Is it the most realistic cgi ever?

They say it is, whoever they are. This Silestone kitchen worktops commercial from Alex Roman and The Mushroom Company is about as tight as you’ll see. NO REAL LEMONS. AT ALL.

(Via.)

Click your heels together three times to delete a Tweet.

You knew it was coming: Social media apparel and shoes. Scottish designer Gerry Mckay gets his social on... Adidas footwear, actually with Twitter and Facebook logos. Do you LIKE them?

(Via.)

Btw...

- Kim Kardashian is dead. For now.
- Fire PSAs should be warm and friendly.
- Karl Lagerfeld hails a cab.
- Martha Stewart smoking ad.
- Aliens Tron-itized.
- Kim’s kard is also kaput.

Consequences of a digital world.

Aka, ‘Reply All’ claims another one. Whoever invents the “Are you SURE you want to send that?” reminder slash *last line of career defense fail safe* will be chilling on a beach somewhere with the hotel clothes hanger guy.

In this social networking age, after all we know... strike that: after all you’d think people would know by now, comes another story of Reply All remorse. I heard this story on the radio over the weekend about a high school soccer coach in Cheshire, CT being the latest victim of this horrible affliction.*

After I listened to a law professor discuss some of the implications on a local call-in show, it highlights a few problems with living a digital life in the real world.

The family that advertises local business on their clothes together, stay together?

“Would you be interested in doing a story on us? We have been in the media a lot, and we have a lot of plans that are newsworthy. Thanks!”

I get pitches. Man, I get pitches. How can I resist the charm though of a dad looking to provide for his family? The Billboard Family is renting its shirt space out in the latest twist on the I Wear Your (insert product) craze. Basically, the pay model is this: Starting January 1, you pay $2, then a dollar more each day until the end of the year. Which means New Year’s Eve will cost ya. While tempting to dismiss this movement, remember that the I Wear Your T-Shirt guy is now in his second year (with assistants), having sold out his first year and making a nice buck for himself. I’d actually like to see them change their names legally to the billboard family for a lifelong endorsement. Did you know that they’re on The Twitter, The Tumblr and The Facebook? Become a fan? Mister, I already am.

I’m guessing they’re also hoping to one day be on The Oprah too.

Dickies. Real pants for real men.

Rah! Dickies has had a series of short films out that extend the Earn Them campaign from Goodby Silverstein for a little while now, and the brand just came out with another (done by Death+Taxes Magazine). This one involves a stuntman and his air ram. Makes you think about the place this category is at. Levi’s gets crap for coming off too hipsterish, and I even knocked Carhartt for appealing to the demo. Okay, I’m lumping jeans in with non-jeans, but at least all of these brands have origins as authentic American worker apparel. That some of them lean towards a younger demo less concerned about the hard work the brands were known for isn’t the end of the world. The blue collar workforce that bought a brand for its 9-5 durability will still buy. Throwing a scarf around a white tee and pair of skinnies won’t change that. No, instead all you pioneers, direct that anger at the generation of apparel brands that said good-bye to the Great American work ethic when they put their own spin on denim, like Clavin Klein, Diesel or Dolce and Gabbana.

A speechless Julia Roberts survives Italian coffee buffoonery.

I couldn’t make any of her movie titles work with the absurdity of this spot for Italian coffee everything brand Lavazza, so I ran with what I had – kill me. Looks like the stigma of doing commercials in America is alive and well with a few actors. Overseas though? No problem! The best part is she gets 1.2 million euros ($1.5 million U.S.) for :45 seconds work and no dialog. Kill me again. You’d probably have to pay me that much to take part in this Botticelli meets Fellini fiasco. Why, it’s enough to make you scream.

(Via.)

Toyota’s new helmet technology makes concussions a thing of the past.

One of Toyota’s campaign directions is Ideas for Good, which shows how their technology can be applied to other things in life. Even though the actors’ performances feel stiff, I still like the concept. This spot comes off as a little disingenuous regarding the issue of concussions in football though. I hope their THUMS accident software that was good enough for Wake Forrest was also shared with the rest of the NCAA’s teams, not to mention the official NFL helmet provider Riddell (which came out with its own improved helmet technology last year).

Aside from the subtext that you need to wear a helmet when driving a Toyota, the idea that it’s now okay to encourage a helmet to helmet collision? Hmm. If there’s one thing more prominent in the news lately than Sarah Palin, it’s the issue of concussions in football. I’m no M.I.T. grad, and I didn’t stay in a Holiday Inn last night, but from the research I’ve looked at, there’s still no amount of collisions that can be deemed safe for players.

AdVerve 56 - Get Whirled.

Play the show now.

