What's Made Me Smile This Week. Funny Blogs.

I know I've been over-posting, but I have to share a few fun blogs that have been cracking me up lately.

I'm sure most of you know of Overheard in New York, which has had some extra ridiculous conversations lately if you haven't checked it. 

Another favorite is Postcards from Yo Mama, where people mock their moms by posting their ridiculous emails. 

Urban Prankster records massive public pranks that are being pulled by groups all over the world. 

AwesomelyBad, inspired by VH1's countdown show (of which I usually love every song), features a new awesomely bad song every day, complete with videos and lyrics. 

If you ain't a Gator...

This is a picture of one of the new account planners at MAS this quarter...with a little addition I deemed absolutely necessary. I felt I should share it to show that we still own them even after two years and that I'm not particularly pleased with them trying to steal the whole "nation" idea from us (buckeye nation? congrats, you're a nation of nuts). Needless to say she didn't like it.

A Look Back in Time

Just a fun little blast from the past at newspapers' earliest ventures into the online arena. Not quite the World Wide Web, but it was a step in the right direction. Maybe this was back when it was still a series of tubes. As my dad said when he sent this to me, "Little did the newspapers know in 1981, they were testing themselves out of business." Check it out.



More cool stuff that happened in the 80s that is still shaping our Internet landscape

Whoa Whoa Whoa. Stop right there.

In defense of my future place of employment :), which happens to have a number of amazing spots running this year :D, I'd like to voice my own opinions on the superbowl spots leaked so far (for now, only the ones pertaining to Chiat). And, for those who are going to leave comments about this being my first post...well, I know you're gonna do it.

#1- Pepsi vs. Coke

Coke Heist
"Oooh, I'm a Coke! Look how sweet I am!" (obviously literally so, because all the bugs in the world want me. Oh, and they happen to be cute and sweet, too. All they want is a sweet waterfall to play in, afterall...aww, can't you relate to them?) NO! WHO'S IDEA WAS IT TO USE THE BUGS?!

Here's what I have against them:

1. I don't care if you are a cute bug. I don't want to associate what I eat or drink with you.
2. How do these cutesy bugs relate to the horrible tagline, "Open happiness"?! I've made a new tagline for you, here it goes--"My Coke brings all the bugs to the yard."
3. Stemming off of that- what about this is supposed to make you happy? The man is being robbed. They make it seem like he didn't mind the butterflies' distraction, but they had to edit out the part where he cursed like a sailor and went to go buy some bug spray.

verdict: over-production and theme-park music.

Coke Avatar
It's all in the name.

They used Avatars. In an attempt to sell soda. Wait, avatars can sell something? Last time I checked, they represented the likes of WoW users. From what I can gather, Coke is trying to position themselves as the "hip" drink for guys like this one who have befriended a scary, ogre-looking girl on the internet who is in reality just a girl with self-esteem issues, and now they can be nerdy and drink coke together because they finally got over their issues and out of the house. Cheers!

Good for them. But I bet they still do the macarena like Dr. Evil.

verdict: Warning: crappy tagline like "Open happiness" may result in spots resembling nightmares in which armies of thieving bugs are everywhere, your friends turn into hunchbacked zombies, and the only thing left in the world to drink is Coke.


Pepsi Refresh Anthem
Seamless in its' reinvention and back with a bang.

Pepsi has emerged in the last month as the people's cola- and this couldn't come at a better time. Following the brand's modern packaging redesign, "Refresh everything" debuted on New Year's Eve, and continued with a heavy showing at the Inauguration, which included this this spirited spot. I don't think anything needs to be said about the campaign's latest installation, except it will be a favorite for the big game.

Pepsi's not bluffing. The campaign consists of a strong interactive component, where they are creating a dialogue (and ultimately, Pepsi drinkers) by encouraging the citizens of the interweb to post videos including their questions and expectations for Obama's presidency. Pepsi will soon act as the voice of the people (Score!) and publish an open letter to our country's new administration. Also, Will Arnett will be hosting a live Super Bowl Party during the game at Refresheverything.com. I'll admit I was not too impressed with the attemps to be funny in the teaser videos, but nevertheless, I plan to tune in to see what it will offer.

verdict: This is the beginning of a beautiful relationship.

Pepsi Max I'm Good and Ingredients
Everyone should be applauding the Planners here.

"The first diet cola for men." Hellooo?! It's brilliant. And where better to debut the campaign than the Super Bowl? This soda was meant to be marketed to men. It's got 0 calories, ginseng (by nature a guy's supplement) and more caffeine (guys are heavy on energy drink consumption). DING DING DING! It's Disruption at its best.

The campaign does not use sex appeal. Instead, it speaks directly to a target market which is virtually untapped in its category. And it does that well. Case and point.

verdict: Too strong for women, because it's meant for a man.

