No more good-natured Mel Gibson parodies

Let’s step back for a moment and recall a happier period in Mel Gibson’s life, like when Deutsch/LA spoofed Braveheart in this funny California cheese “Happy Cows” commercial. Later, of course, he made The Passion of the Christ, South Park got to him, and then things really unraveled.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on July 31, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

Snickers campaign gets Mexican-style spoof

Why should English speakers have all the fun in lampooning the current Snickers campaign? These Mexican-style spoofs showed up in our inbox last week. We had to get an explanation from the guy at The Vidal Partnership who sent them. Can you translate them?

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on July 31, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBack (4)

Can we please let Nipplegate rest in peace?

I like indecency as much as the next guy. But I’m getting sick of this never-ending phony-baloney pseudo-controversial CBS-FCC-Janet Jackson flap. The time has come for America to heal. How long ago did the gloved one’s sister show some skin at halftime? I think Joe Namath played in the game. Hell, Justin Timberlake was still popular—that’s how long ago it was. Let’s end this once and for all. Here’s some advice for all the players involved: CBS: She showed her breast, you paid the fine. Move on. (And be glad the FCC doesn’t impose fines for quality, because once you run out of cities to tack onto CSI:, it’s all over. Love Monkey?! Who greenlighted that?) FCC: You made your point. You’re a big tough federal agency, and you can tell everybody what to do. Except for satellite and cable. And cyberspace. (I’m not sure if you have any power over mobile phones, but if you could hook me up with a Sprint Sidekick III, that’d be sweet.) Bottom line: Move on! Janet: Have you considered dropping your pants? Or the charade that you still have a career? Justin: It’s time for a Lance Bass-style revelation, my man. The tabloids would be “lovin’ it!” Joe: No matter how much they offer, keep your clothes on.

—Posted by David Gianatasio

Published on July 31, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (11) | TrackBack (2)

Too busy having sex to focus on training

Montreal is currently hosting the first World Outgames, “bringing together lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) athletes from around the world in unprecedented numbers for a celebration of sport, culture and human rights.” One of the sponsors is COCQ, a Quebec anti-AIDS group, which has marked the occasion with this not-safe-for-work (even though it’s animation) viral ad, created by Montreal agency Marketel. If this is how these athletes train, we may not see too many world records broken this week. UPDATE: Check out this story from Time magazine’s European edition, about how more European advertisers are coming out of the closet.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on July 31, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

A frightening call from Midnight Spank

You’ve seen BBDO’s ads for the Midnight Spank block of programs on the G4 network, including the one with the rodent who eats the guy’s kidney. But the campaign also has a viral component. On a special Web site, you can enter a friend’s phone number, and G4 will prank call him or her at the stroke of midnight. This reminds us of the viral for the DVD release of The Ring Two, which also involved unnerving calls from the client. (Among the younger generation, anything they can use to humiliate or frighten their friends can be a big hit.) The friend will know right away it’s a recorded message. So it’s good that one of the recorded messages is from the calico-colored guinea pig, who has a great creepy voice.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on July 31, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

The chorizo gets its day in the sun

In what is surely a sign of the growing muscle of Hispanics in the U.S., the chorizo is set to become the fifth sausage in the sausage race around the bases that occurs before the seventh inning of every baseball game at Miller Park in Milwaukee. Beginning on Saturday, a lucky fan at each game will don a nine-foot foam chorizo outfit complete with sombrero (see photo), immerse him- or herself in the persona of “Mr. Picante,” and do battle with fans representing a hot dog, a bratwurst, an Italian sausage and a Polish sausage. Maria Monreal-Cameron of Wisconsin’s Hispanic Chamber of Commerce exulted, “His skin tone is the actual color of chorizo sausage. It’s perfect.” His main competition: Guido, the Italian sausage, who has taken top honors in 19 races so far this year. Picante should also be on the alert for random acts of violence. Three years ago, Pittsburgh Pirates first baseman Randall Simon took out the Italian and Polish sausages with a light tap to Guido’s head.

—Posted by Brian Morrissey

Photo: Milwaukee Brewers

Published on July 28, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)
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Maybe the big pharmaceutical companies should be sponsoring pro cycling

The news that Tour de France champ Floyd Landis failed a doping test has caused lots of fans to wonder if any top cyclists don’t use cocktails of performance-enhancing drugs. Fallout may come from sponsors, too, which after all pay the bills for the Tour. Landis’ team sponsor, Phonak, weirdly enough a Swiss manufacturer of hearing aids, was already dropping its name from the team and is due to be replaced by Barclays Global Investors’ iShares. Taking a quick glance at a list of Tour sponsors, it seems like there’s little rhyme or reason to what kind of companies get involved. There’s telecommunications (T-Mobile), IT (CSC), media (Discovery), even a maker of hot-water heaters (Saunier Duval-Prodir). Who knows how many will stick around. Maybe cycling should look to more relevant sponsors: the pharmaceutical companies themselves. Amgen, the maker of cyclists’ favorite drug, red-blood-cell booster erythropoietin, is already sponsoring a big cycling club complete with snazzy jerseys dotted with the red blood cells endurance athletes crave. It even became the title sponsor of the Tour of California last year. And if iShares gets cold feet, perhaps Oscient Pharmaceuticals would step in. Oscient makes Testim, a handy cream for getting an extra shot of T.

—Posted by Brian Morrissey

Published on July 28, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (1)
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A game only a guilt-free mom could love

This definitely falls into the category of Friday afternoon time waster: a new game from Fuel, Buddies Scrubbies, promoting Johnson & Johnson's Buddies , a line of soaps and shampoos to clean the little kiddies. (Buddies, Scrubbies, Kiddies …? Good lord!) Anyway, game-playing mothers are charged with the task of seeing how many kids they can clean in two minutes. While I've seen several studies lately showing what big-game players mothers are, for me, spending time on this would induce a massive fit of parental guilt—maybe I should be spending that time washing my real kid?

—Posted by Catharine P. Taylor

Published on July 28, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (2)

Fringe performers and like-minded sponsors

The Capital Fringe Festival kicked off yesterday in (where else?) the nation’s capital, as Washington, D.C., proudly hosts a series of “innovative performance styles and artists,” which loosely translates to theatrical presentations that don’t always make immediate sense. The event has received heavy coverage from Fringe and Purge and boasts a dizzying array of alternative sponsors, including Theater Mania, artdc.org, Washington City Paper and, perhaps the mac daddy of alternative organizations, the Canadian Embassy. It’s nice to see events like this sponsored by like-minded groups (unlike, for example, the Warped Tour), and the shows do look interesting. If Andrew Ullrich’s excellent Grounded is any indication, any readers who attend will be in for a treat.

—Posted by David Kiefaber

Published on July 28, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
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Who's the biggest brand of them all?

It's hard to turn a blind eye on this blog to a list of the top 100 global brands, such as the one that BusinessWeek/Interbrand released yesterday. We didn't spend quality time this morning going extensively through the ranking's criteria, but we were a bit surprised at who was missing from the top 10—namely, Apple. The survey's top 10 were Coca-Cola, Microsoft, IBM, GE, Intel, Nokia, Toyota, Disney, McDonald's and Mercedes. Apple comes in at number 39, wedged in between Pfizer and Kellogg's; Dell, meanwhile, a brand that we consider to be somewhat battered, came in at number 25. Perhaps our surprise at Apple's relatively low ranking has to do with the global nature of the list and our U.S.-centric selves succumbing to a depressingly isolationist worldview. If you want to cut to the chase and go directly to the list, skip to page 11.

—Posted by Catharine P. Taylor

Published on July 28, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)