Joe Sabia of SF-based Whirled,  of Rockmelt demo vid, zombie speeding and Mad Men cigarette fame, joins us for some good clean all-natural fun. What’s the difference between Vimeo and YouTube? Why plug a manifesto? What makes Tumblr so awesome?

We get to the heart of what makes something catch an audience's eye, why mediocrity might not be so bad ... and why the internet may be the best thing that ever happened to really boring people. Also, Joe busts out the Morse Code chops. It's a riot in dots and dashes.

Who needs the New York Times when you have WikiLeaks?

 

“For The Times to ignore this material would be to deny its own readers the careful reporting and thoughtful analysis they expect when this kind of information becomes public.”

By now, WikiLeaks and Julian Assange have turned over the next mega-batch of secret U.S. government data, and publications everywhere are scrambling to make sense of it all. Seeing as most of the fallout will again reflect on American policy, I can’t help but wonder if WikiLeaks comes off less like it’s speaking truth to power and more like an anonymous tip line. Because they can release secrets though, should they?

Those two dynamics are the inherent problem nature of the information age: People not only want the story right now, but right. Lately on Twitterville though, right now tends to win out.

Btw...

- Tom Waits - poet. (Via.)
- Real life Gran Turismo.
- What advice messed up your life?
- Chia Obama.
- No, yeah, TSA scanners are safe. (Tip, Tico.)

Legos – the building blocks of political systems the world over.

Or, bloc. Wouldn’t all history lessons be better told through Legos? You know it, comrade.

(Via.)

Cue mall flashmob in 3... 2...

You can sense it in much the same way animals sense danger ahead of time. You’re in a public space and things just start happening around you for no reason. Heads start turning... bodies start lining up as group dance routine is imminent – SEEK COVER IMMEDIATELY. As much as the cringe meter peaked within :05 seconds of watching this clip, I was presently pleasantly surprised with the outcome after finding out the group behind it. Redefine Christmas has more than enough celebs on its roster, but what it’s about is giving charitable donations to others instead of another Old Navy gift certificate. (Which, I’m okay with, really.) So a group of 130+ volunteer performers on three hours of preparation invaded the food court of the Connecticut Post Mall (two towns over from me ), and after their 3-minute routine finished, ended up giving away 200 donations to random shoppers. See? Flashmobs don’t have to suck. That deserves a like on Facebook. IT DOESN’T COST ANYTHING.

Christmasification Santire now fully underway.

AdPulp further stokes my paronomasiaphobia with Sears’ all-out Santification. It’s Santalicious! The hybridization of holiday shopping personalities and holiday is now complete in a series of spots for their holiday shopping central. Name a shopping personality, and a bummed out Santa tries to deal with them in a series of Guest from Hell videos. (One after the jump.) Also, see what I did there adding a little Facebook/Twitter integration? What would also be SEOmazing is if his elves would link their Twitter back to the main site. Look at me regifting SEO advice! Props at least for not letting Rudolph and his crew roll up on 26s though. Word... play.

(Agency: Y&R, Chicago.)

Btw...

- The man who invented the computer. (Via.)
- Calling all ball terminal lovers, a little typography refresher. (Via.)
- Just tell LeBron winning cures all.
- The Nintendo Entertainment System gets a makeover – sorta.
- Scotland creates Boss-Free Christmas Party Zone.
- Frank Zappa gets screwed remixed by John Lennon and Yoko.
- A coy condom ad? Yes Virginia, they exist.

A going out of business rebranding party is the new...

Since it’s be nice to everyone week – just made that up – all I’ll say about Toronto shop Blammo Worldwide and their GJP makeover charity auction rebranding reveal is, nice self-promotional trick. Cheers!

Remain calm this holiday shopping weekend.

It was rough out there on Black Friday, but not as rough as Defenestration The Movie.

(Via.)

Help Joey stop Pets Gone Wild.

Pet abstinence until marriage, ftw. After recently seeing what are arguably the saddest bunch of pet PSAs late one night from American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) – these are similar but not even close for the near-tear factor – I came across another effort of theirs. Help Joey is all about spaying and neutering pets by targeting their animal urges, while also taking a shot at the pledge (item) craze. While the sad angle usually works when pleading the case, it’s nice to see they’re taking more than just a one-dimensional approach compared to some fanatical organizations. The site features a series of moc clips, and while humorous, it should remind people to take care of their pets. (Not to get preachy, but there’s also room for another campaign to raise awareness about thinking long and hard before giving a pet as a Christmas gift.) But this is about Pets Gone Wild, so remember: “My flower is my treasure.” (Catch Joey on The Twitter and The Facebook too.)

EA helps Miami put up a LeBrick.

