Like the rest of the planet we want to know a few things about that Volkswagen Polo terrorist viral (adland post Jan 18), or 'fake' ad, or whatever you want to call it, and Dan kindly humored us with a few answers. Yes, that Dan, from Lee and Dan (LAD). So what do we know about this ad? Well, it was shot on 35mm, and ever since it came out the lads phone has been ringing off the hook. Lee and Dan are extremly tightlipped about who furnished them with the cash to film this, but they will tell us that they wrote the script and they worked with a Director named Stuart.

adland: What happens to you if you break your vow of silence?
Dan: .................................

adland: Have you received any death threats or other interesting forms of outrage yet?
Dan: We know a good plastic surgeon.

adland: (I hope you don't mean this one ;).
Is it true that those cars only have teeny-tiny 13 inch wheels?
Dan: I think the one in the film is rollin on 14's.

adland: Was the driver wearing his seatbelt?
Dan: Of course he was!! it's illegal not too!

adland: What is your preferred recreational beverage or substance for creative inspiration?
Dan: A nice cold pint.

adland: What's next?
Dan: Cannes?

AdLand: What lead to the idea of using cartoon characters?

Gould-Davies: These are iconic women whose hair never changes and is therefore interminably stuck in the same style. It therefore represented a natural opportunity to complement the functional product story of Dove styling -
natural style that moves - and show the difference it would make to the hair of these familiar characters.

Want a piece of the NYC landscape? An Art Director living in New York packages and sells trash, artfully arranged in plastic cubes. Apparently his love for trash blossomed while attending the School for Visual Arts in New York. Makes one wonder what the people who purchase these "works of art" actually do with them.

Copywriter Brian Thompson might not be selling trash, but he is selling his life. Everything he owns is up for sale on eBay, with new items added weekly.

From my portfolio to my toothpaste, everything must go.

He hopes "it will be an entertaining exploration of the consumer culture we help shape."

I just hope he doesn't start selling his kidneys or anything! Although it would be interesting if someone else gets a job using his portfolio.

I had a chance to speak with Guy Gould-Davies, one of the planners who worked on the hair care part of the Dove campaign. He told me that as the manifesto for Dove was being formed and the UK executions were going out in front of the public, the team at Ogilvy in Chicago was given the task of creating a campaign for Dove hair care products.

The "Wig" campaign: Dove - Campaign For Real Beauty - Blondes AKA Natural Hair USA(2004)

Soap. It's considered a parity product. But Dove doesn’t see itself as such. "In 1957, Dove® Beauty Bar was born. What made it different from other soap cleansers? It really wasn't soap at all. It used mild, non-soap ingredients, plus 1/4 moisturizing cream, so it didn't dry our skin like soap. This was a unique combination and the first of its kind." This Dove bar brand heritage was the basis for the Dove mandate, which started about 2 1/2 years ago- that as the company started to create new products (deodorant, hair care, etc), "any product Dove comes out with must go back to the idea of the Dove bar".

From the land of the ice and snow (North Dakota in this case), comes the latest last-minute semi-annual (don't ask) Christmas card from Kranzler Kingsley. Erik Hagen and Adland's very own Clayton T. Claymore decided to go old school this year, so they broke out the whiskey and their crusted-over technical pens and went to town. A scan of the results can be found here.

From innovation to scandal, if it happened in advertising, we've probably got it mentioned here. Take a trip down memory lane and see if you can remember some of these exciting events.

(All commercials that require SuperAdGruntdom are marked with a "+")

Break out the popcorn or holiday cookies and get ready to enjoy some ads. We've rounded up the best, worst and some just plain strange ads. You must be a SuperAdGrunt to be able to view the commercials. All ads that require SuperAdGruntdom have a "+". Enjoy!

Toodle-pipski 2004. Bonjour 2005.

2004. What a year. In the US, advertising saw more than it's necessary share of presidental-esque concepts for the likes of Snickers, Miller, Net Zero and others. There was the Superbowl and the infamous halftime wardrobe malfunction. Olympic madness came and went.

Oh yes, it's the season for lists, lists and yet more lists. Our roundup is set to be even longer than last years (part 1, part 2). To chop it up into smaller, easier digestible parts, I'll start with our adland-centric bestest and mostest title-winners. Read more, you might be mentioned.

You can return to 86 the onions part one here.

