Hasta La Creative!

Privacy is always going to be a hot topic on the Internet. After all, the thing that separates the Web from other media is its ability to target. The problem is, what if people get too creeped out by ad companies tracking their movements? AOL’s answer: Let Mr. Penguin do the ’splaining. The New York Times’s Bits blog has the storyboards of an upcoming AOL ad that explains the importance of Internet cookies, using the lovable Mr. Penguin to tell the wonderful story of behavioral targeting. As we learned back on Penguin Day here on AdFreak, penguins do tend to put the mind at ease. Still, I don’t know about Mr. Penguin’s look when he receives a targeted ad in the storyboard shown here. Shock? Glee? Alarm?

—Posted by Brian Morrissey

LONDON – Regional media owners will continue to develop the hybrid part-paid and part-free newspaper model to raise and maintain circulation levels, according to Georgina Harvey, managing director of Trinity Mirror’s regional division.

LONDON – Betfair, the online betting exchange, is launching a multi-channel marketing strategy to coincide with the Cheltenham Festival.

LONDON – A pre-watershed ban on the TV advertising of alcohol and foods high in fat, salt or sugar (HFSS) could cost commercial broadcasters £450m in lost ad revenues.

With spring training in full swing (now that’s wordplay), Major League Baseball teams have begun to grind out the commercials. The Minnesota Twins, who finished 79-83 last year and are preparing for their 17th consecutive year of not winning a World Series, trot out young pitcher Pat Neshek, who looks concerned (and rightly so) at the prospect of a season without ace Johan Santana, who recently defected to the New York Mets for big money. Even the kids in the ad (students at Neshek’s alma mater, Minneapolis’s Park Center High School) seem to know the score (wordplay again), as they ask silly questions about the team’s catcher, Joe Mauer. It’s about as funny the Twins sub-.500 season will be. Go Yanks!

—Posted by David Gianatasio

When last I left you in Part One, I had traveled to Miami under mysterious circumstances with a few burning questions on my mind:
What is DIME?
What is going on here?
What’s up with Sony?
Did I forget to pack underwear?

Things were soon revealed.

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LONDON – Love-it-or-hate-it soft drink Dr Pepper is returning to TV after more than four years with a revived ad campaign by Mother.

Leo Burnett Mumbai uses Hitler, Chaplin and Che for highlight marker Luxor ads.

What do highlighters do? They highlight important parts of the story, right? Here they do more than that – if you read what’s been highlighted you get another story alltogether. Ten extra gold stars to the entire team for managing this, and copywriter Russell Barrett, it must have been a royal pain to do. Click on the images to get nice big one where you can read the copy.

Kudos goes to:
Ad agency Leo Burnett Mumbai

Kunal Mhabadi (Illustrator & Typographer)
Santosh Padhi (Typographer & Creative Director)
KV Sridhar (Creative Director)
Santosh Padhi (Art Director)
Russell Barrett (Copywriter)

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Advertising Agency: TBWA, USA

Executive Creative Director- Gerry Graf
Group Creative Director- Ian Reichenthal
Group Creative Director- Scott Vitrone
Art Director- Craig Allen
Copy Writer- Eric Kallman
Senior Producer- Nathy Aviram
Assistant Producer – Laura Rosenshine

Production Company- MJZ
Director-Tom Kuntz
Producer- Scott Kaplan

Mackenzie Cutler Editorial
Editor – Gavin Cutler
Asst. Editor – Erik Laroi

Visual Effects – The Mill / NY
Flame Artist – Angus Kneale
Producer – Jo Arghiris

Telecine – Company 3 NY
Colorist – Tim Masick