Red Lobster, for the sea food pun lover in you.

So much for this. Well, I suppose if you’re going to evolve food porn, puns and wordplay is one way to go for a Deadliest Catch demo. Except, it’s the same menu, so not much to really sea here.

Because dead kids are our future.

I loved the twist of going to a live-action infographic, but the dead kids part in this B2ten/Canadian Sport for Life was over the top. Felt like a point that didn’t need to be made in an otherwise very smart spot.

(Agency: Dare.)

IHOP, not just for carnies anymore.

I can’t really hate on this IHOP spot after noticing creepy carnival barker guy is played by Raymond O’Connor, the tour guide Bob in the Michael Bay classic The Rock. Commercial’s over Bob.

Trust me.

I’ve been too insanely busy to provide the MTLB fan club the quality content it expects DESERVES. In these two weeks alone, I am a ping pong ball being hit from a shoot in the fields of NC to Atlanta > SC > Los Angeles > Santa Fe > SC > Santa Fe > SC. Which is also me attempting a tenuous at best thematic connection to the campaign below. Sent in by about the only PR guy to earn mtlb PR certification (who also likely cringes at what will get written each time out):

Agency: “Hey, did that piece run on MTLB?”
Dan: “Yep.”
Agency: “Oh yeah? Cool. Did he like it?”

(Dramatic blogging hard return pause added for effect.)

Dan: “Define ‘like.’”

The campaign for beyondtrust.com basically says forget trusting your employees, because they’re either incompetent or untrustworthy. (Win-Win!) Plus, you need to know for sure just who is spending too much time on funnyordie.com. Not exactly the platform to build a company vibe on, though. (More after the jump.)

(Agency: MossWarner.)

Secondhand pandas.

“I would love to know the precise number of people they reached, instead of the approximately 285,142.” - MarkoStojanovic

Said one comment to this campaign for the WWF from Hungary. I love the simplicity of the Panda 1 > passersby > Panda 2 > repeat, but hate the over the top backing track and pseudo-Euro voiceover. (We need a campaign to stop that in case studies.) More than that, I myself/me/too question the numbers reached. Can we please stop with the questionable math when it comes to impressions generated from a campaign? It’s this kind of thing that brand people focused on ROI have a legit beef with. The same brand people your quasi-digi-social agency makes fun of behind their back for not getting social. Now, for real Pandas you can believe in? Jackass says GO PANDA OR GO HOME.

(Agency: Akcio360.)

Secondhand promotions can cause birth defects.

The examples of not just anti-smoking campaigns but campaigns in general that miss the opportunity to do more with their message outweigh the ones that do. (In this regard, Truth did it right.) In a current spot for Austin’s war on secondhandsmoke, there’s a large tanker truck rolling through the commercial that startles you, but why not have that truck go through Austin during the busiest part of the day and film real, unstaged reactions? Throw a url on it for people to activate in some fashion too. Their Ashtrayler is wordplay gone mobile, so why not park a real one everywhere and have people leave their sticker on it? (Budget’s are always tight but including a url to the site you spent a lot on doesn’t cost anything.) Repping the current trend, social’s in this zone where agencies get the message out across the usual social nets, but the experience path of how it all ties together seems to get short shrift. Too often it just ends up reinforcing the build it and they will come mindset that brochureware brands had when it came to their first website, in that because I’m on Twitter, the message gets through. Not no more, though. You need to actively work at promoting it holistically.

The way they were.

Ikea site from 1998? Stylish even then!

The internet is gonna be huge.

That’s what they said!

Overheard internet.

Yep, they wrote it...


“@Clixx13 ... I vote we call it ‘Tex.’”
– GalacticPope


“I bet this would not happened if Liam Neeson is your dad.”
– chaoslithe


“When will the YC funded 'Scanner Darkly' suits become available?”
– chopsueyar


“Because we have to change from the inside to change the outside, POLKA would never have risen without Poland's historic border tensions, be it with Germany, be it with Russia.”
– with a song in my heart

Btw...

- The Dude’s abode abides. (Via.)
- All SuperHero™ denominations welcome.
- Get on Heineken and take your first left.
- Train yourself right and add Jetpacks back to your future.
- Once you fly black...
- What would you give for this to go away?

The No Football League is back!

THAT MAKES NO SENSE. Excuse a second posting from Agency Heat so soon, but this is one they threw together for EA Sports to promote the end of the NFL lockout. Except, no sympathy from me for either side trying to blame the other guy, as the players in this spot come off in a way that indirectly says “Hey fans, wasn’t our fault.” Except, it was both your “faults.” I lived through strike football once and was prepared for it again, but seriously, a big f*ck you to both for once again using fans as pawns in a game that both sides knew the outcome of. Except part II: It’s really players and owners on the same side vs. fans, innit.

