$50,000 Go-Karts – Ferrari Testarossa Replica

(TrendHunter.com) The most expensive go-kart in the world, this accurate replica of the Ferrari Testarossa has a price tag of $50,000.

This luxury go-kart is nine feet long and hand-built. It features a 5hp Briggs & Stratton…

16th Century Chic – Gareth Pugh’s Elizabethan and Shakespearian Couture (GALLERY)

(TrendHunter.com) Paris Fashion Week kicked off over the weekend with the quaint and very dramatic Spring/Summer collection by English fashion designer Gareth Pugh.

Inspired by William Shakespeare (1564–1616), Queen…

Exclusive: Russell Simmons and Donnovan Andrews Working to Build Cultural Shop

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We’ve confirmed that Russell Simmons and Donnovan Andrews are working together on a venture to create a new agency.

The basic idea: “addressing the multi-cultural market in ways that jay-z and and steve stout did not.”

We first told you about the possibility of their plan in early September. According to a source close to the matter, we can tell you that our story was indeed correct. There will be more details on this story to follow.

For background, Andrews is the founder of Performance Bridge Advertising. He’s worked for DDB and Deutsch, and according to iMedia is a regular contributor to CNBC. See a video with Donnovan’s thoughts on iMedia, after the jump.

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More:
WPP Moves To Ireland & Marty Is Gordan Gekko

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Facebook Did Not Confirm Me as a Friend

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(left to right: Matt Van Hoven, Kelly Samardak, Ryan Katana photo source)

It was a rainy Thursday night when I sauntered up to the entrance of the Nokia theatre in Times Square. I was dressed, equipped with Flip Mino and Blackberry, and ready to get some story tellin’ done from inside the Facebook Party that capped off Advertising Week V.

Earlier in the week, I attended the opening party at 30 Rock’s famed ice rink bar. There I met some nice industry folks, had a few cocktails and even shot a bit of video before hopping off to take care of other business. The barrier to entry at the opening night was low &#151 and I hadn’t anticipated any issues since the PR folks knew I was planning to attend. What’s more, I had confirmed they received my schedule, just to be safe.

Back to the Facebook event. Being that I had taken the time to make sure I was on the FB list, I felt confident that I wouldn’t have any trouble getting in. But as it goes, such was not the case. I stepped out of the rain, flashed my press card, and presented my name for the obligatory “name check” on that fancy clip board the velvet-ropers are always tottering about with under their arm. Much to my dismay, “The great and mighty AgencySpy” was not listed. Neither was my real name. WTF?

See what happened, including an awkward encounter with some FB employees, after the jump.

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Innovative Self-Branding – 10 Unique Business Cards

It’s getting harder and harder to stand out from the crowd these days, and while designing a unique business card can be challenging for most, some people seem to be on creativity overdrive!

These 10…

iPhone Coasters – Meninos Drinking Apps

(TrendHunter.com) Created by Brazil?’s Meninos design and based on the iPhone menu icons, these drink coasters would be a great gift for any iPhone addict.

All of their favorite applications are there, from iPod to Settings,…

Home Depot Lines up the Short List

In case you haven’t heard (though you should have by now), the finalists for the highly-in-need-of-representation Home Depot have been released. If you’re not on this list, then um, sorry.

They are: McCann Erickson New York; Hill, Holliday, Connors, Cosmopulos Boston; JWT New York; Grey Global New York; GSD&M Idea City Austin, and Richards Group (who currently holds the account).

(Thanks Tribble, via Adweek)

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Biofuel Wave Jumpers – Biocat Catamaran (GALLERY)

(TrendHunter.com) Going green traveling on the deep blue seas in a fierce catamaran would be unbelievable. The Biocat Catamaran uses a V10 diesel or two regular automotive engines that run on biofuel. The boat was designed…

R/GA Knows It’s All About Your Space

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R/GA San Francisco is moving to some new digs on 35 South
Park Street in the South of Market district. Meanwhile, Lamar Advertising is moving back into downtown Toledo, which is a lovely little city.

Just take a second out of your busy day, please? The top image is a picture of the street view of R/GA’s new office. The bottom is Lamar’s new headquarters. If you watch the video announcing Lamar’s ground breaking, you’ll see that the architectural drawings have the building looking bigger, but no better. Yes, these two companies do different things, but Lamar runs 150 outdoor advertising companies. Surely, employee morale and appearance count for something. They’re in the sales game, too.

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Military Chic Jackets – Victoria Beckham in Harper’s Bazaar (GALLERY)

(TrendHunter.com) In a recent issue of Harper’s Bazaar Indonesia, Victoria Beckham looked positively stunning in a jacket signed by Colette Dinnigan.

Within the pages of the fashion magazine, Victoria Beckham showed…

The New Digital Model Might Look Something Like A Production Shop

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Tim Nolan has been on the interactive side of this business, since 1996. He was a founding partner of global nightlife community Clubplanet.com (all you ravers get your hands up!) and has since, worked at Digitas, Big Spaceship, Deep Focus, Firstborn, etc. Sheesh. Nolan is currently the Senior Content Director at Freedom & Partners.

Nolan and his current company are pushing a new modus operandi when comes to content that has interactive shops acting more like production companies (producing content) rather than quick fix artists.

You’ve been an evangelist for a new digital production agency model. Why? What’s wrong with the old one?

Get the answer to that question after the jump…

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Innovative Self-Branding – 10 Unique Business Cards (GALLERY)

(TrendHunter.com) It’s getting harder and harder to stand out from the crowd these days, and while designing a unique business card can be challenging for most, some people seem to be on creativity overdrive!

