Hasta La Creative!

If you’re looking for a good reason to avoid tanning beds—or if you’re just a perv who likes hidden-cam footage of women undressing—then Ads of the World has the video for you. Created by the Danish Cancer Society, this clip has actually been circulating on YouTube for seven months or so, with teaser names like “Tanning Bed Hottie” and “Sexy Tanning Salon Hidden Web Cam Video.” (And while some claim it could be shorter and still be effective, I would counter with one of the greatest horror-movie clips of all time.) The creators seem to have outed themselves at a pretty good time. A 30-year study released this month found that melanoma rates have skyrocketed among women since 1980, likely due to excessive tanning indoor and out. The study makes no mention of demonic tanning machinery, although it was probably implied.

—Posted by David Griner

Mars is flogging its Starburst GummiBursts all over the place. The “Share something juicy” commercials riff on people who share sensitive information. Those clips are OK, but the Nite Fite animated faux talk show on NextNewNetworks is more strained than some of my AdFreak posts. Yeah, it’s that unfunny! The candies themselves apparently have a liquid “squirt” center—which is pretty disgusting. Check out the “Scientists in a Box” spot, which essentially portrays the Gummis as squirting carriers of some kind of contagion. Candy should look good, taste great and buzz my brain if I eat a whole bag. It should not “squirt” or behave aggressively. That said, I ran downstairs after viewing all these ads and tried to find some GummiBursts—but all the store had were Sour Patch Kids from Cadbury Adams. God, these things are great, they’re so freaking sour, my mouth is numb. And best of all: no squirting of any kind.

—Posted by David Gianatasio

LONDON – ITV1’s live coverage of the German Grand Prix, in which British driver Lewis Hamilton drove to victory, netted an average audience of 3.3m viewers yesterday, according to unofficial overnight figures.

Lawrence Downes of The New York Times doesn’t like Al Gore’s media strategy to combat global warming. He writes in an op-ed piece: “If the job is so huge and urgent, why is the ad campaign so pedestrian? Mr. Gore is spending $300 million, a lot of it his own money, in the next three years to get the country moving on global warming. He has promised the biggest, most ambitious public-service advertising blitz anyone has ever seen. So far it’s a cute green logo, the word ‘me’ turned upside-down to ‘we.’ It’s an earnest Web site. It’s Al Sharpton and Pat Robertson on a couch, joshing about saving the Earth. It’s Nancy Pelosi and Newt Gingrich, joshing on a couch.” No doubt Downes would prefer something stronger. His solution? “Get George Lois, the pope, Carole King, Neil Sedaka, will.i.am, Nelson Mandela and Steven Spielberg in a room with whoever handled the Axe body spray contract.” The pope and the Axe guys—there’s a Grand Effie-winning creative team waiting to happen. And Carole King? I thought she succumbed to carbon emissions years ago.

—Posted by David Gianatasio

LONDON – Virgin Media customers have viewed BBC programmes such as ‘EastEnders’ through iPlayer about 10.5m times since the on-demand service was made available on Virgin’s TV platform last month.

LONDON – UBC Media, the specialist radio services group, plans to conduct a strategic review of its future, once the £15m sale of its traffic, news and entertainment information division to US-based Global Traffic Network goes through.

Q: How do you let the punters know that your trucks now run on compressed natural gas, which emit less greenhouse gases?
A: Hippie paint them all, of course!

Agency: Brave, North Sydney
Creatives:
Geoff Corbett (Executive Creative Director)
Yanni Pounartzis (Creative Director)

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LONDON – The National Organisation for Foetal Alcohol Syndrome UK (NOFAS), a charitable group campaigning against the consumption of alcohol during pregnancy, is launching its first national ad campaign.

LONDON – Royal Mint has hired Bray Leino to its integrated marketing account following a pitch.