Morning Show's Great 'Thongs' Will Crack You Up

On a local billboard, a St. Cloud, Minnesota radio station promises its morning show is so good it will crack you up...literally...with "Great Thongs All Day." We'll take the thongs. We're not to sure about that crack though. We're sure the Mothers Against Exposed Thongs cause group will be on this one in no time.

Reynolds Wraps New York City's Storefronts

Now this is really inventive and simple and brilliant. What a great way to creatively integrate a brand with the city's landscape. We like. Very much. It's the work of Saatchi & Saatchi.

Polaroid Watches Bathroom Goers

Polaroid cameras in the bathroom. Nice idea in Sao Paulo. We're not thinking this will go over too well in the Sates, however.

Elisha Cuthbert 'Captivity' Billboard Campaign Yanked

Even though Elisha Cuthbert's movie career is tubing, her most recent movie, Captivity, is getting a bit of extra press because its four billboard campaign depicting Cuthbert in positions of abduction, confinement, torture and death. The movie's studio, After Dark Films, which partnered with Lionsgate on the film, was flooded with calls from local area residents who found the imagery horrific, shocking and inappropriate for placement in public spaces. After Dark exec Courtney Solomon told the LA Times the billboards were a mistake and that it's unclear how they were approved and placed. Lionsgate denies any involvement with the billboard campaign. After Dark, reacting to complaints, has told the outdoor company to take the boards down.

Wilkes University Gives Potential Co-Eds a Very Public, Very Detailed Hello

When you've got serious marketing dollars to throw behind wooing someone, it's a fine line between making them feel like stars and just, well, stalking the dickens out of them.

Philly-based 160over90 assists Wilkes University toward one or the other of these ends. Using mall kiosks, MySpace ads, billboards and whatever other media happened to be standing in a would-be Wilkesian's way, the university gave accepted students a king-sized shout-out.

The campaign makes Mini's "Hey Joe Shmoe" RFID-based billboard idea look piddly - it actually goes into details about the students' activities and ties them into the ad pitch.

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Cricket Cups, Z100 CGMs, R2D2 Mails, Turner Grinds, Viral A Fad

- George Parker says close-minded American marketers who buy into the ill-named American sport playoffs which assume America is the world should check out Cricket World Cup which, like football (the kind known to the rest of the world and not Americans), offers a chance to connect with fans the world over.

- New York's Z100 goes all consumer-generated with a new promotion that asks listeners to submit billboard and TV ideas which, if they win, will be shown in Times Square and aired on TV.

- New U.S. Post Office stamps get promoted with RD D2 mail box wraps.

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iPhone Appears, Disappears From Apple Cube

Perhaps simply to tease or perhaps in reaction to complaints, an iPhone ad which appeared on the cube at Apple's Fifth Avenue store in New York didn't last long. No sooner did it go up Tuesday, it came down perhaps reacting to requests the cube be mostly ad free. Anyway, the anticipation mounts for a phone that, accoring to some, will be a lame replacement for what's already available.

'Search Me' Ads Drive People to Web

Rather than trying to get people to remember a company's URL which isn't always the easiest thing to remember, several companies in Japan have started using what have been referred to as "search me" ads. The ads offer the visual of a search bar with a search term already filled in. People are urged to perform the search, either immediately on their phone or later on their computer.

If the terms are chosen properly and th proper search engine marketing accompany the effort, the approach just may work. There's only so much a single ad can convey but an ad they points people to a place where endless information can be conveyed would appear to be an effective approach.

Poster Proudly Showcases Democratic Achievements of Ongoing Pet Project

"Freedom of the press in the Middle East? Only in Israel." That's what a poster matter-of-factly stated to us on a recent train ride to the mills. Download a copy for your living room at Blue Star PR - we're sure it will make a great conversation piece.

Reporters sans Frontieres reports Israel does indeed enjoy a kind of press freedom previously unheard-of in their parts. And considering the US recently made RsF's frontpage for letting journalist and blogger Josh Wolf rot away in prison for over 200 days, maybe the laud over Israel's achievements are actually thinly-veiled laments for our own slow slide into the cool iron arms of Big Brother.

Laxative Company Makes a Big Demonstration Out of Paris

Microlax gets intimate with its surroundings with this clever laxative campaign by JWT Paris. Very cute.

Makes our stomachs feel a little funny, though. The thought of a resistance-free tube leading the way from throat to derriere does not the most comfortable feeling make.