"Everyone has something to reveal. They just need to be unbuttoned," Levi's croons, crowning its "Unbuttoned" campaign for the classic 501 jeans with "spoonfuls of soul and swagger" (I just love that line). On personal subsites, three artists -- Estelle, Nikka Costa and Wale -- describe why they became musicians and pass on a free track for users to download.
Each MP3 has a different sound, but they all feel big and breezy. (Slightly off-topic, isn't it nice to see so many companies share downloadable ear candy? It's like trick-or-treating, except with iTunes instead of a pillowcase.)
Music isn't all Levi's is baring. Other celebs with something to share include the adorable Jamie Bestwick, who's giving away a free BMX video, and there's a Perez Hilton giveaway coming in September. (They gave us the link, but it's still doorknob-dead.) What Perez is giving away I'm sure I don't know, considering his two cents always come free.
This Zappos spot, where a smiling courier hand-delivers a little bit of happy to customers in a small neighborhood, is infectiously charming.
I like how it brings the brand offline and makes it feel down-home and local: it's your friendly online shoe conglomerate! This approach would ring disingenuous for most internet giants, but Zappos has a coupla things going for it:
1) Getting a package in the mail gives people warm tinglies.
2) Its service really is just that good. The first time I placed an order with Zappos, the shoes didn't fit, and they sent a replacement pair even before I returned the old ones. "Just drop them in the mailbox whenever you can," the rep said (I could hear him smiling!), and boy did that feel nice. Cartwheel-nice, even.
Read more about Zappos' ad efforts riiiiiiiight here.
Channel 4 enlisted London-based doctor Farrah Jarral and filmmaker Masood Khan to discover what it calls "the sunnier side of Islam." (Not to be confused for the Sunnier Side of Truth, which is slightly more musical.) The pair went out to meet 500 men named Osama over the course of 50 days. Each was asked the question, "What do you love?"
This Osama loves freedom and that Osama loves life, family, photography, friends, snow, skate, surf, music, art, "being me" and flashing gangsta-gangsta peace signs.
See more at the Osama Loves website. This one is probably my favorite. He ought to be bearing a sign that screams "Osama loves CUTE OVERLOAD!"
Or not.
To harvest new users, Canadian wireless firm Fido deployed white male and female figures -- refugees of rebel bathroom signs? -- across Toronto. They've appeared as chalk art, or hanging from trees, and recently as big-ass balloon dolls, quietly coaxing viewers to text 411 to 10987.
The effort's been toted as the first Canadian use of "flogos" -- flying logos.
Rubberneckers that text 411 to 10987 get invitations to upcoming "Fido Sessions." Some, like the Art Sessions, seem infinitely cooler than the guerrilla campaign itself. See artist The Dark put up some wheatpaste art from an Art sesh. (Why Fido wants to teach art, I don't know, but if it keeps those crazy kids with knives off the streets...)
Organized by Bos, Toronto, which previously did a really neat thing for Fido where billboards threw snowballs at each other.
Planned Parenthood Ohio is using a stodgy, responsible-looking older woman to rationalize its newest campaign, "The A-Word," which from what I can tell is made up of one video and an "Abstinence" graphic in smudgy Courier. Two of the tabs, "Affordability" and "Advocacy," are still "Coming Soon..."
The site was put together by Eisen Management Group, who argues "Planned Parenthood has been characterized in a largely false and negative light for far too long" -- that is, as champions for sex, however safe, but not abstinence.
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- It's the best of this year's Plaid Nation tour! Diggin' the chick who says plaid is God's favorite color.
- Anna Kournikova's still around. I like how her Maxim bio reads, "Before simply being superhot, Anna was a superhot tennis player." Put "simply being superhot" on your resume next time you get shafted, then see who throws sponsorship money at you.
- Naked guy runs across America.
- Last Visa "Go World" spot by TBWA/Chiat/Day. Michael Phelps: he keeps going and going and going and going...
- Check out Google minus Google. Running a search without getting results from YouTube, Blogger, or Knol feels sort of ... fresh.
Imagine if the Coke Happiness Factory got hijacked by dancing Reds that prefer fruity vodka to sugar water. You're probably picturing "Airship," the latest spot for Stoli Blakberi, put together by Publicis/London and production company Stink/Psyop. Music by Prokofiev.
Part of what keeps me drinking Stoli is unwavering affection for its advertising. On TV or in print, it's always got the same feel: over-the-top, cartoony, propagandistic. Disney's "It's a Small World After All" meets the hoarse ballads and frosty grit of Moscow.
Stoli is a proud, heavy-handed romantic, and taking a swig is like surrendering to history: the beautifying dizziness, concrete on your lips, bile in your throat. It's a suffering, and a brand, baptized in nostalgia.
Ever since the movie Empire Records, Liv Tyler (and that not so unknown actress by the name of Renee Zellweger) have served those in need of eye candy quite well. In movies. On the red carpet. And in ads.
Last week, Gap broke a new campaign featuring, among others, Liv Tyler. You can check out all the photoshoot goodness here. She's still looking good.
The other day I was complaining -- or was it more like bitching? -- about how all car ads seem pretty much the same. (If not "the same," then "zealously derivative.") Then Organic busts out with this really weird ad for the Chrysler Town & Country.
It's all words. The narrator's telling this bizarre story, then the words appear in front of you, so you get this tiring but riveting experience of seeing and hearing crunchy nouns like "pocket pony" and "crabapples" at the same time. (Don't ask, just watch.)
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