Hoops coaches strip for a 'Guitar Hero' spot

[From AdFreak]


Here's the new Guitar Hero commercial with college-basketball coaching legends Bob Knight, Rick Pitino, Roy Williams and Mike Krzyzewski yukking it up with Metallica. As Guitar Hero's Risky Business ads go, this one's a distant second to the Heidi Klum spot, though Knight is pretty funny, and Pitino's drumming is amusingly wretched.

New Franz Ferdinand Song in iPod Touch Commercial

I keep seeing this iPod Touch ad over and over again and just like every Apple commercial, it features the most catchy song currently out. The song featured in the commercial is from Franz Ferdinand's new album "Tonight: Franz Ferdinand."

Apple iPod Touch 2G Ad


Franz Ferdinand - No You Girls

Hulu’s Super Bowl Ad Comes With An Ad

Hulu’s Super Bowl Ad Comes With An Ad
by Erick Schonfeld on February 1, 2009 [from TechCrunch]


The Super Bowl is perhaps the one television event where people actually look forward to the ads because so much effort is put into each one. And every year, there are a handful of standouts. You can watch the ads plenty of places online, including on Hulu. You can even watch Hulu’s own Super Bowl ad on Hulu, which oddly enough is preceded by a regular Web video ad. That just seems wrong to me on so many levels, especially since Hulu itself (which is partly owned by NBC) probably didn’t have to pay for the spot

I guess you could argue that some of these commercials are now entertainment in their own right, and thus deserve their own mini-commercials. The Hulu spot with Alec Baldwin (above) is certainly one of the better ones. He delivers the line:

They say TV will rot your brain. That’s absurd. TV only softens the brain, like a ripe banana. To take it all the way, we’ve created Hulu.

There were also lots of ads that poked fun at the economic downturn, including an ETrade ad with talking babies and a Cash4Gold.com ad starring Ed McMahon and and MC Hammer. To get people to come into its restaurants, Denny’s decided to offer free breakfast to everyone in America on Tuesday. But my favorite is this one from Monster.com which asks, Need Another Job?

CareerBuilder hit the same theme, but wasn’t quite as funny. In fact, CareerBuilder’s ad which repeatedly shows a woman miserable with her job screaming in her car, is downright depressing.

Then, of course, the trailer to the new Star Trek movie debuted as well, which I will embed below just because I know you will watch it (the trailer for Transformers 2 will also be popular).

Which was your favorite Super Bowl ad, and why?

Heineken Walk In Fridge Commercial

Just took a look at the new Heineken ad that has been spreading around the internet like crazy. I don't have the credits on the ad yet but once I get some more info I'll make sure to post it. Anyway a great ad, both men and women's dreams come true in this one. Enjoy.

What Men Are Really Thinking

These are some pretty funny ads from some short lived show called "The X Show." I'd like to say this ad is completely inaccurate but who am I hockey beer nachos kidding?

Whopper Virgins Cause Controversy

Crispin Porter + Bogusky's much-anticipated "documentary" about the "Whopper virgins" debuted last night. It was pretty much as expected. Stacy Peralta has really made two commercials—let's face it, they're just commercials. One is the taste test. This has the native people brought to a semi-civilized location—i.e., somewhere within 15 minutes of fast-food restaurants—for your run-of-the-mill taste test. The video flashes up some select results. I say select because I hope the sample size was larger than about 20. (Surprisingly, the Whopper won in a landside.) Part two is what probably gets at the root of the criticism leveled at Burger King for the project. Peralta and crew trek out to these far-flung locales with a BK grill to cook for the locals. In my initial appraisal of the concept, I found it icky. I still find it depressing. This is a documentary about the making of a commercial that uses "exotic" foreigners as props to sell more trans-fat-laden heart-attack pucks. Judging from what I've read on blogs, Facebook and Twitter, the reaction is pretty mixed—probably exactly what Crispin and BK wanted. See Adweek critic Barbara Lippert's review here. [AdFreak]

Seeking to build on the success of last year's "Whopper Freakout," the marketer tasked Crispin Porter & Bogusky with creating a "pure taste test" composed of "Whopper Virgins" who had never tasted one of the flagship sandwiches.

To accomplish that, Crispin trekked to Baan Khun Chang Kiean, Thailand; Kulusuk, Greenland; and Budesti, Romania. The work, from director Stacy Peralta and production company NonFiction, highlights reactions to the products.

The premise behind the push sparked a backlash among nutritionists, anthropologists and parents, with critics claiming Burger King is exploiting poverty-stricken regions for marketing. "I don't think indigenous people should be used in that way to amuse a bored public that wants a sensation at any price," a commenter wrote on New York City blog Gothamist. [AdAge]

Toshiba Timesculpture Advertisement

Pretty cool Toshiba advertisement.

The world's first timesculpture advert, from Toshiba. See more and redefine what you watch at www.toshiba.co.uk/upscaling.

Best viewed in high quality.

Soundtrack: Air War, Crystal Castles [RedefineWhatYouWatch]

Behind the scenes of the world's first timesculpture TV ad, created by Toshiba. See more at www.toshiba.co.uk/upscaling [RedefineWhatYouWatch]

Geico Cavemen Commercials

It's no secret, GEICO has been able to pull off some of the more successful advertisements and commercials over the past few years. In addition to coming up with the GEICO Gecko and some memorable tag lines, they recently have focused on featuring their sophisticated cavemen in their commercials. I will agree this post is random, but GEICO has been able to pair some great songs with the cavemen commercials, so I thought I'd post them for the world to see....or the 5 or so people who read this blog to see.



Royksopp - Remind Me




The Sounds - Don't Want to Hurt You

Lebron vs Yao, Grizzlies vs Pandas

I've noticed a few different Coca-Cola commercials during the Olympics so far. The one about "if you've had a Coke in the last 80 years you've had a hand in making EVERY Olympic dream come true" kind of bugs me just because it seems like they are trying too hard to invoke an emotional response. The Lebron James & Yao Ming animated commercial however I find pretty memorable.

There's a catchy beat with a cool concept of each country trying to one up each other but both end up sharing the same interest in Coke. The slogan "Unity on the Coke side of life" even makes you feel kind of warm and fuzzy inside. It's not a commercial that will change the world but I enjoy watching it and remembered it and that's more than you can say about a majority of commercials.

Awesome Fifa Street 3 Commercial

Ok, I can accept EA Sports thinking Gattuso and Ronaldinho are cover worthy but Peter Crouch? He doesn't even start for Liverpool....but anyway, check out the commercial, they almost had me fooled.