If Carlsberg did the World Cup draw...

From today's Metro. Guatemala are a potential banana skin I think.

Support your favourite for I'm a Celebrity on Twibbon - One over on Big Brother

This is the first of a couple of upcoming posts featuring Twibbon, which allows you to nail your colours to the mast of any number of causes, institutions, or in this case attention-seekers, via the medium of your Twitter profile picture.

Yes, when the new series of I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here kicks off, erm, imminently, you can support a celeb on Twibbon.



I'm a Celebrity was reasonably quick off the mark as a TV show on Twitter that offered genuine engagement, as I blogged a year ago when they followed me after I mentioned the show. They continue to be conversational, and will no doubt be active during the show chatting away and making extensive use of the 'official hashtag' #imacelebrity.

Now they've extended their Twitter involvement into this year's TV show, updating their Bio to read:

The official I'm A Celebrity...Twitter feed. @replies may be used on I'm A Celebrity...NOW on ITV2. Full terms at www.itv.com/terms

Incidentally the I'm a Celebrity Twitter profile features two things I haven't noticed before: Terms and conditions (as in the Bio) relating to its use, which seems very forward-thinking; and sponsorship, from Iceland, who I assume have renewed the deal they had last year.

Extending out to Twibbon is a good idea which has not been done on an official basis by I'm a Celebrity's main rival Big Brother. Several causes were added by different users during the Big Brother series just gone, but none of them gained much traction except the 'Save Big Brother' cause which has 50 supporters.



There's also the obligatory Facebook fan page which is cross-promoting with the Twitter profile and the show's homepage.



To be perfectly honest I don't think I'll be watching this year's show, although I did say that last year. There's no Dani Behr for a start, and our heating has broken so I'm likely to be spending as little time as possible at home until it's fixed, which will necessitate someone returning my phone calls (hello British Gas I'm talking to you). I'm more of a Big Brother man anyway, despite their relative infancy against I'm A Celebrity in being officially social.

Promoting Bic Pens with a hand-drawn Magazine

Here's a great piece of promotion for Bic pens from TBWA Uruguay. It's an issue of Freeway magazine hand-drawn in Bic pens.

Bic pens can't be the easiest thing to promote creatively, but this is beautiful. I believe, however, it may feature adjacent to the word 'painstaking' in the dictionary.



This is the second piece of work I've seen from South America recently that I have really liked, after the Axe Day and Night campaign. Here's a video of how they did it.



HT to PSFK

Stewie Griffin uses Twitter - That Windows 7 Family Guy Clip

Microsoft pulled out of sponsoring Family Guy in the name of Windows 7 recently, but this clip purports to be the product tie-in. In it, Stewie Griffin uses Twitter on his laptop, with Brian the family dog shoe-horning in a load of features he could be using.

I'm a fan of Family Guy, but this is a bit out of kilter with the general tone of the show, and is also alleged to be a re-dubbed scene that was already used in a previous episode.



I can't vouch for the veracity of this clip, and it seems pretty lazy and tacked-on to be a genuine Microsoft endorsement, whether they followed it through or not. Having said that, they enlisted one of my favourite comedians, Jerry Seinfeld, a year or so ago and that was widely derided.

Stareatthegoat.com - The Men Who Stare at Goats online

There was a little ad in the G2 section of The Guardian yesterday, so I took a quick piccie on the iPhone:



I recognised the colours and obviously the whole staring at goats thing as to do with The Men Who Stare at Goats, an imminent film release based on a book by British journalist Jon Ronson. I checked out the stareatthegoat.com site out of interest, and guess what.



Yep, it's a crazy, staring goat. It's actually a LoveFilm microsite, although I'm not sure of the connection between the DVD rental company and a cinema release, at this stage. Unless they imagine it's going to be a slow burner.

Stareatthegoat.com also links to the Facebook Fan Page, which has a total of 163 fans. Not brilliant testament to tremendous engagement with the ad, but it is absolutely bursting with content and even demonstrating wider social listening by highlighting things like that Queen Rania of Jordan had tweeted to her over 1 million followers about loving the film, and various other bits of PR, interviews, clips and the like.



