Paris Hilton to Lord Over Times Square For Can Can Fragrance

In support of her new fragrance, Can Can, Paris Hilton will appear atop Times Square on the Jumbotron in a 30-second commercial which will run 2,700 times beginning November 5 and running over the course of eight weeks. The video, part of a recently launched $5 million campaign, will feature scenes from the print campaign photo shoot.

Video of the shoot is already floating around here and here if you're interested in a peek.

Halo is Not Only A Game, It's A Vacuum Cleaner

When we received this press release about the Halo Vaccuum, we at fist thought it was some twisted new multi-tasking version of the game. Alas, it's just a regular vacuum but a very special one. One that kills germs with ultraviolet light. Created by BooneOakley, the campaign initially had the headline, "It doesn't just suck. It Kills." But, apparently, that was a bit too harsh and the ads ended up carrying a tamer headline like, "Is it a vacuum cleaner that kills germs? Or a germ-killer that vacuums." We think they should have gone with their initial thinking.

The campaign consists of print, TV and a Times Square billboard. We have no idea what Consumer Reports will think when they get their hands on this thing but to us it at least looks pretty cool. And we'd love knowing all those nasty critters living in the bowels of our carpet were meeting their maker rather than disgusting us.

Lunch Lady Blogs, Ad Air Explained, Gydget Gadgets

- You know a magazine is having a tough time when it hosts a promotion allowing potential subscribers to name their own subscription price.

- Here's a video explaining the launch of Ad Air, the company that recently placed a gigantic board on the ground next to the Dubai airport.

- If you're a fan of widgets, you might like Gydget. You can use it in you marketing programs to spread your brand throughout the world of social media.

- Survivor's got a lunch lady but Wieden + Kennedy's got a lunch lady blog!

- To promote its service from Sao Paulo, Emirates Airlines created a commercial the length of the flight, 14 hours and 40 minutes.

- If you like NBC's Bionic Woman - which seems to waffle between decent TV and crap not worthy of air time - you can visit NBCs Bionic site to see how...uh...bionic you are? Huh?

- Teen makes commercial for Apple iPod Touch.

Marilyn Monroe Gets Itch Atop Billboard

The stodgy, staid medium known as outdoor continues to impress with its inventiveness and its creativity. That inventiveness and creativity is on full display from a billboard company itself. Stroer Out of Home Media launched a live billboard performance in Warsaw which placed a Marilyn Monroe look-a-like atop a billboard cat walk and creative underneath with rotating imagery of a man looking upward as the models skirt blew up as it did in the famed movie scene from The Seven Year Itch.

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Dubai Real Estate Ad Takes Record For Biggest Outdoor Ad Ever

Elvis from Dubai just informed us that Ad-Air, which builds "bird's-eye billboards" for airline travelers (or aliens?) that aren't visible from the ground, has just set the world record for "largest advertising banner" with the launch of its first effort for the Dubai airport.

It kind of makes sense that a country that can afford to put snow in the desert is now also hosting the largest ad ever. The spot is for Sorough Real Estate and covers over 20,000 square meters (the size of more than two soccer pitches).

The Guardian says a Guinness Book of World Records Inspector came out and designated the ad as the record-holder for banner size. All we can say is, we're glad the record-holder wasn't Eva Longoria for Maxim or an iPod.

TBWA Get Icy, Black Publishes, Sexist Ads Collected, Douchenozzles Celebrate

- TBWA has opened an icy cold office in Reykjavik, Iceland with a staff of 20 who hope to tap the country's growing economy and serve one of the world's highest per capita income populace.

- Cathie Black is out with her new book, BASIC BLACK: The Essential Guide for Getting Ahead at Work (and in Life) from Crown Publishing. "BASIC BLACK is a memoir masquerading as a guide to career and life from one of the first women to take a forefront role in the advertising industry, American magazine and newspaper publishing."

- Using its out of home touchscreen network, Ecast delivered a 14 percent click through for AMC's The Two Corey's. Now if we could only get results like that online.

- Want sexism in advertising? Media Circus has a collection of the twelve most sexist ads in recent years.

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Canadian Club Says 'Damn Right Your Dad Drank It!'

Unlike Oldsmobile which tried to distance itself from its aging audience with the "It's Not Your Father's Oldsmobile" campaign, Beam Global Spirits is embracing the older generation for its Canadian Club whiskey by exclaiming, "Damn Right YOur Dad Drank It." Created by Energy BBDO, the campaign will launch in November with radio, out-of-home, POS and print. Ads will appear in Rolling Stone, Sports Illustrated and Sporting News, with additional placements in Playboy, Men's Journal, Esquire, Outside and Men's Fitness in December and into 2008.

Hauling out imagery 60's and 70's imagery from actual Beam Global employees and positioning Dad as a once cool manly man, ads state "Your Mom Wasn't Your Dad's First," "Your Dad Was Not a Metrosexual" and "Your Dad Never Got a Pedicure."

Are we seeing a full-on return to the glory days of the hard liquor cocktail when beer was for factory workers and wine was for sissies? Can we now go back to the three martini lunch, pinch asses in the afternoon and have three more martinis at night while watching Mad Men? We might not get any work done but it sure sounds like fun.

Toscani's Anorexia Ads Unleash the Italian PC Police

The Nolita ad at left features Isabelle Caro, a French actress suffering from anorexia.

Guess who's responsible for it? Oliviero Toscani, the guy who fell out of Benetton shortly after his controversial "We, On Death Row" campaign in 2000.

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Keep Your Vaulted Ceilings; We Want Squalor

WONGDOODY, LA is on a pro-bono mission with the Venice Community Housing Corp to draw attention to the one in 32 homeless living in the area.

With flyers pushing "Dumpster Alcove w/ Fecal Matter 4 RENT" and ads like the one at left featuring in the for-lease sections of papers like The Argonaut and LA Weekly, the effort does two things:

- Highlights real "living options" that the homeless have to deal with
- Pokes fun at euphemisms realtors use to promote less-than-savory real estate (who could say no to "purvy lurkers" and "mysterious stains"? It's so Dickens)

Since the launch of the campaign, the VCHC reports double the number of calls and website visitors. We wonder how many of those calls were actual inquiries about renting in squalor. There's something so bohemian about demanding a challenging atmosphere.

Anthony's Pizza Tells Colorado Residents to 'Eat Me'

Continuing its quest to bring New York-style vulgarities to the peaceful, mountainous region of Colorado, New York-style Anthony's Pizza & Pasta says "Eat Me" to residents from atop billboards, alongside buses, from within newspapers and on radio. When it comes to pizza, or any food for that matter, there really isn't a simpler, more direct method of conveying the primary marketing message. Cultivator Advertising & Design created the campaign.