Killian's Irish Red to Introduce New Campaign

We used to drink Killian's, that reddish beer that was cool for two minutes a decade or so ago. We haven't had it since. We wonder if anyone else has. That may change after February 20 when Killian's Irish Red announces its new television ad campaign which is said to focus on the brewer's unique brewing process. Not that that approach hasn't been done hundreds of times before but we'll reserve judgment until we actually see the campaign.

Fortunoff Launches New Campaign With Petra Nemcova

Today in New York City, street teams are handing out posters of Czech model Petra Zemcova and informing passersby they can meet her at Fortunoff jeweler's 5th and 54th store where she will be autographing prints of the poster between noon and 2PM. The event is part of a new Irwin Slater-created campaign which will include inserts in The New York Times, ROP ads in area newspapers, POP, direct mail and online banners.

This is the first work the agency has done for Fortunoff and the jeweler's first celebrity campaign since they first used Lauren Bacall beginning in 1980. The campaign is tagged "Give Passionately. Love Brilliantly." See two other versions of the ad here and here.

Herbal Essences Goes Teeny Bopper

Make the Logo Bigger points us to Dump Cupid, an Herbal Essences promotion that departs from middle-aged moaning women in favour of a younger set, just in time for Valentine's Day.

The website features a depressing pole-dancing Cupid and, perhaps still more depressing, a series of supposedly user-generated hook-up stories that, despite carefully administered typos, ring false. We have trouble believing a woman who nearly drowned was saved by a lifeguard she later married. That's way too Nicholas Sparks. Users can also send Dump Cupid e-cards to each other with a running "We don't need him!" girl power theme. Uh ... yeah. Can we bring back the moaning women?

Update: as of 2/16, over 1.1 million people have seen the campaign thus far. And we're not surprised - across the Youtube and MySpace channels we've seen Cupid's red face peering gamely out all over the place. Is this a testament to the efficacy of viral marketing, female distaste for Cupid or a sick sense of epicaricacy? We don't know, maybe all 3 make the grade. Whether they convert into brand loyalty over the long-term is a fable for another day.

Mac Takes Bite Out of Vista in New Mac vs. PC Ad

Shortly after a Bill Gates interview in which he discusses Vista and finally blows his top about Apple, Apple releases its latest Mac vs. PC ad. Looks like they're getting meaner: this one features a Secret-Service-looking guy standing behind the humanized Mac and PC. Every time they say something he asks, "Cancel or allow?"

The ad pokes fun at Vista's hyper-anal new security features, which, if this ad is any authority, may hamper the user experience rather than improve it.

We don't know about you but we're pretty sick of the Mac vs. PC campaign, particularly now that they're getting damn snarky. Really, how old are we, five?

Wells Fargo Flops with Backstage Endeavor

Some campaigns are launched with high hopes only to be buried by more important things or simply bad planning. This is what we think happened with Wells Fargo's strange 2006 Backstage campaign, boasting music by no-name artists, a weird Stagecoach Island game, and a national tour (less Woodstock than a futile set of volleyball games).

We would never have found out about the campaign that didn't fly if we hadn't been to the bank yesterday, where we saw a card sticking out of a machine and went in to return it. The coiffed rep gushed, "good behaviour needs rewarding" and, after quizzing us on our FICO savvy, gave us a Backstage shirt. We harbor the suspicion there are about 4,000 said shirts in the backstage of the branch, but didn't say anything.

Of course, had we searched Adrants, we would have realized the game's been around in one form or another for over a year. Aren't we good?

Discovery Channel Rewards Dirtiest Jobs in Sweden

It's not often you're rewarded for your dirty fingernails. Discovery Channel Sweden aims to change that with Dirty Jobs, a contest for consumers who have the filthiest jobs imaginable. A winner is picked each week for five weeks, and each gets 1000 Euros to spend on a vacation away from the latrine they're wallowing in.

The contest is promoted on custom printed toilet paper, courtesy of Miami Guerilla Agency in tangent with Discovery Channel's Zenithmedia. At the outset we considered trashing the firm for being just the umpteenth to think wiping one's ass on the company logo is a good idea, but we find the use of toilet paper apt for their purposes. Right now big contenders for the prize are nurses, pig farmers and heavy divers. It might do well to enter Chuck McBride into the mix, as he seems to be the only one happily at work in his plasma-splotched mass murder scene of an office. Oh wait, he left. Never mind.

Fergie Joins Celeb-Filled Candie's Campaign

Candies's love celebrities. From Hilary Duff to Jenny McCarthy to Kelly Clarkson to Ashlee Simpson Destiny's Child to the Dixie Chicks, it's all celeb, all the time. Now the fashion brand is hooking up with musical artist Fergie (Stacy Ann Ferguson) for its spring 2007 campaign which kicks off with a spot during the February ll broadcast of the Grammy's. Print ads will appear in Teen Vogue among others.

Travelport Throws Blank Page on Browser, Calls it Marketing

The Flea and JND Technologies in Mumbai join forces to create an allegedly creative marketing campaign for client Travelport Holidays.

The campaign is a hark back to Evian Detox, which promoted purity by overwhelming websites on which its clean glacial banners sat, except it's much lazier.

The Quietest Place on the Web brings you to a white screen with the following sentences: "Welcome to the quietest place on the Web. The next time the noise of life gets to you, do drop by for a little bit of peace and quiet." The wandering eye then meanders down to the bottom of the page for lack of anything else to do, where it finds a link to Travelport India, another website that's not terribly stunning.

Unless Travelport has a huge demo of people seeking to visit the Tibetan monks or the inside of a padded room, we're just not seeing how this initiative will help them draw vacation clients.

Dove Puts Women Back on Judgment Block in Debate Campaign

We're under the impression that the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty was meant to change existing standards about beauty by bringing real women to contrast. We're just not sure whether the debate portion of the campaign, in which we're asked to tick off whether a given woman is "wrinkled" or "wonderful," really continues down that vein. Isn't it just putting women back on the platform they strove oh-so-hard to part with?

Oh, well. Maybe consumer-generated ads will save the day. It usually does.

Mazda Reinvents Bond with Boobs and Ass for Topdowns

We are big on the Bond reinvention characterized by Daniel Craig so maybe it's only natural that we'd be mildly iffy about this new campaign by Mazda, which takes the freshly-lit Bond torch out of Craig's hands and puts it in the claws of the usual two-dimensional leather-clad woman who skulks in the dark.

Building on the 12 Second Thriller campaign, which might as well have been a series of Viagra shorts, Mazda brings us Every Drive's a Thriller, boasting two :30 films directed by Luke Scott, Casino and Desert Treasure.

We'd say that we're turned on enough to buy an MX-5, and the whole power woman in black motif is always a bit exciting, but the Zoom-Zoom thing makes it feel a bit silly, a lot like the compressed and cartoony "Hello Moto."

Really. What can't you sell between two long leather-clad legs?