Flash Mob

Okay, whoever is doing the commercials for AT&T knows what's up. Here's another one I like.

UPDATE: Turns out it's the ad agency BBDO Worldwide. Well done, people.

How To Hijack A Video Advertisment

This is incredibly cool. This dude enabled his iPhone to take over any video screen and make it play whatever is on your iPhone, as he demonstrates in Times Square in the above video. This would seem to have unlimited possibilities for troublemakers. I'm looking at you, Banksy.

Be Here Now

I must say, this Windows Phone commercial absolutely nails it. I'll be the first to admit, I'm totally guilty of acting this way, which is maybe why it resonates with me so much! I particularly like the guy dropping his phone in the urinal and the woman in her lingerie being ignored by her man in bed.

The best part of this ad, however, is the tagline at the end: "Be here now." If you're not familiar, that's the title of a wonderful book you should check out if you haven't already.

Well done, Windows Phone advertising people.

Weed Ad Campaign

My sister Christine––an Art Director in Chicago––sent me this faux Ad Campaign for Marijuana, were it to be a product that was legal and for sale. This is just a snippet, so click here for the full effect. With legalization on the ballet next Tuesday here in California, this could become a reality sooner than we think!

The Small Stakes

Jason Munn is an artist who specializes in concert posters. There's a good chance you've seen his work before. His studio in Oakland is called The Small Stakes. Click here to read an article from The Chronicle about him and his work, and click here to visit his website where you can see over 70 of his awesome posters.

Suck & Blow

Oh, France. God love you. This would be their anti-smoking campaign. Not really sure it accomplishes that, but it's certainly playful and eye-catching. Here's their explanation:

"The ads suggest that smoking is being a slave to tobacco by showing young guys and girls kneeling down in a simulated forced oral sex scenario with the cigarette assuming the role of the penis."

This assumes 'forced oral sex' is a negative. Fail.

[Thanks to Hello Francis]

Bathroom Of Horror

To promote some action/suspense channel in Hamburg that plays horror films, this bathroom was set up for the lights to go out moments after you enter and replaced with black lights that show a gruesome and bloody crime scene. Among the splatters and puddles of blood, it says "See what others don't see. 13TH STREET. The Action and Suspense Channel." Totally rad. Click here for more.

A Window Into The Future

I actually saw this set up in person a couple years ago, but had forgotten about it until I stumbled across these pictures on a blog. It was something the Red Cross did, I guess to promote...um...the Red Cross...and how it's there for you in a disaster...or something? It was set up across from the Ferry Building and is simply an exact picture of what it's set up in front of, but altered to what things would look like if, say, an earthquake had hit. Pretty sweet. Click here for more.

Google's Superbowl Ad

Ok it might have been a little sentimental, but I still liked it. It's also the first advertisement I've ever seen from Google, which is sort of ironic considering they're basically the leader in advertising.

Best Seat In The House

To promote Toshiba’s Regza SV LCD TV, London-based ad agency Grey London strapped a bunch of GPS devices and a helium balloon to a red armchair and sent the sucker soaring into the heavens.

The brave little living room chair made it to 98,268 feet before falling safely back down to earth.

More info can be found here.

[Via The Daily What]

Art & Copy

In short, Art & Copy is a documentary about the world of advertising and its history, and being a person whose career is represented by one half of the title, I was immediately intrigued, and after reading a bit about the premise I was certainly very interested, but the trailer really made it look kind of poorly done. I will still see it, but I hope it's not as obnoxious as the clip above makes it look. It seems like there could be some very interesting information from some pretty accomplished people. I hope.

"Motion" By Acura

There are so so so many horrible, loud, annoying car commercials on television. Seriously. So many. So when a car commercial is not loud and annoying, that is a plus. But when it's actually good...well, then you blog about it, I guess, haha.

This commerical from Acura is actually completely beautiful to me. I'm very curious as to how they filmed it. I'm thinking maybe the actors were underwater, and then they did some editing to place them in those locations. Also, the voice is apparently James Spader and the music is an étude from Chopin. Excellent choices. Suffice it to say, Acura should be very proud of themselves.

Pretty Vacant

A billboard company in New Zealand is using Paris Hilton’s face to sell “vacant” boards. Absolutely fantastic.

[Thanks to Minus Manhattan]

You Can Say Anything With A Smile

Excellent ad campaign from Crest. They could make a hundred different versions of this concept. Love it.