There's also a Twitter profile, @stareatgoats, tweeting the same sort of stuff as is on the Facebook fan page, and retweeting the odd comment. Not especially conversational, which might explain the fact it's following far more people than are following it.



The main site www.themenwhostareatgoatsmovie.com is the movie's main site, all slick and featuring downloads, trailers, even a couple of mind-bending games.



There's also, and it may not be official but it doesn't seem entirely personal, Stareatgoats.com. It is a two-post blog done on Wordpress.



It's intended to explain more about the story behind the movie, and is written in a bloggy style. There's an introductory post that emphasises the role of spoonbender extraordinaire Uri Geller in the inspiration for the book. There's a second post, posted on the same day at the end of September, about Telekinesis, which is related to the theme of the film. The post links to You Tube videos and encourages you to look into telekinesis yourself. And that's it. It also mentions how funny the film is, aside from Ewan McGregor's accent. Just self-effacing enough to make me think it's designed to catch a bit of buzz. The url is my main clue, though.

There's no You Tube channel from what I can find, although there is some LoveFilm PPC activity on You Tube to direct to that crazy goat again.

I'm quite excited by the film, and can't be the only one. I think all the activity has been well branded, and I've seen the branding for a while now. It's difficult for films to engage without forcing things, and this seems to have made an attempt without forcing things. Someone has obviously put some time in, and if you want information about the film, there is no shortage of official resource, wherever you look.

80s Icon Barbies - Cyndi Lauper and Debbie Harry

Barbie is an enduring brand, celebrating her 50th birthday in March this year. One of the reasons she has endured for so long has been continued re-invention and innovation, and they're now going back to the 80s for their latest twist.

Debbie Harry Barbie - Glass Heart not included

Debbie Harry and Cyndi Lauper strike me as pretty much the opposite of Barbie from their heyday, but these things mellow with age. It's good for a brand when someone who may previously have been considered contrary comes on board even in a small way. Hence Debbie Harry Barbie and cyndi Lauper Barbie, part of the Ladies of the 80s Barbie range. It also includes someone called Joan Jett, who I am less familiar with but looks like Suzi Quattro.

Lego is the main toy brand from my youth, and it amazes me to see some of the applications they continue to find for the brand, recently encompassing a Lego Camera, Lego iPod speaker and Lego MP3 player.

Here's the Cyndi Lauper Barbie. The description on Entertainment Earth where you can reserve them for $34.99 (they're out at the end of the year/ start of next year) uses the word 'spunky' several times. It made me giggle because I am a child.

Cyndi Lauper Barbie - 'Spunky'

HT Retro to Go.

Sunderland striker Darren Bent gets Twitter username on his boots

Sunderland and sometime England footballer Darren Bent has provided something of a nadir in celebrities and their obsession with Twitter - he has had his Twitter username, @DBTheTruth, stitched into his football boots.

I was first tipped off about this by @conkinho, who had seen it on Soccer AM, but have only just come across the image below to back things up.

Picture from The Spoiler.

Bent, who previously endeared himself to former employers Tottenham Hotspur by swearily Tweeting his frustration at delays in his transfer, is probably the most infamous footballer in terms of Twitter use.

On the back of Bent's rant, Spurs banned players, who had previously included Jonathan Woodgate, from using Twitter and implemented a Social Media Policy. Bent himself took a break but came back with a vengeance and started a follower race with a journalist, who won.

Darren Bent's diplomatic transfer negotiations

Along these lines, Bent recently Tweeted an 'Important Announcement' - that his 20,000th follower would receive a special prize. Might I be the one to point out, Darren, that you are over 5,000 followers short of this target, and that people who might care about the prize are likely to wait until you're a bit nearer the goal (no pun intended) in order to stand a chance of winning.

Darren preaches to the crowd

Fellow North East footballer Jozy Altidore also got himself into a bit of bother when he let slip that he had been dropped from the Hull City team because he showed up late, incurring the wrath of his manager Phil Brown. Given the content of the majority of footballers' Tweets, and their capacity to cause strife, I'd say Twitter as sporting self-promotion has a limited shelf life.

