Two Things.

Thing 1: Indulgent Bob Knorpp invited me onto The BeanCast last night with Kelly Eidson, Joe Jaffe and Ian Schafer. The ep's called "The Cow Goes, Moo!" and we talk Black Friday, Wal-Mart, pay-per-Tweet and crowdsourcing, among other stizzy-stuff.

I warn you: there's more than one Blockbuster porn joke, and most of them originate with me.

Thing 2: In ongoing efforts to make sense of Google Wave, I've started a wave about the rise of the chic geek. If you've got a Wave account, you can participate by adding me to your list -- angela [dot] natividad [at] gmail [dot] com -- and asking to join the chic geek wave.

Elf Yourself Dancing Flashmob.

Yeah, they went there.

This marks year 4 that Office Max has whipped out its suite of festive dancing bodies, waiting for heads. Elf Yourself. And while the general idea of flashmobs makes me cringe, the memory of disco elves -- one of last year's indulgences -- does worse things in the general sphincter area.

Credit for the Elf Yourself movement goes to EVB.

AdVerve Episode 7: The Thanksgiving show - iGod, Naughty Words and the Poetry of Tila Tequila

Download the show directly here. Or subscribe via iTunes:

This week's AdVerve is an icon-heavy melange featuring social networks, Oprah, and ... yes, an angry poem by Tila Tequila. (LISTEN TO TILA GET ALL NSFW N’ SHIT!)

First, we kick this week's episode off with an email from Chris, a listener from Japan, whose words of love warmed our figurative cockles. Then, just for sport, Bill suggests Twitter's dying even though he doesn't actually believe it.

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Levi's: Love, Lust and Storytelling

In April I got to see an ad:tech talk given by Senior Director Michael Perman of Levi's. It was called "The Art of Storytelling," something at which the company particularly excels.

Anyway, I was doing my usual trawl of exceptional William Shatner videos* the other day when I came across treasure: the two ads that got me stuck on advertising in the first place.

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Your Domestic Flights Hurt Bears.

This stressful piece of web cinema is brought to you by Plane Stupid, with help from agency Mother and production firm Rattling Stick.

The argument: every passenger on a given European flight is responsible for the addition of 400kg of greenhouse gases -- the weight of an adult polar bear.

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There's Too Much Vitriole in Here.

With that in mind, I give you a Bondi Beach flashmob, enthusiastically led by drag queen extraordinaire Joyce Maynge.

You got Spice Girls! You got Single Ladies! You got Whitney!

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AOL's New Logo(s)

Read the straight-faced PR. If you don't feel like it right now, that's cool, this part explains everything:

The new AOL brand identity is a simple, confident logotype, revealed by ever-changing images. It’s one consistent logo with countless ways to reveal.

Oh, okay. Suggested slogans:

• On the outside of LOLcat culture, looking in.
• Why CEOs should text less and/or not take input from their 11-year-old daughters, or nieces, or their friends.
  
• How to show your age.
• We just don't care anymore.
  
• Ftl.

Things You Don't Have to Explain to Friends

Me: I overpee.

Chelsi: I know.

"Et si Noël durait plus qu'un Noël ?"

"What if Christmas lasted longer than a Christmas?"

This spot for Orange, where a sweltering city breaks out its secret snowball reserves to extend holiday spirit beyond its normal shelf life, is brimming with so much warmth and good cheer that you'd never guess parent company France Telecom is being pummeled by a wave of suicides.

26 (and counting!) since February '08!

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When Did Clean Become So Preachy?

I've always dug method's pure approach to household care, but this "Shiny Suds" ad makes people against dirty sound suspiciously like...

Maybe that's too strong of a comparison.

The ad's an emotional plea for the passing of the Household Product Labeling Act. This would obligate all household cleaning products in the US to bear a label sporting "a complete and accurate list" of their ingredients.

Any product in defiance of the ruling "shall be treated as a misbranded hazardous substance."

Sounds like a good thing in theory. Method would come out looking like a rose, but under the light of these lecherous scrubbing bubbles it doesn't quite smell like one right now.

