To promote his new book, Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, author Tao Lin has placed stickers around New York which say, simply, Britney Spears. Apparently, his intended hipster audience will make the connection.
Last June, Gawker pretty much trashed Lin's similarly strange promotional tactics for some earlier books by posting some of his creepy emails.
Flash back to this year and Gawker recently found the door to its offices plastered with Britney Spears stickers in an apparent retaliation for Gawker's less than kind (though totally warranted) words.
Hmm...so is Tao Lin an impetuous child or brilliant marketer?
So it's Friday which means thoughts begin to turn away from work to some of the more pleasurably social aspects of life like...oh...watching a hot girl in a blue bikini fight with her bush until she's able to tame it with Bikini Zone. Yes, it's sunny. It's time to go to the beach so that means it's time to get looking good down there.
Helping in that area is Studio 8 which just created a parody-style Japanese commercial for the product line which takes us through various battles the girl wages against her untamed mane.
Hmm. Suddenly, I have an urge to go to the beach.
Here's something I've never seen before. For client Take Me Fishing, Colle + McVoy launched the Mastercasters, a site where you can watch some intense-looking guys do stuff like hit clay pigeons with their lures. Oh, and here's one where a dude shoots pyramids of empty cans by casting at them.
If master casting is the recreational activity for you (and how could it not be?), absorb some anglers' legacy and explore the available fishing and boating resources. Oh, I think I saw a Fishopedia somewhere.
It's unclear whether or not this is a joke but someone has placed ten Facebook profiles for sale on eBaby. The profiles, created by the same person but reflective of ten different types of people, are said to each have a minimum of 200 friends. Each profile was then actively integrated into the Facebook community through forums, events, networks, groups and all the other spider legs Facebook has to offer.
The seller is offering control of these profiles to marketers, writing, "Under the right conditions and for a fair price you will receive full control of these personas, as well as associated emails."
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Hmm. Nothing like a good tube of Crest to gloss over the travesty of modernization at the cost of childhood play. Yes, Crest can, in fact, make even the destruction of a playground in favor of a power plant seem, well, pleasant.
Here's another. This one makes even lice seem like a good thing.
The latest from Barely Political, home of Obama Girl, is The Incredible McCain Girl, a poor girl who gets angry...like McCain, apparently does, and does battle with Obama Girl who tries to hottie-dance, unsuccessfully, against MCain Girl's "hulking" presence. Catch it this summer at a theater near you. Or here on YouTube.
- David Griner of AdFreak reveals the promotional origins of that one office freakout video. You should thank him; it involved interpreting Russian. (Well, no, not really.) Also, Angelina Jolie is a factor. Collective ooOooOooh.
- Traffic scores the $185 million Mitsubishi account. Meanwhile, the Michelin Man gets cozy with TBWA\Chiat\Day. Awwww.
- Beef and vegetable not doing the job? Treat yourself to cock flavoured soup mix. Just like mama used to make.
- France's Le Figaro was given promotional access to As if Nothing Happened, the latest album by Carla Bruni, the only First Lady we've ever seen naked. Her musical interpretation of Nicolas Sarkozy: "You are my junk. More deadly than Afghan heroin. More dangerous than Colombian white ... My guy, I roll him up and smoke him." SRSLY?
- Renetta McCann is "not joining the Obama campaign -- in any manner." Well, Renetta, Peter denied Jesus not once, not twice, but thrice. That didn't make them any less chummy.
What? What? What? Universal Motown just did this yesterday for Ashanti and now Mike's Hard Hard Lemonade? Please. Make it stop! While it is kind of fun to see your own image (even if it is an old, crappy one) affixed to a faux news story under the guise of a marketing promotion, these things are getting tiresome.
Of course, they're only getting tiresome to those of us who write about this stuff 24/7. Perhaps "normal" people actually like this stuff. Ya now, it's the "Ooo, Ooo. Look ! I'm on TV!" Yea. It's for all those idiots that stand outside the GMA studio in the morning waving like lunatics to the camera. Yea. This is for those people. And, since there seems to be a lot more of those wackos out there than us more refine advertising types, it's clear this personalized, faux news report thing has legs. Nice ones.
So when Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan did it in A Night at the Roxbury, it was kinda catchy. When two Belgian dudes (ok, actors Ryan Northcott and David Hayson) do it for Car Dance Party Simulator - created by Happiness Brussells - for the Aygo, it's not quite the same. Oh it's weird and mildly entertaining but lacking that Ferrell/Kattan vibe.
Of course, if you don't like these guys you can check out all the other submissions which are equally as goofy.
Still. I watched it three times. Clearly, I have a problem.
MGH, Inc. put together this vintage-style ad for Ocean City, Maryland. In it, Mayor Meehan of Ocean City -- who looks a lot like William Shatner -- tells you the ocean will evaporate in one billion years.
...And that's why you should book a trip to Ocean City NOW! *insert laugh track*
Le yawn, dude. But apparently the ad has many appealing layers (including use of the Mayor). One of the YouTube commenters observed that the ad was done in the style of the fictional LOST Hanso Foundation. And another person thought the ad had a GEICO feel.
See the Ocean City promotional site, More Fun Here.
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