The way they were.

Dr Pepper was cool once. I know because the website told me so. Circa 1997.

Man boobs are the new...

“We need a twist on the paint yourself with your favorite team colors.”

“Man boobs!”

(Agency: Heat.)

Btw...

- Argggh.
- Flashmob fun!.
- Honda chokes.
- Is America ready for....

Pepsi’s Coke homage, part II.

A tale of two bear bros. Pepsi continues its Coke attack.

Btw...

- Buy Walt’s house.
- Buy more Mad Mennage.
- Buy bigger burgers.
- Buy this for that iLense junkie in your life.
- Buy more ice.

Use of cell phones while reading this blog is not permitted.

I OWE YOU BLOG STUFF, I KNOW. Sokay, I gave in and paid $10 for a movie this weekend. Best part of Captain America? SAM JACKSON IN 3D! How come the Coen Bros. never do one in this amazing technology? (C’mon, No Country For Old Men and the air bolt killer thingy coming out at you? That’s movie fun, friendo.) One of the things that was different tonight was a new sign above telling people no cell phones et al. (basically anything that lights up). I semi-sorta appreciate a theatre that tries to cut down on distracting bursts of light during a movie, akin to our friends in Texas. But the fail award goes to Sprint, which ran three separate trailers each prompting users to text something. DID I SAY FAIL, because it was. As for 3D, I can seriously take it or leave it. It was basically used more for enhancing the depth of field than projectiles dramatically shooting out at you. I’d like to see Sam in 3D in an over the top 70sploitation film though. Quentin, get on that bitch.

The way they were.

NBC, must-see website! 1996.

Btw...

- Get you some trail.
- Get you some puppet.
- Get you some vet respect.
- Get you some brands gone into the wild.
- Get you some wet water.

Bail Bondamonial.

A different twist on bail bonds. This is why you love YouTube.

Btw...

- Know your drugs from the 60s.
- Know your Beastie Barbie Boys.
- Know your cats that talk.
- Know your gay beer.
- Know your spirograph.
- Know that Clint Eastwood sings.

Btw...

- Harry Potter life-life baby dolls will scare your kids.
- Release your inner douche.
- A new superhero? FontMan.
- Dog pepper ass.
- 51 conspiracy theories that shouldn’t have been.
- Atom bombottles.

The way they were.

In an internet long ago... STAR WARS 1997!

Btw...

- Father & son first/last shuttle.
- Mad Bamanas.
- Bad Kitty - we do copywriting too.
- Police makes arrest.
- Catch and release those gators please.

Serocloud.

INDICATIONS: If annoying graphic cloud device follows you around, discontinue use of Seroquel XR immediately.

Happy Carmageddon!

Enjoy some Best Coast traffic-free freeways courtesy of Ross Ching.

Hi, I’d like a...

Great ad from McD’s that’s a whole lotta “no way.”

(Via.)

I’m Kenny Powers - you’re fired. (NSFW.)

Kenny Powers - K-Swiss Marketing Director of Action. Our pledge to you: more F-bombs is more better. Throw that muffin KP, for no young punk’s gonna ruin YOUR presentation velocity.


(Agency: 72andSunny.)

(Via.)

Google the shrink.

Damn, project much? Because I’m all about the innovation, and at the risk of letting my Freudian slip show, Googleshrink isn’t a decline in Pagerank but a look inside what it thinks you’re thinking.

"Show me sexy!"

Rube Goldberg clips are becoming like Hitler videos, but this is kinda cute. Cute I say. Wonder how photographers get that special shot? It's magic! Nice self-promo piece from 2D Photography.

Btw...

- First was pet carwashes, now comes pet check-ins.
- That slut Barbie.
- Al Gore invents advertising.
- Love you some.
- Pokeupine.
- Putting the mad in ad.

Rent.com wants you to find out why this real estate bubble won’t be like the other real estate bubble?

I meant renter’s bubble! (Is there such a thing?) Focus less on the 1984 ‘homage’ and more on the death of the American Dream. (To work til you die and pay taxes?) I KID. Sorta. Here, Rent.com throws up an interesting metaphor with the glass house, but rent.com via My New American Dream is also about finding a really nice house to live in. This seems to make a better case for slaying McMansions. Onward, o' rent pioneers. If we’re about shattering convention, then my American Dream would be to stop producing epic spots to convince people that what we sold them for years was wrong to begin with. Or maybe it’s just me.

(Agecny: Conscious Minds.)