It just crosses a line, you know...?

By the Way, AdVerve's Fixed.

The squirrels that chewed through the servers’ wires have summarily been dispatched and all AdVerve shows are available again. Download you some:

 

Go West, Young Hipster.

Spread your seed, and the gospel of Coke!



That's all I have to say about that.

I Know How Silly This is Gonna Sound, But...

I think that, with the ease of data absorption gifted to us by YouTube, we should all spend at least a little bit of time learning about string theory.

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Themed Blogs About Icky People.

Here's a collection of human archives I've seen around the internets. Even if it's not on this list, I can almost guarantee there's a site out there, waiting for a a saucy potshot of you for public amusement.

The internet is creepy like that: it feeds collectors' compulsions. Add a dash of social troll and, well, you're in the business of a blog!

• People of WalMart
• Stuff White People Like
• Awkward Family Photos
• Asian Poses
  
• Bluetooth Douchebags
• Anti Duckface
• Why the Fuck Do You Have a Kid (via Candace)
  
• Cockshadows (!)
• I Hate My Parents (via @voelker, and to which credit must be given for the photo above)
• Sexy People (via @jadedgreen)
• Accidental Dong (also via @jadedgreen, and somewhat better than Cockshadows)
• My Parents Were Awesome (via Candace, kinda cool actually)
• People of Public Transit (via @wisey)
• Totally Looks Like
• Pale is the New Tan
• Hot Chicks with Douchebags
• This is Why You're Fat
  

I'm starting to see unnerving themes.

Sadly, no O-Face archive yet. Guess I just need to look harder. Any others?

The Fear™, and Life's Terrible Truth(s)

Last night, in conversation with a Highly Successful Ridiculously Wise Investor: So you brought your life and your business to a whole 'nother country, where the culture and the language are different from everything you know and understand. Weren't you scared?

Me: Yeah, but I'm still scared. I'm scared every day. I am starting to think this 'fear' thing never actually goes away.

HSRWI: YES! It never does.

I guess depending on your worldview, the above revelation can either be highly motivating or the exact opposite extreme. In the event that you don't know what to think, have some ideological Cheerios.

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AdVerve Episode 6: The French Connection

Fred. We interview Frédéric-Gérard Leveque for a unique take on the ad scene in Paris and the state of agencies in general.

One point that comes to mind after hearing Fred is that you realize the problems facing ad agencies in France are things ad agencies deal with all over the world. WE ARE NOT ALONE.

(BTW, there's a point in the 'cast where we forget the name of a good Swedish agency. I say 'Swiss' at the end of the show, but really it's Swedish. The agency we discuss is Farfar.)

Five minutes with... the other half of AdPulp, Danny Goldgeier, or “Danny G,” as he's called on the streets. He talks about getting out of the cubicle a little more. (Check him out on Twitter.)

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IKEA Turns Facebook Tagging into Brand Advocacy

Tag yourself on a $30 lamp. What do you win? The lamp. What's IKEA win? Impressions -- and the likelihood of more participation -- across your Facebook network.

(Via VOTW.)

Space: An Armchair Viewer's Next Frontier

With "Space Chair Project" for the Regza SV, Grey London aspired to bring Toshiba's "Leading innovation" tagline to the next level: stratospheric.

This is an amazing thing to watch, in part because it's something we've never seen before, but also because it represents the penetration of something utterly banal -- in this case, a chair -- into a sphere most of us can't even imagine crossing into ourselves.

IT'S (the edge of) SPACE, BITCHES!

Also, footage was taken with Toshiba cameras. More plus for the brand.

Yes, Trust Me, You'll Need One.

To help spread AdVerve love, grab a badge for your... whatever. Sure, badges went out with, um, not really sure, but just grab one. Copy and paste the code from the box and throw it in your... whatever. (It’s 125px x 48px.)

<p><a href="http://www.advervecast.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.advervecast.com/images/AdVerve_125_brdr.gif" alt="Powered by AdVerve" style="border:0"/></a></p>

AdVerve Ep 5: Uptown PETA Mix.

