Carlsberg tries to 'unbottle' bashful Swedes

Carlsberg beer and ad agency Akestam Holst are going social in Sweden with their "Unbottle Yourself" mobile app, inviting the nation to let its collective blond hair down and loosen up a little. Weird, I'd always considered Sweden a swingin' sexy socialist paradise. Wasn't there a song called "Sweden Swings (Like a Pendulum Do)"? Kidding. I know that was Norway. The Carlsberg contest asserts that Swedes are "the most reserved people on the planet," and since there's no way an alcoholic beverage would ever exaggerate in its advertising, I guess that must be true. To win a grand-prize party trip to Hong Kong, Swedes must accomplish various "missions." These include: skipping down the street for at least one block; wearing a helmet at the gym; washing the windshield of a stranger's car; pretending to be a tour guide on a bus; and placing water bottles on the floor and racing between them like a ski pro. Sounds like a typical day for the AdFreak staff, except we do most of that stuff naked. My favorite Carlsberg mission is speaking with a slight German accent the whole day. It really does stipulate "slight." Vell, that's probably vise. The Swedes may be shy, but those Germans can't take a joke.

Filed under Akestam Holst, Alcohol, Carlsberg, Europe, Gianatasio, Social media
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Foursquare-enabled ad dishes out dog food

Foursquare has finally made itself useful—to non-humans, anyway. As seen in the video below, a pet-food company in Germany has put up a billboard urging you to check in at the location on Foursquare—and in return, it spits out some dog food for your best friend to nosh on. This is a step forward for Foursquare, which is not known for providing much nourishment to really any living thing. In terms of ads that appeal to dogs, there's actually somewhat of a proud history there. Last year, we wrote about dog-food-scented ads on U.K. sidewalks, designed to lure pooches (and their owners) over for a sniff. But our favorite is still the 2001 campaign for Animal Planet, also in the U.K., which featured lamppost ads that smelled like urine. They brought over the dogs, and then the owners were presented with companion ads at human-eye height promoting Animal Planet programming. Via Mashable.

Filed under Animals, Europe, Foursquare, Nudd, Social media
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Mac & Cheese will turn your tweets into ads

On Monday, Crispin Porter + Bogusky began holding quick-fire Kraft Macaroni & Cheese contests, in which anyone who tweeted about Mac & Cheese had a chance at getting his or her tweet turned into a commercial. So far, they've made three spots—one of which (below) aired on TBS's Conan and Lopez Tonight last night, with two others (after the jump) getting posted to the brand's Facebook page. It looks like more Twitter-inspired spots are on the way, with the brand reaching out to people as we speak (and promising a national spot, so the TBS tie-in might be a daily thing for the time being). The brand is really into Twitter lately, having also made the cool Mac & Jinx game. And these new ads are pretty good (if rather non sequitur) for being whipped up in just a few hours. They've got decent humor, and the world's most famous homeless man is still voicing the slogan. Plus, this kind of quick content goes perfectly with the brand. Don't most people only make Mac & Cheese when they're lazy and want something fast?

Click to read more ...

Filed under Crispin Porter, Cullers, Food and drink, Kraft, Social media, Twitter
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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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Charlie Sheen's first paid tweet is a #winner

Judging from his Twitter numbers and the continued media frenzy surrounding his every move, Charlie Sheen is now the most important person on the face of the Earth. Kate Middleton must be fuming! In just 48 hours, Chuck pulled in more than 400,000 clicks for his Ad.ly tweet sponsorship of Internships.com, and by late yesterday, the firm received almost 75,000 applications from folks angling for an eight-week internship with the troubled TV star. Sheen's ad begins: "Do you have #TigerBlood? Are you all about #Winning? Can you #PlanBetter than anyone else? If so, we want you on #TeamSheen as our social media #TigerBloodIntern!" Holy hashtags, is this rummy down with the social or what? Sheen claims to have "TigerBlood" in his veins that protects him from evil. I wouldn't be surprised by anything found racing through his system. As Charlie's intern, "You will learn how to promote and develop the social media network of Hollywood's most trending celebrity." Translation: You'll be scoring drugs for da man. The application deadline is Friday, with résumés due Monday. Emilio Estevez should apply—the buzz could make my dream of a Mighty Ducks 4 a reality. Of course, that fucking Chrysler twit also needs work.

