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07/22/2008

If fonts were people!!


CollegeHumor

A bit of Tuesday afternoon fun. If fonts were people and there was a "font conference" this is what it would be. Enjoy!

Baron Conway

07/17/2008

The Cult of Joss Whedon Working for the Greater Good

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While I don't understand the craze behind Joss Whedon, I have to respect the major Web 2.0 embracing that is demonstrated in his latest project, Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog. This is not another viral video, this is not another web sitcom. It's an event, a moment in time, a quickfire community assembled around valued content.

Dr. Horrible a three part series releasing every two days and then coming down for good. All acts will be available until midnight, Sunday, July 20. Then they will "vanish into the night, like a phantom (but not THE Phantom - that's still playing. Like, everywhere)" according to Letter from Joss Whedon available on the site.

It's ingenious. In a time of disposable culture, grassroot advocacy, and niche social networks, Joss is tapping into the vein of Web 2.0 in a way that most of traditional media has yet to comprehend.

"It is time for us to change the face of Show Business as we know it. You know the old adage, "It's Show Business - not Show Friends"? Well now it's Show Friends. We did that. To Show Business. To show Show Business we mean business. (Also, there are now other businesses like it.) "

And it looks like it's already working. The first installment released on Tuesday crashed the website.

So why is this important? Again, I'll defer to Joss who explains it best in his letter...

"Do what you always do, peeps! Do what you're already doing. Spread the word. Rock some banners, widgets, diggs... let people know who wouldn't ordinarily know. It wouldn't hurt if this really was an event. Good for the business, good for the community - communitIES: Hollywood, internet, artists around the world, comic-book fans, musical fans (and even the rather vocal community of people who hate both but will still dig on this). Proving we can turn Dr Horrible into a viable economic proposition as well as an awesome goof will only inspire more people to lay themselves out in the same way. It's time for the dissemination of the artistic process. Create more for less. You are the ones that can make that happen. Wow. I had no idea how important you guys were. I'm a little afraid of you."

Marta Strickland

06/13/2008

A Fear the Beard Digital Short: Contract Karma--Random Acts of Kindness, with Baron Davis


In what seems like another lifetime altogether, a couple of friends and I decided to make our late-night e-mail musings about the Bay Area and basketball a subject of public record. Thus, a little over a year ago, www.fearthebeard.org was born. I won't get too deep into the wine-addled logic that produced this URL, but the avatar of choice for the venture was (and is) a stylized rendering of Golden State Warriors point guard Baron Davis's head. And beard.
 
The blog quickly took on a life of its own. While it often functions as the "junk drawer" of my (and our) collective consciousness (thanks Misha), it has also developed a surprisingly ardent following and opened some interesting doors. I was interviewed for a French basketball magazine, Reverse. I was invited to play in a blogger all-star game at the Oracle Arena. And, at our urging people grew beards for the playoff push and sent in pictures from around the country. Finally, our DIY PaperBeard™ (for the less hirsute) was featured on Yahoo Sports and even more improbably in the pages of Fortune.
 
But all of that pales in comparison to the events of some two weeks ago. After a few phone calls, we managed to secure an interview with the man some call Boom Dizzle. The rub? We only had one-day's notice. To shoot. Video. Oh, and it turned out he was "open" to hearing ideas for doing something on the street. Out with the people. All viral like. Tomorrow.
 
Oh, and he's in the middle of trying to renegotiate a contract that's scheduled to pay him $17 million next year. So don't do anything stupid, Turman.
 
Anyway, the video is what we came up with over dinner and pitched to Baron immediately before strapping on the hastily rented microphones. He also did a long sit-down piece that we'll be releasing in installments over the next couple of weeks. But, best of all, it turns out that we chose our avatar far better than we realized. He was great to work with and is involved in some interesting technology-friendly projects outside of basketball. Moreover, apparently he also sees the value in empathy-based online marketing. He and his team recognize that our humble little blog has a laser target on his "influencer" fans. Props to BD for recognizing this and being open to a pretty big ask from a pretty small source.
 
Daniel Turman

PS. Thanks to Ali Grayeli for letting me skate for a couple of hours.