Is this Augmented Reality? Axe Day and Night

I saw one part of this Axe Day and Night Campaign ,from Lowe in Uruguay I believe, over on Brand DNA. I thought it was quality on its own terms, in a bit of a more accessible twist on Augmented Reality where all you need is a mobile that can text. Have a look:



Basically you text the number after 9pm and get the image to complete the rather sexy ad. A great way of getting some interaction into an outdoor and a press ad, and playing on the Day and Night theme.

I was even more impressed when I happened upon a TV ad for the same product, which fits in perfectly. Called 'Squares', it works on the same theme of the 'Night' aspect having elements that aren't suitable for the watershed.


Squares - Axe Day & Axe Night Commercial - For more funny movies, click here

Love it, love the extension of it.

What have Christopher Walken, Eric Cartman and Lady Gaga got in common?

No, not that. I found these two clips today completely independently of each other.

Lady Gaga's Poker Face, whatever you think of it, has to be considered pretty much the song of the year, and it will get a new lease of life having been given two very different but equally powerful new makeovers.

On Jonathan Ross' show, Christopher Walken, storyteller extraordinaire, read out the lyrics of Poker Face in his inimitable (well actually lots of people imitate it) style. Have a watch:



Second, and this might alert some people to the fact that South Park is actually still going (like Channel 4 maybe, hint hint), is Eric Cartman singing Poker Face. The wider episode has the guys playing a lot of Guitar Hero, so this is a ringing pop-culture endorsement in the back-handed South Park sense for both Guitar Hero and Poker Face.



These clips haven't had millions of hits yet, but I expect they'll get there (if all the South park clips don't get taken down) as it has been the weekend. Sports brands have shown the power of getting personalities to do different things that will be shared virally. Cash4Gold's Superbowl ad featuring MC Hammer and Ed McMahon had them both sending themselves up and was brilliantly funny:



The likes of Christopher Walken and Eric Cartman are maybe a bit edgy, especially the latter, but I'd love to see more of this sort of thing from brands. My own personal wish would be for a version by John and Edward or Susan Boyle.

HTs to The Inquisitr and Videogum.

Youtube Hits by Judit & Judit - Spoofing Top You Tube Videos

This speaks for itself.

HT to Mastercom.

The 80s-izer from Russell Athletic

Here's me scoring a touchdown, watched and cheered by t'other half:



Amazingly, this isn't actual footage. It's a new viral.

Russell Athletic is the sort of brand you probably thought you'd forgotten. Well you'd better get remembering them, because they're putting a bit of effort in. They are, after all, the original American sportswear brand.

The 80s-izer appeals to me in that I am vain and I love the 80s. I am at this moment thinking about how to fashion a costume to go as David Bowie's Goblin King in Labyrinth to this weekend's Halloween event.

The site is pretty nice, focusing on the college heritage of the brand:



There is a choice in the Movie Maker tab of four Elf Yourself-esque scenarios along the retro 80s theme for you to get involved with: Breakdancing, American Football, Muscle Beach and Jazzercise. I can't work out if Jazzercise is my new favourite word or if I hate it.



Once you've chosen your scene, you get to render you or one of your loved ones as anything from a 'body-popping beat boy' to a cheerleader. You know the drill:



What is new as far as I'm aware is the ability to embed the videos. They're easily shareable across the whole social suite, and there's some genuine charm in the videos, although this may be less true of those that don't feature my face.

In addition, elsewhere on the site there's also a timeline of events in the company's history, and a bit of a lookbook of the new range.

Frank PR are responsible. Well done them.

Of course I'm going to give you another video example. Here's me doing a bit of breakdancing, with my tongue out.



And here's me and the missus on Muscle Beach. Again, I have to stress this isn't real.

Slap Nick Griffin

I read here about a campaign, I believe by Albion, that offers everyone the chance to do what a lot of people have been wanting to do for some time.

www.slapnickgriffin.co.uk lets you do what you might expect, namely slap Nick Griffin, and is proving pretty prolific, as you can see from the screen grab below. Over 14 million shots have been taken at the puddingy mug of Britain's least favourite politician, an achievement at the moment and no mistake.



