Not realizing it was lack of advertisers instead of their religious whinings that caused NBC to cancel its Book of Daniel, The American Family Association is all hot and bothered again over Britney Spears' appearance on the NBC sitcom Will & Grace in which she plays a co-host during a new cooking segment called "Cruci-fixin's" on the show's fictitious TV network, recently purchased by a Christian TV network.
AFA Special Projects Director Randy Sharp blathered, "They would not be making fun of Mohammed or Buddha. It's almost sacrilegious. I wonder who is at the helm of NBC that they are not getting the message. NBC doesn't seem concerned that they are tanking because they are offending their viewers and running them off." Though it's in its last season, Will & Grace is hardly tanking.
In the works since last Summer, Miller, along with Spike Jonze and Y&R Chicago, has created six commercials featuring talking animals that mock all the animals Budweiser has used in its ads over the years. The "auditions" for the ads, which feature animals babbling on frustrated actor-style, can be viewed here. Who knows. Perhaps they'll appear in the Super Bowl.
To promote its new Harrison Ford family-man-in-peril (does he do no other?) movie, Firewall, Warner Brothers has launched Inside the Firewall, a site created by Pod Digital which introducs a game in which the player has to find his way out of a room using available clues. Apparently, the game's getting alot of buzzz in forums with players exchanging clues and hints. Us? We're just going to go see the movie to see how Harrison gets out of yet another one of his messes.
Perhaps we're just noticing it or perhaps it just occurred but those silly folks over at Pherotones have, apparently, kicked off a roadblock buy on Gawker, slapping their ad banners all over the front page of the gossip site. McKinney Silver is behind the campaign and some have opined it may have to do with their client Qwest or maybe Tom Cruise has just them to create an offshoot of Scientology. (Bertram, that's a joke)
In a commercial created by Dallas-based TM, Fabio will foist his romance novel persona upon us for Nationwide Insurance, the company's first Super Bowl commercial. The ad, which looks like a shampoo commercial, is replete with romantic cheesiness with Fabio dressed as a gondolier in Venice and over the top imagery of blooming flowers and white horses...all to sell insurance.
Back in August 2005, Ben Affleck signed a $1,8 million deal with Lynx (Axe in the States) to appear in several commercials. Adland points to this spot which features Affleck clicking his way through the day counting each time a female checks him out. At the end of the day, he's quite pleased with his click total, that is, until he gets on the elevator.
Random Culture points us to the Amazon Fishbowl, an online show launching in June and hosted by Bill Mahr which will feature live musical performances, interviews with authors, directors and actors and a UPS-sponsored "special delivery" to an Amazon customer. According to the site, the show will be streamed beginning at 8PM on June 1 so that it "broadcasts" as does TV. Random Culture notes, and we agree, it might be nice if the show was available to download either as file or as podcast allowing the viewer to watch it on their own time rather than Amazon's time.
In the premier episode, Mahr interviews Stephen King, Paul Rieser makes a UPS delivery and Mahr speaks with screenwriter Armistead Maupin. It could be a nice tie-in for UPS if they hook up with the right celebu-deliverers.
In the works since last year, tire maker Pirelli will, in March. release The Call, a 10-minute video, created by Leo Burnett and set in the Vatican, starring John Malkovich who plays a priest and Naomi Campbell who plays the devil. Using the power stuggle between good and evil, Pirelli claims the film, directed by Antoine Fuqua, will be a metaphor for the company's "power is nothing without control" tagline. The film will be released exclusively online and receive promotion through online, print and television.
This is Hollywood-style, celebrity-powered ad is sure to give Russell Crowe plenty of ammunition to further castigate celebrities for selling out. That said, if we, as an industry want better ads, we have to tap better talent. Big names bring a sea of eyeballs and getting noticed in today's media environment is becoming an impossible task. Granted, Malkovick, though a superb actor, isn't A-list in terms of popularity and Campbell, while very popular, is no Malkovich in the acting department but together, they just might bring some notoriety and sales to Pirelli and its sleepy, commodity-like category of automotive tires.
Back in June, we noted Hilary Duff would become the face of Candie's. Perhaps because the poor girl's just not quite weighty enough to carry the role herself, Candie's has decided to add a few more celebrities to heavy up its campaign adding "Entourage" and former 'The O.C.' star Samaire Armstrong, "EuroTrip" hottie and "Ice Princess: sweetie Michelle Trachtenberg and relative newcomer Crunk & B artist Ciara. The celebs will appear in TV, print and online ads to support the roll out of the brand in Kohl's stores.
Extending the tease we pointed out a couple weeks ago, Agent Provocateur has released yet a bit more of its soon to be eight minute long film, Tied Up At The Office, by Mike Figgis starring models Lara Jones and Amanda Grace. The film goes well beyond the previous Kylie Minogue lingerie video she did a couple years ago for the retailer and focuses heavily on self-gratification, lesbianism and S&M. This clip is 50 seconds long with the full film due to be released February 9. While this clip has no nudity, the subject matter and the particularly tantalizing female vocal emanations suggests it be viewed in the comfort of your own private hideaway.
If this video pans out the way it teases us to belive it will, we've got to hand it to Agenct Provocateur for being this daring and for brining some serious cinematic power to this this we call advertising. No doubt, this will rank up there as one of the most viewed virals of the year.
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