Altoids honors Facebook's curiously strong

"This is a tribute to the stars on Facebook. Post on, my friends, post on." You'll have those lyrics and the infectious tune of this juvenile jam touting Altoids' Curiously Strong Awards stuck in your head all day. The somewhat facetious "awards," which users can confer via the brand's Facebook page, celebrate folks whose "excessive liking and ridiculous wall posts have become our escape from the monotony of the real world." Kudos to Altoids and ad shop Evolution Bureau for the canny admission that while Facebook interactions can often be completely frivolous, for millions they're also enjoyably meaningful diversions. In the clip below, the Facebook icon stand-ins for real-world objects (oversized "thumbs-up" gloves, plus a camera and guitar) are a fun way to underscore how seamlessly social-media activities mesh with our daily lives. Various Facebook types are lovingly skewered, including the Like-A-Lot, the Food-O-Grapher (who posts pictures of burgers and fries), and best of all, the Oversharer, who updates friends about his latest icky rash while sitting on a toilet and pecking away on his laptop. (That's how I write all my AdFreak items, by the way. No, I use an iPad.) This is mint-in-cheek social-media marketing nirvana. You'll LIKE it.

Filed under Altoids, EVB, Facebook, Gianatasio, Social media
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Oreo chases world record of Facebook likes

This is genius. Beginning at 9 a.m. Tuesday, Oreo will attempt to set a new Guinness World Record for most "likes" to a Facebook post within 24 hours. Of course, it's also the first official attempt at such a record. (NOTE: Actually, it's not. See the update below.) Talk about conjuring customer engagement literally out of nothing. Humorously, Oreo didn't even see the point of researching this. "Let's go for over 50,000 Likes," the cookie somewhat cavalierly urges its 16.6 million fans in a post from earlier today (which itself has already been liked more than 10,000 times). But it may take more than 50,000. About three hours ago, Justin Bieber wrote "Happy Valentines Day" on his wall. With 21 of his 24 hours left, he's already gotten 54,853 people to like that. Photo above by JanetandPhil. Via Brainstorm #9. UPDATE: So, it turns out that "Most likes on a status update" is an official category for a Guinness World Record, once set by a Dirty Dancing fan-page post. It's one of seven Facebook categories outlined by Guinness here (in a post that has a paltry 207 likes). Also, you have to apply for the record, not just set the high mark—so perhaps Oreo is on to something here. Still, Lady Gaga could get her 28 million Facebook fans to eclipse any Oreo record in a matter of hours with a few clicks from inside her eggmobile. UPDATE 2: In the end, Oreo was trounced by a different celebrity, Lil Wayne, though it's unclear if he registered his attempt with Guinness.

Filed under Facebook, Food and drink, Nudd, Oreo
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AT&T shouting your love from mountaintop!

AT&T is getting into the real-time video craze (pioneered by the Old Spice guy and his response videos) with this Valentine's Day campaign on Facebook from BBDO New York, in which bearded men literally shout your message of love from the mountaintops. You submit your bulletin of undying affection, and they send you a video of a guy shouting it (while supplies last) when it's ready. It's a fun idea, though maybe a bit odd for mobile-phone service, which after all was originally designed to make mountaintop yelling obsolete.

Filed under AT&T, BBDO, Facebook, Nudd, Social media, Telecom, Valentine's Day
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Taco Bell bribing Facebook fans for support

Taco Bell has launched part two of its response to the class-action lawsuit filed over the content of its tasty but not entirely beefy beef. Part one, you may recall, was the snarky "Thank you for suing us" ad. Now, the chain is thanking its Facebook fans for supporting Taco Bell in these tough times with a free Crunchy Seasoned Beef Taco each. "Throughout the beef class action lawsuit, the response and enthusiasm from our Facebook community has been overwhelmingly positive," says CEO Greg Creed. "We found it only fitting to reward these 5.4 million fans and a friend with a free taco. It's our way of saying thanks for their loyalty and support." It's also essentially bribing them to ensure that loyalty as the lawsuit staggers on. Just saying. Not that anyone's going to care about the outcome one way or the other—if anything, we'll all be surprised if Taco Bell's meat is actually food, let alone meat.

Filed under Facebook, Kiefaber, Restaurants, Taco Bell
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Should police post mugshots to Facebook?

