Raise Your Pants

To rival some random advertising spend in the UK, the US is hot on the heels.

Monday started with Basildon getting a Hollywood sign.

And Wednesday brought the Senator from the State of New York starting the "raise your pants, raise your image" crusade

This bizarre campaign I think is brilliant. It's not pants in any way... (sorry). Whoever thought "let's get people to pull their trousers up, it'll make them better" was a genius. Kudos probably goes to the Senator.

I really think this is one of those odd things in life that people get annoyed about and yet nobody has attempted to rectify.

With Brooklyn only having 6 poster sites, this "STOP THE SAG" billboard won't be everywhere, but it'll certainly get lots of PR. Who cares if people think it's a waste of money. It'll cheer people up. And although it's a serious issue, it's a bit of fun too.

Good on them.

Here's the video press release.

Chatroulette Bingo

This great idea was brought to my attention by none other than Snoop Dogg. It's simple, think of random things you see on Chatroulette, and then when they turn up, cross them off the list. Just like this funny video.

Having been on it, I've never seen anything like what they get...

Though if you're struggling to think of funny things that you may encounter on the travels, do not fear!

Introducing Chatroulette Bingo.

Simple, brilliant and lots of fun. All you have to do is enter how many players are involved, you then get a pdf with different layouts on and hey presto away you go.

Oh and I found out the creator of Chatroulette is only 17 years old, and from Russia. Ever so slightly depressing.

You've got to be Brave to have Skype Crits

Brave are looking for the best junior team in the country. And because they’re no ordinary agency, they’re not conducting any ordinary interviews. Instead, they want the UK’s best creative talent to pitch their ideas live, online, through Skype.

So if you’re Brave enough, and you want the chance to earn a full time job at one of the country’s fastest growing creative agencies, drop them a line at skype_crits@brave.co.uk

When they find them, they'll giving them a one month paid placement and the chance to earn a full time job at one of the UK’s fastest growing creative agencies.

What then?

They’ll give you our Skype address so you can present your best piece of work from anywhere you like (well, anywhere with broadband and a webcam, that is).

Your bedroom, your local pub, the nearest tanning salon – it’s entirely up to you. You’ll be judged not only on the work you present, but the originality of the presentation itself.

Use props, extras, costumes, scripts, stunts – anything you think will entertain us and give us a glimpse of your creativity.

They even suggest, "perhaps even have a look at some of YouTube’s ChatRoulette footage for inspiration."

Love the idea. Hope it works, talent here can be endless

The Agency/Client is a c*nt

Clients from Hell is funny but I think these go a bit too far.

Click images for links to the pages.

Let's just hope you don't appear on either of these.

Daily Mash Dating #2

Crude but very funny. A nice little MPU on The Daily Mash site.

The Drum Banner Ads

There's currently a banner ad running on The Drum's website that is one of the better ones I've seen in a while.

Created by 'Story' in Edinburgh they tap into the common complaint that you can post anything on The Drum anonymously.

Like these for example.

So using a tiny file size and a few childish words (like half the posts) 'Story' have got themselves a nice banner. Unfortunately, when you click on the banner it wants to open up my Apple Mail and it's not configured so I couldn't contact them. And, there are lots of 'story' agencies out there so I had to be pretty specific when finding that web link above!

To be fair, if you wanted the job that much you'd be doing more than just giving up at a broken email link. Enjoy.

P.S. it's the same banner, it's just my screen capture software give me only 30secs at a time. It was free though from Screenium.

Tesco Trains

A great little spot by CR last weekend while on his way to Manchester.

Freight trains. Not exactly a glamourous advertising medium but every little helps to keep the Tesco band wagon rolling on.

These aren't his pics, but he assures me they're the same. Well, technically.

Because the brand has become so synonymous, they can change the logo slightly and still be recognised. Which means Tesco has become Less Co(2). A lovely little pun.

I have no idea if these we're a Red Brick Road or a 'back in the day' Lowe idea. But technically they're the same teams so I'm still saying kudos to Sam, Jason and the gang.

Nice.

Fake Pizza

"In a real Italian Pizzeria the pizza has rich toppings and a crispy thin base, in a wide range of flavours... and that's exactly how Pizza Ristorante is."

And here's my issue...

And if you look a little closer. Yup, the German's are stealing real Italian Pizzeria Chefs, holding them hostage and then getting Dr. Oetker to pose as an Italian.

I know lots of companies do this. Fosters is brewed somewhere off the North Circular and Greggs, according to their new advert, can't possibly bake all their food on their premises.

It just annoys me when they have to claim something so trivial.

The fact we all know, unless it's actually made right in front of you, using fantastic ingredients, any frozen pizza isn't going to make you think of "a real Italian Pizzeria". Even Pizza Hut won't claim that... Especially when it's made in Germany.

