-Mullen was inspired by Crank Yankers when creating this new Zappos ad. link

-A tribe in eastern India takes out an ad in Variety asking for James Cameron's help with their own Avatar-like plight. link

-The One Club announced the third quarter finalists for the 2010 One Show Interactive. link

-This contextual targeting flub will surely mend fences between Yankees and Red Sox fans. link

-Digital ad spending will outdo print in 2010. link

-New York-based firm appsavvy promoted Calvin Wong to COO. link

-The New York Times gives Gothamist a taste of its own medicine. link

-French fashion designer Thierry Mugler is attempting a comeback with a female-friendly website and the help of NYC agency Johannes Leonardo. link

-New York's Darling Agency launched a new campaign for Insight Communications. link

-Seth Godin will be a keynote speaker at the PMA conference in Chicago. link

More: "Monday Odds and Ends"

Your fine china and dining accessories are in good hands as you can see in this viral-intended clip which promotes BMW's 2010 S1000RR bike--apparently the most powerful liter bike in the world. The obligatory fake/real debate about this tablecloth-pulling stunt has already started raging on Viralmente's YouTube page. But considering the bike goes from 0-100 km/h in 2.9 seconds, one can argue that it can't all be smoke n' mirrors.

Via Adverblog and Culture Buzz

The agency known as Plaid will from here-on-out be known as Humongo, which according to UrbanDictionary means "Really really really huge!" The shop announced its acquisition by Norwalk, CT based SourceMarketing earlier today. That agency is owned by MDC Partners.

Just yesterday MDC announced it has purchased south Florida's TEAM Enterprises, an experiential firm that services Fortune 100 clients.

"We're pretty stoked," the agency announced on its blog — brandflakesforbreakfast. "We'll now have the resources to grow like never before. We'll have access to affiliate agencies that provide our clients what we can't. Imagine a small digital creative agency with the keys to the big guys. That's Humongo."

You know Plaid, err, Humongo, from their tours-de-America in a van. The annual trip was called PlaidNation but will from here on is called HumongoNation. This is their video about the changes.

Meet Humongo from Humongo on Vimeo.

More: "MDC Acquires South Florida Experiential Marketing Firm"

Lately we've been harping on shops for ripping off actual artists' work. Copying other things is an age-old aspect of advertising and I think one reason we get our undies in a bunch about it is if Kiran, Kaitlin or I "copy" things, we get fired. Advertisers get paid a lot of money, in some cases, for doing the same thing. There's more to it than that, but plagiarism is the ultimate sin for "journalists" and whether or not anyone cares to think of us as such, we still get fired for it. You get raises.

There are a number of reasons why copying other people's work is bad, but Mike Wolfsohn at High Wide & Handsome (aka "an uncommonly loyal marketing agency") disagrees with our habitual wringing out of copy-cat work. Why? Because in a very few cases it works and because advertising is not art, it is commerce. His words, not mine. A lot of reasons why he's wrong, after the jump.

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Amid all the grumblings of possible layoffs and what not from New York to Atlanta, Schematic finally has some positive news to report as the WPP unit has tapped AKQA alum Jason Whiting to serve as managing director of its Big Apple office.

Whiting, who spent seven years at AKQA, was first based in the digital agency's San Fran base and was an account director on Xbox and Nike before eventually moving up to New York in 2008 to lead AKQA's East Coast operations in NY and D.C. Prior to his agency work, Whiting (whose departure from AKQA was imminent as of last November) was a strategy consultant for Tiger Woods' favorite sponsor Accenture and also was press secretary for two different members of Congress while in D.C.

More: "AKQA Adds Staff on Both Coasts"

This is a cool graphic look-at-and-explanation for why Google is evil even though it tries not to be. If you're scared of the Sith Lord, don't watch this.

THE BEAST FILE: GOOGLE from Hungry Beast on Vimeo.