LIKE THEY NEED THE HELP. This post could’ve also doubled as a contextual madness riff too, because apparently the Heat have trouble... doubling in the post. (See what I did there?) Otherwise, coincidence aside, they say it’s called rich media. Forget doing stupid little banners, do something more with them, like this. To promote the release of NBA Jam, EA Sports is running a site takeover on nba.com Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Christmas only that includes this nice little word mashage. Forget “IN YOUR FACE!” Instead, drag some words into the box, hit play and watch a section of the game called by Tim Kitzrow. It also lets you save out your choice as a ringtone so you can annoy that Heat fan in your life.LIKE THEY NEED TO BE ANY MORE ANNOYED. But wait, there’s more... stealing a page out of the Old Spice playbook, hit @EASPORTS up on Twitter referencing #boomshakalaka, and they might respond to you with a custom video and/or real type prizes.

(Agency: The Nerdery with Heat.)

Btw...

- NOW IS THE TIME ON XBOX WHEN WE KINECT.
- This is the Darth Vader original outfit you’ve been looking for.
- Not gonna lie, that name does suck it.
- High-speed train, high-speed camera, slo-mo replay.
- Total Recall, soon enough.

No, Thank YOU, General Motors.

Not sure what I think about this spot. Intended to run once on Thanksgiving, I saw it during one of the NFL games and had mixed emotions. Is it overly dramatic? (Cue Dinero: “Little bit, little bit.”) Is it a thanks for investing in their IPO? Is it a thanks for letting them thank America again? I get the idea of getting back up again; the metaphors here couldn’t hit you any harder over the head if they tried. So does this spot feel right... even sincere?

Now the mediocrity can be the message.

With apologies to Mr. McLuhan, one of the things we discuss on the next AdVerve is media experiences among various generations. What DDB Paris and Perfect Fools did here for Bouygues Telecom is to make your Facebook conversation stream a tangible thing, something that transcends the monitor by turning it into book form. Cool and all, but at some point, is this elevating a lot of white noise to a status it doesn’t warrant? Or is social technology finally at a place that products of the past were trying to get to, but never could?

A Canon 5D and Final Cut Pro means anyone can put together some great footage. Blogs allow future writers to hone their craft. Twitter lets the next generation of stand-ups practice their one-liners. Except, not everyone is Scorsese, Hemingway or Chris Rock. This ability now to document life’s minutia down to the second – or pixel – reminds me of having had to sit through an awful lot of vacation pics from friends just back from a cruise.

Is it a bad thing though to let everyone and anyone express themselves using any and all forms of media, even if what they have to say doesn’t matter much?

(Via Adverblog, via.)

Raise a can... or two.

What’s Thanksgiving without beer and human towers, aka, castells, those vertical collections of humanity you see in travel guides. To honor the recognition by UNESCO, of  Catalonian’s castellers as being culturally significant, Moritz beer skipped the people and replicated one of those towers via beer can animation. C’mon, it’s cute in a Gumby sorta way, no? Heritage!

(Agency: Honest&Smile.)

Nissan’s iJuke.

Juke’s meta madness continues with its Mission: Donuts comic book iAd for a Juke app. Not sure if or when our hero Kowalczyk will wear out his self-effacing welcome, but for the next 3:43, enjoy sockless goodness with things like choosing between hot model or smashed window entry. (Yeah, you’d app that.) Complete all the missions and have a chance at winning a new Juke too. Or maybe a donut.

(Via.)

Camel makes any city... hipper.

Doesn’t it? Download more regional stereotypes here from Camel cigarettes’ Break Free Adventure campaign, where they hit the road with soon to be available city-themed package designs. WILLIAMSBURG REPRESENT: “Some call it the most famous hipster neighborhood. But it’s not about hip. It’s about breaking free. It’s about last call, a sloppy kiss goodbye and a solo saunter to a rock show in an abandoned building.”

Indeed friend, indeed. Just don’t forget to leave room for those warnings.

Btw...

- The creepiest Christmas underwear ad ever.
- Ice Age ice, aged.
- Mavs vs. Heat tickets in balloons up for grabs.
- Japanese Twitter battle.
- FCC to let 911 accept text messages.
- All your movie logos are bel....
- Tommy Lee Jones went Texan.
- You must become like the Bruce Lee statue in L.A. (Via.)

Vampire Weekend pushing to be the next Train.

With all the bands and music available today, really? Honda is helping Vampire Weekend become the next Train, apparently. Next up after The Hilfilgers – copyage after the jump – perhaps a nice floor mop commercial so you can take a holiday from scuff marks?

The United States Postal Service? Surprisingly gentle.

After a contest winner received a destroyed prize from them, the Popular Mechanics crew decided to test and measure which carrier service was the safest for packages. The results? USPS was the most gentle among the big three (FedEx and UPS), even though it had the largest number of exchanges between checkpoints. Interesting – or telling – is one response from a carrier on how they view your precious package: “The shipping industry is an ‘industrial’ environment.” I bet. Check out the methodology and the rest of the results here. Then add in more bubble wrap before shipping next time.

