Well Written Press Release Gets Attention For Minnesota Lottery

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"The campaign features three 30-second television spots that use the element of surprise to build excitement for the new Minnesota Millionaire Raffle game Each spot features a game-show-like host who wheels a large raffle drum into busy locales where unsuspecting patrons are encouraged to play an instant raffle. The spots are built on genuine reactions as people go from shocked and reluctant to actively participating and cheering"

Now that's some well-written PR copy. And we didn't have to go digging through a collection of attachments or ridiculously worded releases to find the nugget of information. Thank you, Colle+McVoy.

Now on to the campaign. Generally, we're not a fan of marketing stunts that involve random appearances in unlikely places. After all, if we're shopping, we're shopping. If we're eating, we're eating. Then again, you can't do stunt marketing (or most any kind for that matter...yes, we love you inbound marketing) without a little bit of interruption. So we can't complain much about this campaign.

The campaign also includes print, radio, outdoor, transit and mall. You can view the three spots here, here and here.



Narragansett Beer Takes You Back to The Future

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Radio spots for beer, strike that, radio spots in general, suck. You can count the number of great campaigns on one hand. I'd even go as far as to say that the level of suckitude on radio is disproportionately suckier than it is for TV. That said, there's something intriguing about these new radio spots for Narragansett beer. They remixed their old radio spots from the 1950s and infused them with a modern trance-dub vibe. you can check out all the spots here from Quaker City Mercantile (formerly Gyro Worldwide).

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by Bill Green    Aug-12-09    
Topic: Radio



Cannes Lions: Real Winnars in Radio, Media and Outdoor

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Last night was the ceremony for Radio, Media and Outdoor -- not very exciting stuff, but you get a chance to review highly localized work you wouldn't otherwise be exposed to. Always good to remember what ad life is like outside internets.

Here are the Grand Prix winners for each category. Hopefully by now I don't need to tell you where to go to see the full list of oversized bookend recipients.

For RADIO: Net#Work BBDO/Johannesburg wins Grands Prix for "Dancer," "Dog" and "Ferret" -- three radio pieces for Virgin Atlantic Airlines, South Africa. Wanna hear? Listeny-listen.

For MEDIA: JWT Japan/Tokyo scores for "Kit Kat Mail 2009" on behalf of Nestle's Kit-Kat.

For OUTDOOR: TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris Johannesburg wins Grands Prix for "Fight the Regime," "Cheaper than Money," "Trillion Dollar Billboard," "Z$250,000,000" and "Wallpaper" -- on behalf of The Zimbabwean. The campaign's objective was, in great part, to demonstrate the ridiculous rate of inflation affecting Zimbabwean currency as a result of the current regime.

We covered one execution in which trillions of Zimbabwe dollars were used to wallpaper a billboard. Trillion dollar bills were also used as flyers. See the rest of the work; if you're curious about the roots of Z's current political situation, read some colourful background.

by Angela Natividad    Jun-24-09    
Topic: Agencies, Brands, Direct, Events, Industry Events, Outdoor, Radio



Radio Wants You to Ride on its Twitter-Powered Disco Stick

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On the way to the Mullen new office open house party in Boston, we sampled some radio, a medium we haven't listened too much in years. After listening to Kiss 108 on the ride in and the ride out, a couple things are clear.

Twitter, mentioned no less than three times (in both programming and commercials) in a 30 minute period, is now mainstream. East West Mortgage is asking people to follow them to keep up to date on the latest mortgage rates. An LG phone commercial couldn't gush enough about how one of its phones was "Twitter enabled." Even a car dealer mentioned Twitter to, well, we're not really sure.

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by Steve Hall    Jun-19-09    
Topic: Bad, Radio, Social, Strange



Alaska Airlines Shames Touchless Bathroom Technology

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Isn't bathroom technology great? Urinals that flush themselves. Automated faucets. Automated soap dispensers. Hand-wave controlled towel dispensers. It all sounds like a germaphobe's wet-dream, right? Except for when these wonders of technology don't work. Which is like...all the time.

Alaska Airlines, with help from agency WONGDOODY (oh damn there is such a good bathroom humor joke in there), has launched a new campaign called North of Expected. The campaign juxtaposes bathroom technology FAIL with Alaska Airlines technology success and why the airline is so great because of it.