05/23/2008

All Your Internet Stars are Belong to Weezer.

I'm still trying to decide how I feel about Weezer's new video. Appropriating nearly every large-scale Internet phenomenon of the last five years is a bit of a land grab, but since they've been borrowing liberally from popular culture for some years now it doesn't feel quite as disingenuous as if it had been, say, Fall Out Boy. They've used music videos to create homages to "Happy Days" and "The Muppet Show" before, but those felt like humble and loving tributes. This is straying dangerously into helium-filled flying pig territory.

Thoughts anyone?

Daniel Turman

Continue reading "All Your Internet Stars are Belong to Weezer." »

05/22/2008

Everything's Better With Monkeys

Seriously. It's the first law of advertising. As Levi's proves quite handily below. I'm not sure what manner of tranquilizers were required for filming, but this is one chill monkey.

04/28/2008

Get Out and Play

Clever fun from Nokia.

http://www.get-out-and-play.com/

Adam J. Wilson

03/ 5/2008

Orange Underground

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I saw a wonderfully weird and irreverent TV spot for Cheetos. The spot left me intrigued – it felt bigger than the common and meager attempts at TV-to-Web integration. Turns out, they want us to commit “random acts of cheetos”, or ROACS (ray-ocks). Or in their words, “to create playful mischief using CHEETOS snacks.” The tone of the campaign as a whole is riddled with subtle and not-so-subtle references to things like Fight Club, LOST and 12 Monkeys. The three things that I like most about this campaign:

The idea is extremely riffable; the nasty little orange snacks are easily accessible and the mischief potential is quite high; I expect they’ll get a lot of UGC participation.
The campaign is a build-up to a mysterious PR event that will take place on April 1st, where “all your hard work will not go unnoticed”.
The full screen video is whoop ass, with chapter-like markers that link to the YouTube profile which serves as a smart campaign hub.

http://www.orangeunderground.com/

Adam Wilson

01/29/2008

Message in a Bottle, From the Time Before CGI


Time was, when you wanted dancin’ cars, you had to make ‘em dance. And when you wanted jumpin’ cars, you had to jump ‘em. Now, the only people still doin’ it the old-fashioned way are the energy-drink guys and the skater kids. 



Daniel Turman 

PS. Primus still rules.

12/21/2007

Punked, Burger King Style

If you don’t watch TV and haven’t seen any of the latest Burger King commercials, check out the link below.  
 
Whopper Freakout is featured at the end of a series of TV spots that were created and produced by Crispin, Porter + Bogusky. 
 
The latest campaign is centered around a staged Burger King where the Whopper is no longer served (for the day).  There are hidden camera and interview clips featuring shocked and unhappy customers who are quite passionate and upset about the absence of their flame-broiled Whoppers.  (When I first saw the spot I admittedly became frightened and sad).
 
This viral campaign is creating some great buzz in the blog world and in the ad world where everyone has an opinion of whether the campaign is good or bad.  The great thing for them is that people are talking about it and the word is spreading.
 
Once again, CP+B has produced some great creative work that gets people talking – think Subservient Chicken and the great NFL replays featuring the King. 

http://www.whopperfreakout.com/

Lisa Yamamura

12/17/2007

Mmm Mmm Toasty

What would you do if you were assigned the Spam account?  Well Dustin Black and Dan Armstrong of BBDO Minneapolis decided to dive headfirst into Spam as a punch-line.  Their vision for Spam.com looks more like a Monty Python fan site than a CPG website. 

They also developed a separate launch strategy for what appears to be a new coffee table book, The Book of Spam, but is in fact another element of the overall campaign.   They reinforce the idea that it was written by wry fans with too much time on their hands through a couple of insanely time-intensive stop-motion videos.  Toastvertising, above, required 220 pieces of bread, a blow torch, and days of filming on the author's dining room table.

The piece de resistance, as far as I am concerned, was the casual email they sent to ThreeMinds announcing the project: "I just wanted to share a project I just finished" - four lines, no pagination, and not even a live link! It seemed so real and personal.  These guys really know their audience when it comes to seeding a viral program.

Misha Cornes