(Via.)

It’s available.

Wherein we explore available marketing buzzwords no longer trademarked:

• Superspray.
• Superglove.
• Super Sluts.
• Super Park Jam.
• Super Magnum.
• Super Fresh Knits.
• Karaoke Superstar.
• Super Sweet Melons.
• Total Superveillance.
• Super Ninja Monkey.

Btw...

- Toxic Toys R Us.
- Disprove marijuana is safer than alcohol – Win $10,000!
- Order your FakeTV in time for the holidays.
- Foam printer. (Via.)
- My TSA app.

Do some good – Change your underwear.

In my rant on a brand’s responsibility to change advertising, I noted that there are a few more now who care about every step in the life cycle of a product they make, from the origin of its ingredients, to how its marketed, to who the audience is. Cause marketing apparel brand PACT is one of them. Billing itself as a child of many parents, it produces responsibly grown and manufactured organic cotton covered by freshtastic designs. Underwear, in other words. So, working with EarthSpark and Citizen Effect, they’ll donate a solar-powered LED light to a Haitian family for every item ordered from their Winter Lights collection. Buy some drawers, light a family, feel better. What’s wrong with that?

I just became the Mayor of latex glove.

Whether you earn that Grope badge at JFK this Thanksgiving – hurry up and fly more because Mayors are exempt from pat scans – or jump on a Gropon worth $5 off at all airport McDonald’s, keep some perspective: Automobiles account for 96% of all travel this holiday, the highest ever percentage by car according to AAA. It also helps that car rental rates have dropped this year while air fees have increased. Although I expect availability on a new 2010 Taurus might be a little trickier the closer you get to Wednesday as you try and escape the city. I’m sure the TSA’s gate rape caring and professional attention to detail now underway won’t affect your decision to drive instead of fly, will it? (Is there a *professional* way to perform a near-clinical exam on the presumably innocent without making them feel violated?) But since America is the home of lemonade and not lemons, isn’t this also a perfect time for alternative modes of travel to step up their promotional game? Train, bus or car rental brands, where you at! So until Enterprise starts picking you up with a smile and pair of gloves, rent a new Ford and see America kids.

“Simultaneously the most innovative and useless thing I've seen in days.”

So sayeth the IT flock. Actually, it’s a good point after I saw the classic video game Defender reprogrammed as a favicon. Legibility issues aside, I can’t get past the coolness of it though. Who pays attention to favicons, and if they do, even think of them as anything more than a static mini logo? Maybe it’s the *perceived* coolness of it, where I start to think of all the applications for something like this, yet can’t really think of one practical use. But, that’s what happens: Along comes an agency or brand and throws a mini animation in there and creates a new ad channel. 16 x 16 is the new...

(Via.)

A good Mutiny is hard to find.

I love promo films for small extreme sports brands. Usually, it’s the nature of the category to have a ton of tricks in public places thrown up on YouTube with deathcore soundtrack (or similar). This short by Mutiny Bikes called One Spring Day is one of a few they’ve put out, but is a cut above the typical stuff you see on YouTube. It’s got a lot of the usual bike tricks, sure, but the tilt-shift photography lends a nice toy feel to the story along with simple pans, high camera angles and nice editing throughout. (Canon should just buy Vimeo at this point because it’s true, most of their cameras are the unofficial weapons of choice there.) I also like that their films are warts and all compared to mainstream stuff that fits neatly inside a :30. Which means crashes and face plants are left in. (They’re also on Twitter et al. At this point, what brand isn’t, right?)

Btw...

-  iPad 'newspaper' created by Steve Jobs and Rupert Murdoch.
- Legal permission to go off on your boss on Facebook. (Via.)
- BURGER KING’S JAPANESE PIZZA BURGER.
- Steve Jobs action figure. (Via.)
- Thomas Dolby just moved ahead of anything else you’ll see this week.

AdVerve 55 – Tryptophan! Santabration! ...and Airport Frisks.

Play the show now.

Thanksgivers we are. We get you in the holiday spirit with the curious origins of Thanksgiving and some pre-Christmas foreplay. Also, a full-sized rant about the new TSA body scans as we desperately try to reel the conversation back to tinseltown and the roots of the Christmas stocking. (Not what you learned in school! But probably even less true.)

We sorta do never quite do get around to making that “thankful” list. (Although Santa knows we tried.)

Putting the card in Kardashian.

No credit? No restraint? No problem! The NMA World Edition crew is back with a look at the reality star’s latest endorsement deal, designed to teach America’s youth about the value of other people’s money. About the only thing she hasn’t found a sponsor for is a TSA pat down. (Soon though.)

(Via.)

PlayStation 3 adds more awesome.

