Back in October of 2004, we wrote about Advercan, a company that affixed labels to soda can tops so marketers could place advertising on cans. While we liked the idea, we chided the company pointing out all those labels would do a good job keeping landfills busy. Making nice, the company has now introduced a new labeling product that is pulp-based, biodegradable and completely hygienic. Advercan is working with Innovia, 3M and Alcan as well as beverage companies pepsi, Coke, Cadbury Schweppes, Miller and others to make cans a viable advertising medium. Not a bad idea since no one watches TV anymore but everyone still drinks flavored sugar water from a can.
- If you travel a lot and you're bored with your bland luggage tags or you don't have any at all, you might want to check out some new tags that are decidedly more colorful than your standard, bland tags.
- Mango Moose Media in Mississauga Ontario has launched StreetTeams, a service that makes it easy for media buyers to "buy" street teams just like they buy other media.
- As if Coke wasn't already unhealthy enough, it's now a frying agent for any thing from bananas, to twinkies to cookies to pickles.
- RSS reader Newsgator has added Google AdWords to it's pages. Launched Friday, it's in test phase which will continue into next week.
- Not that this is is indicative of any role they may have played in their clients' successes but BBDO's work was the most viewed work on AdForum in the third quarter.
- Here's a collection of videos Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam worked on as part of their work for the Electronic Artists' game FIFA 07.
It seems there may actually be some new ideas left in the ad business though we're sure someone will tell us this has been done before. Anyway, Michael Shostack tells us graphic designer Jeni Mattson created some very cool business cards for, apparently, another designer. The concept was to illustrate the designer's probing nature so Jeni designed a metal business card made up of actual lock picking tools. Hey, it's diferent. That's half the battle.
- Davis Freeberg sends us this long form commercial for TiVo called Blue Moon which is a 50's-style video explaining an important scentific discovery that turns out to be, yes, a TiVo.
- While we really like this new campaign for Florida's Commerce Bank which, in the TV spot, asks "When did you stop thinking you were a magician?" and other kid-related things along with images of kids that change to adults at the end of the commercial, there seems to be a missing transition between the innocence of dreaming in kidhood and Commerce Bank's assertion you can keep dreaming in adulthood if you bank with them. The work was created by Hispanic agency, The Lab thelabideas.com
- Put your Hispanic marketing caps on because the demographic segment is growing eight times faster than other other groups and will, this year, match the purchasing power of African-Americans spending over &800 billion.
- Arthur Schiff, the man behind the classic Ginsu Knife commercials as well as many other informercials died earlier this week at the age of 66.
- Debuting next week during the Come Out & Play festival in New York this month will be "kill them with kindness" game called Cruel 2 B Kind. The game assigns players one weapon and one weakness which consist of random acts of kindness which are to be delivered to other players who could be anyone on the street in the game zone.
- Maverick Media has created another Windows Live Messenger video, called Bottle, that points out the dangers of using old technology to deliver office messages.
- South African singer Verity is hoping record her album by pre-selling 5,000 CDs through a project called the Lucky Packet Project to finance the cost of recording the album. About ten percent of the revenue will go to the South African charity People Opposing Women's Abuse.
- OK, this Great Escape video for the PSP game Dark Mirror is just weird but it definitely reminds one to be sure which bed they slip into the night before.
- T-list is taking social media physical by selling t-shirts on which people can place thisr top five lists of bands, movies, places or any other list one might find on MySpace or any other social media site.
- Getting even closer to the day ads will be affixed to the back of church pews, the Boy Souts of America are now accepting brand sponsorship of its Scout Badges.
- While you may have heard of this stunt already, here's the video of UK artist Bansky "punking" Paris Hilton's new CD by buying copies, altering the cover sleeve's content and replacing her CD with an audio remox of her favorite and inane comments.
- A&T is hyping its online entertainment site Blue Room by airing, on September 10, footage from the Conde Nast Fashon Rocks pre-party featuring Elton John performing highlights from the songs on his upcoming The Captain and the Kid album.
In an ideal marriage or art and commerce, FILA and the New York Collective of the Arts Project are holding their second FILA + NYCOLLECTIVE PROJECT - the Artists Play Two T-Shirt Series this Thursday, August 24 at the company's flagship store in mid-town Manhattan. The project provides a means for artists to showcase their creative work. The event will unveil the Fall 2006 t-shirt line, designed by various artists, as well as an auction for tennis-inspired art to benefit the New York Collective of the Arts.
There's two reasons why US Airways' decision to place advertising on air sickness bags is pointless and stupid. First off, when was the last time you puked on a plane or actually looked for or even found an air sickness bag? Not a smart media buy if you're trying to reach a crowd. Second, during the act of puking, are you normally able to focus on anything other than making sure you properly projectile the substance from your stomach? Oh, and third, do you really want to look at the bag after you fill it with puke? The only benefit any advertiser will receive from making a buy on puke bags is the press that will surround the first advertiser who decides to do so.
We'd love to see the measurement metrics on this ad medium as well. Cost Per Puke? Gallons of Puke Per Flight? Any media planner care to weigh in on this?
We're thinking the CSX headline for a college student focused railroad track safety campaign "Girls Don't Like Flat Guys" would have worked much better as "Guys Don't Like Flat Girls." But, then again, we wouldn't want to be sexist or break any political correctness rules now would we? Nope. Let's just twist that headline around from what we know was originally conceived to be the "Flat Girls" version and we'll be all good with the client and bitchy cause groups that can't take a joke.
Along with that unfortunately manipulated headline are drink coasters which read "If you're thinking about walking on the tracks, don't" accompanied by the image of - oh, the horror! - a squashed fly. There's also a card with the image of a CSX freight train on the front and the statement "Trains don't make a asound when they come up behind you" on the back. That is if you're deaf. One of those Exit agencies did the work.
Following last year's launch of the Super Recruiter action figure, HotJobs has introduced Captain Candidate, a fully-flexible, multitasking machine at the 2006 Society of Human Resource Management conference. Somehow this is all supposed top help employers and recruiters find candidates for jobs. It's all cartoony and action figurish which, according to recent research which finds 95 percent of people think it's OK to have toys in the office, is a good thing.
If you're one of the few people daring to grab a cup of coffee from a New York Street vendor, you may receive a cup that looks like a woman wearing red lipstick has already used the cup. Makeup retailer Sephora, with help from PromoMedia Concepts produced coffee cups branded with a store opening message along with an imprint that makes the cup look like it's been sipped before. It certainly grabs the attention. After all, no one wants to drink out of someone else's coffee cup and this lipstick sure does make one look closely to make sure it's just an imprint and not the real thing.
The marketing folks behind HBO's Entourage have the boys very busy these day days drumming up excitement for the upcoming third season. This time, there they're all over valet tickets in L.A. Dallas-based AdverTickets developed a campaign to hand out 369,000 full-color valet tickets in LA featuring each of the five characters on the show. The valet ticket campaign started May 15th and continues through June 15th. The tickets have received positive attention for the show, including attention from one of its stars - Kevin Connolly (Eric on the show). He got one of the tickets at an L.A. valet and loved it so much that he requested a stack of them for his own personal use. Shouldn't smug fuck Ari be all over this one?
