Rob A McDonald's, Get Featured in A Promotion

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Some people are more dedicated than others. Or more stupid, depending upon how you look at it. If all it takes to appear in a McDonald's promotion is to rob one at gun point and then spend 12 year in prison, then Tamien Bain is one smart man.

After having held up a McDonald's in 1994 when he was a teenager 14 years ago, Bain spent 12 years in prison. Now he's among five finalists in a MySpace BigMacChant jingle competition for the Big Mac. While he was in prison, he took a liking to music and now, at 29, he just may see some glory after his 12 years of hard work.

Now that's dedication.

by Steve Hall    Jul-21-08    
Topic: Consumer Created, Promotions, Social, Strange



Apple Removes Mad Men's Cigarrette

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In what can only be described as supremely idiotic, the cigarette in the hand of the man who appears in the famed Mad Men promotional image was digitally removed when it was placed on iTunes to promote the sale of Mad Men Season 1. WTF? Does Apple think everyone who downloads this show will then run out to the store and buy a pack of smokes so they can smoke while watching the show? Are people actually this stupid? WTF?

by Steve Hall    Jul-18-08    
Topic: Promotions, Worst



'Hey Look, It's Like My Thumb is My Cock.'

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What, do genital jokes just make better advergames?

The above inanity is a promotion for Pineapple Express, a movie by the same winners that brought you Superbad. Put together by agency Soap Creative.

by Angela Natividad    Jul-18-08    
Topic: Campaigns, Games, Online, Promotions



Driverside Pays Parking Tickets, Cars Go Zen, Actresses Put Brand Icons Out of Work, Gary Busey Becomes GotVMail Mascot

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- Jezebel compiled a list of the top 10 female product advertising icons -- and the actresses that could replace them. That Mrs. Butterworth's/Queen Latifah one is hella funny. Now you: go forth and laugh.

- Driverside.com, which sends reminders for auto maintenance and calculates repair estimates in your area, is paying parking tickets off for 100 San Francisco inhabitants. Register at the above link and check back July 25th to see if you're among the scott-free parking violators.

- Gary Busey's objectively bananas, and here's proof. If you're planning to argue, I've got three words for you: stupid, misfortunate placenta.

- Neat water campaigns: submerged-society ones for Australian brand Insight, quiet dreamscape ones for Diesel.

- BooneOakley is behind State Farm's "Experience Peace of Drive" car wash campaign. (Apparently you also get a free massage.) More from the effort: bathing car, car and yoga, car and cucumber, car and candles, car and acupuncture. (Kinda cool. I had a fat friend whose mom made him visit an acupuncturist to induce weight loss. It didn't work, but he kept telling her it did because he found the needles soothing.)



Friends Don't Let Friends Roam the Streets While Insane

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Be a pal, Commit Your Friend.

This is a promotion for The Dark Knight, sponsored by Verizon and put together by Oddcast and Moxie Interactive. Using the same feature-pinpointing technology Nip/Tuck used to make you hate your face (but in a fun way!), the site weds a person's features seamlessly to a loonie in the Arkhum Asylum.

Um, neato.

I have no friends worth strapping down, so I decided to commit Mark Zuckerberg. Afterward I felt sorry. His trusting face, staring out at me from the confines of a strait jacket, was just too much to deal with.

He hardly looked like himself.

So I had some Haagen-Dazs ice cream (try it now, save some bees!) and now I feel better.

by Angela Natividad    Jul-17-08    
Topic: Online, Promotions, Strange



Joss Whedon's Dr. Horrible Could Make Profitable New Model for Online Serials

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If you were a fan of Buffy: The Vampire Slayer or its slightly traumatizing spin-off Angel, you might get teary with glee over Acts I and II of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, an effort by creator Joss Whedon to raise crowdsourced funding for a web-only show. (See trailer!)

Dr. Horrible, played by Neil Patrick Harris, is a singing supervillain. He uses the blog to share his dreams of dominating the world and joining an elite frat, the Evil League of Evil, whose membership he'll probably never earn unless he defects for a series that takes itself more seriously, like True Blood.

"If you're gonna get into the Evil League of Evil you have to have a memorable laugh," insists Dr. Horrible, who looks like a cross between Doogie Howser, MD and Butters masquerading as Professor Chaos.

more »

by Angela Natividad    Jul-17-08    
Topic: Brands, Celebrity, Good, Online, Promotions



Happy Birthday, Hello Viking! Now Let's Smack Some Norse Pirates Around.

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I'm kinda digging Viking Smackdown, a game Hello Viking put out to celebrate its one year anniversary.

I'd probably like it more if I could play it though. (You can only play from an iPhone or iPod touch with sassy tilting capabilities. And as the "sorry, fuck off!" message states, "Shaking your laptop just won't cut it.")

Here's the next-best thing (not really): a video about the game! (Scroll down.) I'm digging the awkward vibe and bare feet.

by Angela Natividad    Jul-16-08    
Topic: Agencies, Games, Mobile/Wireless, Promotions



Vampires Unite, Fight for Suffrage -- Oh, and Your Viewership

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If you knew a vampire didn't need to feed on human blood to survive, would you let him sit next to you on the bus? That's the question behind this cheesy (but compelling) online campaign for True Blood, a new HBO series from Six Feet Under's Alan Ball.

Put together by Campfire -- the same zany folks that convinced you a sadistic witch lived in Maryland -- the effort tries drumming up controversy for a synthetic blood beverage called Tru Blood, which will liberate vampires from their need to feed on people and finally enable them to demand equal treatment among the living.

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by Angela Natividad    Jul-15-08    
Topic: Campaigns, Good, Online, Promotions, Strange



BzzAgent to Guarantee Word of Mouth Works

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In either a desperate move to build buzz for a medium no one's talking about any more or a confidant move in support of its belief in word of mouth marketing, BzzAgent is offering advertisers a refund if their campaign with BzzAgent outperforms other media by 20 percent. To participate, brands must spend $300,000 across WOM and other media.

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by Steve Hall    Jul-14-08    
Topic: Promotions, Tools, Word of Mouth



'Embrace Your Grace': It's Bad, Just Not the Bad it Hoped to Be

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TNT has launched Embrace Your Grace, an online community/promotion for season two of Saving Grace.

From the pressie: Embrace Your Grace "[puts] a frank, edgy spin on the typical online community experience ... women can tap into their unfiltered, unapologetic, inner bad girl."

If any woman is ever misguided enough to think her unfiltered, unapologetic, inner sociopath bad girl can be sated with blogs and online videos, she probably won't turn to a TNT-sponsored destination slathered in trailers, trussed in baby blue and beige, and called Embrace Your Grace.

She'll go to Suicide Girls.

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by Angela Natividad    Jul-11-08    
Topic: Bad, Online, Promotions, Television