There's a burgeoning range of comments on the You Tube tutorial, which you can watch below. I was mildly concerned it might seem like I was posting a Nick Griffin speech on my blog, but I absolutely am not endorsing anything other than hearty slapping.



Enjoy.

A rival to The Best Job In the World?

I saw this, of all places, in a pub toilet. Despite other evidence to the contrary, I don't make a habit of taking photos in public toilets, but I took a quick snap as there was nobody else around.



This is an ad for Deadliest Catch on the Discovery Channel, and plays on the cliched 'Earn up to £££ per year!' type ads, with the attraction of the show listed among the Job Description.

It also put me in mind of the award-winning campaign for Queensland Tourism, which resulted in Brit Ben Southall landing the Island Reef Job after an enormous response to an ad for The Best Job In the World.

Interestingly another tourism campaign which generated a lot of coverage was that for Denmark, which featured a controversial You Tube video. They are also advertising opportunities to work in Denmark against searches for 'the greatest job in the world', which is quite a boast but likely to be cheap volume.



I haven't seen any PPC ads for Deadliest Catch, but the creative would lend itself to something similar, particularly for an awareness Google Content Campaign, or to generate a bit of buzz among those who might stumble across it.

Twitter Search - An early thought

I was a little disappointed with the news that broke last week regarding Google and Bing indexing Tweets. It seemed somewhat rushed and ill-considered. At the risk of being the same, I have held back my early thoughts until being jogged to do so by a couple of thoughtful pieces I read.



For a start, as a paid search practitioner by day, there was no sort of consideration for how this will impact on the PPC side, from a reputation-management point of view. I am an advocate of trying to get some sort of RSS capability into AdWords to allow for dynamism of the sort that can lead to PR mishaps (the phoney battle between Labour and The Sun via PPC of a few weeks back, for example, and the same newspaper's use of dead celebrities as a source of traffic), but which would present all sorts of opportunities if managed carefully. Bringing in Social Search would be easier to leverage with this sort of added versatility.

I also had high hopes for Twitter as its own, monetisable, Search engine. Twitter Search has suffered from being almost too real-time. Once a new topic starts trending, half the most recent tweets concern 'What is xxx?' and shameless use of it to try to garner more followers. My idea would have been to try to come up with an algorithm relating to the authority of the user, to split out authority from recency and then to present opportunities for promotion around a 'legacy' on Twitter. Tweets tend only to actually have a life as long as your followers' feed, or any retweets. Sure, there are over 5 billion tweets knocking about, but the actual shelf life is shorter. Adding a legacy to the tweets of those with 'authority' might create some actual value. Unless it was what Lily Allen had for breakfast.

@graemewood discussed the SEO implications for Brands of not being on Twitter - ie that they now have no excuse not to be and may miss out. He also points to the ability of Twitter to filter out the inevitable DR spam by its very nature.

As a further SEO consideration, I remember talk a while back about Twitter Search indexing the content of pages linked to in tweets. Unless I'm sadly mistaken I haven't seen any evidence of this, but if Twitter and Google could get something reciprocal going on, it might become possible within Twitter (possibly in exchange for some space to serve ads?).

Overall, despite agreeing with Graeme's assertion that essentially nothing has changed, I was encouraged, by @davidcushman, who wrote on Faster Future about the significance of Twitter in search. He emphasises the aspect of opening up the network and adding 'nodes', of the march that Twitter could be stealing on Facebook, and is generally very positive about the whole thing. I can't help thinking this is a great viewpoint from a theoretical perspective, and am going back to the drawing board.

Watch this space.

This time in 2054, we'll be millionaires

Get your numbers here.

Google Social Search - Bad News for Facebook, and for AskPeopleYouKnow.com

Google Social Search has been announced on the Google Blog and is already generating a lot of noise around Twitter, hopping into the Hot Trends.

I came across, but have not had full chance yet to play with, an interesting idea called AskPeopleYouKnow.com a little while ago. It looked interesting, but appears to have been wholeheartedly usurped by Google Social Search, which is the same thing but, you know, accessible on your regular Google Search page, using your increasingly connected Google profile, and a hell of a lot simpler.

