Seriously how brilliant is that short movie to sell insurance? How many you guys wished you lived over in The UK so you could get Trident Insurance and the Trident girls?

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I had heard a few weeks ago that Johnny Lydon aka Johnny Rotten was doing for an ad for Country Life Butter and let me tell the commercial is better and cheesier than I ever thought it could be. But I wonder what has happened to the state of Punk music that he is actually doing ads like that.

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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/microsoft/Microsoft_s_new_ads_Seinfeld_and_Gates_out_Hodgman_lookali’; According to a report from in the New York Times, the next phase of Microsoft’s latest ad campaign is set to begin — sans Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld. Apparently, the new ads do away with the unusual (and somewhat ill-received) banter and “real life” experiences of the two celebrities, and trade them for an earnest embrace of… Apple’s “PC” character. Apparently, one of the new ads even begins with a John Hodgman lookalike stating, “Hello, I’m a PC, and I’ve been made into a stereotype.” Beyond the flip on a rival’s depiction of its brand, the campaign will feature cameos from Eva Longoria, Deepak Chopra, Pharrell Williams, and even Gates — though Seinfeld doesn’t make the cut. While we’re curious to see what the company cooks up in the new ads, it does strike us as somewhat odd that the supposed narrative Microsoft was establishing with Gates and Seinfeld has abruptly been abandoned in favor of these new spots. Is this a decision which was made long ago, or did the largely negative / confused reaction to the last set of ads force the company’s hand? We only have its official statement to go on: “We will be executing the second phase of our advertising campaign tomorrow, as planned from the start.”

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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What a great name for something that is going to be promoted on TV like that! I mean could that make that infomerical for the Tiddy Bear any more sexual! I know after I saw that ad, I so want to buy a Tiddy Bear and take a shower. And for $14.95 for 2 it is such a bargain!
xoxo Tito!!!

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Filed under: Displays, Misc. Gadgets

Apparently July is a hot month for ad trials in Japan, as just weeks after a number of 65-inch digital posters were installed in a Tokyo train station, in flies word that yet another consumer-luring installation is being tested. Recruit and NTT Communications are delivering Scent-emitting LCD Display Systems to an underground mall in the heart of Japan, each of which rely on a 42-inch LCD and a scent-sprayer that emits delightful odors to correspond with the on-screen imagery. The goal is to attract onlookers and get them to grab a nearby coupon book, but considering that the experiment shuts down on August 1st, you should probably get your nose down there in a hurry if you’re looking to score some savings.

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How cool was that JC Penny commercial capturing all the great moments from The Breakfast Club.
xoxo HC

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Filed under: Wireless

For better or worse, targeted advertising isn’t going anywhere. Seemingly, it’s not getting any more discrete, either. NEC’s Digital Signage Solution combines a camera, a large display and a FeliCa contactless IC card reader / writer in order to dole out advertisements that cater to certain demographics. The system includes the innate ability to determine “gender, generation and other attributes” of a person in order to serve up advertisements that will cause him / her to spend some dough. From there, the individual can scan their phone in order to access related content on their mobile internet browser. That’s all and fine and dandy we suppose, but how on Earth do you convince busy citizens to stop by and have a look at an otherwise uninteresting flat-panel?

[Image courtesy of NEC]

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Filed under: Tablet PCs

The launch of the next-generation Vectra (or Insignia, as it has become) has been a long time coming, and Vauxhall is making good and sure everyone notices now that its time has arrived. As part of an elaborate marketing scheme, the automaker crashed a UFO in Potters Fields Park in London, and there was even a fence, men in dark glasses that were evidently mute and copious amounts of smoke to set the scene. Just how this relates to a new motorcar? You’ve got us there.

[Via Black-Night-Sky]

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Filed under: Displays, Wearables

digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/odd_stuff/Armpit_based_displays_provide_odd_form_of_advertising’; Not that London isn’t the unofficial home to weird ads or anything, but this one is just taking things way too far. Reportedly, deodorant manufacturer Right Guard has created an armpit-based method of advertising which has cleverly been dubbed “pitvertising.” We’ve no idea if the trial will turn into anything permanent, but unless garb with these displays are given away for free, we can’t imagine too many self-respecting Londoners becoming walking stare magnets just because.

