Catch Up Lady points us to what is perhaps the best car dealer promotion we've ever seen. Of course, that might not be saying much as we avoid their marketing like the plague but go with us on this one. Clay Automotive, located just outside of Boston, has created a hilarious but very informative video in which the seven ways car dealers take you are explained. Citing several terms associated with buying a car such as hosed, porked, betrayed, cheated and slammed, a very round man explains how Clay Automotive makes car buying a pleasure buy...yes...undressing. It's a metaphor, of course, for Clay Automotive's opening it all up and hiding it from the buyer. We say brilliant to this one. We just might travel to Clay to buy our next car.
- Miller is looking at five agencies after exiting Crispin: Saatchi, Y&R, Mother and two unnamed agencies.
- On July 16-17, youth-focused YPulse will host a conference called The 2007 Mashup which will cover all aspects of youth marketing.
- Hadji Williams gets a nice review for his book, Knock the Hustle: How to Save Your Job and Your Life From Corporate America.
- Copyranter dug up an old pro-asbestos ad that touts the material's fire-retardant qualities and features an image of The World Trade center. Particularly prescient is the ad's headline which reads, Whenthe fire alarm went off, it took two hours to evacuate New York's Trade Center."
- Mr. Clean has launched a consumer-generated effort and is offering $10,000 to th person who creates the best 60-second ad. Nothing like getting what would normally cost about $100K for a tenth of the cost.
- In Belgium, you can Rent A Wife. Actually, you can rent a lot of stuff.
In case you don't experience enough anxiety, discomfort or outright panic in your life, check out these spiffy duds by the InsideOutside project. Depending on your settings the clothing "heats up or cools down uncomfortably" if you come within shooting range of something you'd rather avoid: pop concerts, alums of rival schools or CCTV farms, for example.
Because while the iPod has been a Godsend in terms of tuning out immediate environment, it doesn't help us avoid things we dislike that haven't quite hit our line of vision yet.
We should really just ensconce ourselves in bubbles. Made of steel.
What started as an innocent Youtube lookalike contest has escalated to a hostage situation. Stephen Colbert of The Colbert Report has been taken - to wild and crazy Canada! Read hostage letter and blog, which lists various against-my-will! atrocities being committed against Colbert at this very moment. These include getting eaten by the Oshawa General and meeting the mayor. Those Canadians don't mess around - Stockholm Syndrome, here he comes.
Release can be arranged if somebody grants his captors the rights to produce a legit Stephen Colbert Action Figure. We are fervently pro-action figure and would love it if all our media friends could stare encouragingly down at us with frozen smiles (kind of like in real life) from a way-high-up shelf over our desk.
Thank the creeptacular toy-loving folk at Happy Worker, and now let us take hands and pray.
We can't decide if the first half of this new Mentos commercial sounds like a woman in the throes of an orgasm or in the throes of a serious gastrointestinal nightmare. You decide. Aside from that, we like. Although we do mis the kitschy old school Mentos commercial.
Some things are creepy and then there's just cringe worthy gagginess. Keta Keta is up to its tricks again, this time for 21clips. This guy gets much more than a birthday cake for his 21st birthday.
The raucous George Parker points us to news about Keith Richards, who told British magazine NME that he mixed the ashes of his father in blow and snorted it.
There's this South Park episode where Cartman mistakes Kenny's ashes for chocolate milk mix and drinks him. For the rest of the episode he spiritually channels him and suffers flashbacks of Kenny's last memories.
We doubt Keith Richards is channeling his pops, but he might be manifesting his would-be age. We feel an almost mythological fear of him.
UPDATE: a reader does some homework and learns Richards was jesting. Small relief.
We have no idea what anyone would want with a Volkswagen Touareg hood without the rest of the car attached to it but that's the premise of a promotion the automaker is doing as a benefit for Feed the Children. Volkswagen will auction off two Touareg hoods that were signed by 40 athletes, musicians and actors during a Las Vegas Volkswagen Important People promotion in Las Vegas February 16-18 and during the National Basketball Players' Association Gala February 17. The auction began yesterday with minimum bids set at $500. Sadly, neither of the bids (one, two) have seen any action yet which, again, begs the question...who wants a hood without the car even if it does have a bunch of celeb signatures. Despite that, we have no doubt the hoods will eventually be scooped up.
We've all experienced the heart-crushing feeling of losing the perfect demo because it was too costly, the estate was too stingy or because some crappy local band promised your creative director they'd do a more contemporary cover. With this soul-searing emotion in mind, Taxi New York brings the concept of Hank to life.
In pseudo-disease style a promo video for the site showcases symptoms of demo-longing, performed with impressive desolation by some faces in the ad and marketing world. What does Hank do? Pair the afflicted with the fully-licensable tracks of their dreams, of course.
We considered shedding a tear for the suffering but decided to kick a kitten instead. They're always getting in the way of our feet.
- Chicago Tribune writer Steve Johnson thinks the U.K.'s Favorite Website Awards is the best online awards site out there.
- The Runaway bride is now an ad campaign for the Albuquerque, New Mexico Police department.
- The Web Marketing Association has announced its call for entries for its 11th annual WebAward Competition which judges website development against peer sites within 96 industries. The deadline for entry is May 31, 2007 and the competition Website is www.webaward.org.
- MDC Partners is merging Kirshenbaum Bond + Partners with Margeotes Fertitta Powell.
- Cisco is sponsoring the redesign of Slate's forum, The Fray. Forum members will have the opportunity to make design and feature suggestions and vote of potential designs.
- Goodby gets goodies in the form of $1.2 billion dollars worth of Sprint Nextel business.
- Patron Tequila gets slapped for using sexual imagery and innuendo to sell its wares.
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