Jack 'n Coke

Coca-Cola has run a 100 second ad in the UK called What Goes Around during the early hours of Sunday morning. The promo features a song written exclusively for Coke by White Stripes’ main man Jack White.

Apparently this is the only time the ad will be shown, however a 30 second cut-down was aired here in Australia during the recent MTV Awards.

Check out the full 100 second version for a short time at www.coca-cola.co.uk

Fresh thinking from Honda

Another great idea from Honda in the UK. A fun twist on the pine tree car air freshener to promote the new low emission Civic Hybrid.

Harrods remixed by Mantis

UK prankster Mantis has reworked a not exactly setting the world on fire billboard for Her Majesty's favourite department store, Harrods, featuring actress Keeley Hawkes.

Where once Keeley thought a day at the spa and maybe a macaroon would be the one thing she'd want from Harrods, she's now asking for the cash register. Can't argue with that.

Yahoo Go for TV

The convergence of TV and web is almost upon us, with Yahoo in the US announcing the introduction of software enabling you to record TV shows on your PC.

A beta version of Yahoo Go for TV will soon be available for download from Yahoo. Now before you get too excited, you'll also need a TV tuner in your computer and cables to hook up to the TV.

Coffee to go

From Taxi Driver to the intro of the Letterman Show, the steaming manhole cover is one of New York’s most recognisible icons.

Now Saatchi & Saatchi New York have gone and capitalised on manhole steam, turning it into a beautiful ambient idea for Folgers Coffee.

My man on the inside tells me the agency had vinyl sheets printed which were then placed on manhole covers. Holes cut out of the vinyl allowed the steam to escape. Thanks to Cloribus for the pics.

More urban spam

Just when you though there was nowhere left to squeeze an advertising message, along comes the ultimate in low-tech outdoor.

Dutch company Lease a Sheep has started selling ad space on sheep. Yes sheep. For a Euro a day you can have your message on a waterproof blanket worn by sheep.

Whilst an ad on the back of a sheep could be seen as a less than ideal brand image, companies can be sure that their image will not be tarnished as blankets are impregnated with citronella to keep the bugs away.

X-Box makes a splash down under

Lovely promo stunt from Microsoft in Sydney at the weekend, with almost 3000 people turning out for the X-Box Water Bomb Challenge.

Over 55,000 water balloons were thrown, eclipsing the world record of just shy of 51,000 set in Spain last year. The stunt was to celebrate X-Box 360’s one-month birthday and raised much needed funds for the Coogee Surf Lifesaving Club, with five dollars from every water balloon thrower's registration fee donated to the club.

Shower Power from Nivea

Very sweet little online idea from Nivea For Men involves getting a team of muddy soccer players into the shower and cleaning them up.

You compete against the computer and fastest team out of the shower wins. It’s not exactly the most sophisticated game but it’s a damn fun.

Click here to download your own copy of Shower Power.

13 Billion spam emails sent everyday

Yes that headline is correct, just over 13 billion spam emails are sent everyday. Apparently almost 22% of them originate from computers in China. In fact Asia as a whole accounts for over 42% of the world’s spam.

According to a recent report by security firm Sophos, more than 70% of spam emails are being relayed from hijacked home computers. It seems that the hackers who have infiltrated these computers rent them out to spammers.

A Sophos spokesman suggested computer users install better security packages. Which is probably geek speak for get yourself a Mac.

Young Guns Vs Old Ones

So where do you sit in the adland generation game? Are you an old school Clems is the best agency in Melbourne and always will be kinda guy? Or are you one of those industry upstarts in love with unironic agency names like Love?

No matter which camp you sit in, it's time to join with your fellow creatives and take up arms against the dark side. Whether your preferred weapon is a sneaky word of mouth campaign or the proven power of television, you can use it to battle in the utterly addictive advertising game Young Guns Vs Old Ones from Frankfurt based Truth Dare Double Dare.

Yutaka loves London

If you're heading to the UK this summer, pick up some travel tips at Yutaka Loves London the cracking new online effort from Crispin Porter & Bogusky.

A small plane flies over the skyline on the site every now and then. if you see it, click on it and it'll fly you to the website of Virgin Atlantic, the brand behind Yutaka.

For added fun click on the Yutaka's projects link and you get to muck around with famous London landmarks. My personal favourite lets you raise and lower Tower Bridge.

New sounds from Honda

Not content with producing some of the best TV ads of recent times, Honda UK is now moving into podcasting. The car maker is offering a 15 minute audio version of the Honda customer magazine Dream.

The podcast features a selection of three minute featurettes derived from material from the magazine. Be one of the first to download it at www.honda.co.uk/i-dream

iPods in The Office

Whilst it was yanked from TV schedules in Oz after a mere two episodes, the US version of The Office has gone on to become a sleeper hit, driven by video downloads of the show from the iTunes store.

This has lead to an interesting twist on the concept of product placement, with the show’s boss, played by 40 year old virgin Steve Carrell, giving iPods to staff members as a gift in a recent episode.

Set in a dull stereotypical office environment, where lifeless drones stare at nondescript beige PC monitors, The Office allowed the iPod to shine like a beacon.

