- Following Vanessa Minnello, bootylicious Kim Kardasian is the new spokesbabe for Bongo Jeans.
- If you're sad to see that really hot office mate leave for another agency, send his or her picture over to Office Hotties Who Leave, a site which features images of "men and women who make coming to work more bearable."
- American Express, Coke, JCPenney, L'Oreal, General Motors, Mars/Masterfoods, MasterCard, McDonald's, Procter & Gamble, Bertolli Frozen Dinners, and Dove Cream Oil Bodywash are a few of the confirmed advertisers for ABC's 80th Annual Academy Awards broadcast.
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Here's a happy Valentine's day message from Psyop. It all started cavity-sweet until the back-shaving, tooth-pulling, organ-dissembling and decapitating happened.
And what's going on with the gaunt stranger giving away razorblades, candy and saws of varying strength?
Wait a second ... we get it now! This is based on "The Gift of the Magi," isn't it? You know, the story where that couple buys gifts for each other at the expense of something they love, and the things they get directly relate to the stuff they give away, so neither can use their gift, and they're both miserably poor, so all they have left at the end is each other?
Wow. Brutal interpretation, Psyop. But hey, the ending is less pathetic (and way more literal) than O. Henry's version.
Oh, and for those dying to know, the song is by VHS or BETA and it is called "Love in My Pocket," which now we won't be able to listen to without thinking of ... scissors.
Anyway, we went ahead and sent the message to everybody we love.
Stun Media, the people that did the Silver Jeans spec spot we liked so much, just completed a music video for Paul Price's Her Planet.
It was done on a shoestring budget but is actually quite pretty. The money was spent sticking to one theme instead of trying to jam a menagerie of wild ideas into the frame. We think that takes guts and is good for brand recall. (Consider the schizophrenic big-budget alternative.)
TBWA\CHIAT\DAY sent us a :15 ad for the Grammys and this thing called the Disruptunes. Watch it here.
The ad, scheduled to air during the event, is for Grammy-fan promotional material. Coffee table books, CDs, that sort of thing.
It also features music from The Generators, a band participating in TBWA's Disruptunes, an internal TBWA thing where artists can upload songs that in turn are used for ads. (The agency describes it thus: "[helping] agency talent express their creativity and bring brilliant music to the world.")
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Since last December Fallon Minneapolis and Crispin Porter + Bogusky have been battling for the $2-300 million Microsoft consumer products account. The Daily Ad Biz reports rumors are flying Microsoft has chosen Fallon. There's been no confirmation either way but wouldn't it be fun if waning poster boy CP+B took a hit? OK, that's mean. We'd never wish that on anyone. Well, maybe we would but not here. May the best shop (or the one that plays the game the best) win.
For an ironic peep inside the world of agency life, a new album, Straight Out of Winston, from Mullen Winston-Salem Copywriter "StrataG" (aka Joe Beutel) and others from the agency peers inside the walls of agency life rapper-style. Whether exploring the obsession over awards, the pain of writer's block, the illogic of "creating a viral," the war of art direction or the stupidity of focus groups, the album pokes fun at life as an advertising professional.
If you work in an agency, you will identify completely with the sentiment of this album. If you are a client and work with an agency, you'll get a good look behind
When it comes to targeting the elusive Hispanic consumer, Cilantro Animation has this to say: "Be prepared to offer more than just Hola!"
(Though we'd like to point out that strategy worked wonders for Dora the Explorer.)
But Cilantro -- which creates Hispanic cartoons like the one at left -- makes an interesting point. When we hit ad:tech Miami we were overwhelmed with a sense that the Hispanic market remains unimpressed with the way big media has (or hasn't) tried to reach out.
And indeed, a salsa-colored Hola! just doesn't cut it when you consider the range of ethnicities blanketed under what we breezily dub Hispanic: Mexican, Cuban, Peruvian, Venezuelan, Colombian, Ecuadorian, and others -- all with their own cultural customs, jokes and sensitivities.
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Check it out -- a car that both flies and wheezes.
Video of the levitating wonder was sent to us by Gear Factor to promote its "flying" brands campaigns. If conditions are right, the balloons can play outside, too. GF calls its work "ambient media." Ooooh.
Our enigmatic West Coast resource, who's really good at drumming up touchy rumours about the goings-on at TBWA\CHIAT\DAY, just sent us this Oakley spot by AWOL.
The spot depicts Shaun White's offseason life a lot less sexily than HP did. It's almost funny -- if you're thirsty for schadenfreude.
MORE IMPORTANTLY, the source quickly points out, agency AWOL is composed of Doug Mukai, Scott Wilson and Chris Dutton.
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To promote its fancy new renovated destinations, the Red Roof Inn's gone digital with 360i, its Digital Agency of Record.
360i will be working on Red Roof's online media and creative. We have yet to see either.
In the meantime, we can ooh and ahh at Red Roof's new logo, which comes complete with a casual roofy slant, and a typeface probably modeled after the handwriting of a fresh-faced yachter.
Tell us if we've gone mad, but the logo rubs us wrong. Because isn't it magenta?
Big difference between red (as in Red Roof) and magenta (as in Magenta). Way to make a fresh splash in the pool, Red Roof -- total incongruity between your logo and brand name.
Anywho, the logo has been published on the redesigned and "rededicated" Red Roof website. It will also appear on inns that have recently been renovated. 360i washes its hands of it; the logo, it says, was in place before the agency was contracted.
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