instantgirl

Check out this article about Purina’s foray into the Facebook game world. In a move that may not give Petville a run for its money, Purina is launching a Facebook game where users can take care of their pets in a pet resort. I couldn’t get the beta site to work, but based on the graphics in the image at left it looks like they are trying to copy Petville’s style. I’m sure Zynga is thrilled, especially since they probably tried to get Purina as a sponsor. I’d love to try it out, if they only would let me.

From “Minute to Win It” to Aflac, Guy Fieri is all over the place. Check out his ad for Aflac above. It’s pretty gross so I’m not sure how early this one is going to air, but it’s great for Guy Fieri. Not sure how great it is for Aflac.

My darling Stella does not like her tail to be pulled. See fabulous ninja moves above. We have no idea how she got her arm out and back to fast. Check out her face after Sam picks up her phone. Devious!

Photoshopped BP image

OK, so let’s say you made a big boo-boo and dumped a gazillion gallons of oil into the sea. You’ve guaranteed that the world’s eco-system is permanently changed due to your mistake. You’re trying to manage the situation, right? Hmmm … maybe photoshopping the images you post on your website isn’t the smartest thing to so. But maybe you’re not the sharpest knife in the drawer.

Someone from AmericaBlog discovered that images posted to BPs website had been altered. They discovered the error by looking at the meta data of the images. BP says that what they did was to insert images onto screens that were blank in the original photo. Perhaps that’s true but it makes me, and possibly many other people, wonder what else they’ve faked. Like maybe the cap really isn’t in place and they’ve just sent out a video image of a previous capping experiment they did. Their stupidity and arrogance is truly staggering.

Check out the new campaign for Quiznos by WongDoody . I’m all for putting cats in advertising. In fact, that’s one of my goals for 2010. However, the spot has to be entertaining. This one is just weird. Clearly, they’ve been influenced by rathergood.com, who popularized the Viking Kittens series, but the hook of that series is that it’s cute kittens juxtaposed with hard rock. There’s no irony and the kittens take away from the message, which is $4, $3, $2 sandwiches. If you look at the press release it’s clear they also want user-generated content. Unfortunately, I think this is a classic case of the client and/or agency wanting to put everything but the kitchen sink into the concept. Also, apparently they created the concept and produced it in a week. Next time, spend some money on music licensing and kill the part about using the UG content in the ad campaign.

Quiznos still with kittens

I have no vested interest in the game but I’m going to watch it anyway, especially for the commercials.

This is great. Beautifully done. Story is good. This guy should be working for Pixar. Thanks to Chris G. for sending it to me.

Hilarious. My mind went right to this when I heard the name of the product. It’s possible there were no women on the product development team and it’s also possible that they simply didn’t do any linguistics testing or cultural clearance on the name. It’s too bad because it looks like a fun product. Btw, I think the MadTV skit was done in 2007. Didn’t anyone think to do a LITTLE searching on the web before locking the product name? I know they own the trademark to anything that begins with “i” but someone needs to look at the broader picture. I’m sure someone is developing a “Flo comes to town” application for the iPad right now.

OK, this is hilarious. We’ve all been there, we’ve all done that, we’ve all worked with THAT client, we all think we’re hipper than we are. Thanks to Dan for sending this via Sam. Now go get a job!

Real good is, well, real good. The lyrics are “I like beef.” It’s pretty simple.