchen. It must be that British wit at work.

Beringer Manages Time, Sells More Wine

Wine maker Beringer recently conducted a study found more than half of respondents don't leave work on time but 28 percent would if they had social engagements with friends and family planned. With that nugget of information, Beringer has launched Living 5 to 9, a nice play on the 9 to 5 grind and a new website which aims to help people manage their time better. Oh, and let's not forget the marketing angle here. The more Beringer helps people manage their time, the more likely they will leave work on time thereby allowing them time to stop at the store on the way home and buy more Beringer product. Everybody wins with this one.

Wieden + Kennedy Angered Over Nike Defection For Golf Site

We're tipped to the fact Wieden + Kennedy is a bit miffed Nike jumped ship for another agency to promote its new Sasquatch driver. Apparently, Nike didn't think W + K could cut it and went to New York agency Trollback, which has done work for Nike before, to create a promotional video/commercial for the new driver. The commercial will air on NBC and on the Golf Channel throughout the month of October. You can view the work here. Oh for the days when clients clients weren't fickle and didn't jump ship every few months. OK, so that's exaggerating a bit. Clients go elsewhere for project work all the time but, for the the agency of record, it's never a pretty subject.