Disney to Acquire Marvel Entertainment
Worldwide leader in family entertainment agrees to acquire Marvel and its portfolio of over 5,000 characters.

This video has been circulating amongst my friends who thought it was very cool. While I loved watching the chameleon change colours, I thought it was strange that nobody seemed to question why this person had so many pairs of sunglasses for the chameleon to climb on…… oh subtle, tricky advertising, how I love thee.

The Salvation Army found a way to advertise with no money at all which is a good way for all their profits to be put back into the community. Portland, Maine-based The VIA Group turned to the community and harnessed the power of 50 local businesses. Check out this great campaign!

The United Breaks Guitars saga continues with the launch of the second song. The first went viral almost immediately, logging more than 5 million (!!) views on YouTube thanks to a shared consumer desire to punish United Airlines for its indifferent, actually let’s say arrogant, customer service.

Our pals at Thinkwell Research did some polling in Nova Scotia and found that 67 percent of the province’s population had heard something about the video. That is staggering, even in the Sons of Maxwell’s home province. Nearly 40 percent of those surveyed said that the video left them with a more negative impression of United Airlines. Those who had seen the video were even more pissed off, with nearly 60 percent left with a negative impression of the airline.

Check the second clip:

Apparently BMW is taking over home pages…NYTimes.com and MSN.com to be specific.

Users arriving at these sites earlier this week were treated to a screen blackout, followed by…

“comedian Brian Unger telling viewers that “Americans are always finding ways to be more responsible,” before a constellation of energy-efficient light bulbs illuminates a scene showing him standing between the 335d and X5 diesel. As part of the campaign, BMW is offering a $4500 “eco credit,” or rebate, on the two cars through August 31.”

The ad links directly to one of two 30 second TV spots.

BMW is apparently pleased with the response, however the Twittosphere…not so much.

“Big thumbs down to @nytimes for running a BMW ad which darkens the screen, with no apparent/easy way to disable the ad,” complained lx69 in one tweet. “That BMW ad on the NYTimes.com home page? Super-annoying,” wrote lseward, in another.”

Read the article I’ve quoted from.

There are 36 more of these…here.

We’ve just uploaded an entry into a little design contest.

The contest asks creative types to develop a cover for Media Magazine’s upcoming “Future of Media” issue, which will be guest-edited by Alex Bogusky.

You can check out the entries here. 

Ours is entry #268, entitled “Who’s herding now?”  Here’s the rationale behind it:
The future of media will not be about the delivery mechanisms, but the people pushing it out, and the curators we trust to assemble and syndicate that content. They will feed the masses.

Our lovely green field represents the multitude of content developers and topics, the cute sheep represent us – the consuming public, and the sheep-herding YouTube video (the bit.ly link in Alex’s tweet) is about the folks curating the content on our behalf. Alex? He’s all three.

Anyhow, if you feel like visiting the site and “hearting” our design, that would be much appreciated. Otherwise, cross your fingers for us.

BBDO created the above ad for Pepsi, allowing transit customers to plug in and hear exclusive audio tracks.

The other day I was in the Bloor subway station and saw another series of posters that was very fun - a photo of a group of people, each with a headphone jack in the middle of their mouths - inviting people to plug in to hear what they had to say.