Only category firing on all cylinders right now? Games, with bigger launches than movies. I know, like condom ads, hard to mess up, right? Find a title loved by its community and give them some ads that reinforce the goodness. Well, it’s also a hard category to do differently given all those titles. PlayStation’s in a groove as spokesman Kevin Butler returns, this time as VP of Add More Awesome for Gran Turismo 5. HE’S A PROFESSIONAL CLOSED-COURSE STUNT DRIVER TOO. “Mr. Butler is a professional driver on a closed course. Do not attempt.” It’s good shit – what more do you need? HOW ABOUT A REAL FAKE TV FAMILY. (After the jump.)

The mouth that roared.

Look, I like these spots. First Coach Ditka, now Keyshawn Johnson and Dick Butkus (after the jump). So obviously fake that they work. Less forced than the reverse-engineered borrowed interest of the coach press conference series.

Matthew McConaughey lost a shirt button again. Or two.

Another nearly shirtless Matthew McConaughey ad, this time from Dolce & Gabbana. He heard you Matt, he heard you.

“I’ll vote for who she’s voting for.”

When Harry met Socialism?  Socialist Youth of Catalonia, rise up! Who said socialism and facism were only for Americans! Now that’s how you do a political ad. (Almost.) I pretend to know nothing about Spanish politics or elections, but I do know that nobody got this hot over a candidate here. VOTING IS NOT HOT, SEXY FUN.

(Via.)

The TSA pat down mess: safety concern or marketing SNAFU?

Aka, all you need is glove. Let me start off by saying I don’t want to die on a plane because someone had plans to meet their maker and take a few infidels with them. If you’re in the advertising business though, you can’t avoid air travel, and so, getting felt up is preferable to being blown up. Watching the airport security mess unfold however, it comes off less like an intelligent response to a legitimate threat than it does a marketing 101 blunder:

They just didn’t sell it well enough to the American people.

Like any political campaign, and as Obama found out once in office, if you don’t define yourself with the public, the opposition will do it for you. The pre-pat down 80% of the American flying public that Transportation Security Administration claims approve of the scanners is looking a little suspect now.

8-year olds getting strip-searched aren’t helping the cause.

Btw...

- The implied aspects of danger crushes the quality of life in neighborhoods.
- V80.
- The TSA won't grope John Boehner.
- This is where you need cameras, not street corners.
- Jet lag may cause stupidity, cancer and other bad things.
- The ball’s now in your court new woman’s logo.

The Jüles? Self-serv, aisle 14.

Forget the plain white BILLY, I GOT JÜLES M’FER! Surprised the actual IKEA hasn’t tried this sooner. THEY CALL IT MYKEA. You’ll call it endless hours of fun. Leave it to a start-up to offer customized images for the stuff you got from the furniture giant. Choose from their collection of designs – think Patrick Nagel meets Hirschfeld abstracthaus ftw – or you can upload your own, as I did. Whole rooms can now be themed any way you like. Imagine a Jersey Show apartment without the sticky walls!

(Via.)

Bringing good Thanksgivings to life.

We’ve covered exploding turkeys, now it’s time for butter conditioners, zero cold, 70lb. freezer capacity and frost-free ice shavings. Man, that was living In the GE world of yesterday’s tomorrow. Today’s modern miracles of technological colderation? Why they can hold more than double that. (30 lbs. or so per cubic feet x 5 - 6 cubic foot of the average colderator device; almost large enough for Dexter. If, he stored his bodies.)

(Via.)

Cuteus Interruptus.

Do you want to smack them or give Chloe a hug? I DON’T THINK SHE’S OLD ENOUGH FOR A LICENSE BTW. Aww, the ending is cute, admit it. The Hilfilgers and their Wes Anderson Utopia are back for the holidays with Feastus Interruptus and a smashing – I said smashing – track with Vampire Weekend’s Holiday. YouTube, help a blogga out:

“only gang members wear [Tommy Hilfiger] + their smell ghetto cologne. Can’t really tell who ‘still wears’ Tommy Hilfiger. Feel like preppy bros just wear Polo / Northface”- Carles. I know this commercial was supposed to do some branding face-lift, but it might be too late. Ralph Lauren is really owning this market right now, with Purple Label (luxurious), RRL (rugged), and of course the classic Polo. Good luck though, Tommy.” – Liarsenic777

Rethink Puns.

Okay, just a heads-up, but AT&T just claimed what will end up being the season’s most desired pun with Appy Holidays, so it ends here all you app store brands. (Although Sears’ Santabration is a damn fine nice try.)

(Agency: MWR/Ascentium.)

Getting their RÖKKs off.

See what I did there? Yeah, you did, didn’t ya. This is the first effort from RÖKK Vodka’s new *creative directors* The Lonely Island. Yeah, that Lonely Island from I’m On A Boat fame. The upstart vodka decided to go out and hire Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone, figuring they would do for the brand what no agency could, in effect cutting out the middle man. See what they did there?

