New Ad Campaigns

This weeks edition from Amy at Mediapost:

Give us your best "O-face." "What's a left without a right?" M&Ms hide Easter eggs online... in Canada. Let's launch!

ESPN.com launched two TV spots highlighting the revamped site's offerings. The first spot begins with the site name and variety of backslashes to depict the array of fantasy baseball content found online, from fantasy baseball leagues, baseball rumors and trades. The spot ends with a player being traded to a team called "Who's Your Boss." The team's owner is none other than uber baseball fan and childhood actress Alyssa Milano, who's shown making the trade online from her dressing room. Watch the ad here. The next ad shows the site's range in content, from Celtics information and Notre Dame scores, to columns penned by Bill Simmons and Biba Golic, table tennis star. I saw the trend building, until Golic was mentioned. See the ad here. Both ads conclude with the tagline "follow your sports." Wieden + Kennedy New York created the campaign. I love the print campaign launched for "Ben," a sub-brand of Benjamin Moore paint that targets a younger audience. Launching in April issues of Cookie, Real Simple, InStyle, Wired, Details and Shape, the ads try to change the perception that Benjamin Moore is a pricey brand with a limited color selection. Creative uses colors and clever copy to describe the quest of finding the perfect shade: "It's somewhere between the color of your lips when you go outside in December with your hair still wet and the color of a puddle left by a melted grape Popsicle mixed with the color of that cough syrup that used to make me gag a little," says the run-on sentence in one ad. Words are bolded in various shades of purple and the perfect shade is found at the bottom of the ad in paint swatch form. See the ads here, here and here. Cramer-Krasselt New York created the campaign and handled the media buy. Panasonic is launching an online and print campaign tomorrow in conjunction with NCAA March Madness. Promoting the company's Viera HDTVs, the ads target basketball fans through a sponsorship of March Madness on Demand and a 30-second spot airing as a pre-roll during live tournament games on CBSsports.com. The sound of a basketball game and snippets of arms and legs are shown through slits. These slits are actually the point of view of a die-hard basketball fan watching the game through covered eyes. The fan uncovers his eyes and watches the remainder of the game on his HDTV, nervously tapping his feet and grabbing his hair. See the ad here. Print ads, running in Sports Illustrated, USA Today and ESPN Magazine, lay out a to-do list in March Madness team bracket forms. Not surprisingly, the overall winner is "watch the game." See the ads here and here. Kirshenbaum Bond + Partners created the campaign and The Media Kitchen handled the media buy. The Special Olympics launched a print campaign to stop the use of the word "retard" in casual conversation by loosely using other derogatory words in relaxed formats. "That's retarded is just an expression. As are 'tar baby' and 'Jew him down,"' reads one ad. "I feel like such a retard, says the chink to the faggot," reads another ad. See them here, here and here. BBDO New York created the ads. M&M's is hiding Easter eggs with pin codes online and in specially marked packages. The more points a user collects, the greater the chances of winning prizes like trips to New York, Las Vegas or Orlando, Fla. Sadly, this fun, elaborate promotion is for Canadians only. The campaign is supported via TV, point of sale and online elements that explain contest details and feature M&M's characters "Red" and "Yellow" on their quest for eggs. The two "Join the Hunt" in one TV spot in which "Red" carries his eggs in a basket and "Yellow" stuffs them in his mouth. Watch it here. In "Bunny Suit," the Easter Bunny, who, in actuality, is "Red" and "Yellow" in disguise, hides eggs throughout a house. See it here. Online, users can visit JoinTheHunt.ca to find hidden eggs throughout the site and play four games -- hopscotch, memory, word search and boat race -- to accrue additional points. Four Web sites are also hidden within JoinTheHunt.ca, containing additional eggs. Even more eggs can be found in banner ads strategically placed on 260 Web sites. I wasn't kidding when I said this campaign was elaborate. BBDO Toronto created the TV spots; Proximity Canada developed the digital campaign and creative direction; Firstborn handled the design, flash, backend development and sequence animation for the site; and OMD Canada handled the media buy. ASICS launched a pan-European print campaign this week entitled "Left and Right" promoting ASICS SportStyle leisure footwear. Each ad pairs two things together, such as "Up & Down," "Art & Science" and "East & West." Each item helps balance out the other, as described by the tagline "What's a left without a right?" "Adam & Eve" are tempted by present-day items in one ad, such as a gaming console, camera, jewelry and cupcakes. "East & West" demonstrate the balance between Asian and Western cultures with references to food, mythology and landmarks. See the ads here, here, here and here. Amsterdam Worldwide created the campaign. Proximo and Three Olives (Three-O) vodka launched a contest called "What's Your O-Face?" Exactly. Insert all jokes here, like the company's description of the contest: it's "the look of surprise one has after tasting a shockingly delicious Three-O Vodka drink." To participate, users must upload a picture of their "O-face" online between now and May 31. A grand prize winner will be selected from 5 finalists and awarded $10,000 and a spot in a national ad campaign. Online ads are running on PerezHilton.com and Maxim.com. Print ads promoting the campaign can be viewed here, here, here and here. Agent 16 created the print ads and Special Ops Media handled Web site development, online creative and media planning. Mohawk Flooring launched an amusing print campaign to promote its SmartStrand stain resistant carpeting. To illustrate that its carpeting can take a lickin', Mohawk took average household events and placed an extreme spin on them. Like a dog knocking over a glass of red wine, for example. In Mohawk's world, the dog can sit surrounded by glasses of red wine without the need to panic. "Don't worry. It's SmartStrand," says the ad. Another ad features a group of school-aged, uniformed girls jumping rope on a carpet. The ads, seen here and here, are running in Elle Décor, House Beautiful, Traditional Home and Better Homes & Gardens Beautiful Homes. Cramer-Krasselt Milwaukee created the campaign and handled the media buy. Amy Corr is managing editor, online newsletters for MediaPost. She can be reached at amyc@mediapost.com.

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