Chinese footballer Zheng Zhi brings some Asian Algier to Adidas' Beijing Olympics campaign.
The hand-drawn spot builds on "Together" with Zhi's narrative about how the 2008 Beijing Olympics will redeem his people from loss. Disembodied wings carry the Chinese into the clouds. The Chinese, and some feathers, fall out of the sky when Zhi describes the 1999 game.
Despite the tripped-out depressing imagery, the story ends on an up note. Because impossible is nothing, right?
Deep. Or at least really abstract. In which case ... deep.
Phone sex too confrontational? Put the work where it belongs -- into your thumbs. Get into "promiscuous text."
Let's Have TXT is Virgin Mobile USA's raunchy rendition of a Valentine's Day mobile campaign. Play the voyeur as a trained professional of your choice -- housewife, plumber, cowboy, nurse or sexbot -- invites you to take part in sweaty handplay on that most seductive of QWERTY keyboards.
That clammy-palms feeling is also viral. Create invites for friends!
Brought to you by McKinney.
Having moved on from over privileged whiny teen to desperate housewife, Bebe Sports has unveiled its new print campaign featuring Desperate Housewives star Eva Longoria Parker, who, last year, replaced Mischa Barton as the company's celebrity spokesperson. In the campaign, we see Longoria Parker dressed in Bebe Sports sportswear lounging on a surfboard, posing with a bicycle, standing next to a motorcycle and sitting on a car. See it all here.
HP is looking for the world's most talented hands.
Entrants to the Idolhands contest could win $10,000 or one of four TouchSmart PCs. Contest ends February 28.
Having sat through five or six of these, we don't imagine the expectations are super-ambitious. If you're Vera Wang or Jay-Z, that is.
Other brands have have relegated talent to fancy fingertips include Guinness, Elle MacPherson (in panties, no less!), and Phaeton.
Oh, and Campusfood, if soliciting handouts counts.
Adfreak pointed us to this homecare ad for the Dutch Socialist Party. In it, an 86-year-old woman undresses for the camera eye to demonstrate displeasure with the government's new policy of rotating personal helpers amongst the elderly.
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Maybe because it has so much trouble getting people into actual cars, Mazda is inviting users to test-drive its virtual cars on Southern California roads: Angeles Crest, Arroyo Pkwy, the Pacific Coast Highway and Decker Canyon.
There's an explanation for the odd action angles (for example, the one where you get a birds-eye view of the front wheel). Mazda observed that on YouTube, car enthusiasts strap cameras to the sides of their cars to show you how gears shift and such.
Okay, then. Now excuse us while we head back to Problem Playground.
It seems the letter "h" has found a new home and has deserted words, keyboards, landmarks, news stories, and offices opting instead for a better life on the back of the Lexus hybrids, the RX 400h, GS 450h, and LS 600h. Called The Power of H and created by Team One, the commercial shows us what life would look like without the letter H. Apparently, it's a better life and one which embraces change, looks forward and doesn't rely on the status quo.
We never new a car could make such a powerful, cultural statement. Hence forth, we will be proud to be known as Steve All.
While the strike may be nearing an end, Boone Oakley has come to the aid of the Writer's Guild of America with a solidarity campaign along the lines of so many other ribbon-style cause-related campaigns. The lead graphic element in the campaign is a pencil twisted into the shape of a ribbon. The campaign urges writers, directors, actors, crew and fans to wear the pin in support of the writers and to show "media moguls" the WGA is united and won't back down.
Checkout the campaign elements on the Bring Back the Dialogue site.
If you can't afford LSD, mark your calendars (February 15th) for the debut of The Sound of Color.
"Does red sound like gurgling, molten lava?" the website asks. "Does green sound like the familiar tune of wind whistling through the trees? Do black and white even make a sound? What is the sound of color?"
We played with the idea of going, "Oh my, what is this? What is this?" but the truth is we already know because we wrote it up for MarketingVOX. This is a Gap campaign for which artists will write songs and make videos about color in all its tie-dye glory.
The site will hock colorful swag and free music downloads. After a month, artists will regain the rights to their songs, and some of the meaner ones might decide they don't want you downloading their pigment-inspired masterpieces for free. As with manna, hoard as much as you can.
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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