Filed under Ad.ly, Celebrity endorsements, Gianatasio, Internships.com, Social media, Twitter
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Chrysler throws down an F-bomb on Twitter

Whoever was manning Chrysler's official Twitter account on Wednesday morning apparently sucked down too much #TigerBlood before work. "I find it ironic that Detroit is known as the #motorcity and yet no one here knows how to fucking drive," the brand tweeted, much to the surprise of its nearly 8,000 followers. Turns out an employee from New Media Strategies sent out the R-rated tweet (having apparently just suffered through a difficult morning commute), and was promptly fired. Chrysler later apologized, saying: "Chrysler Group and its brands do not tolerate inappropriate language or behavior, and apologize to anyone who may have been offended by this communication." The profanity is one thing—but just as weird is how ludicrously at odds this tweet was with Chrysler's current brand messaging of celebrating Detroit, as seen in its Super Bowl spot with Eminem (who might have approved of the rogue message, actually). What do you think of this? Can any brand use profanity on Twitter—and if so, which brands and when? Via Jalopnik.
  UPDATE: Chrysler said Thursday that it has fired New Media Strategies (i.e., will not renew its contract when it's up), presumably because of this incident. Also, Chrysler has clarified on its blog that it did not request that the culpable NMS employee be fired—that was NMS's decision. But the automaker also makes it clear that the offending tweet was unacceptable. "Why were we so sensitive?" reads the post. "That commercial featuring the Chrysler 200, Eminem and the City of Detroit wasn't just an act of salesmanship. This company is committed to promoting Detroit and its hard-working people. The reaction to that commercial, the catchphrase 'imported from Detroit,' and the overall positive messages it sent has been volcanic. ... With so much goodwill built up over a very short time, we can’t afford to backslide now and jeopardize this progress."
  UPDATE 2: Pete Snyder, CEO of New Media Strategies, offers this statement: "New Media Strategies regrets this unfortunate incident. It certainly doesn't accurately reflect the overall high-quality work we have produced for Chrysler. We respect their decision and will work with them to ensure an effective transition of this business going forward."

Filed under Automotive, Chrysler, Controversy, Nudd, Social media, Twitter
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Microdunk in these Twitter basketball shoes

Shoe designer Brass Monki has gone from custom-designing Super Mario and Bob Marley shoes to something even more embarrassing: Internet-themed sneakers. He's put together some Nike basketball shoes featuring the Firefox and Twitter logos, and Adidas hinted (or threatened, depending on your point of view) last year that they were planning something similar—showing off some Twitter and Facebook concept shoes. These are supposed to be for "geeks," but geeks are too busy biting the heads off chickens in carnival sideshows to tweet regularly, so I'm assuming they mean nerds. They're off base either way, because all the nerds I know display their nerd plumage through anime and webcomic merchandise. These shoes look like what their cat-lady aunt buys them for Christmas after hearing they like the Internet.

Filed under Brass Monki, Footwear, Kiefaber, Nike, Social media
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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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Enjoy Twitter ad links without all the Twitter

A common and persuasive argument against Twitter is: "Who has the time?" It's true that Twitter can be a rabbit hole that sucks up big chunks of a day. On the other hand, Twitter is a gold mine for links to useful information. McKinney's Nick Jones hopes to reconcile the advantages and drawbacks with a neat new project called "Crowwws Nest." Jones pretty much quit using Twitter because it took up too much of his time, but he didn't deny the value of it. So, he used the time he wasn't tweeting to build something. Crowwws Nest gathers—oh hell, curates, if that's your thing—the links shared by 250 ad-world tweeters. The site then displays the top 10 most-shared links among the ad world's twitterati. The site updates itself every 15 minutes, eliminating duplications along the way. Jones tells us he worked off our own Adweek 25 list, of which he was briefly a member until he retired to work on more productive matters. Looks like he used the time well.