Here's the usual heavily-accented Google Social Search description video:



And here's Matt Cutts explaining how Google Social Search works, referencing Twitter, your Blogger blog, Friendfeed and the 'Social Circle' - interestingly there is no mention of Facebook, which seems to be falling behind in this integration of Social Media into mainstream Search Engines:



One thing that seems key to Google Social Search is to refine who you're following on Twitter - you get all of your followees' followees in your Social Circle, so could clog up what might otherwise be valuable results. Alternatively you could reasonably indiscriminately, or cleverly and tactically, expand your range of sources.

Putting a text message on a building - Great viral and marriage proposal from Staples

Along the same lines as recent virals for Samsung, with LED Sheep and Honda with car headlights, Staples are making large scale stunts out of the humble office block.



This is from the Netherlands, and there's an accompanying website www.lovetheoffice.nl which, through my limited (ie non-existent) grasp of Dutch appears to encourage you to upload your own entries in order to win a holiday. There are a number of examples there already.

Cassetteboy vs Nick Griffin vs Question Time

A bit of levity from Cassetteboy via @graemed.

Reviving a tired format - Thomson's Flight Safety Video

I've just got back from a thoroughly relaxing holiday in Mexico, refreshed and resolved to get back into the swing of things blog-wise.

A great excuse to do so came in the form of the safety announcement on the return flight of our Thomson holiday, which was an great example of how a little bit of creativity and effort can make a massive difference.

The video below is well worth a watch. It's your standard safety announcement. We've all heard it every time we've flown, and I know I had become one of those people who didn't even lower their newspaper. When I have, the flight attendants (and this is only in my experience, which is largely of a lowish-cost nature, I am sure it is not true of all flight attendants) have seemed equally as indifferent to the actual point of the rigmarole.



There are numerous areas where companies like Thomson can make little but memorable differences to people's holiday experiences, and they force competitors to raise their game as well. There's a practical application in this case as it leaves the full cabin crew to continue preparations for the flight (or discuss loudly and at length the sexual orientation of all male cabin crew in the fleet, in this instance) and the surprise of the difference made everyone pay attention.

In the case of raising the mundane above the usual, the applications are seemingly endless for any brand. Humour will tend to play some role. A good example of this is the (admittedly now slightly tired itself) Orange Cinema Gold Spot.

Putting little messages on the packaging of different products within your range, to give them their own little identity, would also come under this 'simple but effective' umbrella. To use another aviation example, Virgin Atlantic did this with the packs containing your standard socks and sleeping mask. It's the sort of thing you are more likely to keep, and that might help make you come back.

A friend's company, the runaway success that is Rollasole, has this kind of attention to detail. There's a different passage in each different colour of pump. It probably goes unread by the majority of customers, particularly as the product is aimed at the 'end of the night' crowd, but it's there, and it shows care.



I know the Thomson example isn't especially new, a hazard of taking a rather late summer holiday. Ironically I think if the kids in the Thomson Flight Safety Video, rather than the rather disinterested adult cabin crew we got, had been in charge, I might have had a better flying experience.

Never underestimate the power of a great story

An ambitious and brilliantly clever ad from Canal Plus.



HT to Ryan

I'll Scream Your Tweets - This guy will scream your tweets

Fresh from Nick Burcher blogging about the #Livestrong Nike Tour de France Chalkbot, which chalked Twitter messages along the route of the Tour de France, a decidedly more 'home-spun' idea comes from South Africa.



An enterprising chap called Sam has posted a blog, http://illscreamyourtweets.com/, which invites users to send Tweets to @ScreamUrTweets.



Once a week, Sam will ascend Table Mountain and, quite simply, scream your tweets. Simple but, to anyone within earshot, probably pretty effective.

Oh, and he'll post them on You Tube too:

I'll Scream Your Tweets Episode One



I'll Scream Your Tweets Episode Two



I'll Scream Your Tweets has even been picked up by Current TV:



It doesn't yet have a huge number of followers, but it will get a lot of interest no doubt, having already been picked up by a local newspaper as well.

It is attracting a range of Tweets, from advertising niche products:



To personal messages:



It would be an interesting way to propose as well. Only kidding.