These 10…

Likeability Is An Asset In A Popularity Contest

Marketing consultant, Alan Wolk, believes there is wisdom in keeping things simple when attempting to market a complicated product in difficult times. So does the Republican Party, which is what makes them a tough foe for the overly analytical Dems.

Here’s Wolk’s take on the appeal of Sarah Palin:

I think that part of the equation with Palin, (and this is likely a subconscious thought) is that there’s a strong feeling on the part of most of her supporters that all the experts, all the smart guys, all the pundits and gurus and PhDs have messed up. That despite their stellar credentials, they’ve managed to do nothing more than lead us into the morass. So that a Disney-movie heroine can’t actually do any worse. And if her entire foreign policy experience is limited to the ability to see Russia from her house, that doesn’t really put her at a disadvantage compared to the guys with Harvard PhDs in Islamic Studies who still can’t seem to find Osama Bin Laden or figure out a way to keep the Muslim extremists at bay.

In other words, there’s a strong strain of anti-intellectualism in America. None of this is news, of course. Fox and conservative talk radio have made billions by shaping content that isn’t too hard to understand.

I find all this interesting because I want to believe Americans have common sense, even if they lack education. We often say in advertising how we need to honor the customer. Yet, there are countless cases where “dumb ads” outperformed “smart ads.”

“So bad it’s good” is the line that comes to mind. Maybe that’s what Palin is and maybe that’s exactly what the majority wants. It’s scary for Dems to consider, but if Dems want to win (and you have to win before you can serve “the people”), they better start walking a mile in a working woman’s shoes.

PARTNERS+simons Gets A New Healthy Practice

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The Boston based PARTNERS+simons has launched a Health Practice. The agency has been handling health care and bio-tech companies for years, so it makes sense. The shop will dedicate 2/3 of its staffers to the division, while rest of the company focuses on their financial and technology practices.

To kick off the launch, the shop will be releasing two new campaigns: one for Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey and the other for, Capital District Physicians Health Plan of New York. Wordy clients, no?

The rest of this press release makes you feel as though you are drowning in unnecessary lingo such as: “the agency has generated remarkable quantitative outcomes” and “the agency judiciously measures campaign effectiveness.”

“We are the only brand communications company we know of in the outcomes business.” said Tom Simons, President of PARTNERS+simons. Couldn’t you just have left it at that?

[image source]

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Needle-Free Injections – Painless “Mother’s Kiss”

(TrendHunter.com) Needle-phobics – breathe a sigh of relief and rejoice!

A Japanese inventor has created a syringe alternative which will offer needle-free, painless injections. Similar solutions have been created before,…

Political Satire – Sarah Palin Facebook Page

(TrendHunter.com) In the spirit of political satire, it was only a matter of time before someone sat down and created a Facebook page for Sarah Palin.

Well, that time has come. Points of particular interest include the…

Advertising, Muslims, The Election And A Newspaper Fall-Out

The Oregonian and 70 other newspapers have come under fire for distributing a DVD as an advertising insert that many are calling “anti-Muslim propaganda.” The mini-movie called “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West” was created by Raphael Shore and media watch group HonestReporting. It was distributed by the Clarion Fund. You can watch an abridged version above. The newspaper has since been besieged with protesters outside of its office and letters/calls of complaints.

The regional newspaper’s publisher, Fred Stickel, said The Oregonian distributed the “DVD because it has an obligation to make its advertising as open as possible under the principle of free speech.”
The mayor of Oregon pleaded with the paper not to distribute it.

Meanwhile, North Carolina paper, The Greensboro News & Record, rejected the ad calling it “fear-mongering.” Editor, John Robinson, has said: “Of course it’s not free speech… Newspapers decide not to publish information every day. Most of the time we call it news judgment.”

Is this a case of a newspaper being so desperate for dollars that anything will fly? Keep in mind that The Oregonian is in the middle of offering buy-out deals to staffers, as are other newspapers under the Advance Publications banner.

Or is it tied into the election as The Guardian is speculating considering that the DVDs were sent to swing states (Ohio, Michigan, Florida)? More likely, it’s a bit of both. It definitely takes two to tango.

More: An Ad Exec Wants You To Pray For Sarah Palin

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How Dripping Candles Inspired Product Innovation


Product development should be mining cultural insights, be they Latino, Asian-American, African American or other. Not only do food products benefit from the incorporation of tastes and ingredients with a culturally specific root, but there are a number of other categories of opportunity including fashion, gift items, educational items, toys and games, and the list goes on.

David & Goliath, The Remake

Pitching massive corporations on a new idea can be a treacherous road. They can ignore the pitch, steal the idea or worse. It’s the stuff of legend and at time, material for a Hollywood movie.

According to Ad Age, this week Universal Studios releases “Flash of Genius,” a film that paints Ford Motor Co. as a corporate ogre.

The film is based on the true story of Detroit engineering professor Robert Kearns (played by Greg Kinnear), who invented the intermittent windshield wiper in the late 1960s and shopped it around to carmakers.

Mr. Kearns got a series of patents for his wiper design in 1967. He shopped it around to various automakers, but never reached any deals. Ford debuted intermittent wipers in 1969; other car companies eventually followed. In the 1970s, Mr. Kearns sued two dozen automakers for patent infringement.

Detroit Free Press also has a detailed article about the film’s release.

Carved Books – Novel Art Recycling (GALLERY)

(TrendHunter.com) Recycling books you are finished with is a noble thing to do. Most people bundle up their unwanted books and donate them to a charity organization for re-sale so that someone else can enjoy the storytelling…