Last October, claymore posted on Bluefly's Dinner Party ad with mild nudity that got banned by some magazines and networks. And according to a press release, even the sanitized versions of the spot generated considerable controversy when they aired, but sparked a 46% increase in sales from new customers.

Well, the brand is back, and this time they are challenging censors again with a new ad campaign titled "We're Gonna Be Late". Bluefly PR is calling it "a provocative new advertising and social media campaign aimed at women." The commercial shows a couple getting ready for a night out, but a glance leads to a touch and then the clothes come off much faster than they went on. Prior to the TV launch, a longer cut of the spot was pre-released on the 'net to reach Fashion Week attendees.

In Stockholm these past weeks almost all poster sites have been carrying political ads instead of regular ads - today the swedes are voting and tonight we might know who won. While we wait, here's a look back on the political ad campaigning as 2006 seems to be the year of the rhetorical question and headlines that can be read two ways.

A banner for Moderaterna (The Moderate Party) that Miami advertising created and hung along a highway in Gothenburg - it reads "We love workers. But more are needed."

(read more inside)

If roadkill could talk, what would they say? Would they lament their stationary position in life, or do they become zen masters of their surroundings?

72andSunny's recent TV ad campaign for athletic footwear and apparel company AVIA addresses just that. The :30 ads, which break in US markets this Saturday, September 16, feature roadkill puppets as a flattened rabbit and bird who give snarky but always insightful commentary on the psyche of runners. The campaign was directed by Geoff McGann of OverTwo Films. The project was overseen by Mark Woolsey, Chief Marketing Officer of American Sporting Goods, the parent company of Avia.

Said Glenn Cole, Creative Director and Co-Founder, 72andSunny, "We knew all too well that running ads have a tendency to treat the sport with a reverent, spiritual tone to the point that the genre has become cliché, and we feel justified in saying this because we've done a few of those ads ourselves. So we approached this in a way that felt more like Avia—dedicated and competitive, but not so impressed with itself."

In a new campaign for client WellPoint, the company behind Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield reminds you why it is important to have health insurance. The spots were created by ad agency Publicis & Hal Riney and edited by Jean Kawahara of Umlaut.

"Spongeball," "Father & Son Day" and "Married & Single," follow similar themes, injecting comical dialogue and scenes to otherwise practical advice and hints at the necessity of having a good, affordable healthcare plan.

For Editor Jean Kawahara, the campaign marked an ongoing relationship with ad agency Publicis & Hal Riney and Executive Creative Director Jon Soto. Kawahara worked closely with Soto and Copywriter Mark Sweeney on putting together the final cuts.

"I took one day to review and assemble the footage before the agency came in," explains Kawahara. "Both Jon [Soto] and Mark [Sweeney] knew exactly what they wanted so the cuts came together pretty quickly. Also, because Jon is the Creative Director, we were able to make our decisions right then and there. It really was a smooth and easy process."

A52's Andy Hall teamed up wtih RPA for a $20 million national cross-media campaign for Pioneer Electronics which includes HD broadcast spots "Orbit" and "Wind Tunnel" in addtion to print/online elements.

Last year mygooddeed.org created a thought-provoking PSA that asked the question "How will you remember 9/11?":

Yesterday I received an e-mail from Club Monaco that gave their answer:

A new campaign for Fallsview Casino Resort/World Poker Tour was directed by Mark Gilbert of Reginald Pike for BBDO Toronto. The theme of the ads is that staring isn't polite unless you're at the World Poker Tour. Superadgrunts check them out.

Fallsview Casino Resort/World Poker Tour - Make Out (2006) 0:30 (Canada)

Fallsview Casino Resort/World Poker Tour - Mole (2006) 0:30 (Canada)

Fallsview Casino Resort/World Poker Tour - Urinal (2006) 0:30 (Canada)

Director Eric Saarinen of Plum Productions has helped ad agency Fogarty Klein Monroe create a new campaign for Waste Management.

"We had to visually convey the growing impact of Waste Management's efforts to recycle and renew environmental resources," explains Saarinen. "So we wanted sweeping aerial views of untouched forests, an allusion to the 41 million trees saved; breathtaking bird's-eye views to represent the company's respect for and connection to nature; and warm, heroic shots of a Waste Management truck driver who is an actual employee."

Early last month a spot for Peugeot 407 began airing in Europe. From the press release sent in to us from the good folks at BETC Euro RSCG:

Other than a 2’’ sequence filmed in reality, the ad was a totally exceptional production: all elements were totally new creations except for the 407 itself which was worked graphically. All the elements were then processed in 3D. The director spent a long time with a professional car video game player in order to reproduce game moves that only very top drivers can achieve.

And I'm sure he enjoyed it. :)

Bicoastal creative production company Stardust Studios recently designed and produced a startling, powerful animated PSA to complement ad agency Goodby, Silverstein & Partners’ ongoing, award-winning campaign for the California Coastal Commission. The :30 spot entitled “Non-Native Species” is currently being made available to the media to help promote this year’s California Cleanup Day, scheduled for Sat., Sept. 16, and other related events scheduled to run through Oct. 8.

