It's not quite as drastic as the stiletto clad sexy Wendy's spotted in Russia last year, but still a rather massive update. The Wendy's logo has a new look, the first makeover done since 1983. The original Wendy was based on Dave Thomas' daughter, she was dressed up at the tender age of eight to model for the look, and to get the Pippi Longstocking pigtails, they put pipe-cleansers in her hair.

What do you think of the new cleaner look?

AP news

Hey, you out there in adland. Any creatives wanna brainstorm anonymously?
CoWonder.com thinks you might be up for it.

CoWonder.com is "a dazzling social media platform that encourages the anonymous sharing and fostering of ideas and challenges, has launched in beta."

coWonder.com (short) from coWonder on Vimeo.

At the start of October when it was discovered that Ikea had been airbrushing women out of their Saudi Arabia catalogues and it spawned a tumblr-joke site that replaced famous women with Ikea furniture some people thought this was A-OK. By some people I mean this anon commentator "chlitto".

since when is accounting for cultural differences discrimination?
when they'll start selling to martians should they have humans in the catalog? all white people in nigeria ads, all black in china?

Real Complainers vote is a campaign from Third Street, and the posters that you can download here to plaster all over your walls are quite funny.

There are truisms, and then there are “really truisms.” And one of them is the notion that a person doesn’t have the right to complain, if he or she didn’t bother to vote. Democrat, Republican, or fiercely Independent - it is a rally cry that transcends political affiliations. And yet while the number of complainers continues to increase, those who express their feelings in the voting booth continues to decrease.

Some companies have bravely built their brands on corporate transparency. And have succeeded well because of it. But for every Tom's or Zappos, or Method , the rest of the world still needs a watchdog.

The same is doubly true for politicians and presidents.

Enter the Government Accountability Institute. This watchdog organization is calling out politicians on both sides with the release of their findings from an eight month study on Internet Campaign Fundraising. It's called Campaign Funding Risks.

This is quite an illuminating app. Because now you can track just how corrupt vulnerable your states politicians are are when it comes to campaign donations. According to the key facts, almost 48% of congress does not require validation by credit card, or have any means of verifying their donors addresses. This means nearly half of congress could potentially be accepting fraudulent donations, most of them from overseas.

It's a one two punch from our Moomin lovin' salmiakki eatin' friends. Agency 358 came up with a clever idea for The Finnish Refuge Council.

September 8th of last month was International Literacy Day. So to create awareness about the problem, Agency 358 created an unreadable font.

The font was used and discussed in Helsingin Sanomat, which is Scandinavia's largest newspaper among other media, including YLE TV.

Who hasn't been caught short and wished they had some reading material?
Knowing this, Agency 358 created Stories On A Roll.
They asked their fans on Facebook to submit their stories and poems, which were then printed on towels and t.p. as well.

Whoa. They used social media to engage with their customers, reward their behavior for this engagement, and then sold some product because people had to buy some paper towels and toilet paper to see if their stories were "published" at first.
I like it.

For those who can read Finnish (I can't, sadly) they have also collected even more stories here.

Really? Ikea, of all places?
Ikea, the people who do good work globally let this happen?

One of the most progressive companies, at least when it comes to relationships and families, has to issue an apology for photoshopping women out of the Saudi version of its catalog.

As this AP story notes:

Well this is fun, albeit a bit odd. Skullcandy and their in-house team partnered with everyone's favorite indie-rock inspired kid's show Yo Gabba Gabba to showcase their customizable (by color) headphones.

The video features Skullcandy crew members Eric Koston, Steve Berra, Robbie Madison and Chrissy Teigen, Chanel Iman, Jessica Stam. For those who don't know who those people are, half are skaters and the rest are models. Because nothing says Great Quality Headphones than skaters and models, right?

Unless you've been living under a rock you've heard that thanks to the NFL's referee lockout, replacement referees are making some, well, dubious calls during the start of this football season.

A lot of people are upset about it. Hell, even our very own POTUS has taken time away from his busy campaigning work schedule to weigh in on it.

We already know Google's record of non-engagement when it comes to piracy. But just in case you don't, the short hand version is: Google's record of dealing with piracy have so far been a "cake and eat it too," methodology. That is, benefit its advertising platform business at the expense of artists, while simultaneously giving artists a chance to spend what little free hours they have chasing down offenders.

