National Guard Uses iTunes to Recruit

Rick Bruner points us to a little promotion the National Guard is running that offers three free songs from the iTunes store if a person agrees to be contacted by the National Guard for recruitment. That's right. iTunes in exchange for the privilege of defending our country. What a deal.

Refuse Lunch, Donate to Leukemia

While we've seen this in our inbox before, somehow, we neglected to share it. In support of the U.K.'s Leukaemia Research efforts, RefuseALunch taunts marketing folks into donating by first, in jest, of course, announcing, "All Marketing People Are Scum," then quickly recanting to, "All Marketing People Are Not Scum." The effort encourages people to, during the month of October, refuse lunch invitations and ask that the money that would have been spent on lunch be donated to the cause. Worthy enough. After all, most business lunches are just boondoggle excuses to spend the company's expense account fund.

Prison Break Promo Says Stare At My TV, Not My Boobs

Canada's Global Television is promoting the show Prison Break by hiring women to walk around outside football games wearing prison break T-shirts and flat-scree TV's atop their heads. As Jodster praises the promotion writing, "All I could think of was the potential for women to rid themselves of the manly instinct to stare at breasts." Well done, indeed.

Graphic Designers Get Wardrobe Makeover

NewPage Corporation, today unveiled the winners of its TheTrueYou makeover contest in which contestants were given wardrobe makeovers. Out of 1,000 entrants, three were chosen: Erik Mace, Chicago; Frances Yllana, Dallas; and Jenn Richey, New York City. Each were given a complete wardrobe makeover: from regular hip guy to rock star, from fresh faced girl to forties femme fatale, and from cutie to 1950s kitschy. See the other before and afters here.

Jaguar to Introduce Gorgeous

It's official. Countdown sites are now a trend. This time, it's Jaguar who is insisting we watch their clock, maddeningly anticipating the launch of...well...something. The site is called Where Did Gorgeous Go, which, we're sure, in two days, 12 hours, forty-three minutes, Jaguar will tell us it hasn't gone anywhere. It's right here before our very eyes in the form of a new car model...and some travel specials. Oh, and of course there's hot babes involved too.

Domino's Introduces New Pizza With Dude Ranch And Julie Roberts

Country Singer in New York's Herald Square today appeared in a dude ranch set up, complete with bull riding and lasso lessons, to introduce Domino's Pizza's new Steak Fanatic Pizza. The event also introduced a special promotion between Domino's and MasterCard which gives customers a chance to win their own week at a dude ranch. Check out the mechanical bull here.

Reverse-Challenged Lizzie Grubman to Promote Range Rover Sport

Lizzie Grubman Public Relations, headed by the PR queen who, in reverse, ran over 16 people with her Mercedes SUV a while back, has, believe it or not, been hired by Range Rover to promote its new Sport SUV. How quickly people forget. The New York Post reports Grubman's company is hosting an event at Hamilton Horse Farms in New Jersey where celebu-fluentials have been invited to check out the new vehicle. One invitee was a bit shocked at the brand's choice of representation saying, "It's almost as if O.J. Simpson was doing ads for knives."

Graffiti Artists Customize Converse Shoes

At a promotional event tomorrow, Saturday September 24, graffiti artists Serve One FBA and Chino B.Y.I. will do custom airbrushing on Converse sneakers free for anyone who purchases a pair between 2 and 4 PM at the Underground Station store in Brooklyn, New York.

Glam Magazine iPod Nano Promo Misleads

You'd think after a long career in advertising, we'd be immune to to-good-to-be-true online promotions such as the ongoing Glam promotion which promises a free iPod Nano if you get ten friends to sign up and take an online shopping quiz. Well, we must have been feeling soft or finally caught the iPod disease - even though we have an even better MP3 player, the Creative Zen Micro - because we subjected about 20 friends to this charade. As it turns out, you only get a free iPod Nano if you invite friends, take a survey AND spend $100 shopping on Glam. Oddly, this isn't explained on the promotional page. It looks like Glam tried to but they seem to have, in an apparent typo, forgotten to add the necessary dollar amount to point four of the rules:

"4. Finish registration by completing your profile, taking a fun free style test. Completing any qualifying purchase of or more at Glam.com merchants and return a copy of your receipt with your redemption form. That's it!"

No mention of $100. So now I've aggravated a bunch a people - for which I am truly sorry. In fairness to Glam, in an explanatory email to one friend who asked Glam for clarification, Glam responded, "We ran a limited-time offer to kick things off, and gave away our initial allotment of iPod Nanos in two days. By adding a qualifying purchase requirement, we can keep the fun going and reward shoppers who give Glam.com a try."

Fine, in the future, Glam, just remember to modify all your promo pages so that not-so-small details like this are clearly explained.

Geico's Golden Gecko Wants Consumer Created Commercials

Jumping on the consumer-generated media trendlet, Geico has launched Golden Gecko, a contest in which people can submit 15 second movie trailers featuring the Geico Gecko. Geico isn't calling them commercials but the rules state all submissions become the property of Geico so it wouldn't be surprising if a winning entry did become a commercial. Prizes range from a $5,000 grand prize which includes lots of electronic gadgetry an a 7-day stay in Hawaii to $2,000 first prize which includes a stay at the winners choice of four lesser locations to second and third prizes which involve wide screen TVs and portable DVD players.

We know there's a few restless creative in our midst who could used a nice trip to Hawaii so dig out those precious, brilliant concepts that were horrifically killed by the client and re-tool them for Geico. And win.