Take Care Down There

An awesome site from Planned Parenthood. Take care down there is full of entertaining and educational videos that teenagers just might watch, talk about and learn from.

My favourites are "threesome", "bring your sister", "I didn't spew" and "Horse Penis Virus".

They sure beat this condom video from India that I posted in 2007.

41 Hours

That's the lengh of time this guy - Nick White - spent trapped in an elevator in New York in 1999. The time-lapse video, which has become a web-sensation, shows how Nick spent his time in the elevator for every minute of his stay (don't worry...it's only 3 minutes).

I was trapped in an elevator in NY once for about an hour and it was unbearable. I can't imagine 41. Unreal.

W+K London Does It Again

Hot Sauce with a KICK

Yes, this ad actually exists and was developed by Leo Burnett Singapore.

Found on one of my favorites - Copyranter.

1 Hour Wii

Just read this fascinating article from Wired.

According to Nintendo, the average Wii sits on the store shelf for approximately one hour before it is bought. One hour.

It's easy to understand how Nintendo made it to the top of the pack based on sales like that. I'd love to see a comparrision with the iPhone, Rock Band or other hot consumer items to understand the correlation of shelf life (speed) and sales.

The demand is mostly in America as Japan and Europe have leveled off in terms of overall "Wii" craziness.

Steve Nash - The 60 Million Dollar Man

Found this new Nike spot on Adrants. I don't know how I feel about it yet but I'm assuming that the new Nike shoe they are promoting is made from recycled materials. It's a bit freaky but watching the next one might shed some light on the campaign.

Still, pretty cool.

Time To Unwrap...

Nice, neat graphic from an excellent image site called Noisy Decent Graphics. If you're looking for some cool images and are bored of Flickr, take a spin over here.

Leo Burnett's New Policy

A few ad blogs have been writing about this fake / real internal Leo advertisement about a new agency dress code.

A few of us had a chat around the ambiguity of the agency dress code. We always joke about people coming to an interview wearing a tie (...I did...) but find that on any day you could find a person wearing flip flops, shorts and a battered T (with a hat) or a person dressed to the 9's in a full suit (sans tie).

There is no real "code" but I wouldn't mind an ad like this being sent out to the office!

Banned Tom Ford Ad

Think there is anything phallic going on here? Copyranter has a few thoughts...

Nokia, Spike Lee and Collaboration

What a great idea for a wireless manufacturer:

Create a site that encourages users to upload their mobile videos to a specific theme - music. Piece together those videos using one of the world's top directors, Spike Lee, and push that user generated video out to the masses.

Nokia wants to shift perceptions about their video-capable cell phones. Currently, we don't think of video on our cellular devices as worth while. It's grainy, there is no memory and the quality is just plain terrible.

How can Nokia make consumers feel differently? By encouraging to use them and give them a chance to have a feature film created with their shots.

The site is simple, incorporates video (a must for this campaign) and is easy to use. I'm very interested to see the number of submissions and I'm excited for the final product.

Nice work, Nokia. Found on Three Minds.

A Free Lesson in Customer Service

If you haven't heard of "iPod's Dirty Secret" you should check it out below. The video was created a few years ago in response to Neistat brothers horrible call with Apple about his defunct iPod battery.

Essentially, the customer service rep told him that he only had once choice - to buy a new iPod because the replacement battery for the one he had purchased was just as expensive.

In response to this horrible policy, the Neistat brothers did something simple. They made a video and launched a website. Oh, and they also defaced every Apple ad that they could find in New York City with their tease message and URL.



Although the site is down, the video and stenciling was highly effective. Over the year, the video received thousands of views and tens of thousands of people visited the site.

If Apple had been another company, their response most likely would have been a lawsuit.

But the brilliant folks at Apple did something nobody expected - they agreed and changed their return policy. If one of you're battery's stopped working, just call Apple and they'll send you a new iPod - free of charge. No questions asked.

It's amazing to see how effectively a negative PR campaign can be turned into a positive one by some logical, corporate thinking.

