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This new spot from Dutch Brewer Grolsch to promote their new green beer bottle was obviously inspired by the famous One Red Paperclip story. It’s pretty interesting to see more and more spots inspired by online initiatives.

I love the goofy Mentos/Coke videos, but this one I saw tonight for the first time tops everything I’ve seen before.

I wish I had their free time.

To know more about their wacko experiments or to find out how you can make your own fountain you can visit their website.

At the holidays, my husband’s nickname is Clark (as in Griswold, i.e. Christmas Vacation). His goal is to have the best lights on the block and he revels when cars slow down as they drive by our home.

He spends hours in the cold, climbing on the roof, schlepping through trees and running dozens of extension cords through the yard. We have umpteen “things” in our front yard — three of those blow up deals and several lighted critters. Not to mention lights on the house, in the trees and bushes and a lighted tree on the porch. It’s so bad that if I turn on the fan over my cooktop, we blow all the circuits.

But his real aspiration is to do this:

He was mesmerized with last year’s Miller Lite spot, but this year’s spot was even more enticing to him. And the fact that a beer (which is near and dear to his heart) memorializes these light shows in their holiday spots to the music of the Trans Siberian Orchestra makes the concept even more appealing. He would do this for beer. No doubt about it. Someday he may actually convince a sound and light engineer to help him pull it off.

Then the neighbors will really love us! NOT!

Give a little of yourself to help others! Share (upload) your favorite holiday photo.

This is part of our Bozell Holiday messaging to clients and friends and for each photo uploaded we are donating to the Salvation Army. So pass it on.

According to the Census Bureau’s new Statistical Abstract of the United States, in 2007 adults and teens in the US will spend almost 5 months worth of time (3,518 hours) watching television, surfing the net, reading newspapers and listening to music devices.

That’s up almost 6% from the 3,333 hours in 2000.

That means spending 10 hours every day…70 hours each week with media. Often using more than one media at a time.

Not surprisingly, TV watching is down and internet usage is up.

For contributing to the explosive growth and powerful influence of user-generated content like blogs…and video-file sharing sites like YouTube…and social network MySpace, “You” have been named Time magazine’s “Person of the Year.”

Time’s “Person of the Year” issue, which was released Monday, has a mirror on the cover to reflect the viewer.

Roehm-Gate is soooo…last week. The burning question now…Would Jesus shop at Wal-Mart?

A new TV spot that started running this weekend, supported by the Baptist Center for Ethics, WakeUpWalMart.com, and evangelical leaders from across the county is generating quite a stir. Check out the interviews with Joe Phelps, pastor of Louisville’s Highland Baptist Church (who is in the spot) and Robert Parham, executive director of Baptist Center for Ethics on Headline News, CNBC and Fox.

Check out the spot:

“Wake Up Wal-Mart” is a national campaign that challenges the country’s largest retailer to clean up its act on multiple fronts, but this is the first nationwide initiative to reach out to evangelical Christians to help change Wal-Mart for the better.

According to a news release on WakeupWalmart.com:

“The new TV ad, which is headlined by Pastor Joe Phelps, a Baptist minister from Louisville, KY, raises the moral question of whether or not, especially during the Christmas season, people of faith can ignore Wal-Mart’s exploitation of its workers and their families. The spot ends by calling on people of Christian faith to, “Search your heart. If these are Wal-Mart’s values, would Jesus shop at Wal-Mart? Should you?” The 30-second TV ad will be running in over 25 states and 43 media markets across the country beginning Thursday, December 14, 2006.”

What do you suppose Wal-Mart’s PR agency is thinking right now? I can’t wait to see what they do about this.

Great story in today’s LA Times — worth a read:

TWENTY-THREE years after the birth of what became AOL, a decade after Yahoo’s IPO, eight years after the dawn of Google, five years after the Time-Warner/AOL merger, a year after the founding of YouTube, all but the most calcified corners of the media world (what’s black and white and read all over … ) awoke to the fact that the Internet was not just at the doorstep, it had unpacked its bag, raided the liquor cabinet and taken the family for a joyride down to Baja. This was the year wishful thinking — that this Internet phenomenon might just go away — evaporated, and those media companies still standing began to seek anything that might see them through the deluge. And what a deluge it was.

Which is the real logo?

Give it a try. Click here>

The “face from space” stunt was an obvious and harmless marketing ploy, but petitioning to put the colonel’s face on postage stamps and encouraging consumers to sign a petition… that’s another story.

Their case…as stated in their petition letter goes like this:

Hollywood legends, American Superheroes and Hall of Famers have graced the stamps that pass through hands of Americans everywhere, and Harland “Colonel” Sanders deserves to stand amongst these American icons as a true testament to the American Dream.

From the KFC press release:

“The Colonel’s entrepreneurial spirit and hospitable nature made him an American legend,” said James O’Reilly, interim Chief Marketing Officer for KFC. “We believe that a postage stamp in his honor would be a fitting tribute to his memory.”

Colonel Sanders recently was named one of America’s two favorite advertising icons for 2006 and inducted into Madison Avenue’s Advertising Walk of Fame. He is the first real person ever to receive this designation.

Did the post office opened a can of worms when they started the commemorative stamps? According to the USPS, they are to depict individuals, events and subjects instrumental to the American experience. But what if that individual is deeply entrenched as an advertising icon? And his image is on TV every few minutes hawking something or other? Doesn’t that then turn the stamps into a marketing media? That’s what it feels like to me.

2006 Stamps>
2005 Stamps>