HSBC Never Sent Us Singing Kittens.

To drive us into the arms of BankWest (Australia), some kittens sang us a song. It was weird and they were scary (like furry robot gremlins), but they spelled our names and everything.

The campaign was put together by Host and Glue Society. Its purpose is to associate banking with happiness. (Guess that depends on why you're at the bank, though.)

Vibrator Ads Vibrate. Witty. Not Really

Oh for the love of vibrator ads! Apparently, all ideas have been used up when it comes to the category to the only thing that's left is to highlight a vibrator's product benefit by...oh...vibrating the ad. While certainly a different concept, the women in the ads look about as excited as your grandmother sitting on the toilet squeezing one out.

OK, at least one girl is grinning and...OMG...her bra strap is revealed! See the full on vibrating glory here, here and here.

Barney-Like Characters Shill Bottled Water for Kids

Conjuring the oddity of Barney, this new campaign for kids fortified water, bot Beverages, might be the final nail in tap water's coffin. After all, tap water? That's just gross! No one drinks tap water anymore. Why would we when we have thousands of bottled water choices along with an equal amount of flavored chemicals in a bottle? Who needs the real thing when you can pay money for fake water?

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Toronto's Fake Drug Campaign Revealed to Be College Advocacy Ad

The Torontoist has been following a a local teaser campiagn which, for a couple of weeks, appeared to be a campaign from a pharmaceutical company for a fake drug called Obay. After much sleuthing, the campiagn turned out to be for Colleges Ontario, a pre-college group representing area colleges in Ontario.

A teaser campaign using a fake drug is a daring move but it appears no one got lawsuit happy. The campiagn itself is funny. It promotes a drug that makes kids think more like their parents, sort of like mind control in a bottle.

The ad copy is great. It reads, "My son used to have his own hopes and aspirations. Now he has mine. Thanks, Obay!"

We Missed it But Bud Light Cut the Cheese

We missed this one. Perhaps you've all seen it already but at a count of just 20,473 on YouTube since February 5, we're guessing not everyone has. This Bud Light video called "Cut the Cheese" was released just after the Super Bowl. If you ask us, it should have run in the game. It's far better (better meaning funny, not necessarily having anything to do with selling beer) than some of the other spots we saw during the game. Give it a watch. And yes, it's a very, very tired old joke but it works for us.

T-Shirts Sold Without 'Advertising BS'

Um...huh? All of this just to promote a "lame" t-shirt? Seems like a lot of effort to us but when you set an artist and a filmmaker free, unhinged by those nasty account executive types, this is what you get. All to promote a Love is Lame t-shirt.

We're not sure we actually agree that love is, in fact, lame but we do like the quirky effort this piece of creative exudes in a effort to at least get us to buy a t-shirt that argues the point. Of course, because the work is so quirky, it could be flying over our head and, in fact, be endorsing love. More likely, it's reflective of someone's less than successful travels on the path to love.

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Come On, It Makes Perfect Sense to Use Skin to Sell Skin.

Adfreak pointed us to news of a virgin ad campaign for Apligraf, a kind of magic band-aid that uses living cells from the foreskins of baby boys to heal foot sores and leg ulcers.

Apligraf is generating lots of noise because it's the first product in its industry to start promoting its wares to consumers via advertising. (Granted, it's also the first product in its industry to get FDA approval.)

Adfreak surmises that the product is young, but it won't be long before it or similar offerings are promoted with bikini-clad sexbombs promising new-you salvation (It's Not Just for Foot Sores Anymore!).

Tough to play devil's advocate on this one. How long did it take post-legalization before controlled botulism injections became the stuff of slumber party play? A week?

Because Ad Monkeys Really Should Start Early

The New York City Department of Education has approved the first-ever advertising and media public high school: The High School for Innovation in Advertising and Media. For short it will be called I.AM High, which ... speaks for itself. (Are you guys fucking kidding?)

I.AM High School will be situated with two other small high schools on the Canarsie High School campus. For the next several months it will be recruiting students and staff, developing a curriculum, and building outreach.

The school's mission is to equip students for ad and media careers with a strong portfolio and "an impressive resume." (Printing I.AM High, 4.0 under "High school education" -- guaranteed whiplash effect.)

Read about the program here.

Joss Tastes the Flake, Goes into Ecstasies, for Cadbury

For the record, we've never felt a compulsion to watch Joss Stone wrap her lips around a chocolate shaft. But don't mind us, Cadbury (you saucy chocolate peddlers, you!). We just work here.

This ad for Cadbury's Flake is part of an effort to "reference the old adverts but bring a new feel to them," said a company rep to The Sunday Mirror.

The "feel" we got hovers somewhere between a puberty reel and a '50s girl gang smut film.

Bennigan's Wants You to Release Your 'Inner Leprechaun

Inner Leprechaun? Inner Leprechaun? WTF? Inner Leprechaun? Seriously. OK, it's a little funny but Inner Leprechaun? Well, apparently Bennigan's, a chain of Irish-themed restaurants living in the shadow of Friday's, think people need to get the inner leprechaun on, forget about those healthy blender drinks and rush out to one of the chain's establishment for a nice high calorie, fat-filled meal.

Anyway, the ad points to a site on which you can create Lepregrams (which AdFreak's David Gianatasio thinks sounds too much like the not so warm and cuddly word "lepergram"). little leprechaun-themed messages you can send to your friend. There's other goodies to play with too but Inner Leprechaun?