Holiday Greetings

Hope everyone enjoys their vacation. See ya after New Years.

How are ads made?

Nice to know that hand painting ads isn't a lost art yet.

What does she really want for Christmas?

It’s no surprise that A Diamond Is Forever is making a holiday push.




But positioning diamonds against electronics is an interesting tack.


They also have a few new lines out in their more traditional style:


This last line feels a bit too cynical for the campaign,

but at least it's different than the old "buy a rock and get laid" promise.

Do you wish you came up with this?

Police in a California town are pulling over good drivers to reward them with $5 Starbucks giftcards.

(This photo was actually taken in San Francisco and I found the AP story on boing boing..)
Police Reward Good Drivers With Coffee
RANCHO CORDOVA, Calif. (AP) — Happy holidays. Now pull over to the side of the road.
Motorists may be in for a surprise if they spot flashing red lights in their rearview mirrors in this Sacramento suburb during the holiday season.
Police are stopping law-abiding motorists and rewarding their good driving with $5 Starbucks gift cards.
A traffic officer came up with the idea to "promote the holiday spirit and enhance goodwill between the traffic unit and the motoring public," police Sgt. Tim Curran said.
Local businesses donated money to buy the gift cards.
"They raised a substantial amount of money," Curran said. "They'll be pulling over a lot of people."
It doesn’t sound like Starbucks had anything to do with this, but I bet someone is considering expanding it. (Although readers at The Consumerist don’t like the idea.)
Besides, Maxwell House did a much nicer job of doing good deeds recently.

Holiday cheer

Taken in Austin, TX off South Congress.

Promotions from the future!

The Sprint store on the ground floor of the Flat Iron building had a few people on Segways handing out flyers this morning.
It's only a matter of time until we finally get some jetpacks.

Happy Hanukkah

Let’s celebrate the last day of the festival of lights with this ad from Oops wines.

What’s the ROI of nightmares?

I actually dropped the latest issue of Wired when I turned the page and saw this Pioneer ad:

You can see the entire TV campaign here, but don’t blame me if you wake up screaming tonight.

What would happen if the people took over your brand?

Mountain Dew created an online adventure to let the masses create a new flavor and its packaging. Evidentially, DewMocracy.com has been running for awhile, but I just saw this poster.

What's your favorite December holiday?

Dewar’s Scotch has found something to celebrate that can help take the edge off the rest of the season.

They did a nice job on requisite microsite, RepealDay.com and are holding celebrations across the country. They were also smart enough to involve the blogging bartender who originated the idea.

Hope they get a big response

My fiancée used to work for Big Brothers Big Sisters in Dallas, so this interesting use of a print ad really caught my eye. It encourages people with camera phones to spread the message virally.

The execution may be a little clunky, but kudos for trying something new.