10 for 10 is back. (You love it.) We talk sexy burka wearers. Assassin shoes. Grizzly Bear. The children of stars, and more.

Five minutes with... this time out features the rants of The Girl Riot and her inside voice on the mic. Buckle up kids! She gets all into Twitter updates! Bad moves by band members! Weezer Snuggie!

Then we try something new where we take one brand or issue on our minds and come up with a fix for it. That’s part of the advertising world: sometimes, a client lands on your desk and you have no choice but to work on it. The victim this time out? PETA. Buckle up kids is right.

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Sesame Street Does 'Mad Men'

"Me too! I'm sad! Sad, sad, sad! We're SAD MEN!"

Sesame Street bitchslaps a series -- an industry, even -- and still manages to feel wholesome. It's ... sublime.

Via brentter.

There's More than One Naughty Way to Go Blind

This revisit of a familiar parental scare tactic does a few things well:

• It draws attention
• It conveys useful information about its cause without being preachy or making you feel tricked
• The punchline -- which ties it all together -- is actually funnier than the gimmick (masturbate -> go blind)

Solid shit, comrades. Only question remains whether it'll "go viral!" as the marketing directors say. (Two days already -- an eternity in internet time -- and just 640 views so far. Le sigh.)

Video, "Son Caught in the ACT (NSFW)," seeded by Serve Marketing. Discovered via Le Publigeekaire.

Speaking of Rejuvenating the Glossy...

...there's more than one way to skin a cat, and they don't all have to be digital. BONUS -- in this case, an advertiser's responsible.

For client BIC Uruguay, agency TBWA works with print mag Freeway to create an edition entirely in ballpen. It's beautiful; you can almost smell the ink! But maybe that's the pop music workin' its magic on me.

The work reminded me a little of this Mexican Scribe ad, where a boy's entire world is remade in notebook paper.

Will Augmented Reality Rejuvenate the Glossy?

It's my belief that there'll always be room in the market for a high-quality, well-designed print publication. Some reasons why:

• Reading habits are different online vs. offline. Online we skim and multi-task; offline we absorb longer paragraphs and deeper reporting (think investigative news stories). This could change with the technological progression of tablets, but there's still a long way to go in that arena.
• Online isn't the best place to appreciate an aesthetically-pleasing high-res graphic spread. Our experience of ads and art changes from medium to medium; pick up a copy of Monocle or Vogue, then ask yourself whether the images pop the same over the 'net. (Maybe this will change when everybody has a monitor at home that's the size of a plasma-screen TV. But that's not happening tomorrow either.)

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...is that anything like a Royale with Cheese?

There aren't many ways you can bring hot throbbing sex appeal to an assembly line hamburger, but McDonald's tries hard with Le M, a moan-infused food porn piece for the French market.

The money line: "Le M, sans doute c'est la plus belle création de la McDonalds." ("Le M, undoubtedly McDonalds' most beautiful creation.")

But wait for the plug for Le M Bacon -- when zoomed-in shots of lavish, languid bacon slices appear on three sides of this sin-tillating beef patty! Hissss.

For the track junkies, AdVerve partner in crime Bill Green obliges with info on the music: Flying Lotus' Camel (Nosaj Thing Remix).

'Baby Baby Baby' Leaps Atlantic for Sizey Cups

Heh. The day starts with news that American band Grizzly Bear's Two Weeks gets a French ad debut -- and ends with news that French band Make the Girl Dance's Baby Baby Baby goes American with Victoria's Secret.

The ad's for VS's new Miraculous push-up bra, which promises to gift its bearers with two additional cup sizes. Baby Baby Baby pulsates in the background as three supermodel standbys strut across the screen.

Their mighty-mighty demeanour draws a weird parallel to the original Make the Girl Dance video, where three girls strut naked, one after the other, down rue Montorgueil in Paris. The difference: you're left with the sense that the size of their basoomas has nothing to do with their bite.



I guess it's cultural.

Validating Stereotypes

Kito: Does booking an appointment with the hairdresser make your mood better?

Me: I got my bangs done recently on a particularly depressing day ... I guess it kind of helped.