Sprint and Dan - The New Model Made Old

A couple of hours ago, I was watching TV and came across the following (relatively new) spot from Sprint:



I like and hate this spot for a few reasons. First off, I like it because it got my attention. Anytime a new CEO puts himself in an ad I usually think, "Oh God, this is going to be bad...and I can't wait to blog it." But Dan is honest and straightforward in this spot.

Sprint has to change and they know it. Why not make things easier for their consumers and create one, $99 plan that covers everything - from GPS to texting. Give me one bill no matter what I do. I like the sound of that.

What made me jump about this spot, though, was the final frame. After the Sprint logo, Dan's email address appears - "dan@sprint.com". I actually shouted, "Did he just put his corporate email on his TV spot?" Well no, but yes.

After doing some digging, I found a few people who emailed Dan and got an auto response back from Sprint saying that he would get in touch with them if he needed to (yea right).

What gets me about this tactic is the allusion of change. As a company, you either embrace the web or you don't. Don't start a blog just to "get one out there" but delete negative comments posted about you. Address them in the blogosphere and gain the credibility that you've never had.

A full article, including the auto-response as well as some other fun musings about this spot, can be found here.

Do you leverage insights or trends?

Excellent visual from Logic + Emotion this week.

When we think of McDonalds, we think of bad food (that is delicious) and a cut-and-dry business model that produces the same food time and time again.

The visual provides us with how many marketers and agencies develop strategies. Not though target insights, but through the latest digital trends.

How many times have you talked about wanting a "viral" video? Or creating an application for Facebook so that it could go viral? Or creating a strong presence on LinkedIn to generate leads for your brand?

I know that in my day to day life, it's almost all we talk about - The next trend or the next big thing. It's important to know how things are changing but it's more important to know when to jump on the bandwagon and when to simply watch it drive by.

Harold and Kumar Inspirational Ad

Found this ad on Copyranter tonight.

I think it might have single handedly sparked the Harold and Kumar franchise. Amazing what a great, 1930's ad can do.

Blogging Guide - Frequency = More Uniques

Over the next few days, Adjoke is going to be posting...a lot. Our hope is to gain a large number of unique visits in a short time.

It's a test, of sorts, to prove that in blogging, one of the main factors of readership is frequency of posts. Want 100 unique visits starting from scratch? Post 10 times and Digg them all and you've got a decent shot of getting there in under a few hours.

Want more than that? That's where things get tricky.

Respected blogs and bloggers like Seth Godin or Valleywag receive thousands of unique visits each day. During some of their busier months, they can get well over 1 million visits. How to they do it?

First off, they make a promise with their readers and keep it - they post at least once a day. (Valleywag posts at least 15 times).

There is nothing worse than going back to a blog after a week only to read the exact same post. We all have our excuses - things were busy at work that week, other stuff got in the way - but if you want a consistent audience you've only got to do one thing - post.

And post we will. Let the hyper-blogging begin.

Gay Targeted ads from Saab

Because not all roads are straight...excellent gay targeted online ad.

Thank you to Mike Coulson for the link.

Earth Day - Grand & Toy

I know...you have received over 10 earth day e-cards, 30 emails about your suppliers and their eco-friendly products and one email from the office manager challenging everyone to reduce their paper usage today.

But, here is our Earth Day post. Grand & Toy, one of Canada's biggest office supplies companies has launched their Green Office site. More than products the site has a green glossary, a contest and some great tips on how you can actually start to make an impact year round. I like this approach as they aren't just capitalizing on a day to make sales.

Check it out.

Beavers love kotex - look at how happy it is

Got to love those Aussies....

You drive like an idiot because you have a small penis

Found on BannerBlog

Subaru WRX STi

You might recognize some of the footage from this commercial from the DC shoes video that was posted previously.

Why Design Exists

Oh the horror. Found on Bottom Rung [added to our blog roll].

Remote Control Car + Bottles + Liquid = Super Mario Brothers Theme song

This is awesome. A child lined up dozens of wine bottles, each with a different level of liquid and then used a remote control car to play the bottles. The result is the Super Mario Brothers theme song. Ohh the memories.

This kid - A musical genius.

Facebook Responds to Google Trends

Paul has written a lot about his unhealthy obsession with Google Trends over the last few months but he might have something new to feed his addiction - Facebook Lexicon.