[Via textually]

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Putting cameras in billboards to measure how many people look at them isn’t a new idea, but it’s starting to get a little more creepily-high-tech, with several advertisers now using facial-recognition software to record things like age and gender. A company called Quividi has supplied camera-equipped ads to McDonald’s in Singapore and Ikea in Europe, and it’s now bringing the tech to the States, where it’s been deployed in New York in ads for A&E’s The Andromeda Strain mini-series and in Philadelphia in train station ads for the Philadelphia Soul. Another company called TruMedia Technologies has supplied similar tech to about 30 locations in the US, including malls in Chesterfield, Missouri, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and Monroeville, Pennsylvania. None of the systems currently record or store video, but no one’s ruling that out as a possibility — and even worse, there’s talk of gathering racial data in an effort to even further target ads. Great, now we have yet another reason to break out the Nixon mask every time we leave the house.

[Via Techdirt]

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Filed under: GPS

We had a pretty good idea that not only was this whole “Biggest Drawing in the World” business fake, but also impossible. First, we were skeptical that DHL could make deliveries based on coordinate instructions. Then, we determined — with little effort — that the little campaign was a DHL ad. Now we have a straight-up admission from artist Erik Nordenenkar and DHL that entire thing was fictional. Appearing at the bottom of Erik’s site — after the fact and millions of hits — are the following words: “This is fictional work. DHL did not transport the GPS at any time.” Meanwhile, DHL offered that this was an innocent college project and they were happy to let Nordenenkar film in their warehouse, use their name, and make false claims regarding the whole shenanigan. So, there you have it. The videos, briefcase, DHL receipts — all spam. Move along.

[Via Wired]

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Filed under: Displays, HDTV

Some of you keen readers pieced all this together already, but that commercial you’ve been seeing about an “all new television series” dubbed Scarlet isn’t a new show at all; rather, it’s a risky move by LG to push its Scarlet LCD HDTVs. The sets themselves have been out and about already, and while the specifications aren’t anything to sneeze at, the displays aren’t nearly as seductive as the 30 second spot. The idea was crafted and put into motion by LG global brand marketing VP Kwan-Sup Lee and a team of advertising / marketing agencies, and while it refused to disclose exactly how much it has spent on the endeavor, it did affirm that it was “millions more than a typical product launch in the US.” Sure, we can appreciate the envelope pushing, but now that we’re all psyched about the show, it’s a bit of a letdown to know we’ll never actually be able to tune in. Check out the ad in its entirety after the jump.

Continue reading LG pushes Scarlet LCD HDTVs with completely unrelated commercial

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"Although Kirstie will not appear in future advertising endeavors for us, she does remain on Jenny Craig's maintenance program and is confident that our program has helped her incorporate positive lifestyle changes that should last a lifetime," Scott Parker, vice-president of marketing for Jenny Craig, tells PEOPLE.

Filed under: Cellphones

Nothing says Valentine’s Day like trying to cash in on a vulnerable, insecure relationship — and it looks like Palm’s doing its best to, ahem, “be there” for Blackberry addicts left a little shaken by Monday’s network outage. The company’s taken out full page ads in several national papers and changed its homepage to read that Palm devices include a little something called “uptime” — which is actually pretty funny since we’ve got a Treo 750 here that’s been rendered all-but-useless by AT&T’s various outages these past few weeks, but we’ll still grant points for panache. Of course, that still doesn’t change the fact that a recent survey ranked Palm dead last in customer satisfaction, but since when has being a homewrecker had anything to do with long-term happiness?

[Via coolsmartphone]

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Filed under: CES, Features

From the weird to the shameless, from the unintentionally funny to the downright questionable, we’ve rounded up some of the best of the worst ad campaigns seen around the show floor at CES 2008.

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That commercial is so cruel and evil for the Ford SportKa. Poor poor kitty.
Thanks Geraldo aka Mr Allergic to Cats for sharing…not.

UPDATE: The bird one is funny though:

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

As marketers continue to search for (and exploit) places in which you’d never think to find an ad, it makes sense to scroll a few plugs through an item that the vast majority of us spend at least a few hours per week touching. That item, dear friends, is the handle of the tried and true shopping cart, and apparently, Modstream is hoping to install bars with scrolling displays onto buggies and allow companies to beam in messages wirelessly. The system works by allowing outfits to access a web-based profile, enter in a given message, and transmit the ad to participating stores. As an added bonus, the setup enables said companies to change up their messages on a whim and keeps us shoppers guessing as to what clever line is coming next. Now, who’s down with hacking this thing to scroll through our favorite RSS feeds?

[Via Textually]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!