#2- Pedigree

Crazy Pets
So, obviously, this is personal.

The idea for this spot was among many others, most of which pulled at the heartstrings and would surely bring the happiness and excitement of viewers watching the big game down a notch. What brand wants to be the downer? Keeping with the brand image, they created a lighthearted, funny spot where the benefits (of having a dog) were kept in the forefront.

This spot, urging viewers to take action ("you should get a dog"), serves as an introduction to the 2009 Adoption drive, which will be the brand's biggest yet. Look out for those spots coming out soon. My unbiased and objective opinion is that they are GREAT.

verdict: I'm for dogs, they're for dogs, we're for dogs.

So there they are, my first reviews of SuperBowlXLIII. Gatorade coming soon.
GO CHIAT!

It started out as Pepsi vs. Coke, and became a long advertising rant. Enjoy.

Yea, I know there's another two days before the Superbowl.  But clearly I'm excited (about the ads). I've watched all the ones that are out already...and I want to discuss the age-old debate between Pepsi vs. Coke.  Not being a soda drinker myself, I could care less which one tastes better.  What I am interested in is who has the better spot.    

Here's one Coke spot, Heist.  And another, Avatar. 

And here's Pepsi's Refresh Anthem.

Personally, I LOVE the Pepsi spot. I don't know if I'd consider Will.I.Am to be comparable to Bob Dylan, but the idea is great. The music is great.  The comparisons are fun (and must have been damn expensive).  I think Chiat did a good job (sorry, Sean).  Not a huge fan of their Pedigree spot, though.  Meh. I like their simpler We're for Dogs campaign a lot better.  Says more about their brand.  Less flashy, more touching.

I also really like Coke's Heist.  I think the music is great and the whole feel reminds me of their Happiness Factory spots, but better.   Not a fan of Avatar....blah.  Not for the masses, which is what the Superbowl is.

On another note, the Pepsi Max Superbowl I'm good commercials annoy me.  The whole "let's show how our product promotes extreme manliness in a humorous way" is a smart strategy, I think.  But it's been done. And done. And done again.  Dial for Men, Milwaukee's Best Light, Snickers, are just a few more recent examples.  I'm getting sick of it.  I realize that when you find something that works, you use it.  The "Use this product to get laid" strategy is one of the oldest tricks in the book, and somehow never seems to stop working.  I just can't help wanting something new.  Maybe I watch way too many commercials/am not the target and that's why I'm annoyed.  But isn't there something else besides sex and machismo that can sell products to you guys?

I'm all over the place.  Lots of good spots to watch in this post though.  Sorry I can't embed. (When I paste, a weird box pops up at the very bottom of my browser?)

Delving deeper into Twitter...Hashtags

So I thought Twitter was fairly simple.  And it is.  However, I started looking around and discovered hashtags and twittgroups and livefeeds, oh my!  Will I have to learn an entire new vocabulary like I did for Facebook with Tagging and Pokes?!  

So here's how it works for those of you who are interested.  I'm going to use the Superbowl as my example.  Log onto Twitter and follow Hashtags.  They will automatically follow you back.  Now, whenever you tweet about anything related to Superbowl ads, type #superads09 somewhere in your message.  This is like "tagging" your message.  

Visit  hashtags.org and search for #superads09 to see a live feed of anyone's tweets that have been tagged #superads09. You can add this to your RSS feed as well.  Tons of ad blogs will be posting the entire #superads09 feed tomorrow during the game, and now you can be part of a massive conversation with the ad world in real time on the internet. 

Kind of cool, right?  There are a gajillion other tags for anything and everything you might be interested in discussing/following discussions about. Once I figure out Twittgroups, I'll let you know.  I'm still digesting...

Your first line of defense... Don't be an idiot

The Media

After a miserable first attempt at being a Twitter-er this past summer, I've resolved to try again.  It's been two days...and I think I'm finally getting the hang of it.  It's fun! I found out that Federer beat Roddick  before my mom (tennis nut) did, which was oddly satisfying. And I love following agencies, blogs, Dave Matthews (I really think it's him!)

Anyway my point is what made me start up again is a Twitter profile I read about called the media is dying, where losses, job cuts, bankruptcies, etc in the media industry are reported in real time.  Then I found the media is thriving, the Barbarian Group's optimistic response.  This I actually have been having sent as text messaged to my phone because it gives me hope for life after graduate.  :) And just a bit ago, the media is hirin was created.  Someone took all this info and decided to put it to good use.  Check em out.  

When I grow up...

I wanna work in advertising. 

An old ADDY intro film, pretty cute.  

I can't embed, blogger's acting funny.

Obameter

Via the St. Petersburg Times.  The Obameter! PolitiFact has compiled about 500 promises that Obama made during the campaign and is tracking their progress.  Labels include No Action, In the Works, Stalled, Promise Kept, Compromise, Promise Broken.  