Fear is our business, and right now...

Business is good. It even got a whole lotta *fresh Washington outsiders* elected too. So now we’ve come full circle, from M.A.D. to MADD and now back to the glory days of Cold War rhetoric and practicing air raid drills in school. When we need to think about the one terrorist with a dirty bomb, we focus instead on the nation with thousands who, won’t really launch them because they like American rock and jeans too. Sounds fair and balanced, no?

Overheard internet.

Yep, they said it...


“I imagine this is what an American Apparel concept meeting for a new campaign reads like: ‘Okay. First tits, then ASS!’ -- ‘Genius!’” 
– Anonymous


“I’m with my old buddy Mark on this one. I know a lot of baby boomers. -- None of them like advertising. I'd go so far as to say it is their least favourite thing. -- Maybe that is because they are not the target audiences and therefore content (banks using cartoons for instance) is immediately irrelevant. -- But I think they are too long in the tooth to be told what to do in a proper ‘buy this fucker’ advertisement.”
– Robbie


“Adcolor is the black version of the cannes festival nobody in the advertising community cares or knows about. I bet if u brought up adcolor in a publicis meeting you get a deer in the headlights look. So ironic. What does a adcolor award mean, when diversity #s are worse than they were in the 60s. Someone please enlighten me. adcolor= advertising for colored peoples award? I dont get it. People running that show must now they are pawns, but hey they are getting paid right?”
– Anonymous

What’s he got that I don’t?

Get you some dandy! Italian apparel brand Sicilia Fashion Village is promoting the first outlet in Sicily by dressing up the elders. Rocking the extreme sports fashion, so sayeth the flock. Mix and match outfits from each of the characters too. Nice little touch.

(Agency: Mosaicoon.)

How Ikea does life.

Ha. Brilliant. A dowel and hex key/Allen head solves all your problems. And they said there was no instructions for life.

(Via.)

Why so jumpy.

8:08 of damn, from Storm Freerunning. Digging the Ferris Bueller moment at 1:39.

(Via.)

Btw...

- The checkin addict blog.
- One for “The wisdom of crowds” crowd: Crowdsourced abortion.
- Beyonce too sexy for her.... (Via.)
- 19 senators who voted to censor the internet.
- Sheriff Joe’s Immigration Posse includes Lou Ferrigno & Steven Seagal.
- Microsoft patents foot-controlled interface.
- Set phasers to awww... Pet Airways stock symbol: PAWS.
- Caring TSA professionals looking out for your safety.

Forks are for closers.

Damn Alec, use a fork. Is this further proof that working for Huffington Post requires a second and third job? Is it mere hyperbole to say these Wegmans spots are the worst thing you’ll ever see, even with Alec Baldwin? I say that too as a former denizen of said Western New York (where we call it pop). I was a Loblaws guy mahself. No. 2 after the jump...

The future of advertising?

It’ll be on display soon enough for future generations to gaze in wonder at.

So says the treatise on Fast Company about the state of the union relative to advertising. Worth checking out because it nicely frames the overall vibe for how we arrived here relative to what clients have always gotten from agencies. Big Spaceship is also asking for responses to the what the Future of Advertising is.

Except, it didn’t feel like this piece was meant to answer that question but rather, just provide that snapshot. It’s an extensive look at how the structure of both the physical agency and its compensation model has changed behind the scenes.

Missing though is how clients have seemingly failed to keep pace with the level of agency change going on.

Sharing is the new...

From the give love to all the agencies out there department: Tennessee’s Johnson Group is sharing you some Facebook. Lessons that is on just how to make it that much more of  fabulous experience. Jetpacks wonders if maybe giving away something like How-to hurts their cause. They don’t think so. Everyone expects something extra now, and a little something like this isn't trade secrets. The comparison he uses explains a dynamic long at work in any industry, where just having all the latest tools doesn’t mean you *get* it. Although, while Jon Kitna may never be Peyton Manning, plenty of shops are okay with being a dependable if boring Trent Dilfer – long as they get that ring.

Btw...

- An Awesome Book. (Via.)
- China’s borrowed 18 minutes from the web.
- BK’s tries to compete in the Coffee Wars.
- And you sir... need a Diet Coke. 
- Real fake entertainment now live.
- Pretty fly... for a Button Fly.

A value-add!

Download the show now or listen through iTunes.

Who did we destroy this week? Hmmm. Nobody, sadly. It was just feel-good vibes all around. Does RockMelt suck? Does free shipping make you go blind? Do clients always want it faster, cheaper and better? Man up and listen with Esteban Contreras, Social Media Manager at Samsung, Lois K. Geller, President of Lois Geller Marketing Group and Michelle Tripp, Creative Strategist, Brand Forward. 


