Hasta La Creative!

In it continuing mission to prove the reliability of its laptops, Toshiba is out with some field testing in which Matt and Jamie put the brand’s laptop to all sorts of crazy tests. One such test is Gusto, a dog who slobbers all over the keyboard of a Toshiba laptop while trying to consumer a piece of bacon…all to prove how much wear and tear a Toshiba laptop can withstand.

Gross.

To a teenager there’s nothing worse than having your mother creep into your social life. Yet, that’s exactly what a group of moms does in this new Old Spice ad called Momsong. In the ad, the moms break into song and lament the fact their little boys are turning into grown men. Mothers emerge from behind closed doors, from the sky, in a laundry basket dragging behind a car, from underneath couch cushions and from behind creepy looking janitor masks.

The ad debuted last Friday and already has over one million views on YouTube. It is, by far, one of the craziest ads we have ever seen.

This is one of the most awesomely weird commercials we have seen in a very long time. It’s for a cereal brand called Oatmeal Crisp and it features various “crunching” competitions between the cereal and a tortoise, a duck, a marionette and a pair of robots. But, by far, the duck version is the best. Like any good wedding slaughter, there’s lots of screaming and lots of “blood.”

What’s the best cure for a hangover? Don’t let yourself be misled by all those organic concoctions that do nothing but make you smell funny. No, the best cure for a hangover is more booze. Just ask the experts, the Russians. Admittedly well known for getting their epic drink on, they have a product called KBAC/kvass which is created by the fermentation of flour and malt and results in a beverage with 1.2% alcohol, just the right amount to take the edge off a hangover.

Or so we are led to believe in this Red Pepper-created commercial. Because after all, this method is akin to fighting fire with fire which, wait a minute, firefighters actually did employ this as a fire fighting tactic so maybe drinking more booze in the morning is all good. OK. Sounds great to us!

We love the quirkiness of Barton F. Graf 9000’s work for Little Caesar. BFG just has a wonderful way of capturing the mundane and turning it into something really interesting. The High 85? WTF? Like how do you even begin to think in a way that allows you to arrive at oddball hilarity like the High 85? Brilliant.

A second spot takes the simple expression of “Ohhh” and turns it into a cavalcade of silliness that’s just this side of stupid.

The agency has done a fantastic job bringing to life the oddity of the brand’s Little Caesars “pizza pizza” character. And they’ve made pizza ads fun to watch again.

Nowhere near as funny as the original, Benefit Cosmetics is out with “Real Women Don’t Fake It,” a video whose subject matter is exactly what you think it is. But it doesn’t come close to the hilarity of the original which actually kept you guessing a bit longer than does this sophomore effort.

This second outing, which features Kristin Cavallari, Carmen Electra and Kyle Richards, aims to poke fun at the funny faces women sometimes make when applying makeup. While that may be true, orgasmic facial expressions probably don’t fall into that category.
OK, maybe.

Where the original spoofed the notion that men proudly flaunt their manhood, this follow up doesn’t carry the same…ahem…heft.

In a strange new, Droga5 Sydney-created commercial for Lynx (Axe), we are told women want men and boys in the same body. Why? Because we are told boys dream of being men and men dream of being boys and, yes, women long for both…at the same time…in the same body.

So like Lynx is marketing to the man-child and they think using their product will attract ladies who want a man and a boy…at the same time…in the same body?

Ladies, care to comment?

This is so not news but neither was Alex Tew’s Million Dollar Homepage…until it actually became a million dollar homepage. So, stranger things have happened which is why we’re going to tell you about The Guy Who Fucked the Million Dollar Homepage. Yes, you read that right.

A guy named Bernd Zikulnig, a pilot, aims to sell one pixel for $1 million. If you recall, Alex Tew sold one million pixels for $1 each. How Zikulnig thinks he can get one advertiser to spend $1 million on one pixel (which you won’t even be able to see) is questionable but, then again, it’s not the pixel that has value. It’s the publicity that surrounds the stunt.

Maybe nothing will come of this. Maybe it will trump Alex Tew’s Million Dollar Homepage. All we can tell you is that strange things happen in marketing. Things come out of left field. And this one is certainly a left fielder.

Seemingly very humble and keenly aware of the unlikely success of selling one pixel for $1 million, Zikulnig writes, “The idea from Alex Tew to sell one million pixels for $1 each was genius. Really a lot of people have tried to copy his idea, with no success. But to sell one pixel for 1,000,000 USD would be incredible and unique in advertising-and internet history for ever. So unbelievable and crazy that nobody has ever tried it until now. I believe it’s possible! Let’s see, if I am right.”

Indeed. Let’s see if he’s right.

In this kitschy but hilarious ad for Russian telecommunications company, Beeline, we are reminded of the digital divide that sometimes occurs between generations. Russian ad agency Red Pepper has created a recruitment ad of sorts for Beeline that illustrates how difficult it can be talking to your grandparents about certain topics.

Let’s just put it out there. Facebook is very puritanical when it comes to breastfeeding and boobs. The social network just can’t handle the fact they are a part of life. The most recent “offense” to Facebook’s distaste for boobs was illustrated when it banned an an for Christmas Island’s Bird’n’Nature Week.

Wait, what? Yes, you read that right. Facebook banned an ad promoting a nature appreciation week. The ad from the Australian island invited eco-tourists to come appreciate the island’s offerings, specifically, the Red-footed Booby, the Brown Booby and the Abbott Booby. Yes, they banned the ad because they didn’t like the fact these birds are referred to as Boobies.

OK, OK, it might have been the ad’s suggestive headline which read,”Some gorgeous shots here of some juvenile boobies.” Facebook claims the ad breached the site’s guidelines by “addressing the age, gender or sexual orientation of users on Facebook.” Wait. So Facebook users are birds? We’re confused.

And so is Linda Cash, marketing manager for the Christmas Island Tourism Association who said,”We presumed our original advert was blocked automatically so we appealed to Facebook directly who re-affirmed the campaign was banned due to the sexual language, particularly the use of the word ‘boobies.'”

And, perhaps, driving home the point Facebook just might be a little over-bearing when it comes to analyzing an ad’s content, Sam Collins, founder of London-based Ethos Travel which offers trips to Christmas Island said, “By blocking the tourist boards campaign, one of the world’s great eco-tourism destinations is being deprived of its lifeline because someone at Facebook cannot comprehend that a Booby is a bird.”