Screw Andrew Fisher and CI Host. Homer Simpson's taking all the fame now. In a recent episode of The Simpsons in which Homer, faced with losing his cherished blue trousers because the factory that makes them is going out of business, applies "Buy Blue Pants" to his head to create demand. In the episode when asked by Marge to define headvertising, Homer replies, "Headvetising, it provides brand awareness without relying on traditional media." During the episode Homer also applies brand logos to his chest and arms. Thanks to the ever vigilant Bucky Turco for spotting this one.
A Canadian Olympics viewer watching the closing ceremonies on the country's CBC network saw the Golden Palace casino make another Olympic appearance. The first was during a men's curling event. Reportedly, a Golden Palace t-shirt-clad man appeared on stage alongside the Italian Olympic Chairman as he was speaking during the closing ceremony. While it may be tough, it's likely this guy will be edited out by the time the broadcast airs in America. Not that he achieved much as the Golden Palace logo wasn't completely visible during his appearance.
As a follow up to its GTI Fast commercials, VW has unleashed another set called Un-Pimp Your Auto which, as the title eludes does just that with three spots bringing three pimped pimped out cars and their owners back to reality all while highlighting the new VW GTI Mk5. As a bonus, the ads feature that long haired dude from FOX's Prison Break who got offed last year. He needed a new gig anyway and he got one.
Mountain Dew has launched a new campaign created by BBDO New York for its Diet Mountain Dew. The campaign, which breaks this weekend during NASCAR and in March issues of Sports Illustrated and FHM, consists of a television spot and four prints ads shot by Sasha Waldman which carry the headline, "Don't Be Fooled By A Name" and the tagline, "How Dew Does Diet." The television spot explores whether Diet Mountain Dew is as much of a thrill as regular Mountain Dew and the print ads, as the headline indicates, encourage people not to get hung up on the term "diet."
The print ads bring the message home clearly. The TV spot not so much. We had to watch it a few times before we realized the guy in the water with the shark was actually the guy drinking the Diet Dew. But that's just us. You can see all the print work here and the TV spot here.
News Corp. which owns MySpace is launching My Network TV, a sixth television network to rise from the ashes of the WB/UPN merger. The network will offer local stations nine minute versus The CW's three to sell locally and launch with a couple English language telenovelas. My Network TV also hopes to tap into the 50 plus million MySpace users who will, no doubt, be subjected to relentless promotion for the network.
Now if they could just do something interesting other than throw more boring TV programming choices at us. Perhaps News Corp. should talk to the owner of the domain name they will, no doubt, want to buy. Hopefully, they already have.
Rapping about babies and quirky coffee moments are the subject matter in two hilarious promotional commercials (1, 2) for BBC Three's new comedy sketch series Snuff Box. The series is written and performed by Matt Berry and Rick Fulcher. Since we don't live in England, we have no idea who these guys are but if their show is as funny as their promos, we're sure it'll get a few viewers.
While fast forwarding through the ads in a recent episode of "The O.C.," an ad from the Office of National Drug Control Policy's National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign caught our attention with it's DVR-resistant, slow-cut tactic. The ad, with only four "segments" is called Smushed and is part of the Office's Above the Influence effort. Apart from catching our attention by appearing as a "still" while fast forwarding, the imagery of a girl who looked like she'd just stepped out from under an industrial compression-like machine also caused us to stop, rewind and watch the ad.
The ad itself dealt with issues of peer pressure to be cool, to fit in, to drink, to get high, to be popular, to never say the wrong thing. This ad is one of six currently running on MTV, Fuse, The N, FOX, The WB, UPN and others. The online component appears on Yahoo, GameSpy, IGN and print ads appear in 23 magazines including Teen People, Skateboarder, J-14 and Playstation. The entire collection of spots, all of which are very good, and print ads can be seen here.
You know, it's always a bit disconcerting to arrived at the house of your daughter's friend and find her proverbial "playdate" glued to the television watching some trash talk show of some movie clearly made for adults so this stat does not surprise. What does surprise is parent's lack of control and judgment over what their children watch on television and how long they are allowed to watch. One "playdate" who spends time in this house can't even sit still in front of the television (on the two weekend nights it's allowed here) because his brain has been so ADD'd by constant television watching at his house since birth he doesn't know how to follow a plot.
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Watching this ad sent to us by Bucky Turco, with some nifty camera angles, tight shots and specific positioning of a pair of hands, you might think you're watching a porn video but be assured you are not. While this would never air on TV in America, it, apparently did elsewhere. We'll leave it to you non-U.S. readers to figure it out for us.
With the tagline "live green, go yellow" GM, today, has painted the homepage of the New York Post's online site along with other sites such as the Austin American-Statesman yellow to promote the company's E85 ethanol-fueled vehicles of which there are already 1.5 million on the road. The vehicles can run on either gasoline or the new E85 fuel. E85 fuel is 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline and is made from U.S.-grown corn and other grains. The company will introduce and promote more E85-capable vehicles mid-2006.
The yellow takeover and the ads point to a live green go yellow microsite where visitors can find out about the fuel's benefits, how it's made, what vehicles will run on it, play a Stalk Car Race game, see the TV and print ads and get live green go yellow goodies.
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