What a $4,500 in-house commercial looks like

It turns out the guy in the video really is the founder and CEO of the new start-up, Michael Dubin. What’s more surprising, though, is the fact that he made the ad himself. “The world is filled with bad commercials and people who are marketing too hard," Dubin says. "I think what we wanted to do is not take ourselves too seriously, and deliver an irreverent smart tone." Dubin wrote the spot last October and shot it with his good friend and co-director, Lucia Aniello. It cost about $4,500 and the team managed to bang it out in a single day, shooting on location at the actual factory warehouse, at their fulfillment center in Gardena, California. Not every CEO is cut out for making Funny or Die quality sketch-like ads, obviously. When he was living in New York, Michael Dubin took classes at beloved comedy training grounds, the Upright Citizens Brigade theatre, and has long dabbled in funny business.

Via Quora. Read entire background story at Co.Create.

News Roundup

Thanks to Naveed's Weekly Digest for all the links below.

• Tan Le demonstrates a headset that reads its user's brainwaves.


• Hello HTML5. Goodbye Flash.


• Some ground breaking news about the new health care reform bill: Children strongly oppose one aspect of it.


• Naveed gave a presentation about the effectiveness of the Old Spice campaign to a packed house.


• There are three types of happiness. Which one are you?

President Obama is a World Cup fan

Disclaimer: if you look closely, you can tell the reflection on the table doesn't match what's on screen.

Via 9gag.

Recognize the background?

I keep on seeing this picture when I mistype website URLs. Recognize the background?

For those who haven't visited UT before, it's a picture of the main mall on campus.

Vote in another Doritos competition

Yossy Zagha (Copywriter, '05) has a top 20 finalist video in a Doritos Mexico competition.

Doritos has been hosting several video competitions lately with the Crash the Super Bowl ad competition, another competition and now this.

Check it out. Vote!

Translation:
Snake: Come on, eat the apple.
Anncr: Have no cravings, try the new Doritos Temptation.

My Top Three Super Bowl Ads

Super Bowl XLIV is over and there was a record 48 minutes of commercial time. Of all the commercials, my top three are below. These are the top three because of their simplicity, memorability ("stickiness"), and effectiveness.

View the rest at The 2010 USA TODAY Ad Meter^SM or the AdAge Special Report.

#1. Parisian Love by Google in-house marketing department

#2 Title: TruTV's Punxsutawney Polamalu by Grey, New York

#3 Dorito's House Rules by crashthesuperbowl.com contest

2009’s Top 25 Most Ridiculous Uses of Photoshop

This is great and guaranteed to brighten your Monday.

Via Kineda.

Microsofts follies in global marketing

These are images from the Microsoft USA-Business site and Microsoft Poland-Business site.

Microsoft USA


Microsoft Poland


Via Digital Inspiration. Read more about the controversy at Tech Crunch.

The World’s Largest iPod

Jonathan Ive, the man behind the design of Apple iPhone and iPod, recently created a giant iPod model that he sent as a gift to British fashion designer Sir Paul Smith on his birthday.

Via Digital Inspiration.

The Top 40 Real Men of Genius commercials

As a former intern at DDB Chicago, I had the good fortune of meeting the creative team behind these ads. Before interning, I thought that these guys just sat around all day and came up with funny ideas. After hanging out with them a little bit, I realized how focused one has to be to do humor.

View all 40 ads at Epic Carnival.



Via Hot Clicks.

Final Round: Vote for Anu

Anu has made it in to the final round of the STA World Traveler Internship 2009! Her first round video is here. She has until April 1st to get as many views, positive comments and ratings as possible.

A different kind of car commercial

From The Midnight Show @ UCB

Written by James Adomian
Starring Andy Richter & James Adomian with Michael Busch
Directed & Edited by Peter Atencio
Produced by Michael Busch & James Adomian
Co-Produced by Megan Reeves & Joe Wagner
Special thanks to Zack Oldham

Via Autoblog.

Vote for Anu

This is Anu's entry for a traveling contest. There are 10 days to get as many views, comments and positive ratings as possible so check it out!

On a related note, Assaf has posted a top ten list for social traveling.

Social traveling is focused on PEOPLE, not so much on PLACES. Sure, I get to see a lot of cool places along the way, but much more important, I get to share amazing experiences with amazing people, make a ton of new friends all over the world, save a lot of money on things I could care less about, like expensive hotels or restaurants, and most important, shape the way I see the world and keep on learning and becoming.

Speaking of public transportation

new fatherhood PSAs

More than 79% of Americans feel "the most significant family or social problem facing America is the physical absence of the father from the home." Research shows that the lack of a father in the home correlates closely with crime, educational and emotional problems, teenage pregnancy, and drug and alcohol abuse.

In an effort to show dads the critical role they play in their children's lives, the Ad Council has partnered with the National Responsible Fatherhood Clearinghouse and volunteer ad agency Campbell-Ewald to create a new PSA campaign that communicates to fathers that their presence is essential to their children's well-being. The campaign provides fathers with the information they need to become better dads.

Watch the whole TV campaign on youtube. See the radio, print, and TV campaign on the Adcouncil site.

Does anyone know the full credits for the campaign?

Thanks to Tim for the link on facebook.

Random commercial

First Ever Promiscuous Mothers Day

Happy Belated Mother's Day.

From alumni Greg Hunter, Rob Baird, and other former Longhorns at Mother NY

Drink Drench water

Photoshop Disasters

I just found the funniest blog ever... for art directors. I was laughing out loud at my desk and some account people were like "I don't get it."

Anyway, enjoy Photoshop Disasters

You Rock

I found this online somewhere and didn't bookmark it. Anybody know who designed this?