Hasta La Creative!

LONDON – The Advertising Standards Authority has banned an e-mail ad from the retailer Matalan, which offered consumers a two-week holiday home in Spain.

If you can count on the Republicans to scare the bejeezus out of you with bombs and vaguely threatening foreigners, you can also count on the Democrats to trot out some cute kids to basically say that if health-care reform isn't passed they will die and, in the process, bankrupt their parents. That's the message at the heart of the winning entry in the Organizing for America Health Reform Video Challenge.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Procurement took a bit of a beating at the American Advertising Federation's annual Hall of Achievement awards today, a sign that some marketers and agencies have reached the breaking point when it comes to the penny-pinching that they feel is starting to strangle creativity and innovation.

In past years, predicting post-Thanksgiving holiday-shopping results seemed like a game of rock, paper, scissors. Retailers are desperate for a profitable Black Friday. Of course, they remain at the mercy of those whose wallets matter most: women, the power shoppers who always make or break the holiday. To detect women's hidden holiday-shopping secrets, marketing consultancy Just Ask a Woman fielded a survey of 2,000 women to expose some half truths of Christmas 2009. Here's what we found.

ATLANTA (AdAge.com) — Coca-Cola is gearing up for its largest social-media project ever, one that will test its own organizational flexibility and force a number of its global markets into the digital and social-media space.

This spot from Subaru Canada for the Outback, created by DDB, Toronto, is an appeal to outdoorsy types and paints the Snuggie, the famous "blanket with sleeves," as the antithesis of all things rugged.

(TrendHunter.com) Photography can sometimes act as a portal into a person’s dreams, but I don’t know if I would willingly want to enter Grape Frogg’s nighttime visions. Although not frightening, they are certainly disturbing…

Une belle initiative de la société Esquire avec l’agence The Barbarian Group qui ont intégré ensemble de l’interactivité dans la dernière édition papier du magazine. Un numéro spécial “Augmented Reality” en kiosques, avec un design et des élèments d’animations 3D par Psyop.

Previously on Fubiz

• Augmented Reality Cookies
• Under Armour – ColdGear
• Grape Frogg

Design thinking translates rigorous trend research into meaningful experiences that lead markets and foster brand loyalty instead of merely following the cult of now.