HT to Blog Blog.

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Social Media by David Cushman

This is a comprehensive presentation to explain the what, why and wherefore of Social Media.

It also features a very prophetic quote I was unaware of from Brian Eno way back in 1991:

Future TV will be made with
simple equipment
unqualified people
small budgets
and bad taste

Adjust your set as much as you like

Everything You Ever Wanted To Know Aboout Social Media

View more presentations from david cushman.

Read more from the author, David Cushman, here.

Interesting Use of Twitter

Are you a boss being encouraged by your employees to use Twitter? here's why:



From here via @Mazi.

New ComparetheMeerkat.com Ad - This time with added Jacuzzi

Google Suggest recognizes navigational trend

Google has reacted to the increasing trend of using the Google search bar over typing in an actual url. Now, and stop me if you've seen this before, Google Suggest will suggest an actual link for a handful of popular sites, cutting out the need to actually complete the search.

I've observed through my own experience and through looking at Search Query Reports that a lot of searches are done for specific urls, a phenomenon which makes little sense but clearly has some practical advantage for the large numbers of people who do it.

This morning, for reasons I won't go into, I was searching for Facebook on Google, and saw the result below partway through the actual search.



The link is clickable, but I don't know whether this would count as a sponsored result for Facebook or just a way of Google giving extra relevance in areas it knows there is a demand, or giving a lift to sites it needs to cosy up to.

Facebook isn't the only one either. Media darling Twitter is in on the act:



While Google have protected their own interests, or aided them, by doing the same for Blogger.



Given that Google Suggest has recently been ridiculed for some of the random and in odd cases mildly offensive suggestions it comes up with, this is an encouraging step in the right direction for it being a genuinely helpful tool.

Dave goes to Sweden - foul mouthed reasons to visit Skane

Visit Sweden have reacted to the phenomenon of the British recession 'Staycation' by highlighting the proximity and relative benefits of going to Southern Sweden.

They've created a series of virals, all housed on the Visit Sweden website and the Visit Sweden You Tube Channel, featuring a typical Brit called Dave and his foul-mouthed reaction to the wonders of Skane. The idea is Dave is your classic obnoxious British holidaymaker, and you can avoid him by shunning Cornwall for Sweden.

But the campaign doesn't stop at the creative - it's all really well joined up using all your Social Media friends.

There's a Facebook page, showing Dave's a fan of West Ham and Andy McNab.



There's a Twitter profile, @DavegoestoSkane, which reveals he's Dave Smith, a taxi driver from Hackney (I think I know him), and rants about being in Sweden. It's funny, and he's engaging people as well. This is also the first example I've seen where Twitpic is being used to good effect as well. Brilliant.



There's even a Flickr page, which photos of Sweden featuring Dave, like the one below:



The ads themselves are pretty varied and pretty funny.

There's a video of Stenshuvud beach:



The Swedish countryside, in which Dave gives his opinion on the beguiling ancient stones at Ales Stenar:



An appreciation of the lines between Art and Architecture:



And finally Malmo, a captivating city of contrasts:

#NCFC - The Biggest Football Club on Twitter?

As I'm sure you know by now if you read this site site regularly, I support Norwich City. I keep it quiet at the moment given their relegation and the subsequent 7-1 home defeat by the might of Colchester United that signalled our arrival in Coca Cola League One.

However I have been delighted by the power of Twitter in uniting fans of the club. Led by Stephen Fry, a Canary himself, Norwich fans the world over have popped up, with 289 fans adding a 'Twibbon' to show their support for the club. Ipswich Town, to give you some context, have 11 Twibbon-declared fans, while of the 'big four', Manchester United and Chelsea currently have fewer fans thans little old Norwich.



Norwich also yesterday achieved something else pretty special in Twitter terms. Having sacked club legend Bryan Gunn in the wake of the opeing day humiliation, they appointed the very manager who inflicted that defeat, Colchester's Paul Lambert.

The news broke at a press conference, but the journalists present were straight on Twitter, as were Sky Sports News viewers. This ties in with the fact that I'm finding Twitter a more reliable and quicker source of up-to-date sports news from regular folk than any mobile applications - and I'm an iPhone owner.