Filed under McKinney, Morrissey, Social media, Twitter
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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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Mercedes holds Twitter race for Super Bowl

Mercedes-Benz, which is advertising on the Super Bowl this year, is hoping to drive engagement with something called the "Tweet Race to the Big Game." Beginning four days before the Feb. 6 game, four racing teams led by four celebrities (Serena Williams, Rev Run, Nick Swisher and Pete Wentz) will make their way to Cowboys Stadium outside Dallas from Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and Tampa in specially equipped Mercedes vehicles, competing in a series of challenges along the way. The winner isn't who gets there first, but who gets the most points—determined in part by which team generates the most Twitter activity (what Mercedes is calling "Tweet Fuel") along the way. Actually, there's five celebrities, as @LenKendall, one of the Adweek 25, is on Swisher's team. The teams are competing for a pair of 2012 C Class Coupes, so the stakes are high. Mercedes ad chief Steve Cannon says, "We think the combination of our advertising and the Twitter Race will create the type of 'living' advertisement that engages people in new ways." Does it sound engaging to you?

Filed under Automotive, Kiley, Mercedes-Benz, Social media, Super Bowl, Twitter
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Soon, your life will be nothing but Facebook

Via AgencySpy.

Filed under Facebook, Nudd, Social media
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Must you use social media to understand it?

News that Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal + Partners founder Jon Bond is joining a social-media agency is surely a sign of the times. After all, Facebook has more than 500 million members, and the ad industry seems to spend most of its time tweeting. Bond tells The New York Times that he's a huge believer in the power of social media. Not so much for himself, however. Bond doesn't seem to have an active Twitter account. There's one registered to Jon Bond as @jbondkbcom. It follows a single person, Omnibus PG CEO Patricia Gottesman, and was updated a single time, in April 2009: "i am trying to figure out why twitter is so BIG." Bond is not that much into Facebook, either, where he has 54 friends and last posted to his wall in November 2009, when he asked for votes for Adweek's ad executive of the decade award. He hasn't uploaded any photos other than three different profile pictures, which are professional headshots. He doesn't appear to have an active blog, or Foursquare, Tumblr or Flickr accounts. He does use LinkedIn, where he boasts 177 connections and a single recommendation—from Gottesman. Now, there is a good argument that social media—maybe all digital—has been too mired in tactics rather than strategy. But you have to wonder if marketers who are desperately trying to make sense of social media wouldn't want counsel coming from someone who uses it at least somewhat regularly.

Filed under Kirshenbaum Bond, Morrissey, Social media
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Anti-billboard billboard proving itself wrong

Yammer, which is some kind of enterprise social-networking service, put up this billboard in San Francisco this week. It strains for irony by taunting the very medium it's using—billboards being a prime example of one-way, old-media communication, which Yammer despises. But the ad doesn't make much sense. According to an e-mailed pitch, the sign, hanging above 5th and Townsend, "aims to demonstrate to passersby (and potential hires) that old methods of communication are becoming obsolete, and Yammer is ushering in a new standard." Yet this billboard will get Yammer more attention than anything they've ever done. That would be the opposite of futile and obsolete, wouldn't it?

Filed under Nudd, Social media, Yammer
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The story of the Nativity told in social media

Here's a great holiday video from Portuguese digital shop Excentric that tells the story of the Nativity with the key players communicating via social media—Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, etc. I think the best part is that Joseph plays FarmVille. He really is a loser! Via Adverblog.

