Blurb Makes Book Publishing Easy For Creatives

The intrepid and ever-present Jolie O'Dell discovers how Blurb allows designers, with or without design software expertise, to create stunning books of all shapes and sizes. Watch and learn.

By the way, Adrants publisher Steve Hall is involved with Blurb and Ammo Marketing on a project called Killed Ideas. We seek the best creative which, sadly, didn't get to see the light of day for various reasons.

ATTIK Out With NoiseFive

It's round five. ATTIK, as it did four times before, is out with the fifth version of its "experimental design book," NoiseFive. The book chronicles the history of the agency from its humble beginnings in Huddersfield England to its expansion across multiple continents, the previous four Noise books and, the purpose of the books, an explosive orgasm of design.

Coca-Cola VP of Design David Butler described the book saying, "NoiseFive makes you think. What would happen if the world's biggest brands were all design-driven? The scale of impact on business and culture could be incredible. With NoiseFive, I am reminded of ATTIK's relentless focus on innovation and look forward to the future we're designing together."

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Killed Ideas to Give Your Creative Masterpiece New Life

OK so you've landed the perfect client for whom you've been jonesing for years. They're about to launch a new product line and have a huge marketing budget to support the launch. (OK, just pretend the economy doesn't suck and they actually do have huge marketing budget.)

You concept the most amazing idea you've ever concepted and present it to them. During the presentation they praise it. They love it. They fawn all over it. They pontificate about how it will introduce a sea change within their industry and how it will skyrocket the company to greatness. Everyone fist bumps each other at the end of the meeting and the client promise to call with final approval the next morning.

Then...

The call comes...

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Massad Hits Its Readers Where They Like It

To generate buzz for Netherlands-based S&M rag Massad, agency New Message enlisted dour-faced porn star Sofia Valentine to wander fetish parties and brand ass, The Story of O-style.

The so-called "spankvertising whip" -- an apt expression if I ever heard one -- looks suspiciously like a cricket bat but leaves pert white derrieres branded with "Massad, the SM Magazine."

Short and to the point. Sort of like pain. See it in action.

New Book to Solve Ad Industry's Ills

Chairman & Chief Creative Officer of Euro RSCG Chicago Steffan Postaer is out with a new book entitled The Happy Soul Industry about Vernon Night, CEO of "LA's hippest advertising agency." Night, who's in the midst of an ugly divorce, has a new client, God.

In this "hip-hop age of internet porn and reality TV" world where no one cares about Heaven and no one has time for goodness, God needs a really good ad agency to get things back on track.

Hey, if an ad agency can solve God's problem's, this little recession thing ought to be but a swatted fly on the ass of Martin Sorrell.

Parker Persuades, Armano Rides Weiner, Alba Liquify'd

- George Parker's next opus, The Ubiquitous Persuaders will be out in January. Madison Avenue take cover.

- David Armano gets his wiener whistle (d?)

- Jessica Alba gets even more curvaceously hot courtesy of Photoshop's Liquify.

- The Webby Awards is out with a call for entries promotion for its 13th Annual Webby Awards. Five "internet video stars," including Obama Girl, will take part in individual videos hyping the event.

- Once again, AgencySpy's Matt Vanhoven gets up off the crapper to deliver another Week in Advertising.

Burma Viral Honored, 'That Guy' Ovulates, Maggots for a Cure

- MTV's "Burma Viral," produced by Shilo for Ogilvy & Mather, won a London Int'l Awards Gold Statue for TV/Cinema Animation, and a Silver Shark for Best Int'l Animation at the 46th Annual Kinsale Shark Awards. At left is the somewhat-stunned project writer, Carl Le Blond, clutching the London Gold. Way to goooooo.

- Valleywag watered down, broadened out, folded into Gawker.

- Intel's obnoxious "That guy" is a chick, actually.

- Lego reenacts Star Wars with non-violent games.

- I fucking hate maggots.

- Racing for a hot shower.

- Linda Tripp's mouth-blown, hand-painted ornament store.

- And you thought foreign oil dependence was our problem.

Homo Promo. Yes, You Read that Right.

The UK's Gay Times recruited agencies and students to tackle an ambitious project: promoting the gay lifestyle to straight men.

James and Joe, two young creatives from Leeds, competed with Kings Arms Creative, Leo Burnett and iris, among other contenders, to accomplish the task in the manner most sassy. At left is what they came up with: a single dude making a distinctly vaggie shape with his mouth. (The grizzle helps.) Caption: "Anything she can do..."

Nice work. We're about 50% sold. Now let's see a chick make a shaft.

DigiPublishers: Context is (Still) King, and Don't Be Afraid to Leer

Publishing in the Digital Age -- Context is King.

It's odd that an ad:tech panel about publishing need reiterate the importance of context. Even before digital blew our minds or whatever, wasn't that still the case? Great newspapers were forged in the fires of noteworthy current events. Great books exploit widely-felt (but little-articulated) sentiments.

Context has always been king. Tactical marketers have always fed on that: This is my message. How best to package it for Demo X? Where is their mind? Can I speak to a shared passion or crisis?

This sesh gives a fresh coat of paint to a trusty old model, with the crucial addition of being whiplash-worthy. (That is, encourage some hardcore rubbernecking.) Highlights below.

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Cancer Bottled, Born Digital, Gawker Retools, Lingerie Objectified

- There are many ways to call attention to breast cancer awareness. This is yet another one which makes an interesting association between the affected body part and the company behind the awareness campaign.

- Wonder what the "born digital" crowd does all day long? Here's your answer.

- Gawker Media's Nick Denton has announced cutbacks at his company and predicts a challenging year ahead in 2009.

- Perhaps due to genuine interest or perhaps to hear how many times Palin would utter yet another soccer mom-ism, 69.9 million viewers tuned in to the Biden/Palin debate, more than the 52.4 million who watched Obama debate McCain.

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