Lexicon is a new semi-public program that allows users to search specific data that Facebook captures. Unlike Google Trends which tracks the number of times a specific topic is searched in a given time frame, Lexicon tracks the number of times a term is posted on someone's wall.

Movies provide a good example of how it works. When I'm going to a movie and updating a friend, I'll usually mention the name of it in my post ("I just went to Juno" or "Want to go to 21?"). When other friends view [or creep] on my friends wall, they might read my post and also become interested in what we've been discussing. They might even think about seeing Juno because of the fact that I've just gone.

Here is an example of how many times Juno was referenced on a wall, event or group based on Lexicon's data. I've also compared it with "21":

You can see that the data set isn't totally accurate - especially for a search like "21". A large reason to use Facebook is to remember your friend's birthdays and the spikes on 21 most likely represent the multitude of "Happy 21st B-day" messages that are constantly posted.

However it's interesting to view in the context of Juno. Juno was released to the North American masses in November and you can see how the momentum built around the film and peaked just after New Years. What's interesting is the steep incline at the outset (highlighting the buzz around the film) and the slow burn that occurred for months afterward (people discussing and encouraging others to see the movie).

Although Lexicon might not yet have the functionality of Google Trends, it can help a brand track the initial success of a campaign on it's "talk-ability" factor. When you're launching a campaign, do people mention or talk about it in their day to day social networking?

Learn more about Lexicon on the official Facebook blog.

If only she could make a decent cup of coffee

Wow...I can't believe it. Found on BoingBoing

TalentEgg and The Graduate Niche

A good friend of mine launched a new site a few weeks ago called TalentEgg. The main objective of the site is to help graduate students find careers (and summer students find jobs). For employers, it's a place to look for much-needed employees in a different way than the standard resume drop off.

The site has already received some good, local coverage and in a couple months (spring is the key time for applications for summer jobs / graduate students) it could grow rapidly.

Although the site is still in beta, TalentEgg is an interesting idea. The main ways for a graduate student to find a job are to go to a career fair, register on gigantic sites like Monster.com or CareerBuilder (who don't notice or care about you) or simply work any connection they have into getting an interview.

Getting your first job is hard work. Even when you get to the interview stage, you've got to get past the various stages, go through scrutiny depending on your degree [Arts especially] and hope that if you do get an offer it's enough to live off. Graduates will usually do anything to help enhance the chance to get an interview. Most aren't sure what career they want and pursue multiple options.

TalentEgg provides them with another, niche option. A place to keep looking for that elusive first job. But how will TalentEgg compete with the Monsters and mammoth job sites?

By being specific and limited.

We've written a lot about the evolution of niches and how the web allows people to find and create specific communities dedicated to their core interests. Social networks link LinkedIn focus specifically on creating business contacts while emerging places like Ning give anyone the tools to develop their own, niche networks.

To me, two of the key ways that TalentEgg can succeed are:

1. Staying Niche and Not Succumbing to the Pressure of the Masses - focus and more focus. If TalentEgg becomes the destination for graduate students (and for corporations to find them), people around the country will recognize that it's not worth throwing your resume in with the millions of other people on Monster.com when you can be found quickly because of our niche - being a graduate student.

2. Be Personal - one of the biggest drawbacks with existing job search sites is that they don't care about you. When I was looking for work, I needed advocates. People who would keep their eyes open and mention me whenever they heard of an opening. Friends who would put their reputation on the line for me in the hopes that I could get an interview (and then a job).

TalentEgg could be one of those advocates. After you register, the site could not only alert you when new jobs get posted, but help you to improve your Talent Card, resume, interview tips and provide insights into the companies that you're interested in (good and bad).

Imaging a resource that doesn't just contain a company profile, but gives you an insider look into the day-to-day of working there. Do current employee's really enjoy it? How long do they usually stay? What opportunities do they have after they leave? What are the people like?

It's exciting to go to a site like TalentEgg and see the potential it could have on graduate students across the globe. It's personal, easy to use and run by someone who has been through the trials of searching for a job with an Arts degree. I'd encourage everyone to check it out, especially employers who want to expand their recruitment strategies and find great people for their organization.

Congratulations on your launch, Lauren, and please keep us posted on how things are going.