"Your police department has tagged you in a photo on Facebook!" You haven't gotten an e-mail like that yet from local law enforcement—but you might in future. Facebook has long been an outlet for public shaming, but some members of the Huntington Beach, Calif., city council wanted to make it punitive by having the city's police force post mugshots of DUI offenders on the site. This isn't really a new idea—some cities have put DUI offenders' pictures up on billboards. But arrests and convictions are already matters of public record, so measures like this seem mean-spirited. In any case, the proposal was defeated in Huntington Beach. Perhaps they figured there are enough pictures of drunk people on Facebook already. Previously in mugshot news: Rip Torn is not sexual-predator stock art.

Filed under Alcohol, Facebook, Kiefaber, Police, Social media
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Soon, your life will be nothing but Facebook

Via AgencySpy.

Filed under Facebook, Nudd, Social media
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Can Facebook ads solve woman's murder?

Is there anything Facebook can't do? Yesterday, we wrote about the Dutch woman who is trying to kick drugs by joining the site—in the hope that expanding her social circle beyond addicts will help her succeed. Now comes news that police in Britain are buying ads on Facebook asking for help in their investigation into a young woman's murder. The body of Bristol architect Joanna Yeates was discovered on Christmas Day, a week after she went missing. She had been strangled. Now, police have launched a national Facebook campaign seeking witnesses. Says detective chief inspector Phil Jones: "The majority of people these days are spending time on Facebook and other social networking sites. This has become part of everyday routine for many people. This advert allows us to point people to special features on our website with all the latest information. It allows them to contact the incident room direct online rather than calling in." The ad directs anyone with information about the case to avonandsomerset.police.uk/jo.

Filed under Crime, Europe, Facebook, Nudd
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Can Facebook help re-socialize drug users?

You may be addicted to Facebook, but Monica Gebruikt would happily trade places with you. The 37-year-old Dutch woman is addicted to heroin and cocaine. Now, with help from Dutch charity site Ikgebruik.nl (and branding agency Lemz), Monica is taking part in a social-media experiment. She has set up a Facebook profile, and is asking you to friend her, so that she can expand her social network beyond fellow drug users. By making friends online, the thinking goes, she might be able to gain self confidence and find new interests that will help her quit using. In other words, social media could help re-socialize her. Monica promises no more than two updates per day and will never ask for money or try to visit you in person. "The only thing I will ask from you is your online friendship," she says. As of this writing, she has 282 friends. It's an interesting idea, based around the strategy of changing an addict's behavior by changing her perspective—though you have to wonder if Facebook connections to strangers will have any meaningful impact on her life. And of course, there's the problem of how to replicate this if it is successful, since so many addicts are destitute and have no access to the Internet. Good luck to her. Read her note to potential friends after the jump. Via Osocio.

Click to read more ...

Filed under Anti-drug, Europe, Facebook, Nudd
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Zuckerberg promotes Paraguayan university

Mark Zuckerberg famously dropped out of Harvard in 2004 to take Facebook to the next level. Less famously, he also logged some time at Paraguayan technical school Unigran. At least, that's judging by this Unigran billboard, in which the Facebook CEO proudly mingles with three other "graduates." Not surprisingly, Unigran does not appear to have a Facebook page. Via BuzzFeed.

Filed under Facebook, Nudd
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Honda knows if you've been naughty or nice

One clear lesson from the social-media craze is people find themselves endlessly fascinating. There's a cottage industry in apps that help them parse all that data they're producing. Honda is getting in on the action with a holiday-themed Facebook app by RPA. The NaughtyOrNice-a-tron crunches people's status updates for words deemed naughty or nice. It also checks out how frequently you "Like" things and how many invitations you accept. The end result is a vague approximation of whether you fall in the naughty or nice category. It's an interesting idea, but it would be better if it could pull in Twitter. Foursquare information would be even more useful—e.g., going to bars falls in naughty category, while visiting museums and the gym are make you nice.