Via TheCuriosBrain

More: "There's No Love Lost in Google Buzz Ad Spoof"

'The Good Wife' is CBS' Julianne Margolis driven semi-politicy-and-newsish program also starring Chris Noth (Mr. Big). On this week's episode, special guest Twitter makes its old-people-television debut. In case you missed the promo, it's c-l-a-s-s-i-c-l-y awful. How much do you Tweet me? I shall count the ways.

No wonder NBC's brand valuation is through the roof.

More: "EA Joins Mancrunch on CBS' Super Bowl Rejection List"

With the rise in sexual activity among boys age 12-14, the Swiss have switched gears from neutral to progressive by unveiling the wonderfully titled Hotshot, an extra-small condom that costs about 5 pounds for a pack of six.

Family planning groups and the Swiss AIDS Federation are among those those that championed the production of the prophylactic, which was developed by condom manufacturer Lamprecht AG and measures about 1.7 inches in diameter (compared to 2 inches for standard jimmy hats).

A company spokeswoman says the Hotshot is currently only available in Switzerland but the UK is a "top priority" if the product were to be marketed abroad. Sit tight, wee London lads.

And while we're on the condom theme, remember that NYC design contest we reported on last month? Well, the online voters have spoken and the image we highlighted (a computer power button or something else perhaps?) happened to be the image that won.

Via Dave Ibsen

More: "Erase Your Sexual Exploits (Rub-It!)"

That doesn't include the agency itself, which has declined to comment, presumably because Sr. Bogusky was busy pounding away at his Ivory Tower. In the meantime, this random tweet shall suffice.

This in response to AdAge's break that Activision has moved its business to Chiat because their Modern Warfare 2 work was so great. Wait, that doesn't make sense because the campaign allegedly never aired due to some unknown reason. At the time, we said it was "too racy". Huh? It's a video game where you kill innocent civilians in order to get win. Nothing like the smell of rotting digital flesh in the morning.

This requires a full audit of the Modern Warfare 2 campaign. Stay tuned.

More: "Brett Ratner, DDB And Michael Phelps Do Tom Cruise"

Last Tuesday we learned that something is going on at LA based agencies WONGDOODY and Ground Zero. After speaking with a few more people in the know, we've filled in the gaps. Ground Zero, a respected creative shop, is merging into WONGDOODY. There are some redundancies but mostly this is a case of one agency needing something another has, and vice versa.

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The Toronto agency scene has been stirring as of late and now comes news that Vancouver's Rethink Communications is moving east and setting up shop in Ontario's capital.

"We've basically grown as big as we can in Vancouver," agency co-founder Chris Staples (fourth guy down) tells Marketing. The 4,000 sq. foot office, which opens for business on April 5, will be run by partner/MD Pema Hegan and creative director Dre Labre, the latter of whom worked on integrated campaigns for clients like Subaru, Gatorade and Clorox at agencies like Tribal DDB, Blast Radius and MacLaren McCann.

Rethink, whose client roster includes Mr. Lube, Solo Mobile and A&W Restaurants, says it's been "rethought for the digital age" and its new mantra goes like this: "You don't need a digital agency. You need strategy, ideas and content for the digital age. You don't need a social media agency, you need a communications strategy that is inherently social."

More: "Universal McCann Sets Up Shop in Toronto"

All that we can still really gather about this recently banned ad is that it promotes Ireland-based betting site Paddy Power and the Cheltenham Festival but "has fallen foul of regulators who fear it likely to cause widespread offence" according to the company.

Created by London shop Big Al's Creative Emporium, the spot features a group of wheelchair-bound guys stiffing a curry house and making their escape. The pissed-off waiter is finally soothed by a Paddy spokesman (a dead ringer for Dylan Baker) who basically says tough shit about the bill but you can get money back using the betting site's specials.

We're told that an actor playing one of the cheapskates is wearing a branded Hearts & Balls shirt, which promotes a rugby charity that helps players impacted by catastrophic injury. So it's a PSA after all? Yep, we're still unclear.

More: "Denny's Apologizes for Offensive Ad"