Can your cat do this?

btw The Siamese cat bears a striking resemblance to one Manson.

Friday afternoon cuteness.

I'm getting soft in my old age....

Brilliant idea of the now.

It's sad to say, but the country that brought us the "crazy ones" seems to have lost it's zeal for out there ideas. Not so the Germans.

I absolutely love this idea by Paraplush, a German toymaker, that has created stuffed animals with psychological disorders. Indeed I am putting in my order as I type.

And I have lots to choose from. There's Kroko the crocodile, who is terrified of water; Lilo the hippo, who's been obsessed with solving the same wooden jigsaw puzzle for months; Dolly the sheep/wolf with multiple personality syndrome and Sly snake who suffers from terrifying hallucinations.

Says owner and creator Martin Kittsteiner, "Children and grown ups like their vulnerability and find something in them that gives them a great sense of comfort in helping to heal them."

Okay that may sound like major psycho babble, but it shouldn't detract from what is a very cute idea.


(Shared credit to Adfreak)

A man alone in the woods with a bear...

Sure this interactive campaign bears (couldn't resist) more than a passing similarity to Burger King's "Subservient Chicken", albeit with more rude options. But its brilliance is more to do with how it is being advertised.

I may be wrong, but this has to be one of the best, if not the best example of how to smartly advertise on YouTube.

So kudos to Buzzman for their cleverness. And for letting us see, sort of, a man get it on with a bear in the woods.


(Sharing credit to Alison Smith)

Who is the evolved species again?

If Mrs. Kitten Dumper can't be put to death, what should her appropriate punishment be? How about being forced to live with this guy for a few weeks to learn how to treat a kitten properly.

Although I still like my death idea better.


(Sharing credit to Farhana Gani)

Brain-teaser Monday.

In this commercial for American Airlines, a director asks, "why squirrel hate me?" Why does the squirrel hate him?

• The director ate the squirrel's nuts
• The director tickled the squirrel's nuts
• The squirrel is French and so hates everybody
• The director asked the squirrel to perform certain acts demeaning to a rodent of his stature
• The squirrel isn't used to working with c-list directors
• The squirrel left his happy pills at home
• The director is dating the squirrel's ex-fiancee
• The director doesn't understand that when squirrels love someone they act like assholes
• The director is a paranoid schizophrenic
• The director came all over his tail

Answer to last week's brain-teaser: BBDO 

Huffington Post headline of the now.

It doesn't quite have the brilliant wordsmithing of the New York Post's all-time classic, "Headless Body Found In Topless Bar", but it couldn't paint a clearer picture.

Happy image of the now..

No it's not a Ben & Jerry's stunt. Say hello to the K99, the world’s first ice cream truck for dogs.

It's actually a charitable ice cream truck based in London and all the proceeds go towards funding a volunteer group called the Berkshire Search & Rescue.

So far there are only two flavors for your pooches to choose from. "Dog eat hog world’" is a gammon and chicken sorbet topped with a doggy biscuit and wrapped in a cone, and my favorite, "Canine cookie crunch" is a creamy assortment of various dog biscuits.

I won't hold my breath for the cat version.

Okay this is the last reference to Paul, I promise.

Pre World Cup this Geico commercial would still be pretty underwhelming, especially for a brand that routinely surprises with stellar work.

But on the tentacles of a real, super-duper octopus whose worldly exploits arguably dominated the later stages of the World Cup it seems even more feeble, not to mention incredibly short-sighted. Wonder if advertisers can take out insurance against bad advertising.

World Cup security threat of the now.

I fear for Paul the Octopus's life. Never underestimate the passion insanity of the soccer fan. But, even worse I overheard a couple of creatives who work on NY Lottery talking about using him in a lotto campaign. Will not this poor octopus be left alone.

Paul the octopus makes his prediction.....

The wait is literally over. It may have taken Paul the octopus an hour to decide, but the great eight-legged sage of our times has picked Germany to beat Argentina. Given his extra long deliberation, however, expect the quarter final to go to penalties.

And word in the aquarium is that Advertising Age have just signed him to predict next year's Cannes lion winners. Clearly a step up from Bob Garfield.

Hmmmmm.

This commercial really bothers me. At best it's ironic, but not in a good way. It features a gorilla distracting a driver as he speeds along treacherous, winding roads. Even worse he tries to get the driver to take his eyes of the road to look at a computer screen.

Here's the ironic thing. The gorilla is nagging him about his long-term future. Completely oblivious to his immediate safety. As a result no kudos will be passed round. And maybe gorillas should stick to chocolate commercials.

Still one of the best ever.... (Or should that be two)

Okay this is very recent, but definitely worth reviewing. And while I do think it's another great example of branded-entertainment, it's probably more commentary than entertainment. Let's call it branded-commentary (hey ma, I think I've just invented another term).

