July 27, 2005
Burger King sexual captions an 'honest mistake'
[from Agenda Inc.]
Sexual double entendres were removed overnight from Burger King's new website, CoqRoq.com, but the company claims it has received no complaints from consumers or other outside groups, AdAge reports. The deleted content included captions, under photos of young girls, that read: "Groupies love the Coq" and "groupies love Coq."
The captions were there when the site went live yesterday, but according to Edna Johnson, SVP for global communications for Burger King, malfunctions in the Flash and XML programming were responsible for putting the captions up. A misspelling of "Burger King" had also been fixed, she said.
The site, created by Crispin Porter & Bogusky of Subservient Chicken fame, is designed to look like a rock band site. (The band is named CoqRoq, the lead singer Fowl Mouth.)
Check out the site.
Posted by richard ting at July 27, 2005, 06:41 AM
July 26, 2005
GAP Viral -- watchmechange.com
Here's a GAP viral piece by Crispin & Porter. WatchMeChange is similar to what other clothing retailers are doing with their Virtual Mannequins. However, this one is more for fun than finding clothes. You get to customize a person to look like you, choose some clothes, and then watch it dance and strip. Stupid shit, but it's from Crispin so it must be good.
Posted by richard ting at July 26, 2005, 06:18 AM
July 24, 2005
PSP Cutout Guitars
From today, if you happen to see a giant cardboard cut-out of a guitar, then you should know that it is your duty to interact with it.
In a bid to liven up the streets of London, PSP presents CutOut and will deposit 500 1.75m-tall electric guitar silhouettes around town, designed by Peter Saville and complete with frets and dials.
It is hoped that people will want to pick them up and play them, reinforcing PSP’s message of freedom and fun.
‘The guitar is the defining icon of electric pop culture,’ says Saville, who had an open brief as to what template he would design. ‘I wanted to design a super-sized cut-out for custom colouring and anarchic pantomime. I wanted to inspire people to feel like a child feeling grown-up.’
Fifty of the CutOuts will be signed by Peter Saville, but undoubtedly the real finds will be the 20 CutOuts that have been customised by 10 of the UK’s most hotly tipped newcomers from the fields of photography, art, graphic design, illustration, sculpture, textiles, product design, and silkscreen printing.
Posted by richard ting at July 24, 2005, 06:02 AM
July 18, 2005
Nestea Hopes Site Goes Viral
JUXT Interactive has created an absurdly interactive web environment for the new Nestea drink, Nestea Ice, geared to the 12- to 24-year-old male. The site incorporates original music videos, a design feature that allows visitors to create T-shirts, a short film, and other means of keeping visitors on the site as long as possible, writes MediaPost. Nestea is counting on the fact that the site will take advantage of the viral potential of the web. Since its launch in late June it has attracted about 2,200 unique visitors a day, but that is without the online ad campaign that will launch soon. The campaign will also include TV, point-of-purchase, radio, PR, and sampling.
Posted by richard ting at July 18, 2005, 03:52 AM
July 16, 2005
Everyone Runs. Eventually
Here's an addicting advergame from Saucony in support of it's new Saucony Propel shoe.
Posted by richard ting at July 16, 2005, 03:27 AM
July 13, 2005
spring_alpha
spring_alpha is a networked game system based on Chad McCail's drawing "Spring" and the series "Evolution is Not Over Yet". This narrates the attempts of a small, urban community to create its own "utopian" society. The narrative is used as a metaphor for the real-world issues that the project explores and a focus around which speculative and critical ideas can develop. The software system serves as a "sketch pad" for testing out ideas for alternative forms of social practice at both the "narrative" level, in terms of the game story, and at a "code" level, in terms of working with the actual data and communication structures that support the game. It is an exploration of software and social governance in relation to Free Open Source Software practice. The project combines the development of an open software system along with workshop events that seek to broaden Free Open Source Software development principles into areas outside of programming.
Posted by richard ting at July 13, 2005, 10:34 AM
PINK Asks Young Women to Show Cards, Thongs
Victoria's Secret PINK brand is challenging young women to take up cards and take off their jeans with the launch of a strip poker Web experience created by agency Crispin Porter & Bogusky.
The site, at PinkPantyPoker.com, targets women aged 18 to 24 with a first person gaming experience akin to several others the agency has created for clients such as Method and Burger King.
Site visitors go up against a group of five other characters, attractive men and women, in a game of five-card draw. Each round has a loser, and that character must remove an article of clothing. If the user on the end loses, his or her arm extends into the screen and drops a shirt, skirt or pair of pants, as the case may be.
"We're excited about this one because it brings together game-like qualities, but it's all about the product. Your goal is to see the product," said Jeff Benjamin, Crispin's interactive executive creative director. "It's a different way of showing a catalog."
The strip poker experience is intended to spread virally, so PINK hasn't deployed an ad buy to promote the site's launch. Benjamin said some banner ads have been created and may be placed around the Web if the client decides it wants to boost traffic. He claims early traffic reports are good, and he expects the site to be a hit with men as well as women.
At the end of the game, an e-mail forward feature sends a message reading, "Supermodel Alessandra is throwing a Panty Poker Party with her friends Chris, Bobby, Theresa and Tatiane. Check it out at [URL]. Hope you've got your lucky bikinis on."
PINK has been a CPB client since mid-2004. The agency has completed some banner advertising for it in the past, but this is the brand's first "major" online initiative.
Posted by richard ting at July 13, 2005, 07:16 AM
July 12, 2005
Inside Xbox 360: An interview with Jeff Henshaw
Here's a great interview with Jeff Henshaw, the Executive Producer for Xbox Digital Entertainment at Microsoft. Jeff was part of the team that launched the original Xbox, and these days he's behind the push to make Xbox 360 a mainstream entertainment device.
Posted by richard ting at July 12, 2005, 08:45 AM
July 01, 2005
Nike Women: take sport, add music
[from adverblog]
Scholz & Friends Stockholm is behind the new Nike online marketing effort to support the Women Moves campaign. The agency has created a website to present the Nike Women Moves concept with a series of animated dancing silhouettes. Infotainment content explains visitors where to find the best dance courses and which trainer suits them best. A short film "The true tale" is also available. Don't expect too many special effects: the soundtrack is pretty good and so is the cartoon concept, but Nike used to do better.
Posted by richard ting at July 01, 2005, 02:20 AM
LEXUS TO LAUNCH PODCAST MARKETING CAMPAIGN
[from adage.com]
Signs 26-Week Deal With Calif. Radio Station KCRW
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Toyota Motor Sales USA's Lexus division has become the latest mainstream brand to seize on podcasting as a marketing tool. Lexus has bought into a podcasting campaign through public radio station KCRW in Southern California.
The luxury auto company has signed a 26-week deal to sponsor podcasts at Santa Monica, Calif., public radio station KCRW. The pact was signed on behalf of the Southern California Lexus Dealers and goes into effect tin October.
Lexus joins marketers such as General Motors Corp., Audi and Warner Bros. that are investigating this emerging technology that combines attributes of the Internet and radio to create a new sort of hybrid.
Podcasting is a method of distributing digital audio files across the Internet for users to download onto their iPods and MP3 players to listen to at their leisure. Some 22 million Americans now have a device that plays such files.
“Podcasting is a way to reach a fresh audience, a niche audience,” said Bill Flitter, chief marketing officer and founder of RSS ad network Pheedo. Audi, for example, is sponsoring a podcast for Autoblog. But Lexus also joins brands like condom maker Durex that want to appeal to younger, hipper consumers who are never far from their iPods and the desire to experience media of their choice when and how they want it.