When Nestle get Social Networking wrong but still succeeds

Nestle on Friday caused a huge stir amongst their Facebook Fans by writing this lovely status:

Nestle - To repeat: we welcome your comments, but please don't post using an altered version of any of our logos as your profile pic - they will be deleted.

Oops. What followed was more than 200 posts from consumers that wanted their two cents worth. Twitter went nuts. The Nestle share price dropped.

And I documented all the pain via a downloadable pdf of all the comments.

But how bad was it really for them?

Nestle's hits went through the roof, Google now hundreds of Nestle posts on it's search and all for a few bad words to start with.

Their Facebook group grew by more than 3,000 members to over 93,000 and to be honest, an angry admin deflected the news away from the Greenpeace argument of Nestle using Palm Oil.

And, don't worry it won't stop me buying any Nestle product.

So they didn't do that badly after all... did they?

Fuck.it

I've just bought it, I found it randomly, clicked add to cart and ta dah!

Feel free to join me over at fuck.it soon

I feel ever so slightly chuffed with myself. Simple things.

Drench Rubix Cube

Wowza, I can't decide if I love or hate this advert. But then again, I'm only disturbed by the twisting head, and not the idea behind it.

I couldn't find it on youtube, due to copyright infringement apparently, but I can understand why. Who in their right mind would buy the rights to Oops Upside Your Head by Gap Band or, if you prefer, DJ Casper.

The next in the series (apparently) after the Goldfish. Even though I'm still seeing it on the tele.

Enjoy.

Think Bike. Think John Terry

Poor John Terry, he can't stay out the public eye. I saw this poll on Facebook just now, "which of these celebs isn't a biker?" it asks.Strangely after knocking over a steward in his car, and then running down a disabled child (ok the last one is just a bit of fun). But it wasn't exactly difficult to decide who wasn't a biker in that lot.

Paddy Power Hollywood Sign

Paddy Power have gone into the record books with the world's largest advertising sign. So large in fact that it's bigger than the Hollywood sign. Now that's something in itself! It's 50 feet high and 270 feet wide and sits on Cleeve Hill overlooking Cheltenham Racecourse.

Apparently Paddy Power commissioned it because "there's more drama in Cheltenham than the whole of Hollywood combined". Well, I guess that's a good enough reason for me.

Having stumbled around for pictures etc, I've discovered their Facebook Fan Page with a few beauties on.

And, they're also running a competition with the best picture of the sign winning a £100 free bet.

Nothing like a bit of free PR is there?

Update:

A little video to accompany the stunt.

TFL - Cyclists

I really like this ad, partly because there are lots of partial clues to what you think is going on, but actually, the end is quite surprising. Well done WCRS.

Man Babies

Okay, so this is not new. Swapping dad's head with his kid and get a funny picture. Having discovered manbabies.com ages ago, I was delighted to discover this mini obsession now has a tv show! Yes, that's right. 15 minutes of random man babies on... yep you've guessed it. CBeebies. Didn't see that coming did you?

It's called Big Babies and you can watch the first 15 minute episode on iPlayer. But for the time conscious people, here's some lovely shots. The superhero outfits are really something.

Oh, and here's the official site

Should have gone to Specsavers?

After the launch of the new epic Specsavers/Lynx advert, I thought I'd hunt around for the next best "should have gone to Specsavers" moment.

So if you fancy seeing the epic watch this first.



Or watch this.



I don't know to say other than that's mental! How's my driving anyone?

11 vs 100

This is mental, only in Japan would a football team agree to this.

100 school kids vs one 11 a-side J- League team.

I can't imagine how they managed to pitch this idea and get it through. And to be fair it's in Japanese so they probably tell you in the commentary.

Even if you're not bothered by football, just fast forward to about 30 seconds in and watch the 100 kids take a corner, I'm still laughing at it.

weareshit.com - nothing to do with us

More disappointing than I was hoping for when it appeared in a Google search just now.
It doesn't seem to do much. It makes a weird sonar noise and erm... it wobbles occasionally.
It looks like wearecrap is more interesting. Well, that's just my opinion.

A viral of a viral, going viral?

Remember this guy?


Well it appears everyone on Chatroulette seems to know him too.



A viral of a viral going viral. Oh I think it's quite possible. Does it have a name? Viral 2.0 Viralled? Who knows.

Stop Smoking TV advert

Just a quick one to say, if you live in Northern Ireland, you'll hopefully be seeing this advert on your TV.

Made by us for the Public Health Agency in Northern Ireland it counts down to No Smoking Day. A small budget, what when did that ever stop anyone.

Obviously there are more versions of this with 8, 7, 6 etc, but I didn't want to put them all up.

I'll update this with the Smoking Day ad, on the 10th March.

Bye bye blogspot

You may have noticed/been informed my blog has dropped the .blogspot part of my url, I am now officially theapofcrap.com and/or theapofcrap.co.uk, whichever you prefer, they both work.

Please update any RSS feeds or bookmarks you have. I know, I know. I'm sorry.

Ta!