Hasta La Creative!

I oscillate between being impressed and appalled by the juxtaposition of human tango and car (?) tango in this promo for Ford Fiesta.

LONDON – Digital direct marketing agency Cheeze has announced two new appointments, as part of a drive to expand its team.

Kudos to whoever created the work in the video above. I recorded it as I walked through Grand Central terminal this morning. It was as interactive as a subway ad can be, unless you consider the all-too-frequent drawing of mustaches (et cetera) on posters “interactive”.

In case you can’t see it, here’s how it works (and yes, I know this isn’t “new”, but it’s still worth talking about). A standard video plays on the white wall, projected from a unit hanging some 15 feet away. As people walk by, the camera reacts to them, and creates a “wake” behind them. The effect is astounding &#151 and caused more than a few people to pay more attention to the actual spot (which if I recall correctly was for the Navy).

I’ve got to run out, so no time to find out whodunnit. If you’re the responsible party, e-mail me at matt@mediabistro dot com.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media

Schematic CEO Trevor Kaufman is clearly not easily scared. After all, he sold his interactive shop to WPP to go to work for Sir Martin. So, it only figures that he’s coming down from the adrenaline rush of Advertising Week by traveling to Nepal to execute what would be the first skydive over Mt. Everest. He’s one of 34 adventurers attempting the feat, which calls for a minute-long freefall, followed by a 10-minute parachute float to a landing at 12,000-odd feet. Impressive. Ah, but there’s more. Kaufman recently revealed himself as quite the clothes horse in The Wall Street Journal, knowledgably holding court on the art of “CEO casual” and button strategy. Be sure to watch the video about how he uses clothes to communicate messages to his clients and employees.

—Posted by Brian Morrissey

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There’s a new social media ad service posse in town, their name is Socialmedia – ‘the social advertising network’. Their twist? To use your face with their ads, which they’ll show to your friends –

We believe displaying friend pictures and first names within Facebook ads makes the content more relevant for you, and that you benefit from seeing relevant ads rather than being exposed to ads that may not have any meaning to you.

Flickr user Jakerome is not keen on these banners and wonders if they’re even legal:

I believe what you are doing violates users rights to control their image. If a company wants to use my image to sell a product, they need to get a model release or another written contract. If you do not have a model release on file, then you are opening yourself up to civil liability.

Good Point[tm].

While Social media themselves have jumped into that thread and state: “we make it easy for users to opt out of this program. and we also try to ensure that the only people that show up in ads are those that “raise their hand” explicitly and want to share their preferences with their friends (which we enable via the ad layer)” whatever the hell that means. So they reckon that they’re covered.

Can we all aree that it’s creepy though? And it might even mess up our carefully constructed cool / social standing – if something like this showed up, I would be excluded from the Madonna hater club and stripped of my stripes. I don’t see anything on Socialmedia that says this won’t happen.

Though, since I will have nothing to do with <a href=”http://commercial-archive.com/node/142198
“>evil old facebook, who just hired Ted Ullyot, former right-hand man to former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, as its general counsel [his resumé – the torture memo and other illustrious projects – prediction: waterboarding will be the new “poke”] – it won’t happen to me anyway. Hat Tip newmateria.

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LONDON – The Serious Fraud Office has decided not to investigate allegations relating to television phone-in programmes and competitions on the BBC and ITV.

LONDON – Barry Sayer, chief executive of Clear Channel Outdoor UK, has been appointed to the global board of the International Federation of Outdoor Advertising.

Man, the fish-eyed smile on the woman in this Xbox 360 commercial really made me uncomfortable. But then the camera panned around to show the giant hole in the back of her head, and I relented somewhat. Undergoing a lobotomy that removes the entire brain and replaces it with a home theater must be excruciating, so we should all cut her a little slack. Same goes for the slaw-jawed yokels in the other two ads, here and here. The T.A.G creatives behind the campaign must have gone through similar procedures, because no one with an intact brain would confuse vacant staring with living in the moment.

—Posted by David Kiefaber