Tags: Beancast

Hello... IT’S F***ING COLD.

Not gross, sexy! So much for your dad’s Gert Boyle ads. I really like these Columbia Sportswear’s Omni-Heat spots. (Snow Angel in the montage above is blowing out cable here literally every 10 minutes.) Each one starts off with a simple “Hi” followed by a nice demonstration for each: Insert body into cold, then insert body into jacket. Careful kids, not too long outside though. Carry on.

(Agency: Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners.)

American Airlines: We know why you... redesigned your site?

Somewhere Dustin Curtis is feeling slightly vindicated today. If you don’t know him, he was the web designer about 18 months ago who became frustrated with trying to buy a ticket on the American Airlines site. So he went ahead and proposed a new moc for how the experience could be improved. An American Airlines UX designer though didn’t appreciate the makeover suggestion and let him know about it. Which then lead to the designer being fired. FF >> to now and the airline has finally gotten around to finishing that makeover. It lands somewhere between Dustin’s clean, minimalist approach and where Kayak or Priceline already did not long ago, but hey, change comes hard for large brands. Is it still a little busy? Yes, but it’s a vast improvement over the mess that once was.

(Via.)

Jose Cuervo in the cue.

Cue the Cuervo is a solid little twist on the lifestyle approach for the spirit category, and less aggressive than the brand’s previous work. Good wordplay sans pun, and not nearly as macho as some other spirits have gotten (cue the Ketel One). Also check out The Apartment on their site as well. But if you do overplay the Cuervo? Cue yourself a cab with their app that locates the closest safe ride home.

(Agency: Crispin.)

Come on down.

I would buy a car from Mr. Appliance.

Btw...

- Marshall Headphones. Wear you some stacks.
- Absolute bus shelter.
- Wait, cut. Turn the box a little more to the right.
- TubeReplay.
- “Might as well jump.”

Takin’ care of an American Woman.

“@JohnJimmyBill 70’s kids had BTO ... 2000's kids have the fucking Jonas Brothers. Music today ... is pure, concentrated shit.” – Musicisliberation

Why not look at a little history behind the classics, since I always like finding out the origins of things that have been around forever. Here, Randy Bachman of The Guess Who and Bachman-Turner Overdrive fame discusses his two biggest hits with each (American Woman and Takin’ Care of Business, and how much people are influenced by the culture of the times. American Woman may seem like just another riff, but Randy describes it as a statement against the U.S. war machine. Looking at music now, there isn’t that same anti-war vibe, even though we have just as much reason to have one. Film and TV don’t seem to have let off the gas on the topic while musicians seem to have shifted their focus to other causes. As for both songs, they’re just nice stories of creative serendipity. PIZZA DELIVERY GUY FTW. It’s also cool to go back and revisit songs you’ve known forever, but in a new context after finding out their real history.

The Social Network – Tarantino style.

What if Michael Bay and a few other notable directors had at it? It would go a little something like... ABOVE. Try the Guillermo Del Toro – they say it’s devine.

(Via.)

Turn your head and smile. Welcome to airport security, 2.0.

Look, I really don’t know why you people are freaked out over a little groping. The TSA says it’s for your own safety. I mean, why bother studying the best airline security in the world, not when there are jobs in American latex factories at risk. Oh, it’s just a big magnet? Why didn’t anyone tell me. SUCK IT UP AMERICA – WE’RE AT WAR.

So you’re saying that Toyotas are safe then.

I was thinking I may have hammered Toyota a bit too much in my recent post, after all, they have a Herculean task ahead in getting people to trust them again, not to mention having a variety of models each needing their own identities; not unlike many automakers and certainly a large undertaking for any agency. But then I came across yet another tie-in that dictionary.com tends to run, and I was like, here we go, thanks for proving the point. Which is that I while I appreciate what they need to do, it shouldn’t come at the expense of the existing owner community. I’ve said before that an ad won’t make me buy something, no matter how well it scores in recall tests. I also don’t want to be embarrassed by what I see. Where I come out is that a lot of the things I see from them now talk down to me as an owner. I don’t need puns. I don’t need scare tactics masquerading as safety features. I want smart work that tells me what I already know about the brand I trust. That’s what Honda has been able to do consistently for a long time, and it’s what Toyota needs to get back to.

Twitter keeping it real. Or not.

Just what is the expectation for a brand in social media? Not what social media strategists tell you it should be. But, what feels right, and does that even matter? Should brands reach out to people with a real tone of voice? Or is the best you can hope for this PR-speak, “Here’s our latest commercial” tone?

When I see Tweets™ from Pepsi, Jones Soda, Moog, Showtime or Taylor, they’re solid and all, hitting many of the notes we normally advise brands to check off: don’t be a straight news feed, retweet community members, add value and answer all inquiries, but I’m still looking for more.