Supporting the television commercial are radio, newspaper, outdoor, transit and web.

Oh, and before we forget. Thank you Alaska Airlines. Thank you for taking us back to one of our earliest rants ever here on Adrants. Z-Fold FTW!

by Steve Hall    Apr- 6-09    
Topic: Campaigns, Commercials, Good, Online, Outdoor, Radio



Anti-Suicide Folk Bring Sudden End to Songs, TV Shows

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Suicide Action Montreal needed to get its message of suicide prevention out to a jaded province. Faced with the challenge, the clever cats at Touche! phd, Sid Lee and Astral Media concluded there's no better way to illustrate suicide than to bring an abrupt end to things people like.

The campaign rolled out in two ways. To start, popular programs randomly went black to make way for the following (roughly translated) message: "Does this premature ending surprise you? Imagine if it happened to the life of someone close."

After a few seconds of darkness, the episodes started rolling again. Same thing happened with popular songs on the radio.

Refreshingly out-of-box. Check out examples of both the TV and radio executions (bad pun!) on the Touche! phd blog.

by Angela Natividad    Mar-10-09    
Topic: Campaigns, Cause, Good, Radio, Television



Credit Union Campaign Provides Respite From Financial Disaster

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Hoping to distract people, if only for a few moments, from the rampant financial ruin surrounding us, Credit Unions of Washington is out with a few "Financial Chaos-Free Moments" providing peaceful interludes and a respite from the crumbling financial world wreaking havoc in our world.

And yes, figure prominently into the equation as prime distractors fom reality in a serious of :15 television commercials. Created by Seattle-based Big Bang Electrical, the campiagn also includes newspaper and radio.

And you know what? Who care how creative or uncreative these are. We'll take anything. ANYTHING to lull us into a false sense of hope.

See the spots here, here and here.

by Steve Hall    Mar- 3-09    
Topic: Campaigns, Commercials, Good, Newspaper, Radio



Radio Station Hires Prostitutes For Promotion

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Following a stunt in which the homeless were paid to carry signs which read, "Should panhandling be legal?", Toronto-based talk radio station CFRB, with help from zig, paid prostitutes to carry signs which read, "Should prostitution be legal?"

While the campiagn was developed to hype discussion controversial topics on the station, Bad Date Coalition of Toronto's Wendy Babcock didn't like the approach, saying, "It's to give that radio station attention. It has nothing to do with helping out the sex worker ... It's using them. If we wanted to have an actual discussion ... have the sex workers come in and have it in a place where it's safe and where people can call in and respectfully ask questions."

True that. But what fun would that be as a radio promotion? After all, Opie and Anthony resorted to encourage a couple to have sex in a church. This is radio's playground. It's what they do.

by Steve Hall    Jan-20-09    
Topic: Radio



New England Aquarium Invites You to See Turtles ... EVERYWHERE.

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The New England Aquarium's "See Turtles" campaign is an appealing exception to the no-pun rule. (Also, we like an effort that doubles as justification to take hallucinogens.)

Variants include Droplet, Water Tower and Rooftop, which will appear in magazines and newspapers.

Online banner ads -- which are also cute, if a little Clip-Arty -- include Snowman, Cocoa and Car. (Forgive us if these links break; they're hosted by Mullen.) These are slightly different from their print counterparts: in them, ordinary things take the shape of turtles over time, taking advantage of the 'net's ability to seize roving eyes. Frankly, the print stuff is better.

Work by Mullen/Wenham, MA. There's also radio material, which we didn't get to hear.



Awkward Silence Follows Orgasmic Radio Ad

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There's a time and a place for sex in advertising. There are also times and places where sex in advertising are most ccertainly inappropriate and accomplish nothing but create embarrassment.

The latter was experienced by Åsk Wäppling of Adland who, along with her daughter and mother, were in a cab when this radio ad (link to story, not actual ad) for Amelia magazine began to play. Needless to say, awkward silence and red faces followed.

Of course Åsk, professional she is, didn't dwell on the more prurient aspects of the commercial, rather the plain badness of it citing terrible copy and questionable strategy. Thank God there are ad critics out there that don't obsess over sex in advertising.

by Steve Hall    Oct-31-08    
Topic: Racy, Radio