Pepsi's Super Bowl Coup, Grills Gone Wild, Evil Dead Musical

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- Pepsi blocks other non-alcoholic beverages from entire first half (!!!) of next year's Super Bowl. And Halftime! Now that's just gluttonous.

- To promote its Scott Shop Towels ("like paper towels but way tougher," the PR folk explained), Kimberly Clark goes on safari for grills gone wild!.

- Bill Green lends valuable insight on how to gain a near-instant boost in Twitter followers.

- Evil Dead -- the Musical.

- If the Peanuts crew were an ad agency, Lucy would be the obnoxiously bitchy, but refreshingly honest, Christmas party organizer. And Linus would be an AD. (The security blanket should've been the tip-off.)

- Powder Blue trailer strips Jessica Biel down to her bare minerals. Eat your heart out, Natalie Portman! (Neither link is SFW.)

- Burger King's King loses wallet.



If You Can't Get into W+K, You Can At Least Get on the Window.

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London-based? Swing by 16 Hanbury St. and walk by the offices of Wieden + Kennedy, where a giant Christmas card is fusing the faces of passersby to various holiday characters. Stand there long enough, and you might see your own face appear on Santa, an elf, or some kind of creepy egg-shaped bird.

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by Angela Natividad    Dec-11-08    
Topic: Agencies, Good, Guerilla, Online



Peanuts Does Advertising, Detroit Gets Loan, Layoff Story Shared

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- Detroit-based writer, Mandy, was recently laid off. On her blog, she shares the drama and emotion that goes with losing one's job.

- Charlie Brown and crew illustrate how an agency goes through the process of creating a Christmas card.

- The I'm Just Sayin' Show dissects the Jessica Alba Photoshop Debacle.

- The House voted in favor of the auto industry bail out...sorry...bridge loan.

- Santa Claus is dead.

by Steve Hall    Dec-11-08    
Topic: Agencies, Celebrity, Strange, Video



Have A Naughty Friend? Add Them to Santa's Naughty List

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Digital agency OneUpWeb is helping Santa manage the Naughty or Nice list this year. Well, really just the Naughty list. When you visit the list, you can nominate three people who will added to the list. If you're on it, nominating the three people gets you off the list.

Once you add the three people, they receive a letter from Santa which reads, in part, "Due to inflation and economic hardships, I have had to layoff many of my elves ... If you don't make it off the list before I check it twice, you can count on coal this Christmas Eve."

Of course, if you like to be naughty, you might just want to leave yourself on the list. So Santa knows exactly what sort of toy you'd like to receive Christmas day.

by Steve Hall    Dec-11-08    
Topic: Agencies



Donny Deutsch Caught Kissing Married Woman

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We love our schadenfreude and we love to kick a man when he's (going?) down. Because it's what we do. Because it's what we're expected to do. Right? So it's no surprise Donny Deutsch is getting a lashing not only for recently losing his CNBC television show, The Big Idea, but also for fooling around with a married woman.

Deutsch, according to the New York Post, was reportedly caught on camera by a private investigator kissing Lisa Sandler, the wife of hedge-fund manager Andrew Sandler. After wondering whether or not his wife was stepping out on him, Andrew hired the private eye to see if there was anything to his wonderment. Seemingly there is, as the pictures are said to show Donny and Lisa kissing.

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by Steve Hall    Dec-11-08    
Topic: Agencies, Celebrity, Policy



Snowman Goes PC. Becomes Snowperson

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The mailman is now the mail carrier. The waitress is now the server. The stewardess is now the flight attendant. The foreman is now the fire fighter. The chairman is now the chair person. (Feel free to add more in Comments.)

So it is without surprise, the snowman has become the snowperson. At least in Winsper Inc.'s Christmas card, Winsper Wonderland, where you can dress the snowperson any way you want and send it to a friend without fear of offending their politically correct sensibilities.

by Steve Hall    Dec-10-08    
Topic: Agencies



Daddy Wants A Sound Strategic Business Platform For Christmas

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Now here's the gift we'd all love to get from Santa. Well, that is if you work in marketing and you're looking for an ad agency that isn't all rosy promises and hot air. Of course, an agency that spews business babble as profusely in its Christmas card this year as Concerto does might not be the perfect solution either.

But Concerto gets points for ending the year with a "hard stop" and "synergistically" crafted "value add" messaging which "pushes the envelope."

by Steve Hall    Dec- 5-08    
Topic: Agencies, Good



Amsterdam Agencies Pay Audiovisual Tribute to MTV

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Oh, MTV.

Over the years it's taught us how babies are made, why the Holocaust was not very nice and where those sassy red tennis shoes really come from. Most importantly, it helped bring Britney back and has kept Russell Brand knee-deep in pharma specifically for our viewing pleasure.

Given what we owe MTV for this elegant yet candid upbringing, it's only natural that someone try paying a little back. And who better than Amsterdam, baby?!

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by Angela Natividad    Dec- 4-08    
Topic: Agencies, Brands, Campaigns, Good, Online, Trends and Culture, Video



Laptop Tattoos, Adult SocNets Exiled, Wal-Mart Roves for Digital Agency

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- Wal-Mart's looking to unload its $40 million digital ad account. The shortlist includes Resource, Digitas, MRM, R/GA and Razorfish.

- Digital Mad Men! Watch. Watch. Because Vince Kartheiser talking Caturday is probably the funniest he's been in his short career so far.

- Dell cracks open Design Studio -- where users can pay $75 to get a unique image "permanently tattoed" onto their laptop lids. o_O That's a slightly steeper commitment than the peel-off-friendly GelaSkins.

- Arby's brings hard-ons. I really hope they don't put this on TV.

- MySpace does video streaming on mobile phones. With ad support.

- As of January 1, adult social networks will not be permitted on Ning. (Pretty good) reasons listed in the link.

- YouTube cobbles together digital chamber music orchestra.



For Blurb Project, Ammo Hunts Wound-Licking Creatives Down on craigslist

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Blurb ("Real Books. Made By You.") is on a quest for castrated creative pitches, which it plans to compile in a volume called Killed Ideas Volume 1.

God knows this well of slighted egos is full to overflowing. But Blurb isn't in the creative industry, and apparently has no idea where to find its minions, so it's enlisted Ammo Marketing ("Stimulating Enduring Brand Conversations") to twist Ad Land's tap and get entries flowing.

Ammo in turn published this ad on craigslist, soliciting for city-based Mad Men that'll elicit saucy entries from colleagues.

It's a creative pitch for failed creative pitches!

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