Apparently Apple scored somewhere in the region of four minutes of audience exposure during the show. Now imagine how much the equivalent time in paid for media would have cost.

Has Air Force One been hit?

Marc Ecko, multi-millionnaire graffiti artist and sometime clothing designer is the man behind Getting Up, the video game banned in Australia earlier this year.

Well it looks like Ecko has gone had the last laugh, especially if you’re one of those people who can’t be bothered with fineprint.

Video posted on several websites in recent days show Ecko tagging Air Force One and talking about why he did it.

Fineprint tucked away on Ecko’s stillfree.com website reveal it was all a hoax to highlight freedom of speech issues.

Mobile phone projector

MP3 player. Digital camera. Portable game player. They sure do squeeze a lot into the average mobile phone these days.

Now a Korean company has developed a laser video projector the size of a coin, which will be built into Samsung and LG mobile phones within the next 12 months.

Just imagine, instead squinting at photos on your mobile screen you’ll soon be able to project them onto a wall. Korea Times

Land Rover explores new territory

It’s been said that there’s no place a Land Rover can’t go, but who would have expected the off-road icon to head online with its own round the clock broadband TV channel?

Go Beyond TV will feature original commissioned content, material from Land Rover’s One Life magazine and Discovery Channel programming.

Broadcasts feature several well known faces, including tennis ace Maria Sharapova and former England rugby captain Lawrence Dallaglio. You’ll need broadband to watch it, but Go Beyond TV is branded content that’s well worth a look.

Summer Winter and TiVo

Very nice extension of the old Kodak moment idea during the OC last night. Just when we thought Seth Cohen had all the best lines, up pops the ever lovely Summer with a beautifully delivered and totally unironic piece of product promotion in the guise of hanging on to the memories of her school winter break.

"I wish I could, like, TiVo it so we could play it over and over again until graduation," says Summer sweetly. Almost makes me want to buy a TiVo so I can rewatch this little gem over and over, whilst pausing live TV of course.

BMW rewrites the book

BMW are generally credited with kick starting the contemporary branded content era with the BMW Films series. So where to next for BMW? Where else but that other icon of innovation, Apple.

Well not Apple exactly, but a downloadable MP3 podcast to listen to on your iPod enabled BMW.

Bestselling Random House crime writers such as Karin Slaughter and the Don Winslow were commissioned to write 45 minute audio books featuring different BMW models.

The first podcast was Don Winslow's The Beautiful Ride. It can be downloaded now from www.bmwaudiobooks.com along with three other books.

Inspirational Shopping

If ever there was a title to live up to, it has to be Paul Smith’s book You Can Find Inspiration In Everything . Paul now seems to have taken his love of the inspirational a step further, with the opening of his Curiosity Shop in London’s Mayfair.

To quote the man himself, or at least his website, “The shop will have a constantly changing and unexpected combination of treasures. It will house a rich and varied selection of original and unique objects, art and curiosities sourced from around the world.”

Sweden joins the Commonwealth

Snapped this on Melbourne's Chapel St during the recent Commonwealth Games. An old Volvo decked out in Swedish colours, with Abba pumping from the stereo and four young blonde wig wearing things on board. Great thinking from Ikea.

Urban Spam

If there's one thing it's impossible to do in today's advertising saturated world it's avoid advertising. From public toilets to the bottom of beer glasses, the proliferation of guerilla and ambush marketing and the rise of ambient media has left virtually no space untouched by a brand message.

In an article on the continuing take-up of unbranded space Russell Davies over at Typepad has given us, I believe, the industry buzzword of the week.

Urban Spam.

Sure we all love a clever ambient idea, but most of this stuff is no better than the ads you get on the back of a supermarket receipt.

Buy some bloody beer!

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Carlton Draught sales have remained static in the apparently declining NSW beer market, despite more than three million people having viewed the Big Ad on the internet.

Looks like it’s time for advertising types everywhere to give the overpriced Euro lagers a miss at the agency bar on Friday and get the despatch boy to order in some Carlton. It’s made from beer after all…

Graphic Exchange

Whether you’re looking for inspiration or ideas, Canadian magazine Graphic Exchange is definitely a must read. Best of all, if you’re involved in the advertising or communications industry you can get yourself a free subscription. Checkout their site at www.gxo.com for details.

RMIT students at MADC Awards

Record number of entries at this years MADC Awards. Finalists were announced at a lunch last week hosted by Jury Chairman Matt Eastwood. Great lunch, great speech by Matt and great to see seven finalists in the Student Award.

Only one student cracked a finalist last year, so there's a lot of talented youngsters out there this year. Best of all, all seven finalists were students from the Advertising-Creative degree at RMIT University. They must be doing something right down there!

Would you like fries with that?

First reported by gamer site kotaku.com the impending collaboration between Microsoft and Burger King has since been verified by Advertising Age, so I guess it's ok for me to mention it here at Brand DNA.

Three X-Box games featuring the burger chain's King character will be available to buy later in the year in Burger King outlets for not much more than the price of a burger and fries.

Burger King have been generating brand buzz online for quite some time, so a move into branded game production is an obvious next step. How soon before we see dedicated console areas set up in Burger King outlets?