Fox Looks Kindly on Marginalized Smoking Patrons

We caught this ad in a story about growing indoor smoking bans in the travel business. It appears in front of the Fox Sports Bar and Grill at the Detroit airport.

Leave it to News Corp to embrace the pariah.

QVC Insider Reveals Mystery Behind iQdoU

A QVC employee has risked life and limb to let us in on what's happening behind the iQdoU? campaign.

The source blithely reports QVC will be unveiling its new logo on the 23rd, a Q that represents a package being opened to reveal the QVC inside.

Sounds complex.

QVC employees were shown the new logo just yesterday.

Desperate Wives Get Prime Parking, Are (Unsurprisingly) Not Happy About It

MediaBuyerPlanner observed this campaign running in LA and New York for Desperate Housewives. Apparently nearly a dozen parking lots in the respective counties have lots reserved "For Desperate Housewives" to draw attention to the fact that the new season starts this Sunday.

The minds behind the campaign are Parking Stripe Advertising from Colorado. According to NPR this morning, the move might have drawn attention for all the wrong reasons. Nobody really likes being dubbed a "desperate housewife" -- "even if they're 'desperate' for parking!" the broadcaster quipped.

Ha. Ha.

Interestingly, some strip malls in Fremont, CA reserve parking for "expecting mothers." Guess the secret is all in how you label privileged parking.

Reebok Does 3D, Arnold Does Fashion, TimesSelect Opens

- Here's a making of video highlighting the creation of a 3D graffiti project for Reebok in Cracow.

- Arnold and fashion-focused No. 11 have teamed to launch ArnoldEleven, an entity which will serve the fashion, beauty and luxury industries.

The New York Times is throwing in the towel on its subscription based Times Select product saying the growth of online advertising allows for far more revenue.

- Check this out for some face licking goodness from Guinness.

Horizon Air Convinces Sloggers The Slog Is Not the Best Way to Travel

After spending some time on Horizon Air's The Slog, a site created by WONGDOODY which highlights the landmarks along the 200 mile stretch of Interstate 5 between Seattle and Portland - in order to convince us to fly the 200 miles instead of drive - we actually want to take the 200 mile drive just to see all the cool stuff the site highlights. OK, so it's not all cool, the road sucks and the rest stop bathrooms are disgusting. But the way WONGDOODY crafted the site - a collection of videos highlight each of "the slog's" oddities and frustrations Old West-style - lends a certain attraction to the road.

In addition to the site, the campaign also includes print, radio and a branded truck with a museum-like diorama of the road that makes stops along the highway. Brochures will also be handed out to travelers on the road convincing them Horizon Air is really the way to go. In all, it's one of the best airline campaigns we've ever seen.

Jim Beam Wraps Las Vegas Hotel

Last week, Jim Beam placed what is said to be the world's biggest outdoor ad for a distilled spirits company. A 32,000 square foot building wrap measuring 400 feet tall will be affixed to the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas covering 40 stories of the hotel.The ad is celebrating September being named National Bourbon Heritage Month. Damn. We're gonna have to start drinking Manhattans again. (Image courtesy of Miss Shari via Flickr.)

Jaslene Gonzalez Watches Unveiling of Her LOT29 Billboard

Last Friday, America's Next Top Model winner Jaslene Gonzalez, along with her adoring fans, witnessed the unveiling of her Times Square billboard for clothing line LOT29. Jaslene's reaction? "Look at my legs! They look great!" Indeed.

The event was also a shoot for an upcoming commercial for the "My Life as a CoverGirl" campaign. Let's see. America's Next Top Model. LOT29. CoverGirl. All in one place. All at one event. Are there really people in marketing who are actually this efficient?

Lowly Laundry Machines Become Ad Medium

Every time we think we've written, "Just when you thought every last square inch of space has been plastered with advertising...," yet another new form of ad creep rears its ugly head. Though this new laundromat promotion for the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory isn't so ugly. Working with Laundromedia Inc. (who new such companies existed?) CBS placed banners across four washing machines. Hey, there's nothing else to do while your clothes are washing. You might as well stare at ads.

Just how do companies like Laundromedia Inc. get there start? Very simply and very mundanely as Foounder David Kessler explains, "I was standing in front of the washers, waiting for the spin to stop, just staring at a sea of white and I went, 'Wait -- these machines could have ads on them.'" We still think an enterprising house painting company is, one day, going to knock on our door, offer to paint our house for free as long as they can turn the house into a gigantic Home Depot ad.

Bell Mobility References Holocaust With 'Belsen Was A Gas' Button

Portfolios.com's David Katz alerts us to an ad for Bell Mobility's Solo Mobile placed in Toronto's Downsview Station which carries a small pin that reads, "Belsen was a gas." The ad has caused a bit of a stir. The pin refers to the World War II Nazi concentration camp Bergen-Belsen where gassing was anything but a pleasant experience. The pin is tiny but several commuters spotted it and it became a TV news story last Thursday.

Whether intentional or an art director's sneaky joke, Bell Mobility quickly reacted and issued a statement, saying, "We are in the process of removing all of these particular Solo Mobile ads... running these ads was an error on our part and one we certainly regret. You won't see them again of course."

The company promise all fifty one ads in and around Toronto and Vancouver which contain the button would be removed.

iQdoU? Billboards Proliferate NYC, Have Roots in Canada?

Adrants reader Amy sent us a shot of these iQdoU? billboards and asked if we knew what this is all about.

After some intelligent sleuthing (read: consulting Google), we found a cliffhanger-style website that invites the inquisitive to "unwrap the secret" on September 23rd.

Dissatisfied with that, and with the crappy think-tank music, we checked the meta tags, where we found terms like "celebrity shopping" and "seen on celebrities."

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