Cloverfield Sets Potential Audience Members on Apocalyptic Scavenger Hunt

Movie Marketing Madness wrote a really detailed column about the guerrilla campaign for Cloverfield, the New York apocalypse horror film that was seeding images of a headless Statue of Liberty long before it had a name to call its own. (Is that a metaphor for our lives?)

From what we can tell it involves a camera, a party and the end of the world. Naturally, hijinks ensue.

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Five, FIAT Seize Relaxed UK Ad Regulations to Promote FIAT 500

UK-based Five.tv and FIAT Automobiles have joined forces to promote the FIAT 500 online and outdoors. This may not be a huge deal Stateside, but it's a big deal in the UK, where OFCOM recently relaxed regulations for terrestrial channel sponsorship.

Fiat seized the moment and blew a wad for a whole evening on Five. Its FIAT 500 will also be unveiled at the British Airways London Eye on January 21st at 8pm.

The launch was timed to occur exactly 500 hours into 2008, which will be docked on a countdown clock on Five.tv via 10" and 20" commercials.

Sarah Michelle Gellar, Eva Longoria Drink HINT to Reinvigorate Careers

What do you do when you've pigeonholed your career in an award-winning TV series? If Eva Longoria and Sarah Michelle Gellar are any indication, you get behind a beverage. (Or change your name. The sirens of Desperate Housewives and Buffy the Vampire Slayer are now, legally, Eva Longoria Parker and Sarah Michelle Prinze. Uh ... yeah.)

Eva and Sarah, among other celebrities, are helping promote a flavored water drink called HINT. It boasts zero calories, no artificial sweeteners and total lack of tact.

Here's to their health. (We're brand-whore traditionalists, so we'll stick with Evian.)

Swiffer Needs Your Help For YouTube Contest

Calling all bored creatives! Swiffer needs you! Swiffer has teamed with Warner music for a YouTube "Swiffer Break-up Music Video Contest" in which contestants create break up videos explaining how they broke up with their old cleaning product and switched to Swiffer. There's just one problem. There's only two entries so far. So, come one. Help out. Don't let let Swiffer suffer the embarrassment of hosting a YouTube contest in which no one participates. Besides, you could win $15,000.

Penn Farm Show Promotes Wares with Butter Bus

Butter is important.

What, you don't believe us? You clearly don't live in Pennsylvania, where it serves as a crucial vehicle for grade school transportation.

Purdue Employees Federal Credit Union Blows Nose with Brand

We just got a press release that starts, "PURDUE EMPLOYEES FEDERAL CREDIT UNION BLOWS AWAY THE COMPETITION." And no, it's not a reference to some landmark deal-making.

It's an announcement about its AdPack marketing strategy!

The credit union is giving away 20,000 branded tissue packs at Purdue University football games. The packs read, "Don't blow it with another credit card."

Har har.

We made a lot of "blow" references in college, but none of them actually had to do with credit cards. Well, except for one.

What Do the Battle of Thermopylae and Chippendales Have in Common? SPARTANS!

Those who watched 300 in a theatre full of high school kids know it was just a matter of time before the film sparked an epic spoof with a disco king-meets-Bring it On kind of feel.

And no, we're not talking about this.

The wait's over. Meet the Spartans. The trailer's almost as guffaw-inducing as 300 itself.

ABC, Kimberly-Clark Intervene on Rooms in Need of Therapy

ABC's The View and Kimberly-Clark -- the pretty name behind a bunch of brands lying around your house -- are conducting their second annual Room-a-Day Giveaway. 16 people will get 25 grand for a room makeover from January 12 to March 7.

15 winners will be announced on the show; the 16th will appear on the March 13 episode. Last year (arguably the height of the UGC craze) the contest got about 3.6 million entries.

It's not like there's anything else to watch, right? Damn writers strike.

Stripping Knight Promotes Budget Pizza. (Huh?)

This Round Table ad by WONGDOODY has a stripping knight in it. It's not as exciting as it sounds, but it's probably funny as hell when you're high. (Then again, so is this.)

The ad is for Big Vinnie, a New York-style pizza for the budget-conscious. (But who's gonna remember that?!)

PETA Rides UGC for Big In on Open Apps Craze

Loath to miss out on the open applications hype but too lazy (or busy hunting?) to build one, PETA is hosting a contest for people keen to develop a Facebook or OpenSocial app promoting PETA or its campaigns. (Does striptease State of the Union mean anything to you?)

"Remember: We're PETA, so don't be afraid to be racy, provocative, shocking, or even controversial if you want to," the contest info reads.

Winners get a $500 Apple gift card, which can get you an iPod touch or one-fifth of a 17-inch Macbook Pro. Entries due Jan 25 so if you're really into animal salvation, or just hate the crap out of KFC (which is as good an incentive as any), you better get crackin'.