Last year's campaign elements from the agency, which included posters featuring Audubon-inspired images of imaginary creatures made from trash, such as the CigEgret, SporkCrab and ColaBass, earned major 2006 One Show and Cannes Advertising awards. This year, the agency's creative team, including creative director Jeff Goodby, associate creative directors Paul Foulkes and Tyler Hampton and producer Michael Damiani, called upon Stardust to stylishly conjure one of the creatures for a PSA.

Shannon of glossyinc alerts us to a big banner that was unveiled on Tuesday on MTV Headquarters in Toronto. The 50 foot banner was part of The Ministry of Health's Stupid.ca campaign to prevent teens from smoking.

Canadian band Silverstein joined in and did a performance on MTV Live. Youthography, Toronto conceived and executed all logistics of the "building" living media installation, MTV's & Silverstein's involvement.

Creatives Darryl Roycroft and Graham Wiremu and photographer Greg Semu have worked to create the latest ambient campaign from Draft New Zealand. The installation, by Rocket Signtists, has gone up in shopping malls for Curtain Bank, a charity that is sponsored the huge power utility company Genesis Energy and one of Draft NZ's main clients. Behind a real window frame is the image of a child's bedroom, revealing the uncomfortable reality of some homes in poorer parts of New Zealand.

Although not entirely new, it seems lately there have been a rash of ad agencies making use of video game-themed concepts. It's one thing when the ad is for a video game or related product, but the last couple months have seen an increase in ads using game themes where there is no direct connection to the product or service.

American Express - Roddick vs Pong (2006) 0:30 (USA)

In partnership with The Global Fund, VH1 has created a new 30-second PSA, cut by Benjamin Williams, at Post Millennium and directed by Melissa Bolton. It features sports commentator and television personality John Salley and a elephant named Susie. The spot adapts the old adage of the elephant in the room to: “There’s an elephant in the room and its name is AIDS.”

Benjamin Williams, Post Millennium said, "It was obvious from the beginning that the elephant was a brilliant (some say cranky) improviser. It really just came down to finding his genius and building around it."

Profero is launching some new online work for FRANK, a free and confidential source of unbiased information about drugs. Messages within the campaign cover a wide array of issues including mental, physical, and social side-effects of drug taking. This campaign is targeted at 11 to 18 year olds and covers the side effects of cannabis and the risks of taking class A drugs such as ecstasy. The level of interactivity in the ads reduces the preachy tone associated with most anti-drug advertising.

Youthography's latest integrated campaign for Bubblicious Bursts, aimed at 8-14 year olds throughout Canada, features a young skateboarder taking control of his suburban existence in an unexpected way. The campaign uses TV, Web, print, and sampling at skateboard events across Canada, plus an online contest, where the grand prize is meeting the DC team at the West 49 Canadian Open.

"We wanted to capture the unexpectedness of the product, but in a tone that young people could identify with. We feel that the technique of the spot, its score, and approach really reflect that unexpectedness – it lets us revel in the moment of the burst", says Sean Claessen, Youthography's Creative Director.

Creative inside.

BAP owner and internationally known consultant Leslie Burns-Dell'Acqua has written Business Basics for the Successful Commercial Photographer, a small book geared to students and emerging photographers who, like so many pros, are not always getting much information about the business side of the photo business in their coursework. This book will fill in a lot of those blanks, introducing issues like copyright, marketing, paperwork, business entity types, and more. While it does not explore these topics in depth, it does give readers the basics and points them to other sources for more information. Check it out here or click on the book cover to the left.

My goal was to get the basic information to as many people as I could, thus planting the seeds for positive, effective, life-long professional business practices rather than forcing newer photographers either to read dense business tomes or just wing it when it comes to their businesses.

There's nothing more viral than a grandmother talking to her grandkids about dicks and kids swearing while in a stalemate shootout in front of their father. Two new viral ads for Eidos Reservoir Dogs video game feature both. A joint creation by Eidos Interactive and Loki, the script from the 1992 movie was the basis for their idea. The result is something I'm sure even Tarantino would be proud of.

Check them out here:
Eidos Reservoir Dogs Game - Granny - (2006) :30 (UK)

Eidos Reservoir Dogs Game - Cowboy - (2006) :30 (UK)

Come this September 20th, a new primetime TV network will hit the air (the first in 10 years!) with a logo, tagline, aesthetic, and on-air identity created by Los Angeles design firm Troika Design Group.

The CW Television Network, which merges The WB and UPN networks (which both cease operations in September), isn't your parent's television network--it eschews the big, corporate, made-for-everyone TV mentality for a more intimate, relatable voice, and Troika's branding for the network reflects this.

Right Brain Media has signed director Richard Yelland for exclusive US spot representation. Yelland has already wrapped his first project for the company, a PSA for the Life Rolls On Foundation (LRO), a non-profit 501(c)3 Foundation that exists to be a grassroots resource and an advocate on behalf of young people who have sustained a spinal cord injury (SCI).

"Pool," which will debut on Fuel TV this month, tells the semi-biographical story of Darwin Holmes, a wheelchair-bound athlete who finds himself poolside, staring, one imagines, into the watery abyss, contemplating the physical limitations imposed by his condition. Instead Holmes rolls his chair over the edge and into the pool – which turns out to be empty. Holmes uses his skill, dexterity, and ferocity, as he skates the pool in his wheelchair.