Production company King and Country (K&C) recently worked with ad agency RPA to direct and produce a new campaign for the 2013 Honda Civic, which has been widely lauded by the media and drivers alike.

In the first spot, “More to Love,” the camera moves through the inside of the Civic as blue and white metallic mylar balloons inflate containing kudos from major trade magazines, newspapers and websites. Cut to the outside, where the doors burst open and hundreds of quote-filled balloons spill out of the car, joining others that float together to comprise a heart-shaped cloud, as the voiceover concludes, “It’s the best Civic yet.”

Similarly, “Civic Love” showers the love on the outside of the Civic, as the text balloons pop up and animatedly form into a heart above the car.

Starting at 4PM on Wednesday, February 20, Click 3X gets social, opening its Flatiron studio to a gathering of A-list marketing, advertising, and social media experts for Social Media Week 2013. The company continues its years-long tradition of hosting thought-provoking Social Media Week panels with a knockout double feature – “The Second Coming of the 30 Second Spot,” moderated by Click 3X CD Nick Agderian, and “What Is Branded Content?” led by Magnet Media GM Paul Kotonis.

Microsoft are dumping the name "Hotmail" in favor for the brand new Outlook.com name. Hotmail was once synonymous with "webmail" and to stop using a name like that is quite the bold move. In LA Times Microsoft announce that Microsoft opens Outlook.com to the public, and this is why Hotmail.com won't be the brand name anymore. Hotmail users will still be able to use their hotmail.com email address, but the brand is now Outlook.

Israel just passed a law banning models with a BMI (body mass index) level below 18.5.

The Israeli government joins a number of other organizations like Milan Fashion Week, Vogue and the Council of Fashion Designers of America in setting minimum BMI limits. However this is the first time that a country has set down legislation for a wholesale ban on what are viewed by some as unhealthily skinny models.

Yup that's all I got to say about that. Except, I was hoping it was gonna be more Patrick Carney pranking. :(

Things are heating up on Twitter and it's kind of awesome.

First the New York Times writes a scathing review of the Tesla S road trip from New York to Boston.

And with that, Tesla's rep was damaged and even dropped the share price. It did some PR to assuage the damage, indicating the car has been driven through death valley as well an in a Minnesota winter without the issues.

Google play, the android answer to iTunes is where you can buy music, apps, books & films for a few bob and have them magically appear on all of your android devices in no time at all. Nice.

There's a new gameshow in town.. At the airport. Dubbed Blind Gate, the dating show will give two singletons the chance to find their perfect match from five contestants during a live show at the Heathrow check in. They’ll navigate three rounds of romantically themed challenges before they are whisked off to enjoy a long weekend in sun soaked Los Angeles, all expenses paid.

Claudia Winkleman hypes the "Blind Gate" show that is created live at Heathrow... "One.. watch us, I'll promise it'll be a laugh. Two.. take me with you..."

Jumping on the meme bandwagon, before the shark gets jumped, Israeli shop Ecaliptoos worked with Israel's largest coffee chain to create an offer for a brand new milkshake. Named appropriately enough, the Harlem (milk) Shake.

They even created their own video of Café Café employees doing the meme, which you can see here .

Also I was just kidding about "before the shark gets jumped." The Today Show already stuck a big fork in that hairy Harlem ass.

Credits:
Client: Café Café
Agency: Ecaliptoos
CEO: Maor Chen
CEO: Dror Blumenthal
Creative director: Maayan Dar

You can't make this stuff up folks. Hewlett-Packard made an app that measures your penis size, and they called it "chubby checker". It claims it can do this rather magic measuring simply by checking a mans shoe size. "All you need to do is find out the man's shoe size and plug it in... Now with the Chubby Checker there is no need for disappointment or surprise" Sheesh. Kind of cute, but we all know it isn't the size of your monitor but what you do with it. Now, the 71-year-old musician named Chubby Checker is so not amused by this, and wants everyone to know that he wears really big shoes and hates having his toes stepped on. This is all urban myth by the way, Jerald Bain of Mt.