Or, if you fancy check out last months spotlight TBWA Portugal

Hello world, I've been chatting with Chad Rea, founder and creative fountain head of 86 the onions in sunny Venice beach L.A. California, a full service, inside out, outside the box agency - or creative hub if you prefer. I asked him a few things, and to flaunt some of their recent work off. In the hot seat this month, 86 the Onions, with extra everything so it's in two parts, the interview part two is here.

DB: Show us 86 the onions creative hot spot. Where are the ideas born?

Chad Rea:

I was flippin' through last week's Entertainment Weekly and happened upon a Skechers ad - a sequel of sorts to a she-spy action ad from a few months ago. Since there were considerable amounts of midriff, decolletage and legs to be seen and enjoyed, and maybe even a shoe or two, it caught my attention as it was designed to do. After a bit of gawking (for professional reasons, of course), I then checked out the action shots in the background of the ad, and noticed something curious...

Hello world, Dab here, I'm talking to Justin Kirby of the VBMA, sipping absinth at the Carlton hotel in Cannes. Ok, so I fibbed a little on the last bit - in reality we've just emailed. Let a girl dream.

DB: So Justin, what is Viral marketing vs what is word of mouth? (if you had to explain it to your mum)

JK: My Mum's doing a PhD (seriously and she's over 70) so how about what Dr Paul Marsden says:

Viral and Buzz: Spreading crafted advertising messages through consumer networks - either through media, ambient or online.
Word of Mouth: Accelerating, amplifying and measuring natural word of mouth recommendations.

If you want to talk of nuances then;
... viral has tended to be used by those dealing with online networks
... buzz by those who exploit media networks (PR-ability)
... and WOMM by those who harness traditional social networks.

But it's all network-enhanced word of mouth. Simple!

NEC Corporation has launched a branding campaign U can Change conceived and produced by 86 the onions, featuring killer cows, cocoons masquerading as sleeping bags and rainbow-like effluences, not to mention a lot of people named Dave.

"NEC's buzzword is ubiquitous and it represents a concept that the company wants to own throughout the marketplace", said Kunihiko Inoue, managing director at Robot Communications Media Switch, the creative consultancy firm for NEC. "We chose to collaborate with 86 the onions because they are underground enough to show a young, international audience exactly what ubiquity means and above ground enough to do it in a professional way."

Underlying the "u can change" films is the idea that NEC allows businessmen and women to work anywhere, anytime and to experience the euphoria associated with this freedom. Hence kiler cows, and middle-aged butterfly men flying off into the sunset. We asked Chad what every envious creative wants to know: How on earth do you present a campaign like this to a client?

The viral advertising agency ASABAILEY has placed a well-aimed left hook on the chin of O&M, by scooping up http://www.ogilvymather.co.uk for £4.95.

(Read more!)

This month in our spotlight on series - our very first spotlight actually - we have chatted a bit with Leandro Alvarez , the Creative Director of TBWA Lisbon in Portugal, and a few of his collegues (Thanks Sergio Santos for the help). TBWA has a blog called TBLOGWA at TBWA.pt, and quite a few stunning poster campaigns to show off.

DB: Show us TBWA's creative hot spot. Where are the ideas born?
LA:

Christian/pop/punk band Relient K (Chrysler enthusiasts?) has some curious commercials for their forthcoming album, "Mmhmm." Head on over to their album's website to check out "The Pitch," "The Wedding," and "The Dentist." A fourth spot, "The Ticket," will be put online on 11/2.

A rogue Molson Canadian ad aired over the weekend in Toronto and Montreal, Canada.

Apparently it was a part of a pitch by Toronto agency Vaughn Whelan & Partners. The ad was just one part of the pitch campaign, which also included emails and directing people key to the Molson pitch to Project Hijack.

Interview by Lotta Fjelkegård, Bold.

If you can't find a good magazine to buy in the stores, then start one of your own, it's the DIY fanzine way to solve the problem. That's why British journalist Calvin Holbrook founded Hate.

LF: - Could you please give us a brief background on how you got started working for Face, Sneak and 19?

CH: -I trained as a journalist at the University of Westminster in London. First off I worked in radio and then I moved on to be the Clubs Editor on the UK's gay title Boyz which was pretty awful - having to say clubs were great because you relied on their advertising, rather than being able to give a totally subjective view. After that I travelled around the world a bit, then landed a job at 19 magazine, for teenage girls. Then, after working with an awful editor that was so slow that we had to work till 3am on press nights, I decided to leave and freelance on lots of other magazines.