Filed under Automotive, Facebook, Honda, Morrissey, RPA, Social media
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DDB makes real book out of your Facebook

Here's a home-run idea: DDB Paris promoted the launch of Bouygues Telecom's Facebook presence by creating 1,000 physical books made from people's own Facebook pages. Siavosh Zabeti, who came up with the idea with Alexander Kalchev, explains on Vimeo: "They wanted us to create something that would go beyond using your profile picture in a funny way, or pranking your friends with a small joke. We decided to look at the way we use Facebook and found that even though we use the social networking site every day, we forget our favorite moments we share online. So we created an app that could change that, and keep your Facebook, in a book." Developed by Perfect Fools for DDB Paris. This isn't the first such app. EgoBook also creates physical Facebook memoirs. Via Advertolog. UPDATE: Even more awesome is the fact that one of our favorite ad bloggers, Angela Natividad, makes a comment cameo at the 55-second mark.

Filed under DDB, Europe, Facebook, Nudd, Social media, Telecom
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Skittles makes videos of Facebook statuses

Skittles U.K. is all about the real-time Facebook stunts lately. A couple of weeks ago, they drowned a man in Skittles—dumping ever more candy on his head for each new Facebook "Like" they earned. Now, they're doing an interesting thing with Facebook status updates. The "Update the Rainbow" app encourages people to send in their status updates—which staffers at the (bogus?) "Skittles Call Centre" will read aloud for the camera, with the resulting video being posted on your wall. It's another fun idea, but once again, the execution is a bit lacking. The man-drowning-in-Skittles stunt suffered from a poorly lit, amateurish-looking set and a droning narrator. Likewise, here the call-center staffers are sorely lacking in personality. Overall, it reinforces what was so good about the Old Spice response videos: The concept was great, and the execution was even better. Via The Boston Egotist.

Filed under Candy, Europe, Facebook, Nudd, Social media
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Creative finds side job as Facebook vandal

If you're an agency creative with a great idea but no clients willing to give it a try, why not just use it to launch a new form of Internet vandalism? That's what BBDO creative director Jeff Greenspan did when he created "letterbombing," a group effort that uses profile photos to spell out a message on a public figure's Facebook page. According to The Daily Beast, Greenspan created the concept as a form of guerrilla marketing for client brands, but he couldn't find any takers. So he and some friends decided to support Stephen Colbert's sarcastic "Keep Fear Alive" campaign by spelling out the message on fan pages for Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, FOX News, The Daily Show, Justin Bieber and more. (You can see exactly how they did it in the video below.) The messages didn't last long, but they generated some buzz, especially when followed up with an autism-related blitz on the Facebook wall for New York Governor David Paterson. Sure, it may be vandalism, but it's not every day you see comment spam used as a form of activism. UPDATE: Greenspan clarifies in the comments, "Just to be clear, we meant, initially, for brands to have people bomb their own pages, not the other way around."

Filed under BBDO, Facebook, Politics
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Old Spice saluting its million Facebook fans

To celebrate hitting the storied 1 million "Likes" mark on Facebook, Old Spice has treated fans to the explosively awesome image above. It's truly something to behold. You could look at this thing 50 times and always see something new. But the best part has been the reaction from fans, many of whom want to have it tattooed on their bodies as soon as they leave work today. Among our favorite comments: "You can almost feel yourself sailing into odiferous destiny aboard the Old Spice sloop, the Soaring Man's Fist." "‎*falls on my knees, eyes go blind, speechless*" "This would have looked SO awesome on the hood of Tony Stewart's Chevy." And of course: "Old Spice fans should start a biker gang, however THE BIKES ARE NOW HORSES."

Filed under Facebook, Griner, Old Spice, Personal care, Social media
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British man on verge of drowning in Skittles

Skittles U.K. is currently eight hours into a 24-hour live-streaming Facebook stunt in which it is dumping loads of the candy on a man in a tank—adding more every 15 minutes, based on the number of new Facebook fans it gets. The man, David Phoenix, appears to be screwed, given that the Skittles are almost up to his neck already. He has already been subjected to 1,128,500 falling Skittles, with lots more on the way. Skittles seems to be gaining plenty of new fans, but could have done a lot better by hiring David Blaine—since everyone knows the British just love to screw with David Blaine.