There's an RSS and everything. Check it out.

Ok... now it's screw Pegasus...

Surprised smiley faces are the new rage:

Voice Drawing

I know I haven't posted on here in forever.  I finally found something cool enough that it actually motivated me to end my blogging hiatus.  I was browsing through the Barbarian Group site and found a blog post about Voice Drawing.  If you have an internal mic on your computer, you can try it.  It's really hard!  Check it out either way though, it's awesome.  

Ps- Absence makes the heart grow fonder... Miss you guys.

Got my hata blockas on YouTube

Ok, saw this on AdFreak. Really cool video done for Ray Ban back in 2007. Don't know how many of you have seen this before or not, but I wanted to share:



They've come back around this year with some more videos. I don't think they're nearly as good. In fact, they're weird. Here's one:



More videos with people doing things in Ray Bans:
Guys with mobile disco

Green screen guy

Guy sings and dances while bartender does flips and jumps off fence, amongst other things

Guy running around with really tall ice cream cone

Tell the band to take a hike...

Screw the FreeCreditReport.com guys...Pegasus is where it's at:

Red Bull Snowscrapers

An awesome event coming to NYC!!



Red Bull is sponsoring a snowboarding event called Red Bull Snowscrapers on Thursday February 5th at 6:00 at the East River Park (FDR and Houston). The event will feature 16 of the world's best snowboards (including Shaun White, Pat Moore, and Travis Rice) competing for $100,000. "Red Bull will create a towering 90-foot tall, state-of-the-art structure for top riders to own the iconic Manhattan skyline. The athletes will drop in from a nine-story structure before flying off the specially constructed kicker toward an immense 80-foot long hip. The innovative hip, built by world-renowned designers Frank Wells and Mike Bettera of Snow Park Technology, allows riders multiple angles of trajectory— frontside or backside, landing on either the right or left side of the massive 45-degree spine. Additionally, the ramp design will allow spectators to get up close and personal, giving fans an opportunity to experience the action first hand as the riders spin roughly four stories into the sky." (from snowboarding.transworld.net)

Check out the site: http://redbullsnowboarding.com/snowscrapers/ and the facebook event.

Also, on Saturday February 7th, New York Parks and Recreation will host Winter Jam with tons of cool events (70-foot long snow flume for sledding and a snowman making contest amongst others!) at East River Park.

Nothing says fun like...

The Benny Hillifier

best when applied to serious commercials.

Microsoft is cool (to make fun of)

Ok, if you haven't heard of Songsmith or seen the ridiculously long, even more ridiculously terrible ad for it, here it is:


I present that to you to tell you this: Songsmith is shockingly popular. It would appear that Microsoft has finally done something cool. Oh, wait. Everyone is using Songsmith to show just how absolutely terrible it is. There are tons of great songs on youtube that have been redone using Songsmith, with terrible results. See a few below. I bet Microsoft never intended for their product to be used by so many solely to point out how terrible it is.









Ugh, not all of them will allow embed, like this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVMfpne6aEc. And there are plenty more where that came from!

Breatfeeding is gross

... to watch.

Not sure who does or does not read Ad Age, but this is an interesting article about facebook's ban on photo's of mother's breastfeeding their children. Personally, I do not want to see someone breastfeeding their child in public. I also don't really understand why someone would want to post a photo of that on facebook... it's a little personal, you think? Anywho, read this article and pay particular attention to the web site at the end which is a protest of the facebook rule and has some pretty disgusting photos (unless you're in to that?).

Ram Challenge

Most of you have probably already seen/heard of this, but I think it's pretty badass. Dodge is putting their flagship truck to the ultimate test to challenge it against all odds. Feating four teams of "tough guys" (firefighters, contractors, military, and cowboys) against each other they have put the Ram up to 4 tests:
1. Front Loader - teams have to back into individual bays. Once there they have to operate a front loader in order to fill the bed of their truck
2. Culvert Trench - An impassable culvert trench blocks the way. Teams must empty the Ram's bed to fill the trench and then drive across.
3. Log Road - Teams have to race over 100 feet of uneven 14" diameter logs.
4. The Gauntlet - Two full-size trucks swing back and forth across the road. It's either going to be a test of the HEMI acceleration or a crash test.

They have four webisodes on the website for these four tests (Launching Pad, A Bridge Too Far, Earth Wind Fire, and Kaboom Town) and they are all pretty awesome.

The ads on TV are great and they made me want to go to the website which is set up in a really cool way. Very interactive and a great way to show the the features and benefits of the Ram. It's also a great use of integration through TV and internet.



All done by BBDO.... Check out the website: http://www.ramchallenge.com/

And, think... I'm a girl (who is not in the market for a fully-loaded pick-up truck.)

