Temple University Launches Very Red Motivational Ad Campaign

To draw more impressionable minds to its bonfire, Temple University launched T Means More, a campaign that turns the "Temple T" into a symbol of character, integrity, commitment, etc.

We are bored by this campaign and think that Temple gratuitously abuses the color red. Might be a good idea to just mail all potential students a copy of this book.

Getting You Car Stolen is a Nightmare. And Farmer's Insurance Knows Nightmares!

It's not often we're surprised by an ad. This one by Campbell-Ewald for Farmer's Insurance scared the crap out of us. And the guy in it kind of looks like Kevin Spacey.

Other spots from the taglined "Sanity makes a comeback" effort were equally interesting. There's this wind insurance one where a woman's papers keep blowing around (wait for the part where she slams into the wall and breaks it - that's pretty funny), a confusing one where a woman leaps on a garbage truck and hitches a ride with a cop on a horse (it was fun guessing what that was for), and a pretty good one about transient suburbanites getting by after a house fire.

We like this campaign a lot - it does a neat job of crawling into the minds of people actually dealing with hazards in real-time.

Wait - There's Stuff Happening in Ireland?

Irish marketers and media mavens now have their own online network - The Media Show.

Right now neither the site nor the show look very exciting, but that's what ads are for. If you have an abiding interest in the burgeoning marketing industry in Ireland, it might do well to sponsor these guys. To tell the truth, we have no idea whether the advice they're dispensing is good or bad, because the whole thing just made us too sleepy.

Apple Gets Media Pwnage on New NBC, Amazon Deal

Shortly after its embarrassing Friday spat with Apple, NBC developed a similar relationship with Amazon TV.

One of the biggest points of the Apple/NBC disagreement was Apple's insistence that NBC wanted to raise its costs per episode to $4.99. NBC said this wasn't true, and the REAL issue was Apple's refusal to sell episodes in package sets.

Well, regardless of who you believed then, NBC put its money where its cavernous mouth is and developed a relationship with Amazon TV's Unbox. Episodes are still going for $1.99 ("Up yours, iTunes!") and customers who buy complete seasons get a 30 percent discount.

Nothing like a public mud-fight to get the blood pressure up. Think we can talk them into solving future disputes election '08 style?

LA Times Smells, Diversity Rocks Apple Cart, NFL Does Video

- If you want your NFL online...legally, that is... the league is splitting with CBS Sportsline and launching its own site to offer its library of video.

- The UK's KateModern is the answer to LonelyGirl15. Viewers and brands seem to like it. Hmm. Not as cute as Bree.

- Diversity rocks the apple cart which is why things won't change until a new cart arrives. Sadly, we couldn't agree more.

- While concern over CBS's Kid Nation increases and advertisers shy away, we're betting this thing'll be a hit.

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NBC, Apple Engage in Tit For Tat Spat Over Distribution

"Well, FU2" seems to be the standard response from one corporation when another cuts its legs off. That's what's going on with Apple and NBC right now. NBC Universal has decided not to renew its distribution deal with Apple's iTunes as it has plans to launch its own online distribution service, Hulu. In response, Apple announced it will not make available for download fall programming from NBC even though the contract between the two runs through December.

Apple has a good reason to feel snubbed as NBC, according to Apple as reported by Advertising Age, accounted for three of iTune's top selling TV shows which accounted for 30 percent of all TV show sales through the service.

Bay 'Booms' Toronto With Fashion Protest

"We're here. We're Hot. Get used to it." That's the battle cry kicking off a new spot for Toronto-based fashion retailer Bay. Boom is the name of the campaign and it's all about baby boomers reclaiming their fashionista status by staging a fashion protest which looks like some sort of colorized sixties protest.

The campaign's got everything: TV, radio, a contest to win a car, interactive retail windows, transit, guerrilla, fashion shows, in store event and even a "bra burning" promotion.

Subaru Gets Punny with 'Peel Out' Impreza Ad

We're glad Subaru never tries to depict its Impreza as a super-sexy or even very fast car, because the only thing it really has going for it is its intellect. It's like that well-read but ugly girl in grade school.

Thus leveraging its best quality, this new ad for the Subaru Impreza has been cleverly titled "Peel Out." And instead of showing self-gratifying cuts of a Subaru burning precious tire across concrete (we actually can't even imagine that), it shows a Subaru jumping through pages of magazines after some drivers magically "peel out" of one.

There's probably more to it than that because the pressie was really long and gushy, but then we thought, if we need reading material to "get" a commercial, what the hell's the point?

Bundy Rum Gives Snotty Brits Some Serious Aussie Envy

Bundy Rum is so Australian that it refuses to leave its continent of birth - a really flattering way of saying Bundy's drinking demo is confined mainly to the rural parts of Down Under.

To spread the word about this curious beverage, Therapy, London put together this ad that plays on the England/Australia rivalry. Apparently England wants Bundy so bad it wants to be Australia. Talk about a kick in the face!

"What a vulgar people," snarled a nearby native Londoner.

If you're wondering what that bear is doing at the end of the ad, that's the Bundy mascot. Yeah, we were pretty confused about that until the PR explained it to us.

German Engineers Wish They'd Built the Subaru Imprezza

Subaru makes good cars. At least that's what Consumer Reports says year after year. But why do most their cars look, well, so pedestrian. While that's one person's opinion, it seems, according to a recently launched campaign for the Impreza (which does actually look better than past models) created by DB Canada, German engineers are jealous of Subaru's performance.

The campaign consists of an onslaught of television, out-of-home, online, print, direct and cinema. The cinema ad broke late July and the rest is coming soon to Canadians country-wide.

The cinema ad, which you can view here, features four German engineers out for a joy ride in the Imprezza. They cruise the test track to the tune of Falco's Amadeus until they are met with the disapproving eyes of their senior engineer who mutters disgust in German.

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