The New England Aquarium's "See Turtles" campaign is an appealing exception to the no-pun rule. (Also, we like an effort that doubles as justification to take hallucinogens.)
Variants include Droplet, Water Tower and Rooftop, which will appear in magazines and newspapers.
Online banner ads -- which are also cute, if a little Clip-Arty -- include Snowman, Cocoa and Car. (Forgive us if these links break; they're hosted by Mullen.) These are slightly different from their print counterparts: in them, ordinary things take the shape of turtles over time, taking advantage of the 'net's ability to seize roving eyes. Frankly, the print stuff is better.
Work by Mullen/Wenham, MA. There's also radio material, which we didn't get to hear.
One could trash the latest Super Bowl ad gimmick - 3D ads for DreamWorks Animation and SoBe - but that might be a bit, um, short sighted. Oh sure, having to wear 3D glasses just to watch a television commercial is kind of stupid. However, the simple fact there will be a 3D commercial to watch during the Super Bowl, the distributing of 125 million 3D glasses needed to view the commercial through 25,000 retail outlets and the relentless promotion that will precede the airing might just land the two commercials highly coveted spots on the all important USA Today Super Bowl Ad Poll, the penultimate metric for Super Bowl commercial success. In fact, the poll is so important, agencies have been fired for their Super Bowl spots not landing in the top ten.
That or millions of people will be calling their eye doctor Monday morning following the game wondering why their vision was suddenly blurred for a brief moment. It could be the single most successful eye doctor ad campaign ever created. Without a single doctor spending a single penny.
One Chicago-based furniture store is happy to admit it sells more seats than Governor Blagojevich -- and at a better rate, to boot.
High-la-rious. But oh, does it beat Virgin Mobile's technicolor spin on Spitzer?
Reminding us yet again that it's the best thing to ever happen to December, Target launched a swingy, charmed-life kinda ad for its Holiday Gift Finder.
In it, a postmodern Santa in a snowed-in aluminum tower locates the perfect gifts for Wifey, Child, Token Ethnic Friend and Skeptical Mother-in-Law, right from his laptop. Each present is beautifully wrapped and received with an acceptable degree of gratitude.
"That's Christmas wrapped!" quips an endorphin-soaked voiceover.
Because why ask over-obvious leading questions like "What do you want?" when you can pop psychographic data into a form, then peruse a list of age-appropriate products? Wow. Gifting is now as easy as advertising on Facebook.
We'd totally use the service, too, if FirstBank hadn't already handled our gift issues.
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Cyclists have it hard down under. All those hours pushing pedals literally chafes balls, which is funny from a distance but sobering enough that the condition requires an anti-irritant, aptly called "chamois cream."
To contribute to the well-being of fellow bikers, pro cyclist David Zabriskie developed a cream called DZ Nuts -- pronounced "deez nuts," a colloquial expression defined as "The large, sweaty, hairy dangling spheres of man-hood containing future illegitimate seeds that swing violently in the wind when slapped."
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"First time playin'? First time...?" and "Oh, avalanches, yeah!" are the only two lines Shaun White has in this objectively weak ad for Target's Limited Edition Shaun White Snowboarding game.
If Ozzy Osbourne is ad land's favourite over-the-hill bad boy, Shaun White is its slacker of choice. Prior to this spot, the snowboarding pro starred in a couple of pointless HP ads that, like classic teen movies, are intended solely to make middle-aged men miss college.
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If serendipity brought you to Croatia's Zagreb Zoo last week, you could've seen lions! and tigers! and bears! ... and hipsters!
Agency Bruketa & Zinic parked "fashion beasts" in a cage to showcase Puma Sport's 2009 collection. And they didn't just stand around, either; sometimes they sang. These efforts, so different from the usual dolphins-catching-fish or monkeys-throwing-poo, were rewarded with heavy gawkage.
We've seen people trapped in cages or store windows before, typically for more sobering reasons: to combat human trafficking, or fight for pigs' rights, or promote the objectively unloveable Dodge Magnum. In any case, we thought the fashion beast thing was a neat way to captivate both parents and kids -- which aren't typically receptive to noisy marketing messages during family time.
Because even the baby Jesus had to suckle from a mammary, and where there's an iconic boob in the open air, there's a photographer just waiting! to pounce.
And you thought sex and religion couldn't mix.
Here the virgin of Guadalupe is represented by the sublime Maria Florencia Onori. A NSFW variant from inside the magazine is available at Laura Martinez's blog. The edition's already sold 80,000 copies since its release just days ago.
Earlier this year, Snapple ran an ad to promote its new antioxidant-enriched water. It featured a guy leaping around in a bubblewrap world to the semi-infectious Cat's Meow by The Bad Eliots.
The commercial didn't exactly fare swimmingly, but Snapple's seed firm M80 claims it drummed up plenty of interest for The Bad Eliots in the blogosphere and elsewhere. So, partly to help them out and partly to make itself look more creatively robust, Snapple helped The Bad Eliots produce and release a snazzy new music video.
It's quirky and low-def, making it obvious blogger bait.
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I love rock n' roll. I will survive. I'm a hustler baby.
Why Tweet that profound, self-affirming lyric when you can rock it? Check out i/denti/tees. Each tee comes in its own album cover -- developed by agency POV -- and the ability to download any 10 iTunes tracks you want. (US residents only.)
Lyrics are printed on tees provided by EDUN LIVE, a charity started by Bono and his wife Ali, so a percentage of your purchase also goes to benefit sub-Saharan Africa.
All this for just $35!
Available at Hard Rock Cafes, where people are usually too drunk and/or high ("On life, man, on LIFE!") to notice price tags anyway. Also, Bill Green says Jennifer Aniston is serving as an unofficial brand evangelist. What other endorsement is there in life?
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