Or more real. I guess deep down, multiple exclamation points are a turn-off for me.

Just make yourself.

What I dig about this Nike Women work is that it not only hits the *sexy* that Reebok awkwardly overplayed with their toner spots, but also nails an empowerment vibe. Even though athletes Allyson Felix, Julia Mancuso, and Sofia Boutella go through some grueling workouts, it doesn’t feel anywhere as gratuitous when they show off the benefits of all that work.

Super Bowl lockout hype time!

 

Aka, my way of saying that once again this year, if you want Super Bowl XLV commercial hype? Look elsewhere. I’m not running any of it. Links after the game of course, but until then, enjoy your Big Game™ hype-free stay here. The bigger thing for brands to think about though isn’t their amazing lack of social media integration this year or the return of Pepsi, but the 2011 season where lockout talk is heating up. Basically, the players want (X) and the owners will only pay (X). With the salary cap gone this year (meaning teams are free to spend like drunken bloggers and Donovan can McNabb his), and with no collective bargaining agreement in place for next year, the only brand to make out in case of a lockout would be the NFL.

Will Ferrell gets sunstroked.

GET A SEXY HOT TAN as Ron Burgundy joins 7-Eleven with his design for Coffee Cup With A Cause. Started by Craig Pollard, a two-time cancer survivor, the cause helps donate funds to cancer survivors for college. Buy some lotion – they donate. Yeah, it costs way more than you’d pay at CVS, but that’s why it’s for charity. Facebook you some.

Btw...

- Fighting Trousers.
- Smell like Gene Simmons & crew.
- James Coburn kicks tension’s ass.
- The History of w00t! (And ‘Whoomp.’)
- Purée oomph.
- The See Jesus app.
- We’ll DO the damn thing.
- You knew it: Zuckerberg is Mossad.
- New VA blog.
- Peace out American Apparel.
- A long way baby.

What’s up with Toyota advertising?

Anyone else want to punch Nathan James in the head? Yeah, I know he’s a kid and violence is a bad thing, but you secretly want to. Toyota is a smart car deserving a consistent message. Post-recall though, they seem to be all over the place. Punny. Safe. More Puns. Serious. Feel good. Tech. Which is it?

They’re one brand that confuses me the most right now. I’ve never had a product I liked so much that I use that also has as many different ad campaigns. Now with the Nathan James work, they seem to be insulting the audience. Coming out of one of the worst recalls an automaker has had to suffer through, the brand had a duty to rebuild trust. As such, it ran the PR damage control playbook to perfection with a series of safety spots, followed up by the everything’s back to normal Swagger wagon campaign.

Tune out, tune in, unplug.

 

The internet will die one day and you will be left with nothing. Except live music. Then what will you do. A new series of unplugged posters, ads and outlet signs for Kent State Folk Festival highlights the fun you could be having in real life with real friends – not 50-year old pervs posing as your Dateline friend. Although, KSFF doesn’t disapprove of all online life since they have a Facebook. (More posterage after the jump.)

(Agency: Marcus Thomas.)

Last Tango In Compton.

‘Sup V. I’ll take dance sequences for $200. This West End Story dance homage could only be shot in London because the film crew wouldn’t last one hour in South Central. And the answer is: What is Last Tango in Compton? You like tango and you like VW. Smell like win-win to you? Gasper Godoy and Manuella Rossi, they’re the best tango dancers in the world – unlike me, think so. LOOK AT THEM MOVE AROUND THAT VOLKSWAGEN POLO. Look at them even more on Facebook.

(Agency: DDB London.)

(Via.)

Call sign Steppenwolf.

I’ve never stopped at Hess for anything. Gas. Coffee. Or one of those damn trucks which *appear* to be the cornerstone of their business. Now available? JET FIGHTER! The underlying message after you get past the deftly-handled Steppenwolf lyrics? Defending America’s right to oil can never start to early of course. C’mon in all you future Mavericks, the oil’s fine. Buzz the tower on Facebook too.

Btw...

- Fixing the deficit your damn self.
- Short story. (Via.)
- 19 *niche* social networks.
- Bacon candles!
- Gen Tolerant.
- Nobu for dogs.

AdVerve 54: Monster Media

Play the show now.

Culture journo Carolina Miranda (@cmonstah), the magnificent brains behind C-Monster.net, WNYC's Gallerina and the Perfect City documentary, joins us for some high-meets-low culture fun and games. She chats us up about the scariest road in Peru, what she looks for in a would-be tourist attraction, the changing face of compensation and expectations for writers in the tech age, and journalism’s no-fly zone... if it even has one anymore.

Plenty of twists, turns and giggles along the way. Miss it at your inner wanderluster's peril.