Hasta La Creative!

Firebrand (the hottest spots from the coolest brands, ya know) is pleased to announce what it’s dubbed “The Holiest Day in Advertising,” occurring February 4th. On that day, Firebrand will showcase the best of this year’s Super Bowl spots.

LONDON – Titan Outdoor has unveiled a glass dome outside Canary Wharf tube station as part of a campaign for the Canadian Tourist Board.

Television has always been the proverbial “lean back” medium with information flowing mostly in a one way direction from the TV to the viewer in a non-interactive manner. That’s changed a bit over the years with the arrival of video on demand and other semi-interactive capabilities.

LONDON – O2 has consolidated its estimated £20 million media planning and buying account into ZenithOptimedia, parting company with Media Republic, the media division of Omnicom’s Agency Republic.

The third edition of "Hey Whipple, Squeeze This" will be hitting the shelves soon. We at American Copywriter are giddy to announce that Master Sullivan himself will be joining Tug and I on an upcoming podcast to talk about what’s new in the book, and the strange and wonderful life of an American copywriter. If you read this blog and have not read this book, pre-order it right fucking now.

I can’t count how many times I’ve utilized Luke’s wisdom to help sell some work. Anytime I’ve lost my advertising way or questioned my convictions I’ve come back to this book. Tug and I are really looking forward to our conversation wth Luke and hope you will, too. Questions? Pose them in the comments here or email us at our new gmail address. You can probably guess what the prefix of that address is. Don’t use a dot.

In the meantime, Luke’s given us permission to publish a few new snippets from the new edition in this space. Stay tuned.

According to The Wall Street Journal, NBA star Steve Nash went native and produced his own Nike spot.

Mr. Nash, who plays for the Phoenix Suns, says he is happy with how Nike has marketed him but felt he could come up with an ad that reflected more of his personality. There was little financial risk to Nike, since the campaign would require no ad buy. He says he got the idea from the young fans who take pictures of him with cameras and phones during his informal workouts. “There’s such an appetite for the ordinary stuff I do every day,” he says.

Mr. Nash received little input on the shoot from Nike, which pays him about $1 million a year to promote its sneakers, although the company provided one of the two cameras and edited the piece.

A Nike spokesman said the company has no problems with Mr. Nash’s ad and welcomes other athletes to follow in his footsteps.

Nash didn’t act alone (and it’s a stretch to call his spot user generated content). He enlisted Lola Schnabel, the daughter of artist and filmmaker Julian Schnabel, to shoot the self-styled Web ad for the shoemaker. So, it’s star generated content, but it’s still indie and that’s cool.

LONDON – Clear Channel Outdoor has created a package for advertisers that focuses on Liverpool as the city holds the mantle of the European Capital of Culture 2008.

Adam & Eve records the trials and tribulations of their first few days of business. Scroll down to the bottom to add your views on their diary.

LONDON – McDonald’s is adding to its breakfast menu a Bacon roll made with British back bacon, replacing the streaky rashers favoured by Americans at breakfast.

Eleven of the world’s top designers have been chosen to judge the One Show Design awards, the industry’s most prestigious international awards competition honoring the year’s best in advertising design, corporate identity, environmental design, publication design, direct mail and package design.
“Due to the increasing number of entries received from around the world and the growing emphasis placed upon good design in the consumer marketplace, last year marked the first time design was given its own separate event,” said Mary Warlick, CEO of The One Club. “One Show Design honors only the very best in design, so naturally, we only invite the very best designers to judge the work.”

How god are they? Judge by checking out their homepages below. Judges for this year’s One Show Design competition are:
Marian Bantjes, Quatrifolio (Bowen Island, Canada) – Love that clock btw
Jenny Ehlers, King James (Cape Town, South Africa)
Vince Frost, Frost Design (Sydney, Australia)
Keiko Hirano, Communication Design Laboratory (Tokyo, Japan)
John Jay, Wieden + Kennedy (Portland)
Diti Katona, Concrete Design (Toronto, Canada)
Clement Mok (San Francisco)
Emily Oberman, Number 17 (New York)
Alvaro Rego, Mumedi (Mexico)
Laurie Rosenwald, Freelance (New York)
David Turner, Turner Duckworth (San Francisco and London, UK)

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