Filed under Holidays, Nudd, Social media
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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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Latest real-time ad gambit: Twitter drawings

Wieden + Kennedy's response videos with the Old Spice guy have inspired a cottage industry of real-time ad efforts. Poke London is a fan of this craze, especially when it comes to Twitter. The shop already did singing "tweetagrams" for Orange London. Now, also on behalf of Orange, it's offering "Secret Portraits" to tweeters. The idea is, you include the #secretportraits tag on Twitter posts describing what you're doing—e.g., "Eating a burrito in my bathrobe"—and if it tickles Poke's fancy, it will have a student illustrator draw up the scene for you. Poke has ginned up 22 portraits since kicking off the program a week ago. What this has to do with Orange is beyond me, but it's a safe bet this will become a staple of conference presentations.

Filed under Europe, Morrissey, Orange, Poke, Social media, Twitter
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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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Publicis's Twitter video gets dick-joke remix

Publicis Groupe thought it would be fun to advertise its Twitter feed with footage of staffers (including Maurice Lévy and Kevin Roberts) in their natural habitat, making little chirpy birdie sounds at each other. But shortly after it was released, some prankster uploaded a new version with subtitles for the chirps—which turn out mostly to be dick jokes. See what can happen when remix culture decides to remix you? Check out this page to see the original and the remix (now with more penis!), which implies that Publicis employees spend most of their time taking pictures of their tiny todgers. Via BNET.

Filed under Cullers, Dick jokes, Parody, Publicis, Social media, Twitter
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Folk festival's print ads protest social media

Ad agency Marcus Thomas rags on social media in its print campaign for the Kent State Folk Festival. Ads carry headlines like, "The sensual, pulse-pounding rhythms of the Samba shouldn't be experienced via YouTube" and "Clapping your hands when you like a band is way better than clicking some like button." There's even a reference to MySpace, which the folkies should feel kinship with, given its descent into irrelevance. The campaign seems a tad hypocritical, considering the festival operates YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Flickr accounts, and that they sent the campaign to ad blogs seeking cyber-publicity in the first place. Clearly the whole back-to-basics counterculture thing is a sham and these faux-hippies are tappin' their toes in time with the Man. See four print ads after the jump. Via Ads of the World.

Click to read more ...

Filed under Gianatasio, Marcus Thomas, Music, Social media
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One-testicled man has a ball with fundraiser

Slackers of the world have a new patron saint. Mark, the one-testicled Torontoan who spent 25 days at home on camera in his underwear, has raised $50,000 for the Canadian Cancer Society through his publicity stunt with underwear brand Stanfield's. Surrounded by webcams 24 hours a day and clad only in the client's undies, Mark shattered the goal of 25,000 Facebook Likes (each Like earned a $1 corporate donation), sparking Stanfield's to double its donation pledge to a maximum of $50,000. The challenge for the brand now is using this success to build a long-term Facebook audience. Unfortunately, the 52,000 Likes generated by the project were for the campaign site, not the brand's official Facebook page. But Stanfield's has found other ways to keep the momentum going, like offering to donate $1 toward testicular-cancer awareness for each online purchase of "Mark's Favourite Gitches," which might make sense to those of you who speak fluent Canadian.

Filed under Canada, Cancer, Griner, Social media, Stanfield's, Underwear
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Social-media app halts drinking and posting

Do you post things to Facebook and Twitter late at night, when you're hammered, only to regret it the next day? Webroot, the unboring anti-virus software, is here to help. Working with TDA Advertising & Design, the company has created the Social Media Sobriety Test, an app that's intended to save you from yourself before yet another drunken post further alienates you from the few friends you have left in life. You can customize which sites to block and the times of day when you are most likely to be intoxicated. To access the sites during those times, you must pass a randomly selected mental-agility test like dragging a cursor in a straight line or typing the alphabet backward. I couldn't do the latter, and I'd struggle mightily with the former, even while sober. Besides, what fun is posting stuff online without being smashed? I'll conclude this post by taking another sip and simply pointing out that you've got butt-ugly kids, you're so damn hot, you can take this job and shove it, and I slept with your mom.

Filed under Gianatasio, Social media, TDA
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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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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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