Filed under Candy, Europe, Facebook, Nudd, Skittles, Social media
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Agency self-promo spams Facebook Places

Creativity has a mini case study of an "innovative" recruitment program supposedly done by ad agency Jung Von Matt in Stuttgart, Germany. In the proud tradition of agencies buying competitor keywords for jobs ads, Jung Van Matt decided to do something similar with location-based services. The agency allegedly simulated a U.S. IP address to gain early access to Facebook Places before its German launch last week—then created fake Facebook Places for a bunch of fellow agencies. When employees went to check in at those agencies, they got a pitch to come join Jung Von Matt. Even if this campaign actually happened (it seems like awards bait), what they're doing is just spam. Facebook and Foursquare have way too many fake locations in their databases, a problem that makes using the services a pain in the ass. This hardly seems like a great way to lure digitally savvy recruits. One other thing: The credits list five people. It took five people to set up 10 fake Facebook locations and come up with a couple different lines of copy? No wonder clients are pissed they're spending too much and getting too little.

Filed under Europe, Facebook, Job hunting, Jung von Matt, Morrissey
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Agency sites reborn on Facebook, Twitter

BooneOakley won praise for ditching the tired agency site in favor of a clever YouTube channel to show off its stuff. With social all the rage, Grey Stockholm has taken the next step: It's traded its dedicated agency site to go all-in on Facebook. There, users can "Like" Grey, see work, comment on posts and do the regular Facebook things. Not to be outdone, Argentine shop Kamchatka has recast its site as a Twitter account. Actually, several. Each section of the site has its own Twitter handle. On the surface, this makes lots of sense. Facebook pages are getting more and more powerful, and plenty of campaigns are ditching the microsite in favor of the Facebook platform. Twitter is the current belle of the ball. But at the same time, both sites feel unnecessarily gimmicky. Thanks to APIs, sites can have all the social functions of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube without having to choose one or the other. It would seem to make more sense to integrate all sorts of social tools into a destination site rather than choose one platform over another. Via Adland.

Filed under Agency web sites, Europe, Facebook, Grey, Kamchatka, Morrissey, South America, Twitter
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Facebook not so high on marijuana-leaf ad

Facebook is blowing smoke in the face of its core demographic by demanding that pro-pot organization Just Say Now remove the pot leaves from its on-site advertising. Not to say everyone on Facebook smokes like it's legal, but many of them do support legalization, and young people in general are more likely to vote if such measures are on the ballot. Granted, JSN won't get anywhere petitioning President Obama to support pot legalization, and its claims that this decision is "like telling [Facebook] they can't use the F in the square [in its own logo]" are more than a little hammy. But I'm still on their side, if only because you almost have to be stoned to navigate Facebook's constant user-interface changes.

Filed under Facebook, Kiefaber, Marijuana
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Social-media sites get vintage ad treatment

You've gotta love these vintage-style ads for social-media sites, such as "Twitter: The sublime, mighty community with just 140 letters!" Check out four full-size executions here. While it might look like the results of a clever Photoshop contest, this is actually a campaign from Brazilian agency Moma to promote Maximedia Seminars. The tagline on the second page of each spread is: "Everything changes fast. Update." While some of the English is a bit rough, the São Paolo shop deserves credit for capturing the aw-shucks enthusiasm of golden-age American advertising, with lines like the description of YouTube as a place to "send and watch splendid and captivating films." The real proof these ads aren't actually vintage? There's not a single woman getting spanked or male lust tarp in sight. Thanks to my friend Bill for pointing me to this on Laughing Squid.

Filed under Brazil, Facebook, Griner, Parody, Skype, Twitter, Vintage, YouTube
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Is this skin-whitening app beyond the pale?

The great thing about the Web is that it's truly worldwide, as the name suggests. That can be a problem for marketers, though, with campaigns that might fly one place but not so much elsewhere. Take Unilever's skin-whitening product marketed under the Vaseline brands. These creams are popular in India but it's safe to say would horrify many people in Western countries. That's why it's hard to be shocked that Vaseline's "Transform Your Face" Facebook app, created for Unilever by Omnicom, has elicited a touch of consternation in some quarters. The idea is rather obvious: You can lighten the skin tone on an uploaded photo, which is then plopped on the body of a dude in a white tuxedo. There is something jarring about hitting the "Lighten my skin" button. I'm rather pasty to begin with, so I couldn't get it do much. A Wall Street Journal reporter with a darker complexion gave it low marks on effectiveness. Needless to say, a mini mob is forming on the Vaseline Facebook page demanding that the brand remove what critics are calling a racist application. The problem, which isn't unique to social media, is that the application is simply a reflection of the product. If Vaseline were to admit that a skin-lightening app is offensive, what does that say about the product?

