Brands

Before we start yelling slurs at T.G.I. Fridays for being evil, can we first congratulate them on a stellar deal? An entree plus an appetizer or dessert for just $10? That’s recession pricing at its best.

Anyhow, as Pitchfork points out, the background song on the 2-for-$10 spot is a dead-ringer for a bad version of LCD Soundsystem’s 2005 breakout hit, “Daft Punk is Playing at My House,” right down to the tinny vocals and cowbell solo. Observe:

Well, even if you disagree, you now have an excuse to have a little private dance party at your desk on a Friday afternoon. Fun fact: During Lollapalooza 2007, I saw LCD Soundsystem play a frenetic set on a stage about 150 yards a way from where the day’s headliners, Daft Punk, were playing. As frontman James Murphy was performing this song, singing “you’ve got to set them up,” you could actually look across the field and watch the stage techs set up for Daft Punk’s light spectacle of a show. It was totally surreal.

So, how do you guys think we should punish T.G.I. Friday’s for what appears to be a lame ripoff or a modern dance classic? If you suggest we go there and take part in the 2 for $10 deal, I agree. That’ll show them.

Launch a social media campaign that will build your brand and deliver results in our online Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting June 7. Speakers include Abigail Cusick (Bravo Digital), Gregory Galant (Sawhorse Media), Alex Leo (Thomson Reuters Digital), Jim Tobin (Ignite Social Media), and many more. Read the reviews.

The brains at Stink Digital came up with this interesting concept during downtime (and yes, it’s a side project), which shows us how Nike’s Fuel Band (hit or miss, we hear), to show the health of your Twitter tweeting. From what we’ve been told, the Stink guys built, designed and developed all of this, including the rig itself, in just over one week. Well, as you’ll see, the shop had some help from open-source electronic prototyping platform Arduino. Enjoy.

 

Two weeks ago, Verizon and broadcasting app Color kicked off a three-year deal that will bring live-streaming video and audio to its 4G LTE smartphones, including all compatible Androids and, yes, the iPhone. During what appears to be the last week heading up to Saturday Night Live‘s season finale, McCann and Verizon Wireless decided to head to the Rock and give us a backstage view of the goings on. From what we see, which is not much thanks to what appears to be several hazy videos, Color needs some work. Anyhow, check out another clip of “digital Short” co-mastermind Andy Samberg below and more after the jump.

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We suppose since there are sunnier skies approaching here in the Big Apple (who’s ready for Memorial Day Weekend?), we’d give you this little ditty from Brad Go, who seems to love IKEA so much that he decided to sing, dance and create a music video around it. We’ve been told this is part of a “mini-integrated” campaign for the famed Swedish brand, which we agree makes the hell out of a Kivik and Borna. And no, that is now Kristin Stewart, Twi-hards.

If you don’t know who “Scumbag Steve” is, he’s a brah who has provoked a wellspring of memes in recent times (you can view a pretty comprehensive list here) and was popular enough to be the centerpiece of a new campaign celebrating the partnership between Pepsi’s Brisk iced tea brand and image-sharing service, Imgur. Brisk’s ad agency Mekanism is behind the campaign, which will feature this “promoted image” ad across social and on Imgur galleries to promote the product. Even Scumbag Steve–aka Blake Boston–is taking part in the effort as it does leverage his name and image after all. Anyhow, we’re being told this particular meme’s in the experimental beta stage, but it seems to fit the “Scumbag” tone properly enough.

After just setting Burger King staffers’ hearts aflutter, David Beckham continues his advertising tear with a far more active spot from Cheil USA for the Samsung Galaxy Note. Directed by Tool’s Jason Zada, the commendable clip features Becks reinterpreting Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” the best way he knows how. Of course, we imagine there was some decent amount of editing involved, but it’s nice to see that the soccer star still has it in him.

The Samsung spot also marks Lars Bastholm‘s first work as CCO at Cheil USA, which he of course joined towards the end of last year. As for Beckham, one would think that being a player for the L.A. Galaxy would have something to with his appearance in a Samsung Galaxy spot, but the athlete and brand are both in fact heavily involved in the London Olympics, with Beckham serving as an ambassador and Samsung serving as sponsor for the 2012 festivities. So, you see, it all makes sense now. Credits after the jump.

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Sure, it’s got a name that can be easily confused with bands young and old, but Urban Airship is actually a three-year-old mobile tech company that’s joined forces with fellow Portland-based operation Wieden + Kennedy to define what the hell a “good push” is. From what we gather, there’s good and bad mobile engagement that could be created via push notifications including social push, news alerts, geo-based, or traffic/weather events.

Well, W+K and Urban Airship, the latter of which was actually developed in the former’s Portland Incubator Experiment (why are we itching to watch the Prometheus trailer again?) and has now evolved into an agency client/partner, aim to illustrate what positive push entails. How else? Animation, of course, and the parties involved regale us with “Tales of Good Push” via a handful of clips featuring a variety of cartoon characters who, without the help of narration, can perhaps better explain the whole message here.

A couple of tipsters were raving to us over the weekend about this new, five-minute ditty from The Marketing Arm for PepsiMax, which has garnered nearly 1.3 million views since its Friday debut. So, what happens when a college-turned-NBA star decides to go undercover and take part in a little game of street hoops in Bloomfield, New Jersey?

Well, look no further than the clip above starring NBA’s 2011-12 Rookie of the Year Kyrie Irving, the former Duke standout and current Cleveland Cavaliers guard, who goes incognito and decides to do some hustling in a pickup game. If you feel like watching “Drew” really take off and talk smack in the process, just fast-forward to around the 2:00 mark. Or, just stick through the whole clip and see how Kyrie transformed into character for this PepsiMax piece, which, to be specific, was concepted/produced out of the Omnicom-owned Marketing Arm’s L.A. office. Now, if you’ll excuse us, we’ll go figure out how Irving’s game compares to the pickup battle that Kevin Durant engaged in and destroyed last year. Credits for “Uncle Drew” after the jump.

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Time for some good news on the DFCB NY front. After a review, the amusement park brand known as Sea World (here’s to you, Shamu) has picked said agency as its new creative AOR. DFCB NY takes over for Momentum on the Orlando-based company’s account and is expected to roll our work for Sea World next year. In a statement, company president/CEO Jim Atchison says, “We’re excited to tap into the creative and strategic firepower at Draftfcb, as well as their in-depth knowledge of moms and families, to expand recognition of our parks as must-see destinations. We are investing in an extraordinary level of capital expansion and, together with Draftfcb, will cultivate a new level of global consumer awareness for our company.”

From what we hear from sources, Doner might have also been in the mix for Sea World, which has spent about $50 million in measured media.

 

Tipsters have been buzzing over the last few hours that Tribal DDB and Clorox’s relationship has come to an end. Tribal would not comment on the matter, but their relationship spans a few years, with the agency’s San Francisco office handling said client’s brands including Glad and Tilex. One tipster alleges that Tribal SF’s San Fran staff will now be absorbed by the DDB network, but once we find out more, we’ll let you know. We’ve also reached out to Clorox itself, so stay tuned if need be.