Big Planet Forgoes Big Billboards ... for Lots of Little Ones

bigplanet-weeboards.jpg

"Little is the new big," proclaim one of the miniaturized billboards for LittleBigPLanet, a video game that goes live on October 21st. Other billboards sport a similar little/big message.* Find them on eBay -- where people are actually bidding on a few.

Also, somebody posted flickr pics of the billboards in his garden. (Can you imagine using billboards as garden ornaments? Wait, don't answer that.) One's apparently been tagged by lightning-obsessed gangster elves that rock pastel.

more »

by Angela Natividad    Oct-17-08    
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Online, Promotions



Fickle Men Drink Fickle Whisky ... and That's All There is to Say About That

wiserhood-whiskey.jpg

Wiser's Canadian Whisky is the drink of choice for The Wiserhood, a self-proclaimed Society of Uncompromising Men. (That doesn't actually mean much; just that they'll only drink "the most uncompromising whisky on the planet.")

A visit to the site is a sneak-peek into a buzzing fraternity. Click on different things to engage games, watch ads or see what the security cams picked up. I clicked on the bookshelf, garnished with the requisite skull, and found myself face-to-face with a giant media system.

There's also a semi-fun ice cube-catching game behind a statuette of The Thinker.

By John St, which recently did a breast cancer thing involving mens' hyper-fixation with boobage.

by Angela Natividad    Oct-17-08    
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Games, Online



Just Another Vampire 'Viral.'

highgate-vampire.jpg

Hot American teens meet online, go to "London!", drink all day, dance all night, then start eating each other in various suggestive and predatory ways. It isn't clear whether anybody's actually a vampire or if the kids just like biting each other, but it's all the same to the lonelyheart goths, I guess.

Watch trailer for Highgate Vampire. Gets pretty freaky at the end. And if you wanna play their little hunter vs. hunted game, visit Gothic Picnic.

I kinda dug True Blood more.

by Angela Natividad    Oct-16-08    
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Online, Promotions



'Beyond Your Expectations' Ain't Quite Up to Snuff

mexico-beyond-expectations.jpg

Mexico invades Chicago O'Hare in a zealous attempt to show middle Americans it's "Beyond Your Expectations." Curious? Wander through Terminal 3 -- which serves 38 percent of O'Hare's traffic -- for a taste of this technicolor fiasco.

Through October, a Colonial-style kiosk will serve as soapbox for the Mexican Tourism Board. Pretty girls in Nano-chromatic sheaths will pass out flyers and obscure your line of sight with videos of, I don't know, tourists getting drinks made in their mouths. Or possibly pyramids.

Oh wait, this is all supposed to be beyond expectation. God, what a poverty-ridden tagline.

by Angela Natividad    Oct-16-08    
Topic: Bad, Brands, Campaigns, Guerilla



BB Plugs Celebs, Droga5 Bags Method, Mountain Dew Abbreviated, Frequent Hooker Miles

cameron-diaz-blackberry.jpg

- Among its minions, BlackBerry brags about celebu-users. How very AmEx. (Props to Adrants reader Atif for this.)

- Droga5 becomes agency of record for method! Kick-ass.

- The McCain campaign asked YouTube to stop taking down its campaign videos. (The videos purportedly violate copyright because many contain snippets of music that the campaign did not have permission to use.) And YouTube was all, "Bitch, please." What, McCain? You're all for Joe Plumber but can't pay licensing fees?

more »



Grab the Fridge! There's a Guinness Truck on the Street

guinness-alive-inside.jpg

In "Fridge Magnet," a Guinness truck stops in a Buenos Aires neighborhood, gets all magically magnetic and starts drawing refrigerators to itself.

Notably, one random guy looks down at his glass of Guinness, which appears to be frothing mischievously. There's a beer with some naughty ideas ... and possibly a deep-seated affection for puns. "It's alive inside," the ad concludes -- half-joking, half-not.

By Irish International BBDO. I liked Saatchi & Saatchi's "Spoken Word" better, but "Fridge Magnet" is more in line with the casual "beer" persona. It also manages to pull that off without forsaking Guinness's sense of playful enigma. Nice.

by Angela Natividad    Oct-16-08    
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Commercials, Good, Television



Digital Dives, Pessimism Pervades, Parker Prowls, Brand Gene Discovered

agency_pathway_2.jpg

- David Armano has mapped the Agency Path to Enlightenment. From Cannes to creativity, it's all there.

- The economy's nosedive is taking a bite out of "experimental" media such as virtual worlds, mobile and widgets according to the Wall Street Journal.

- Economic negativity is now running rampant in advertising. Come on, people. A little "glass half full" optimism can't really be a bad thing, can it?

- George Parker is on a mission so save WPP by...um...buying it?

- McKinney has emerged triumphant from the agency smack down for the Sherein-Williams account.

- Repower America has sparked a heated debate on YouTube with its commercialhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmEUHeI7fzE urging us to break oils lock on government.

more »

by Steve Hall    Oct-15-08    
Topic: Agencies, Brands, Research, Trends and Culture



Just Another Square in a Wide-Brimmed Hat.

jake-indi-hat.jpg

Jake of Zoomdoggle is scruffy and cute, so you must love him. Do everything he says. In this case, find the 8000 Indiana Jones hats he and his friends have hidden all over LA, and take pictures of yourself being just as animated and ironic as he is. (Don't forget to tag them!)

Adrants reader Jay notes this apparently casual scavenger hunt was announced the same day Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull came out on DVD, so he's pegged it as a below-the-radar marketing ploy. "Wonder what they're going to do with all the pictures," he ruminates suggestively.

I'm sure we'll all find out.

UPDATE: Cunning's 'fessed to using Jake and Friends as vehicles for an over-arching Indiana Jones promotion. (Not in so many words, but I feel my assumptions are safe -- or if not, they'll be corrected with lightning speed. See comments.)

Nice save.

by Angela Natividad    Oct-15-08    
Topic: Brands, Games, Guerilla, Online, Promotions, Social



Painting Pilot Finishes Off Wordless Billboard

painting-pilot.jpg

Air New Zealand's running a new campaign called "Is it just a kiwi thing?", characterized by unusual guerrilla stunts. (See cranial billboards. Yes, the PR woman says, those are real tats. I'm shaking my head right now.)

To promote its launch, a B747 pilot alighted upon an unfinished billboard in London, sporting a paintbrush and some splashy blue paint.

more »

by Angela Natividad    Oct-14-08    
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Guerilla, Promotions



Love Diesel for its Mind, Not Just its Brain*

diesel-flash-fiction.jpg

Maybe it thought "SFW XXX" gave people the wrong idea. Alongside new buddy the Accompanied Literary Society (which seeks to revive the culture of literary salons), Diesel asked celebrity authors to produce some short stories for its latest outdoor campaign.

The so-called "Flash Fiction" was broadcast on the face of One York Place, NYC, over the course of three days.

Totally falls into the shadow of HBO Voyeur (BBDO/NY). And while I like the idea of reviving the literary salon, I'm inclined to think people -- myself included -- are more receptive to illustrative storytelling. Especially when they have to read them off the side of a building.

By Idealogue and PanOptic Motion.

more »

by Angela Natividad    Oct-14-08    
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Cause, Guerilla, Outdoor