Courtesy of copywriter Mike King and Designer/Illustrator Eric Wedum

Oscar Pistorius has been charged with murder after allegedly shooting his girlfriend. Nike might want to un-run this ad.

Update as noted in comments, it has been removed from Oscar Pistorius website.

The Times Live also report that a commercial for private broadcaster M-Net have been pulled off the air.

From March 24 starting at 2, until march 25th at 4 (Finnish time) Basso Open by Heineken will melt your face off with music. And part of that festival will include a "you choose it, we rap it," freestyle with a slew of artists.

It's all going down in Jyväskylä, which is a smallish city north of Helsinki. This event is sponsored by the beer (Heiney) , and the radio station (Basso) and brought to you by my favorite Finnish creative shop 358 Helsinki.

I can't make it but from the looks of it, I can tune in from anywhere, at least. Which is awesome.

M&C Saatchi created a iPhone app with help from Sparkling Zoo and It's Showtime for Stockholm Art Week. That event is running now till February 17.

Now everyone in Stockholm can join make some art. The app captures movements in Stockholm using GPS and transfers this info to an artist who’ll paint the movements on a real canvas.

I'm thinking more than a few artists will be creating art from a lot of GPS points at the systembolaget.

That's a Swedish joke.

Never mind.

An article in this week's Financial Times is describing the uphill battle single copy magazines are having at the supermarket. Seems no one is browsing at the check-out line but instead, whipping out their mobiles.

In the article David Carey President of Hearst Magazines said "Everyone that has products at checkouts has to battle for consumer attention."

And while some magazine publishers are now launching mobile efforts with promotional tie-ins, they're just not working that well.
And while the Financial Times points out this is a larger issue with all things in the check-out line (gum and candy, too) they don't neglect the biggest reason of all, at least in the states: the economy.

By now every tax payer in America realized we didn't just tax the rich. The restored payroll tax has eaten into the pockets of everybody. Those with the least amount of dosh are thinking twice about where they're spending it. That five or six dollar issue of Cosmo no longer seems worth it.

To launch their new website, Leo Burnett Belgium traveled to Seville, Spain to get an The Archbishop to bless their website. Because their hometown Patron Saint is Isidore: Patron Saint of the Internet, Computer users, students and children, the latter of whom I assume came up with this idea.

I keed!

I won't even talk about the potential cries of blasphemy that could arise from some of the more serious believers because let's face it, they're not checking up on ad agencies.

Love, desire, and attitude dominate “Change Lanes,” the tightly cut new Lexus spot edited by jumP’s Richard Cooperman.

Blacklist and director Tendril created this effort for Nike's Mercurial Vapor IX.

Tendril // Nike 'Mercurial Vapor IX' from Blacklist on Vimeo.

I know everyone’s going gaga about the Richard's Group's "God Made a Farmer" ad for Dodge because it cut through the clutter and was quiet and beautiful in an otherwise lackluster year of super bowl spots. And this is true. Paul Harvey's voice still resonates long after he made this speech back in the 1970's.

But. I guess I would like it more if Farms.com didn’t do the exact same spot, right down to using Paul Harvey's voice and the execution (though not as heavily retouched) two years ago.

Do we still like it as much?

The Richard's Group Ad:

On 2012 Facebook introduced its new offers feature, enabling brands to grant Facebook users and fans special offers and discounts on products.
The OneVoice Movement introduced the first Facebook offer, for something other than a product. For peace. Allowing users from all over the world to 'Claim Peace' and help raise awareness toward ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Here's the interesting thing: Facebook limits each offer to 40,000 claims. So multiple peace offers will be created gradually on the next following days, users can also claim the peace offer on ClaimPeace.org

The goal, as with all goals on Facebook, reach the 1,000,000 mark.

Credits:
Agencies: Mizbala, The Brief