Within minutes the news spread, discussion began and hopes were raised. And Paul Lambert became a top ten trending topic on Twitter. Yes, Norwich City's new manager was, at around 10:30 yesterday morning, one of the ten most discussed things on Twitter, ahead of Glasgow and behind New Moon and District 9.



Admittedly this time of day is pretty much owned by the UK in Twitter terms, but still. I was helpfully sent a Twitpic documenting the momentous occasion, surely never to be repeated. Thankfully our opening day humiliation was kept off the trending topics by England's Ashes capitulation on the same weekend.

Dudeism is a religion - Volkswagen See Films Differently Virals

I'm not alone in being a big fan of the cult Coen Brothers movie The Big Lebowski and its main character played by Jeff Bridges, The Dude.

Now Volkswagen are continuing their support of Independent Cinema with a new batch of idents in their Volkswagen - See Films Differently series.

The idents are backed up by several months of activity documented on a Guardian microsite, which includes news of film events and includes the rather excellent Film Map.

The Dudeism ident, which shows an individual who claims to have turned the ways of The Dude into a religion, and two others which follow relating to Willy Wonka and Rocky are the brainchild of DDB.



This young chap found inspiration for his magic from Willy Wonka:



And this big guy got a lot out of Rocky:



I had a look for more in the series and discovered an altogether more tongue-in-cheek set of Volkswagen film virals from 2007 which don't appear to have been given the audience they deserve. Some of them are very funny and they all relate to off-the-wall interpretations of popular films. I'll post them all individually during the week, just because.

Strangely Volkswagen don't appear to have put the videos online themselves, they're on Creative Review's Channel. Similarly the 2007 virals are on two different channels, both of which only feature this content, but neither of which appear to be official. There are numerous Volkswagen You Tube channels and one dedicated to the See Films Differently campaign and branded as such would show a considered commitment.

Calvin Harris goes heavy on Social Media

Calvin Harris hit upon a potential You Tube smash yesterday when he created a 'Humanthesizer' to promote his new single, Ready for the Weekend. He followed up his Social Media smash with an expletive-laden rant on Twitter about a poor review from the Guardian's Alexis Petridis.

The 'Humanthesizer' used gratuitously sexy models and technology devised by what the tabloids would call 'boffins' to create a human synthesizer - a top idea.



There's also a 'Making of' video, which has been less popular but is worth a look.



However Calvin, or @calvinharris has gone a bit Lily Allen (rule 1 of 2009 reporting - mention Lily Allen in every context possible) and had a massive rant across a number of tweets this morning about Petridis' Guardian review, which he sees as unfair.



I salute his honesty, and this is the sort of thing guaranteed to be picked up by the papers, probably The Guardian itself, as symbolic of the self-indulgence of celebrities on Twitter.

However, this is the sort of episode, along with the numerous sportsmen faux-pas in the last couple of weeks, which I will go into further in another post, which will see the use of Twitter by celebrities on the wane. I firmly believe Twitter will revert to being used predominantly by those that found it geuninely useful in the first place, and that the mainstream media's constant search for the 'point' of Twitter will not be found in reporting what the likes of Calvin Harris and Bianca Gascoigne have to say on it. It may continue to be used by the likes of the News of the World as an 'overheard' gossip source (as was the case with Lily Allen fancying Andrew Flintoff - she has over a million followers - they all heard it!), but indulgence will only go on as far as it is useful or at the very least entertaining.

If, in the meantime, Harris manages to get more buzz around his single, fair enough, but he is actually creating more buzz around a bad review for his single, which is foolish at best. He seems to be a bit more contrite about it now, however:

Social Media Addicts Association by Sony Vaio - Stop writing on my wall!

A great way to get Social Media types to talk about and share something is to lampoon their own ways, so they can share it and be all postmodern and ironic. I say they, I should say we.

This idea from Sony Vaio is a great one, even more so because they've followed it through.



It is based around the Social Media Addicts Association You Tube Channel, which houses a number of videos, and the website www.stopwritingonmywall.com . Here's the mission statement.

Just say no to social media!