Filed under Controversy, Facebook, Morrissey, Vaseline
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The end of the world, as seen on Facebook

To help promote Season 2 of its survivalist reality show, The Colony, Discovery Channel has launched Join the Colony, which simulates how your social circle might react on Facebook as a pandemic unfolded. Created by Campfire with sci-fi novelist J.C. Hutchins as the lead writer, the site generates fictional updates from your real friends, family and colleagues. They're usually discussing the effects of the outbreak on the cities where they live, with occasional questions about whether looting is morally defensible. The site includes video footage from the show, fake blog posts, and even links to real content from Discovery shows such as Survivorman. The final result isn't quite as traumatizing as the site's many warnings imply, but it is quite entertaining to see your Facebook "friends" — many of whom don’t really know each other — looking to one another for comfort, support and advice on how to evade CDC roadblocks.

Filed under ARG, Campfire, Facebook, Griner
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Cannes shares Zuckerberg and other Q&As

The Cannes organizers have finally gotten around to sharing the last batch of videos from last month's festival (footage that was previously marooned inside the CannesLions.com site). A backstage interview with Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg is posted below. Jump over to our RealTimeCannes site for interviews with Chuck Porter, Martin Sorrell, Mark Tutssel, David Droga, Craig Davis and many others.

Filed under Cannes, Facebook, Interviews, Nudd
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Facebook movie poster has its enemies, too

The first theatrical poster has been unveiled for The Social Network (see the full image here), the upcoming movie about the creation of Facebook. And it's brought out the graphic-design spergwizards on BuzzFeed, whose reactions are pretty harsh. "I really thought that this was an unfunny photoshop until I realized it was a real movie," says one commenter, while another opines that "it looks kind of like a dumb drug PSA." Unfavorable comparisons to promotional material from American Psycho are also being made, but honestly, layout problems are thematically appropriate for a movie about Facebook, whose UI gets worse every time they "improve" it. And the tagline itself isn't bad at all. Also, we can at least take solace in the fact that it isn't a MySpace movie. The design of those posters would presumably strike people blind.

—Posted by David Kiefaber

Filed under Facebook, Kiefaber, Movies
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Alex Bogusky has a Facebook impersonator

Crispin Porter + Bogusky creative chief Alex Bogusky has become quite the social-media star. After swearing off Twitter, he's become quite prolific on the service, not to mention popular, with more than 15,000 followers. He's waded further into the oversharing waters with a Posterous blog (he says it isn't really a blog, but it has all the elements of one) that's featured some interesting posts, although his interview with himself understandably rubbed some the wrong way. It turns out Bogusky also has quite a burgeoning following on Facebook with a fan page at Facebook.com/BoguskyAlex. Only he didn't set it up. The page pulls in his Twitter feeds, videos of Crispin campaigns and a few different profile photos of the man. Bogusky posted on Twitter that the page "isn't me," but it's a nice flip to be the only adman to have a Facebook fan page created for him.

—Posted by Brian Morrissey

Previously on AdFreak:
Amid downturn, WPP brass poke each other

Filed under Alex Bogusky, Crispin Porter, Facebook, Morrissey
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Crispin's Facebook app finds your ideal VW

The last time Crispin Porter + Bogusky released a Facebook app for a client, it stirred some controversy. It was Whopper Sacrifice, which encouraged people to trade friends for a free sandwich. The agency is back now with an app that's much less likely to offend. Meet the Volkswagens purports to match users with the right car model based on data from their Facebook profiles. After you install the application, it churns through information like your date of birth and educational history. It then spits out two matches. There's no explanation for how these are generated. For me, an unmarried male in New York City, it recommends a Passat station wagon—or a GTI. Those are kinda different options. I sent a note over to Crispin asking what data it uses for the matches. I'll update when/if I get an answer.

—Posted by Brian Morrissey

Filed under Automotive, Crispin Porter, Facebook, Morrissey, Volkswagen
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