Kito: Wow.

Kito: Women are strange.

Grizzly Bear Penetrates Peugeot's Hot-Track Lineup

It mesmerized us, it inspired fan art, and now Grizzly Bear's Two Weeks makes its debut into banality.

Say hello to "The Doors," an ad for the Peugeot 5008. After a day at the fair, a dad packs his family into the car and swings open the drivers side door repeatedly, only to find that someone else -- circus performers, his kids, his wife, a double of himself, a sad clown -- has commandeered his seat.

Slogan: "La meilleure place est aussi celle du conducteur." (The best place is that of the driver.)

While the spot itself may be a little "meh," French blog Mixedtape says Peugeot is well-known for introducing some solid ear candy in its TV spots. Some examples: Bhangra Knights' Husan for the 206, The Film's Can You Touch Me? for the 407 and The Caesars' (I’m Gonna) Kick You Out for the 407 SW.

Suitably eclectic company for Grizzly Bear. And knowing Peugeot has an indie ear gives the brand a streak of appeal it previously lacked -- for me, anyway.

Alain de Botton: Job Snobbery and a Healthier Definition of Success

"Next time you see somebody driving a Ferrari, don't think this is somebody who's greedy, think this is somebody who's incredibly vulnerable and in need of love." (*eager guffaws ensue*)

And a new way of looking at the old glass: "Any vision of success has to admit what it's losing out on ... where the element of loss is." Before leaping forward into the great blue yonder, make sure your ideas of success truly originated with you. Crucially, don't get caught up in the justice system of other people's eyes.

Don't know how secure you're feeling job-wise right now, but I personally found this encouraging.

Mickey Gets Makeover.

I wanted him to be able to be naughty — when you’re playing as Mickey you can misbehave and even be a little selfish.

- Warren Spector, CD of Junction Point, game dev for Epic Mickey

Nothing is sacred anymore. But for what it's worth, a meaner Mickey is infinitely more palatable than a skanky Rainbow Brite.

Discreet Packaging

Liaison dangereuse, une e-boutique de lingerie fine, viens de lancer la pub "Sexiness for Everyone" ("Pouvoir sexuel pour toutes, partout"), où une femme s'habille d'une manière séduisante avec les culottes hyper-sexy -- et termine avec une burqa.

Peut-être que c'est un cas typique d'un pays d'Europe de l'Ouest montrant le côté fétichiste du Proche-Orient. Mais franchement j'adore la thèse que la burqa lèche les flammes qu'elle est chargée d'éteindre.*

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Hot New AdVerve: "Trojan Wisdom"

AdVerve's episode 4 is jam-packed with topics and experimental features: describing near-universal media/marketing norms that have no names, rehashing the problems of Starbucks, and a cameo rant from Jetpacks about how we're on a full-speed treadmill to a knowledge-retention wasteland.

Get the episode directly, on the blog or via iTunes.

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Evidence of Everything Exploding!

Graphic artist Jason Nelson has released a new "art game creature digital poem" called Evidence of Everything Exploding. Like his past work it takes snippets of phrases, images and sequences we recognize, then mashes it all up in a digital rabbit-hole blender.

It's simple but it will frustrate you. What I love about it is that at the start of each level you have to stop and reorient yourself, understand what's going on, then slowly venture forth into a world with no apparent order. Sometimes you have help; many times you die.

But mistakes made in the game are integral to understanding how it works: what's your friend, what isn't. Slowly, a logic -- a benign intelligence, even -- starts to manifest.

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'Tic Tac tu craques!'

After over a month frozen on one non-working channel, I finally got the TV working again. And the first thing I see is this spot for Tic-Tac by agency Supamonks.

Tic Tac tu craques!

It ends. And I'm left sitting here thinking, Wait a minute. You're supposed to bite into Tic-Tacs?!

Why didn't anyone ever inform me of this crucial data?

Brooklyn Fare: Branding Stripped Bare

Brooklyn Fare from Mr. Mucca on Vimeo.

One typeface. Four colours. A wee bit o' wit, and a happy ending.

v.