Simple Scare Tactic May Sow Seeds for 'Dino Death Trap'

zig, Chicago built this playful, tamely sadistic little site, Dino Central Park, to get kids to watch Dino Death Trap, which airs on the National Geographic Channel this Sunday.

The rules are simple, the results entertaining: pick a dinosaur. Embody the dinosaur. You're presented with a nighttime view of Central Park, and every time somebody walks by, you push the ROAR button!

We forgot how much we liked dinosaurs.

YouMail Disseminates Custom-Made Blake Lewis Mobile Messages

Feeling uncool? Get American Idol's Blake Lewis to croon out a message for your cell phone, courtesy of YouMail.

These custom-made celebu-greetings must wreak havoc on Blake Lewis' actual friends. If anybody can get Blake to pick up their phone and sing on command, what use will he be to them now?

Never in Our Lives Have We Equated Golf with Sex. Not Recently, Anyway

Adrants reader Matt pointed us in the direction of this strange site for Mizuno's Demo the Difference campaign.

Those little golf club capsules are amusingly phallic. And we love those beams of light that shoot into the air when you mouse over one. Way to draw eyeballs!

To Find New Flavor, the Dew Launches Dystopian Virtual World

Crowdsourcing meets sci-fi meets a quasi-virtual world in Mountain Dew's exploding head-inducing campaign, DEWmocracy.

Supported by traditional advertising, DEWmocracy paints a dismal future filled with corporate suits that travel in the backs of pick-up trucks, and where high fructose corn syrup is considered a magical elixir capable of overthrowing big brother.

Through the site, the Dew ultimately aims to put consumers on an adventure to come up with its newest flavor and packaging, while grabbing as much marketing data on its brave virtual freedom fighters.

Fresh with ideas from his performance in Battlefield Earth, Forest Whitaker helped entertainment concept firm Protagonist in creating this brave dew world.

eBillme Confessions Contest is Funny as Hell!

eBillme's been emailing us off the hook about this CGA contest they conducted awhile back. They claim they're beating all the big guys like Home Depot and Pepto Bismol, who (scoff) have to pay for sponsorship and still don't win the hearts and minds of the body public.

Okay. But seriously, it doesn't take much nudging to get some emo kid to make a YouTube confession. Wave some cash in his face, and he'll probably air his family's dirty laundry, too.

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Starbucks Advocates Gratuitous Hugging of Bears

For its cavity-sweet Pass the Cheer campaign, Starbucks has opted to try warming hearts online and possibly on television.

In this spot, a bummed-out girl trudges out in the snow and hugs a bear.

Strangely, the bear hugs her back.

And stranger still, there's a bunny involved. We're not really sure why (aside from that it proves useful for nudging a warm drink into the shot with its nose), but it sure does amp up the cute overload.

Pass the cheer!

Denver 50 TV Promo Flattens the Funk

Look, a bunch of douchey office cogs made of cardboard. Nice wicker basket, guys.

The spot, put together by Fueld Films, is for the New Denver Ad Club and the Denver 50 show, which showcases "Denver's best work smooshed up nice and flat." We loves it for its hipster inanity. Dig it? Cool. Play the paper dolls game.

Wouldn't a fat hairy guy in gladiator garb make an awesome kitchen magnet?

GTA IV Tries Turning Box Art into Promotional Tool

We can't think of many gamers that cream their pants for box art, but for GTA IV -- which will generate drools anyway -- Rock Star Games decided to turn box art into an event unto itself.

The firm hired four mural artists to paint the art mural-size, a process that took about two days. The work was video-taped, sped up and edited for effect (you know, like Dove Evolution).

Liquid Liquid's "Optimo" helped add veneer to the finished product, and voila.

The video's cool and all, but in the end, the success of these things depends on where the spot appears and how fast it moves between gamers. (It definitely ain't this.) But hey, GTA IV will probably fly off the shelves at whiplash speed anyway (we're getting a copy), so if nothing else, this is a nice gesture in the direction of street art, and maybe it'll open up some interesting promotional doors.

Serial Killer Threats Win Best Viral at BIMA

Remember that one time we thought a serial killer was out to get us, but the threat turned out to be a customizable online promotion for Showtime's Dexter?

That promotion just won Best use of Viral Marketing at the BIMAs this year. Put together by Ralph & Co., London, it generated 300,000 unique Dexter emails and over 750,000 pageviews.

See the UK campaign, Ice Truck, or the US campaign, Slice of Life TV.

Gotta love a viral campaign that makes your friends feel like they're the targets of an unhinged, virtually un-catchable sociopath. We know it gave us a happy rise.

Speed ProStreet Calls Online, Offline Turf Wars Equally Crucial

Ooh, fun. Heat, SF shot us this ad for Speed ProStreet, a game by EA Games.

The spot glides between real video imagery and gritty animation, which still exhibits a dull gleam of reality. And the music brings you back to the first time you watched Rebel without a Cause, when so much was on the line in that one game of chicken. You know, before James Dean started crying and shit.

The agency hoped to leave gamers with the sense that "every battle counts" on both real or virtual streets. (We're sure mom will love that manifesto when it's spouted over her kid's next speeding ticket.)

The spots will run on ESPN and other gamer-friendly stations.