Iran Not Hot on Cleavage

Gawker reports a Swedish gentleman by the name of Jonathon Lundqvist returnd fom a trip to Iran with copies of several western magazines he purchased at a newsstand. All of the magazines are manually censored blocking out areas of the ad which are deemed to be too risque. It's not the censorship that's surprising but the manual labor involved in black inking all the "too revealing" content

Gamers Not Happy With Game Maker's User License

Now that Electronic Artists has more fully integrated advertising into its games, it has sent out a new End User License Agreement and Adrants reader Dario Meli tells us most aren't happy with it pointing to an ars tchnica gaming forum. In the forum, most are displeased with EA's collection of user information (though anonymous) but more so with the company's perceived double dipping. Forum members think it's unfair for EA to collect ad revenue without using it to offset the cost of games as is usually the case in other media.

We're sure everyone's just beginning to learn here and that most of these seemingly illogical practices will be weeded out as the marketplace matures. Though, for now, EA has a few gamers up in arms over its integration of advertising into its games.

Marketers Discover Too Late Gen Y Doesn't Look at Ads

Uh-oh. Guess now is a bad time to figure this out, considering social networks seem like rabid acquisitions that go for a pretty penny - like, gazillions of pretty pennies at a time.

But did we actually need to tell you this? Were you really ever under the impression all those ads slathered across MySpace's site were achieving anything? There's only one way to market on MySpace: save some money, throw together a somewhat clever site, and whore yourself out to where the eyeballs really go - the Top 8. - Contributed by Angela Natividad

Suzuki Illustrates, Chaos Conferenced, Tweens Over Sexed

- These BBDO-created Suzuki ads have some very intricate and intriguing illustration.

- Beginning November 17, the University of Texas in Austin is hosting Chaos 2006, a two day event focusing on the crazy changes going on in advertising. Yes, Bob Garfield will be in the house.

- Of you're sick of sponsoring that same old boring sports for your marketing programs, you might want to check out this combination of volleyball, soccer and gymnastics called Bossaball.

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Youth Panelists Tell Guy Kawasaki About Media Habits

We all love to go to trade shows to schmooze with others in the industry, attend panel discussions in hopes we pick up the latest cool marketing tactic and, perhaps, strike a business deal or two. While some of that may have merit, in this fast changing media landscape where everyone's skipping your ads, blocking your pop ups and stripping banners from web pages, it's unlikely any panel is going to deliver you as much insight and usable information as this Guy Kawasaki-led panel called Next Generation Insights. The panel consisted of kids aged 16 to 24 and offered up more a treasure trove of first hand information about media usage habits that will soon define the future of media. From cell phone usage to use of MySpace to IM to online shopping to text messaging gaming to computer usage habits to television viewing to magazine readership to iPod usage to email to online video to RSS and more. It's a motherlode of insightful, usable information about a generation that is indicative of what media usage will look like in the future.

After watching this, you will very quickly realize that all current methods of marketing have a very, very...very short lifespan. There are bright spots though. Interestingly, magazines and billboards were mentioned as viable media outlets. Give it a watch.

United Nations Hires LonelyGirl15 For Poverty PSA

Yes, it's come full circle. An entity with seemingly no purpose has been hired by one which has a very important purpose, the United Nations. Y&R, which works on the United Nations' Millennium campaign, contacted Greg Goodfried, one of the guys being the 40-video LonelyGirl15 series to see if LonelyGirl15 herself, Jessica Lee Rose, wold be interested in fronting a PSA. The deal was made and the video is now on YouTube for all to see.

While the marriage of LonelyGirl15 with the United Nations might, at first, seem odd, we're thinking it's kinda brilliant. With her following, a generation raised in a world of media vastly different than that of just five years ago, the move shows someone behind this effort truly understands social media and why tonnage television buys aren't always the best thing for getting the word out.

Forum Community Quantifies Ad Ethics

The discourse about ethics in advertising is getting picked up by people who'd like to help draw out that imaginary red line in a way that doesn't sound so whiny. Under the premise that society (and not just irate marketing bloggers) can now contribute to media messages, After These Messages does for the opinionated audience what Yelp did for hipsters who get their kicks bitching out posh restaurants. You log in, post an ad and then - get this - scale its ethical weight and relevance. The gauge includes questions like the following: If you created it, would you sleep well at night? Does it contribute to society? Will it bring good karma? Is it an effective piece of communication?

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Do Your Part, Attend the Advertising Industry Diversity Conference

Adrants, along with Business Development Institute, is presenting the Advertising Industry Diversity Job Fair and Leadership Conference, an event that aims to tackle, head on, the hot issue of diversity in the advertising industry. With recent legal wranglings and diversity basically taking a back seat since, well, ever, we though it time to get a conversation going about what, if anything, the industry can do to address the topic.

The conference will take place Wednesday, November 8 from 8:30A to 5:30P at the NYU Helen & Martin Kimmel Center for University Life. The first half of the day will feature speakers and panels consisting of industry professional who are knowledgeable about the industry's diversity issues. The keynote will be given by Burrell Communications C0-CEO McGhee Williams. The second half of the day will be set up as an actual job fair where those interested in joining the advertising industry can speak with prospective employers.

How can you get involved? If you, as an individual, have strong feelings about this issue, you can participate by speaking at the event or simply showing up to hear what others have to say. If you, as an agency or brand organization, have strong feelings about this issue, you can participate as an event sponsor and/or exhibit at the event. If you, as a student or someone interested in advertising, want to consider working in the industry, you can come talk to people who work for ad agencies and brand organizations.

It's been swept under the carpet long enough. Do something. Get involved. Don't run like a chicken with its ass plucked clean. Check it all out here.

France Considers Smoking Ban, Marketers Fear Loss of Hipsters

If tobacco marketers thought France was a safe haven, they may be in for an attitude adjustment. A parliamentary panel in France is considering a ban on public smoking as soon as next year as well as considering "hermetically sealed" partitioned rooms for smokers complete with smoke-extraction systems and health rules.

This is a big deal considering the longtime French love affair with cigarettes, plus everyone knows that if the existentialist black-clad intelligentsia can't smoke in public venues then they stop being intelligentsia and start being, well, whiny kids. And apparently if you dig far enough into the French President's website, you'll find a photo of a younger Jacques Chirac with a cigarette dangling out of his mouth, channeling James Dean with all his might. We don't know why that's relevant to the story, but somehow it just is.

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Apply Directly to the Forehead. Again. Again. Again

The Slug offers up a retrospective on this past Summer's inane Head On commercial and the media frenzy which ensued because of it. If you haven't seen the spot, it's the one that repeats, "Head On. Apply directly to the forehead," over and over and over but offers no actual statement as to what the product's purpose might be. Created completely without ironic insiderism, the commercial found itself the subject of many parodies, an MSNBC interview with Barbara Lippert in which she just won't shut up, coverage on NBC Nightly New with Brian Williams, again with Barbara Lippert, and, finally, a self-referential spoof created by the company itself. Still, no one knows what the hell the product is supposed to do. OK, yes, it's for headaches but they never say so. Witty.

As Brian Unger said on MSNBC, we shouldn't be surprised to hear "Bud, put it in your mouth" during the Super Bowl.