Oliver Jewellery's "Cash Man"

Any Toronto-nians out there will likely know what I mean when I say I want to change the channel every time an Oliver Jewellery commercial comes on the air.

Well this one has been around since 2008, and it defines the ugly of advertising.

Oliver is the "cash man" and he'll "give you money for your gold, oh yeah." Or at least that's what he sings while he dances around with four girls that I hope didn't include this on their resume.

It's got 122,117 views on YouTube (as of 10:08EST on 1/11/11) - but is this because it's a total joke of an ad? Probably. Will it get him much business? Probably not.

Android's "Wake Up"

Hey iPhone users. 

Remember on January 1st and 2nd when the iPhone alarm glitched? Your alarm didn't go off, you were late, and it sucked?

Well Android has a print ad response to that, done by McCann Istanbul.

I adore the simplicity of this ad. And it's pretty clear who it's targeted to. "Wake up. Android. Created and shared by Google."

Getty Images' "Feed Your Imagination"

Back in about 2000, I used Getty Images for pretty much every project. But to be honest, and we all know I'm pretty honest here, I'd completely forgotten about Getty until I saw these spots by Shalmor Avnon Amichay Y&R Interactive.

These 3 television spots are pretty great - they're visually appealing, creative and whimsical.. and I think you should check them out.

SAA/Y&R animates buildings turning into dinosaurs, roses turning into bridges, jellyfish turning into oranges and more -- then shows you what images from Getty Images made these animations. The headline? "Feed your imagination."

Nicely done.

Dante's Inferno "To Hell and Back"

So we all know, or have at least heard of, Dante's Inferno, the story of Dante and his guide Virgil and their journey through the nine circles of hell. Well of course a video game company had to bank on this right? And so we get EA's game Dante's Inferno, which had quite the ad campaign over the last little while. Rather than reiterate what AdFreak has touched on so well, I think you should check out their article for more information on the game and the campaign, which - if you love advertising - is quite interesting!:

AdFreak: To hell and back: EA's guerrilla marketing campaign for 'Dante's Inferno'

Yahoo's Bus Shelter Video Game Competition

So this is just way too cool.

In San Francisco, Yahoo has placed video games in 20 bus shelters downtown. People waiting for their bus are able to tap the screen, pick one of four games, and challenge a person from another bus shelter. At the end of this 2 month placement, the neighborhood with the highest score will win a block party with band OK GO (so jealous - I love them).

I'm finished school in 8 days, who wants to go to SF with me?

Photo via PSFK

Thanks for sticking with me, readers!

Happy Holidays everyone!

I just wanted to thank my readers for sticking with me through my recent lack of posting. I'm in my last semester of school right now - and have my final exam on the 21st - too weird! I thought that only taking 3 courses this semester would leave me with a lot more time for posting. Unfortunately, that wasn't true. I'll be trying to post as much as possible for the rest of this month (it's exam period - I'll be needing a few study breaks!), but once January rolls around, I will be back to blogging full force.

Thanks again for all your sweet emails - hope you've all got your holiday shopping done!

AdFreak's Freakiest Ads of the Year

AdFreak has come out with their list of 30 freakiest ads of 2010. Check it out here.