Thems fightin' words...

I know I've gone on record as not particularly liking CP+B but I must say that I'm incredibly impressed with their recent campaigns...the Whopper Virgins is pretty good (though not as good as the SNL parody). The Whopper Virgins has turned into a big hit on par with the Whopper Freakout. AdAge named CP+B the agency of the year...again. Anyways, on to the point of this post: anyone who knows me knows that I like to push people's buttons so the newest stunt by Domino's Pizza, engineered by CP+B, has me laughing like crazy. It's always funny to see company's try to throw their weight around (I bet they wish Jared hadn't lost so much poundage).

15 minutes: The Aretha Hat

So I'm starting a new segment to the blog called 15 minutes (maybe I'll turn it into a blog) beacuase I <3 Andy Warhol. It's about people/places/trends and whatnot having their 15 minutes of fame. Today's will be about Aretha Franklin's felt hat with the Swarovski rhinestone-bordered bow that she wore to Obama's Inauguration on Tuesday.


Created by Luke Song's Detroit hat shop, this one of a kind gem is not available for sale. while it would cost upwards of $500 (!), the shop is not going to produce the hat for the mainstream.

So instead, the wise, witty and smart-alecy internet population has taken it upon themselves to distribute the hat to the masses.

First there was Ellen:



And then all the rest of the followers:









Oops, how'd this get here?!?

With out me the puzzle is incomplete!

Feeling blue? This DVD will cheer you up.

re: Ketcup & Mayo

I couldn't help myself. All I could think about was this when I saw the thing on McNuggets, so I had to find a way to put it up. Here you go. And if any of you has ever heard me say it before, this is where it's from.

Ketchup & Mayo

User-generated content, made into a commcerical for McDonald's Chicken Nuggets. I don't know the validity that it is really a commercial, as I have never seen it beyond YouTube. But, it's pretty entertaining nonetheless.

Sean, I feel like I have to shout out to you on this one........ :)

Oooo!

Advertising is pretty cool sometimes.

Whopper Virgins Parody

Ok when did Steve Jobs take over as commander of the Death Star?

"I recognized your foul stench when I was brought on board."


I know he's sick and all but you can't look me in the eye and tell me that that quote didn't creep into your mind when you saw that picture. And for those of you who have no idea what I'm referring to please said picture below

Get it on

Note: NSFW!



So tell me how you really feel.

Ed Harris would be so proud...

I've always thought his paintings looked cool but I never really understood why people absolutely love Jackson Pollock's work, or why they're worth so much, but that doesn't take away from the fact that this site is fun as hell: http://www.jacksonpollock.org/

On another note...Melissa's previous post reminded me about this video I've seen...I think the lesson we can learn is to never, ever try to scare a black guy.

Scare Fail!

Local Ads

In the same vein as Sean's post about local advertising, here is a local ad for 'Takemoto Piano'.



What says classy pianos more than bored actresses in laytex*?

It seems that this commercial is a favorite (I can't imagine why) in the local area. Explains one women in the comments "Whenever my cockatiel hears this commercial, he sings it. It is also works wonders for making my baby stop crying!"

Indeed, it seems that she isn't the only one who claims it to be a miracle cure for a crying baby.


* There is a joke there, but I will be the classy person and just walk away...

NFL Fantasy Spot

My new favorite spot. Love the team names!

Alex Bogusky once again shows us how AWESOME he is

Alex Bogusky is THE GOD OF ALL ADVERTISING, DIETING GURU EXTRAORDINAIRE and now he's THE ULTIMATE GUITAR GOD!!!

So apparently he's so angry that Guitar Hero and Rockband have kept kids from actually learning to play the guitar that he's going to start helping people "shred". The good thing is that he isn't doing the lessons himself because he's really not that good (or maybe he is...I couldn't really listen to his playing because I couldn't get over the fact that he's wearing black nail polish, does an impression of Billie Joe Armstrong and then all of the sudden there's a weird man-love thing going on). Instead it's a collection of videos from actual agency employees as well as tutorials on YouTube (or according to Wholly Guacamole: U TUBE).

Just to go on the record, I don't hate CP+B. I think the agency has done some great campaigns (Subservient Chicken)...I just have a severe dislike for Alex Bogusky. I don't know why...it might be that the people running my school have to mention his name at least once in every conversation, that he's easily taking at least a third of my tuition despite never even coming to speak at the school with his name on it (I guess he can't take a few hours out of his schedule every few months or whenever else he's in Miami to drive the twenty minutes from Coconut Grove to Miami Beach and shine his genius upon us) or that because of him I'm at an advertising school that has no printers. Oh well, I'll take solace in the fact that it's a new year and there's a chance things will get better. Here's to hoping some things never change, though.

P.S. J-Fran, if you read this I hope you don't hate me now.