Dear Netflix, no thanks.

Well here’s a case study of how a brand loses half its audience overnite. Justified or not, I bet it’s likely. Especially if Twitter comments are any indication. AND THEY ARE BECAUSE TWITTER DOESN’T LIE. So I get this email tonight saying basically the one price I currently pay for Netflix (unlimited streaming and one DVD out at a time via mail delivery), is being doubled. The plan I have will be split in two to reflect how people use their service (DVDs via regular mail or streamed.) Is it an unreasonable price?

Not when you consider what you don’t get from Hulu’s ad-supported Plus service ($7.99 monthly for some average choices), YouTube’s $3.99 and Apple’s $3.99 iTunes offerings. On the surface then, Netflix is a bargain. Except they can’t compete in terms of offering the same streaming titles. Forget Hulu, you find far more theatrical releases on Apple or YouTube. That Sony pulled content from Netflix doesn't help the cause. Regardless, a price hike would’ve been easier had they bundled it with an improved selection of instant titles.

Offer current members the opportunity to be grandfathered in and not pay an increase. Otherwise, this hike is a stun gun to the private parts of a movie community already watching the Netflix user experience diminish lately (lack of contemporary title relative to other services, reviews stripped of user IDs, etc.)

They say you can call or write, but cancelling sure speaks louder. Hello redbox.

Btw...

- Czech Norris for T-Mobile.
- Well, there’s a reference you don’t see in political ads much.
- Repping the 404.
- A $9+ McWTFburger?
- Google+ Someecards.
- First, you must become the stamp.

Yo, Mona Lisa.

THE JERSEY SHORE VIRUS HAS SPREAD OVERSEAS.

The way they were.

Speaking of Toshiba... from 1996.

Toshiba’s introduces new green tech, stuff, er, thing.

Y’all need to stop getting so deep. Organic tech brought you by nature that escapes for greener pastures? I GET YOU NOT. Check out moreness.

Btw...

- Film school explained.
- Wisconsin, you’re it.
- The Elements of F*cking Style. (Via.)
- It’s about time.
- Low-fat cow lips.
- Hitler minus.
- Ricky Gervais dishes on The Office anniversary. (Via.)

AdVerve: Spirit of 76

Play the show now.

Not just because it’s episode 76, but we were supposed to record over the Great American holiday that was the Fourth. Instead, work took over and we’re actually closer to celebrating Bastille Day as co-host Angela prepares to kick it live and uncensored, French style. So what’s new in this one? We actually cover a Wrap Of Cannes and her trip there on behalf of Yahoo! But wait, there’s more: Official French grammar watchdogs - yes they have them - why The Dude wears a bathrobe and why no guy outside of a Big LeBowski convention ever should. You will not believe the places we go. Or maybe you will. Listen you some.

Linkage:

- Paris Syndrome strikes Japanese
- Yahoo Scene's Cannes Coverage

(Image.)

Grinding it out in... India.

Promo film time, this one being for Oxelo Skateboards. Featuring riders hitting India in a lush little short where locals watch in awe as they grind the shit out of whatever surface they can find. Only nit about it is that compared to some of the other films I’ve posted here, this one felt like that thing I hate about Amazing Race: a bunch of clearly well-off people with expensive gear trouncing through yet another culture. Not saying the riders in this aren’t nice guys, it’s just this vibe of a place only being valuable as another conquest and nothing more. It works when it explores how locals get turned onto a sport, it works less so when it comes off like an homage to the riders themselves. There’s some nice little moments that you want more of though, like the school kids at the end jumping on a board. That’s universal stuff.

(Via.) Studio: Studio Ores And Guilhemmachenaud.com.

Google Plus – Another social network you'll never fully explore or the way forward?

Now your mom’s gramps is on Google Plus as well. I can neither confirm nor deny the validity of that statement by the way, but a few of us at AdVerve HQ were sitting around discussing debt ceilings and Paulie Shore’s effect on America Cinema when Google+ came up. Yes, we cover it all here. Far from calling it the latest social networking shell game – who me? – it seems to reflect a bigger shift (read evolution) in the definition of not only how content is distributed (hardware) and licensed or controlled, but what defines content anymore. What follows is more of that roundtable fodder, somewhere late one Saturday internight. (At the risk of alienating those who haven’t yet gotten a Google+ invite yet, think of this as a broader view of social nets and their relationship with content.)

So yeah, Google keeps trying to get the social thing, that's for sure. Wave crashed. Buzz died. Now Plus? A bigger question is that it's a line extension above all else, and those are tricky. Especially when you already have a core product that’s widely popular and adopted.

Vivident, the mum gum.

