Colle+McVoy are having a moving sale on eBay where everything must go. Even their old awards here:

Perfect for those "up-and-coming" ad agencies that need to show blue-chip clients that they have a long-standing tradition of excellence in the pet health field.
This box of ad industry accolades from years 1986 to 1999 has all the big ones. An ECHO Award, a Top of the Arc Award, even the much-sought-after Gentle Doctor Award, all in pristine, ready-for-trophy-case condition. Price includes a nearly empty bottle of ad industry award polish.

Personally I'm more interested in the "Real ake arm", looks useful.

George Ellis does a pre-emptive mock to avoid any agency.com comparisons "As a final defense against criticism, I even wore a shirt with "Tool" on it, thereby making fun of myself already so nobody else has to..."

Ok, fine, so if we can't make fun of of his three self promo adverts meditate, award winner impression and hands, we'll just have to laugh with him. While pointing. Or something.
Personally I think the award winner impression was pretty accurate though.

caffeinegoddess shared a link with me that I just have to pass along - seems there is a very own "badland" hell out there for copy-cat designers. Specifically for those big Dumpcorp® High Street knock-off design chains that shill bad versions of someone else's original work, like say Urban Outfitters or H&M.
I remember the design students at Parsons already bitching about the voracious fashion industry they were about to enter where peeking in on someones work and then knocking it off down the hall would be a part of the biz, so it's really no surprise to see the many examples. Urban Counterfeiters is the place where you can get your revenge by sending in photos of your designs that another company regurgitated.

Before 1984 it was 1983, and Apple shilled the Lisa with the help of Kevin Costner. Kevin must have carried his "massive expensive flop" waterworld curse around already back then, as you know the Lisa was dreadfully expensive and never sold. Has to be Kevins fault!

I'm glad that I'm not the only one wondering what on earth that "HeadOn" stuff which ye shall "apply directly to forehead" does - seems everyone has been hypnotized with the ads that are so bad they cause migraines.

Slate's Seth Stevenson confirms that the mystery stuff is for headaches - see: The mesmerizing ad for headache gel. So was the idea here to cause headaches, prompting me to rush out and buy the headon gel and apply directly to forehead? Devilishly clever!

HeadOn green version

HeadOn blue version

HeadOn's ActivOn

HeadOn's FREEdHEM

Update Someone sent us this photo proving that there are least three poster sites with this message. This one is on the I-95 North near Jerome Avenue in the Bronx, NY.

And now we know: It's a campaign for CourtTV

Update 24th of July Hi Steven, people loved our stunt says the New York Times

For those who haven't seen the tremendously annoying Kellogg's ad with the blond kid singing in it, you can view it here. Thanks to Joel a member of lowculture we know how David Whitehouse of the Guardian feels about this, full excerpt posted here in their forums.

And what we're left with is a jingle being sung by a boy at the exact moment his voice breaks, in a tone so monotonous it appears to be operating at a frequency which [sic] toys with people's bowels. It is, quite simply, the worst soundtrack to an advertisement ever.

Lets not forget, with the worst rhymes too, check out "pirate" rhyming with "great". *shudder*
The Museum of Hoaxes has looked into rumor about the Frosties kid being dead. He's not as Kellogg's has stated "The current advertisement has been well received by the vast majority of our customers. We would also like to take this opportunity to confirm that the lead boy within the advertisement is well and continues to live in his native South Africa."

CopaCabana in Skagen has offered the ladies 50% off drinks if they show their more or less naked breasts to the camera and allow these images to be posted on their home page. Copacabana figures that it attracts customers, both to their homepage and to the night club. The people of Skagen are not as happy about this as the club is, they think that all of Skagen now gets a bad reputation which damages their important tourist industry. The local police are now looking into it, to see if they can take Copacabanas liquor licence away.

What do you get when you are one of the 12 chosen to study advertising from all angles at w+k's very expensive experimental school? You get to push 100,419 pushpins and spend over 351 hours to create a wall mural spelling out "Fail Harder". No, I don't think its meant to be either truth in advertising nor ironic, but interpret is as you wish.

See video here of the rather impressive pushpin murals creation. Download high res (50 MB) version here.

With the arrival of summmer in this part of the world comes more beer ads along with the warm weather.

In London, Ontario, Canada (where Labatt started and continues) beer ads seem to be everywhere.

I was out with my camera, and I snapped a couple of shots of some of the beer ads in the city I came across. (images inside)

H&M has released some shots of the Madonna designed track suit that will be in stores this fall, and they say is on Madonna and her dancers while off-stage during the Confessions tour this summer.
"Partnering up with H&M feels like a perfect fit. We'll all get to express ourselves in our own individual ways. The dancers and I are excited to go shopping together." said Her Madgesty.

The sleek suit pictured above will be in stores mid-August and comes in white, black and purple. It's retro - my god is it 1982 again? - look will suit anyone with a svelte figure like Madge's. It's rumored that H&M also used Madonna's entire 150-person tour crew for photo shoots in the coming ad campaign.

Cult of Mac have tracked down the recent doings of everyones favorite stonerBenadryl user Ellen Feiss. She's now starring in a French short movie called Bed and Breakfast, and look there she is looking very perky indeedy! Must be the café au lait.

Andy Law, founding member of St.Luke's, structured his new agency again. Formerly known as Law/Kenneth the agency goes now by the name of "the law firm".

check out at: the-l-a-w-firm.com

Here's a good trick, if you wish to win an award, dust off a great idea from a vintage award winning year. Since careers in advertising are so short, 5 years will do, but ten years is even better. Go!

Via ytlig.se I found this new widget for making an online portfolio without knowing a lick of html - carbonmade.com.

La Croisette gossip is buzzing with the rumor of who won the grand prix in film - everyone is pointing at Guinness - Evolution / Noitulove.

Guinness - Evolution / Noitulove

This is just "talk" - but every year when I've been there the Croisette gossip has been right on the money. So it just might be right again....

If you read more than one ad blog for breakfast you've probably stumbled onto the mysterious Asian Socces babes. Steve at adrants asked for help translating the Belgian site where he had found them, but sadly that left little clue as where the images came from and what they were advertising - if anything.

Adgrunt may23rd2007 (interesting name) has been on a mission since May to tag all cobranded ads with the word cobranded. Give 'm a hand willya?

Meanwhile, as you sell your branded product out in the open, someone somewhere might decide to do some crazy stuff with it. Check this "cobranded brand hijack" to see just how crazy you can get with a Mentos and a Coke light.

Of course, this has become a crazy fad, see everyone mentos + coke light videos on youtube. Yikes. Happily, this fits both Mentos and Coke lights brand should, it's fun loving and inventive (mentos) while light! (Coke). Ok, so it's not just for the taste of it... ;)

The always creative people of Coudal have an interesting way of wasting time in their bathrooms... Writing on the walls is taken to a whole new level now that the agency started a strange game morphing band names with book titles. Yeah that's it, mash up a name of a book with the name of a band, and what do you get? Weirdness!

Booking Bands list the best and some of the rest. Coudal crew came up with these:
Catch 182
Horton Hears a Hoobastank
Of Mice and Men at Work
Bare Naked Lunch Ladies
The Agony and the XTC

Can you come up with better ones?

More fun with chalkboards, this flickr slideshow shows some kung fu chalkboard fighting.

Am I the only person who wonders if the "I'm only here for the Bud?" TV campaign is an homage or an outright ripoff of the "I'm only here for the beer" campaign run very successfully for many years by Double Diamond?