Kudos to AOL, Grey/London, director Errol Morris and the brilliant John Hurt for lending his voice. One minute inspiring. The next haunting.

I suppose you want to know where I stand on the internet. I say it's a good thing precisely because it's a bad thing. Case in point. Where else would one be able to find something so cute yet so disturbing at the same time.

Planet of the Apes reprise.

This caught my eye. One, because it's a lovely piece of branded-entertainment with a neat, topical twist on "Planet of the Apes". The monkey returns home rather than humans. The planet is still fucked though.

And two, because I've been trying to push a branded web series reprising "Planet of the Apes" for a while now. Mine is for Coke, but more about that later in "Dead Ideaville". For now enjoy the music video and the message.

Kudos to Leo Burnett/Sydney and musician Ben Lee.


(Sharing credit to jawbone.tv)

Brain-teaser Monday.

What is this carefully redacted print ad for?

1. Good Housekeeping Magazine.
2. Fidelity.
3. This isn't an ad, it's my way of letting you know I recently won a million dollars.

Answer to last week's brain-teaser: b) Animal Adoption 

***The pet shelter in question is Animal Care & Control, a great place that is doing amazing work to help stray animals find new homes. Right now there are hundreds of beautiful cats and dogs and a few rabbits waiting to get adopted.

Joelapompe stikes again.

It seems the beautiful Pedigree spot that has my cats in an emotional state isn't exactly original. According to Joe it stated out as a music video in 2006. My cats will be devastated. I believe it was Benjamin Franklin who said, "Originality is the art of concealing your sources."

Made your day.

Even my cats wept with joy when they saw this.

(Sharing credit to Paul Vinod)

Bedtime story Tuesday.

On his show last night Keith Olbermann read a wonderful short piece by James Thurber called, "The Peacelike Mongoose." The context behind Keith's reading, which I won't get into, made it all the more powerful, but the words themselves sans any context are worth going over again and again. Beautiful story. Perfectly written. And one of the great lines ever!

In cobra country a mongoose was born one day who didn't want to fight cobras or anything else. The word spread from mongoose to mongoose that there was a mongoose who didn't want to fight cobras. If he didn't want to fight anything else, it was his own business, but it was the duty of every mongoose to kill cobras or be killed by cobras.

"Why?" asked the peacelike mongoose, and the word went around that the strange new mongoose was not only pro-cobra and anti-mongoose but intellectually curious and against the ideals and traditions of mongooism.

"He is crazy," cried the young mongoose's father.
"He is sick," said his mother.
"He is a coward," shouted his brothers.
"He is a mongoosexual," whispered his sisters.

Strangers who had never laid eyes on the peacelike mongoose remembered that they had seen him crawling on his stomach, or trying on cobra hoods, or plotting the violent overthrow of Mongoosia.

"I am trying to use reason and intelligence," said the strange new mongoose.

"Reason is six-sevenths of treason," said one of his neighbors.

"Intelligence is what the enemy uses," said another.

Finally, the rumor spread that the mongoose had venom in his sting, like a cobra, and he was tried, convicted by a show of paws, and condemned to banishment.

Moral: Ashes to ashes, and clay to clay, if the enemy doesn't get you your own folks may.

"Reason is six-sevenths of treason." Think about that.

What do you think Joe?

If you haven't already you must check out joelapompe.net, the site "dedicated to hunting and exposing similar advertising ideas from around the world". I bring this up because I just had a "joe" moment.

There I was happily wandering the series of tubes known as the internet when I stumbled upon this.    

It's for a service called Pet Butler in Kentucky. From what I can ascertain it was done by a local ad agency about two years ago, give or take a few months. Funny, you say. Indeed so. Especially the first time round when I DID IT about ten years ago!

So as Joe would ask, "shameless copycat or unfortunate coincidence?" You make the call.

(One thing beyond doubt is that my pigeon is more well read than their dog.)

Solving the recommendation chore.

In these tough times with so many qualified candidates fighting for so few jobs, recommendations may provide that added spark to seal the deal. However, as has been pointed out to me, writing a stand-out recommendation on behalf of a friend, ally or work-mate is a pain in the ass. Maybe not as bad as doing the vacuuming, but still an unwelcome chore.

Sure, you'll probably labor through it out of sense of obligation, perhaps even mutual self-interest, but it still requires time and effort that could be spent on something far more valuable, e.g. smoking, drinking, looking at videos of cats playing in a bathtub of water.

For the really unmotivated, I'm currently working with some sharp minds to create a website, tentatively called "The Recommendation Generator". It will feature a catalog of recommendation templates for users to play with. e.g. haiku recommendations; recommendations from famous historical figures; recommendations from movie characters; recommendations that rhyme. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, here is sample recommendation template that will be sure to add heaps of attractiveness to any candidate. Just cut and paste, fill in the name and title of the interested party and incorporate into appropriate professional social media sites like Linkedin.

continue reading