Are you one of the millions of people whose lives have been ruined by a never-ending torrent of tweets, friend requests and ‘Which kind of pasta are you?' quizzes? Then it's time you joined the Social Media Addicts Association.

SMAA is run by reformed social media addicts who all had the courage to stand up and admit to their problem. Will you stop poking people you haven't seen since college, and join us?

And the petition you can sign:



You can even, and this where I get excited, buy a range of t-shirts. I like this one:



On the You Tube Channel, there's an appeal from Jerry, the founder:



An appeal from Frank, a Social Media Addict:



I have also found Frank, I think, on Twitter as @frankSMAA. I'm his first non-spam follower.



There's also Gemma:



And this goon:



These are in the Confessions section, which encourages you to upload your own confession. I can't wait to see some of those. A great idea again.

The whole Sony Vaio thing is very subtly pushed. There's an ad on the site promoting the use of the Vaio for Social Media, and it is the laptop used in the main ad for covert use of Social Media.



The whole thing is very slick, and hopefully this is just the start. Having all the characters on Twitter makes sense, a Facebook group would be a great idea (I can't find one) and, if they could get away with it, profiles of the characters on Facebook (I suspect Facebook would take these down if alerted to them), and a whole joined-up approach for the addicts with things like Blogs and maybe even Linked In profiles, particularly for Frank, who seems to be the star. The only issue is that Frank is also the anti-drugs campaign, 'Talk to Frank', which could get confusing.

I don't know who's responsible for the campaign but, so far, well done them.

UPDATE: The agency responsible is Nascom in Belgium, and the campaign is produced by Caviar Brussels, and directed by Frank Devos, which would explain why the guy is called Frank!

District 9 QR Codes - Snap 'em quick!

I saw this on PSFK and have mixed feelings about it. It's a great piece of Guerilla advertising for upcoming Sci-Fi film District 9, and it features a QR Code, which is generally 'a good thing' if it leads to good and useful content (this is unconfirmed). However there are two concerns:



1) You are, as SFK's Francisco Hui points out, going to break your neck trying to snap the code in order to access the content. However engaging and valuable it is, it is unlikely to keep you amused while you're in traction having gone headfirst down a flight of stone Subway steps.

2) A QR Code, like anyone who has had to scan a barcode will tell you, works best when it is clear. Sticky tape like this absolutely fits in with the feel of the movie, and gives you an excuse to place the ad in a strange place (although I would be interested to see if permission was sought). However, I'd question whether the creases evident in the QR Code itself will allow you to actually capture the code properly and access the content.

Pavement/Sidewalk ads have been used well recently, notably for the launch of Wired Magazine, but has anyone sued a QR Code in pavement advertising (I am betting yes they have in Japan)? Or is it a recipe for people bumpijg into you as you bend over to take a picture of the pavement?

Just a thought.

My Blog got a Google PlusBox!

I've done some work with Google's Product PlusBox, which allows you to advertise several products within the same paid search listing, for example a number of Nokia phones available on O2, or a range of several beds. I did not, however, expect to see one for my very own Blog.

As I do occasionally out of interest (and mainly to check that I am still above Rick Lamb - America's Premier Horse Racing DJ), I Googled myself this morning. The results were surprising not because I'm top, although that never ceases to amaze me, but because there is a second listing that is indented and incorporates a PlusBox.



The PlusBox expands to show five additional posts, thankfully all of the type that make me look intelligent and like I know what I'm talking about. I'd like to think they reinforce the sort of subjects I talk about, from an apparaisal of Berocca's Blogger Outreach programme (I never got my Berocca Blogger Relief Pack incidentally, despite being told it had been sent) a year ago, to my French Wikipedia-referenced post about Google's Street View Astronaut, and the post which saw me followed on Twitter by a number of new Tweeters who only followed celebrities.



I'm not the only one either. If you search, as I'm sure a lot more people do than search for me, for Nick Burcher, you get a similar range of his wisdom, from Facebook User Statistics to Waitrose Pinatas and Eurovision predictors.



On initial tests of the Beta version, this will not be a feature of Google Caffeine. I'll also fall behind 'the other Rick Lamb'. I definitely prefer the De-Caff version of Google.