Every bite is a surprise, apparently.

(Agency: Selection SRL.)

The way they were.

Fruit of the Loom, circa 2000.

3... 2.. 1...

More shuttle porn. 

(Via.)

Local localness.

It’s not a local ad, but it sure does make great copy. Cigars, clothes and bait. Just another day at the beach here in paradise.

Ocean Sky.

No fancy title, just awesome timelapse astronomy porn here with Ocean Sky, shot in Australia over six days. So in honor of the last shuttle launch Friday, get you some stars!

(Tip: KT)

Wheel of Concept.

Got an idea for a brand but no art department and worse, no time before the presentation? NOT NO MORE! Not when you have the Wheel of Concept.


(Agency: Tribal DDB New York.)

(Via.)

No players? No problem - we still got merch!

You’re the NFL and the NBA, and business is so strong that you can lock out the employees in a work stoppage AND continue to sell merchandise? How is that even legal? Work stoppage means... work stoppage for everything, no? #rhetorical. They either have really good brands, or really good lawyers. #rhetoricalpart2

The way they were.

HOT SEXY POLAROID FUN IN 1997! Instagram and Hipstamatic generation, show you some respect!

Toshiba laptops - Now with Zombie Guard technology.

Say what you will about Apple and its fanboy nation, AND MANY DO, but at least their advertising doesn’t get in the way of the product.

Btw...

- Justin time: Timberlake becomes co-owner of MySpace.
- Team Jeter says secure that shit all you 3K freaks.
- Dude! Yer getting a new ad campaign.
- American dreaming.
- This time out, DIRECTV don’t has it.
- Hell yeah America!
- Unfortunate trend, damn skippy headline though!

Overheard internet.

Yep, they wrote it...


“Pardon us while we continue to remove all functionality from our website.”
– DeathShrike


“One nice side effect of having digital textbooks (in college) is it deals with the pesky second market for used books. One course, one book, one non-transferable license for the quarter. Sweet no more beer money after finals.”
– jahmed


“I used to work at Fox News Channel, and I felt so bad about enabling Bush, enabling the fake war, enabling idiocy, that I began to take it out on those fucking magnets. To this DAY, when I see one on a car I can get near, I look left, look right (especially right) and pull the magnet off and throw it in the sewer.  Yeah, that was me asshold.”
– Anonymous

Happy last shuttle launch!

The history of the space shuttle, in pictures. For Gen Star Trek, the end of an era.

(Via.)

Btw...

- School for danger.
- The revolution will not be marketized.
- Live and uncensored, Mr. Gilliam was.
- So, you wanna be a romance novelist?
- Best part of this kid’s vid? The Chinese food guy in the background.
- Dom DeLuise on stilts?

The 2012 Centigons with bullet-proof bluetooth technology – standard!

“Honey, on the way home don’t forget to stop and pick up some more hollow points.” Awesome protection for the busy CEO on the go.

Old Navy’s sweet land of liberty and half-off prices for everyone!

I’ve written a lot of lines to sell a lot of things, but there’s always been a no-fly zone when it comes to certain topics, like this country’s anthems. When it comes to this new Fourth of July spot for Old Navy and the way it rewrites the lyrics to America (My Country, ‘Tis of Thee), some comments in discussion threads tell people like mahself to lighten up. Nah, that ain’t happening. Instead, here’s my counter-offer. Even tacky as hell commercials from local car dealers don’t ‘go there’ when it comes to rewriting an American classic - because they know it’s America who buys their stuff. Getting attention for a brand via polarizing work is one thing, but it also needs to be smart work.

Amazing lost series of images from Richard Avedon.

Not really. It’s an image taken by a one Mr. policromados using flavor of the month Instagram and one of its many effects (in this case, a combination of Tiltshift-Retro-Matic magic). BUT YOU THOUGHT IT WAS. Screw the friendly, clean look of Web 2.0, the service and its special cousin Hipstamatic have made it possible for anyone to take a picture of daily life and make it look (insert dramatic adjective of your choice). In other words, even Snookie could shoot like Anna-Lou Leibovitz. These two apps and the sure to follow spinoffs have democratized the art act of photography in a way that Polaroid cameras (and then this generation’s Nikon Coolpix et al.), haven’t.

Introducing the Pontiac Raider.

Enjoy the American desert this weekend, all you Judges.

The way they were.

Illustrations are us, circa 1996.

Btw...

- These kids today.
- When a picture is worse than a 1,000 words.
- Tomstock. *slight bemused chuckle*
- Only you can help a starving baller.
- Famous movie still guns as Nintendo zappers.
- I dare you to watch it all.