With this week comes the news comes that google worked closely with California's governor to allow trials of driverless cars on the state's streets.
Google was influential in pushing through this agenda. Why? Why are brands shaping our legislation? But not just brands. Huge honkin' monopolistic brands?

RESET is adding lauded commercial, music video, TV and film director Johan Renck to a roster that already includes David Fincher, Guy Ritchie, Jonathan Glazer and Academy, Johnny Green, Markus Walter, Tim Miller, Andre Stringer, Nabil and PES. His recent H&M spot starring Lana Del Rey expands upon a reel that includes work for Nike, Levi’s, Audi, Perrier, Stella Artois, H&M, Valentino and Givenchy, and music videos for artists such as New Order, Madonna, Libertines and The Streets. His Cannes-winning portfolio also includes still galleries for big-name brands Italian Vogue and Diesel Jeans, and directing credits for several episodes of AMC’s hits Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead, and History Channel’s yet-to-be-released Vikings.

Mel B former scary spice and Jorgie Porter have stripped off and had their boobies handled by their significant others to promote the charity CoppaFeel! in the most recent issue of Cosmopolitan UK. It's a lovely looking reminder that hands should be touching boobies on a regular basis - if only to check for any mystery lumps. But as "hold my boobs, please" shows this pose is nothing new and one might think that Maxim, Zoo, Nuts and FHM are all trying to keep us aware of breast cancer with every issue as they recreate this pose all the time. Score: meh. Ya'll just wanted to do a Janet Jackson.

Skiver Advertising is pimping out their "vivacious, handsome, smart, ripped" and "a kind-hearted soul" of an account executive at the site WannadateDerek. It's all a twist to pull you in via Billboards, youtube videos and the twitter handle @WannaDateDerek to Skiver advertising, and learn how they can brand stuff for you. Any stuff. Even dateless Derek.

"Everyone is looking for something," says Jeremy Skiver, CEO of Skiver Advertising. "And that's where we come in. We're experts at bringing brands and their audience, and helping them build a strong, lasting and evolving relationship."

Digital shop Holler Sydney has created a sort of crowd sourced set of videos, to prove no matter what the internet throws at you, Vanish can get it out.

In other words, they've made a product demo and put it on youtube.

Except Facebook fans get to choose what stains go on the shirts. The first choice was beets

What will the next stain choices be? How about something from 2 girls 1 cup!

What? Too much?

Credits:
Creative Director: Richard Morgan
Copywriter: John Gault
Art Director: Ben Heath
Designer: Thomas Fitzpatrick

Yes, it's election year so the election campaign idea is strutted out yet again. This however is done with a straight face all the way down to the press release. Points for that.

"The Onion, America's Finest News Source™, is pleased to announce a shameless new cross-branding promotional partnership with America's Most Politically Influential Convenience Store™, 7-Eleven, as part of the former's 2012 "War for the White House" coverage.

Notice anything different today? Turn on the TV. The radio. Hit up your favorite news sites. President Obama and Mitt Romney promised no mud slinging campaign ads today. You read that right, September 11 there are no negative political ads on TV, at least not any with the "I'm Obama/Romney and I approve of this message".

Both President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney plan to take down their negative ads in honor of the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Neither planned to appear at overtly political events, although Election Day is never far from their agendas.

Boston.com

August 19th was World Humanitarian Day, a day of commemoration instituted by the United Nations in 2003 that encourages people everywhere to help one another. In 2012, the United Nations partnered with Beyoncé for a campaign, I Was Here, to raise awareness about the day.

Nola Pictures has expanded its directorial roster with the singular talents of Bruce Hurwit, a multi-discipline, award-winning filmmaker. Hurwit brings a wealth of experience in television, film, and advertising, where he has earned a reputation for his off-kilter visual aesthetic, expert comedic timing, and unparalleled instincts for casting instantly memorable characters. Bruce’s experience as an agency creative director and as an executive producer/writer on episodic TV programming gives him a unique ability to collaborate on product driven content that is truly entertaining and original.

it's officially official: California Cows are indeed happy. This, after a judge throws out a lawsuit from PETA trying to stop ads for California Milk which tout the fact cows are happy because they are treated well.

The lawsuit was filed last year by PETA and argued that cows were in fact not happy that farmers don't care, and that the Milk Advisory board is even covering up how horrible the conditions are.

But Judge Lloyd G Connelly saw it differently. According to CNS News: