This news wouldn’t feel right if we covered it on any day other than Friday. Andy Leek, former creative at Nothing and now-freelancer at the likes of Tribal DDB, decided to use his artistic skills to paint the first portrait of Prince George earlier this week. He’s now selling the painting on Ebay, with the current bid at £10.50 (just over $16) as of noon today. We can’t confirm whether this is actually the world’s first painted picture of the prince baby, but according to Leek, he “started painting minutes after Wills and Kate emerged on the steps of the Lido wing.”

Think of it as an investment? On the Ebay page, Leek admits to participating in shark wrestling and polar bear back riding, so he could die soon, and “this painting will skyrocket in value.” I’m not an art appreciation expert, but I’m pretty sure that’s not how it works, tongue-in-cheekiness aside. The painting isn’t bad, maybe Leek could give it to the royal family as a gift, but he might have to drop the £30 delivery fee.

About a year ago, Intel and Toshiba partnered together with the help of Pereira & O’Dell to create “The Beauty Inside,” a so-called “social movie” that paired not-quite-movie stars Topher Grace and Mary Elizabeth Winstead as two young actors who can’t believe that this is where their careers have taken them thus far. The big budget online film was apparently effective enough at whatever it was trying to do to spawn a spiritual sequel, “The Power Inside,” starring Harvey Keitel as a guy you kind of feel sorry for until you you consider that he’s still finding work at his age.

As a press release tells us, the heavily product integrated plot will consist of “An alien invasion by a race of extraterrestrial moustaches and unibrows who take over the upper lips and eyes of people around the world. The main character is Neil, who together with his friends and the help of technology discovers his inner strength to defeat the moustache and unibrow invaders called Uricks. Intel-inspired Ultrabook™ devices by Toshiba play an important role in Neil’s journey of self-discovery.” We assume “inner strength” and “Intel-inspired Ultrabook™ devices by Toshiba” are pretty interchangeable in this scenario.

Similar to its predecessor, computer processor fans every can be part of the film by interacting with the protagonist via Facebook. Users can also upload a photo of themselves, edit that photo with a moustache and unibrow, and reach self-actualization after the process is completed. Credits after the jump.

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This new Tumblr account comes from Avery Harrison, creative intern at Digitas and student at Miami Ad School, San Francisco. ‘Ads For Anything‘ was built under the premise of ideas that appeared brilliant in Harrison’s head at first-thought and not-so-brilliant once those ideas had a chance to roll around in his brain for a while. The dreaded creative letdown, an affliction that comes down like a thunderbolt after the initial honeymoon period. Been there myself, Mr. Harrison.

Scroll through the Tumblr, and you’ll see generic photos with blocks of generic fortune-cookie text that could be about any product. For example: “Live against the grain” is set over a wooden texture with a “Your Logo Here” block. Many of these genericisms could be early drafts of Mercedes spots, which probably doesn’t say a lot about Mercedes or Jon Hamm voice-overs. In fact, I’m somewhat surprised Mercedes hasn’t plucked Harrison for a job already – “To some people, passion is just a word” and ” There is always enough time to go for it” beg for Hamm’s voice to be played while a black SL zooms around a bend.

Meet Octicorn, a half-octopus half-unicorn abomination that has either teeth or gills affixed to the front of its face.

What began as a simple sticker designed by former W+K producer and current filmmaker Justin Lowe now has a Kickstarter page devoted to bringing Octicorn to life in the form of a children’s book. The hope, of course, is that Octicorn’s mixed-species parentage will help little boys and girls who have tails or whiskers feel better about themselves, knowing that somewhere, there’s a terrified looking seabeast who’s also a bullying victim just like them. Remember, any two animals can successfully conceive offspring with the power of self-confidence.

As with anything created under the guise of “children’s entertainment,” Lowe already has planned for his book to become Disney-fied with pillows, t-shirts and, potentially, a mobile app that finds Octicorn searching for his true parents, only to find that they disowned him years ago when they tried to distance themselves from their “crazy sexually experimental college years.” In fact, if the $15k total is met in the next 24 days, there’s even the hint at a future Octicorn rap video that finds our loveable hero talking about how a history of getting bullied inevitably turned him to the gang life, where he worked as a drug runner until getting in with a connected producer who helps him jump start a hip-hop career under the pseudonym “Ock-T.” Dreams do come true, if you pony up and donate to this Kickstarter.

Virginia Alber-Glanstaetten, group director of planning at Huge, has returned with her monthly column for this here site, this time discussing why “digital is the perfect agent to demonstrate relevance to your customers.” With nods to everything from the Gecko to Netflix in tow, we’ll let her take it away from here.

Last week, Geico muscled past Mayhem to take the #2 spot in the highly competitive insurance marketplace. This maneuver was executed with the help of a boat-load of ad dollars, ensuring all of America now knows how happy people are when they save hundreds of dollars by switching to Geico: happier than a camel on humpday, happier than Dracula at a blood drive, and definitely happier than Paul Revere with a cell phone.

The nature of free markets is inherently challenging—and companies are always fighting to stay front and center with their audiences. For most companies, gunning for brand preference is a tough task; it stresses margins, profitability, and generally you’re fighting neck and neck with little to differentiate you from your closest competition. And—let’s face it—while we all dream of it, it’s rare to have Warren Buffet’s substantial backing as you aim for the top of the ladder. In a race to be the preferred insurance brand, Geico has taken on a tough and expensive task of implementing clever, traditional advertising that’s simultaneously memorable for its humor while highlighting value. With their deep pockets, Geico is in an enviable position in terms of budget (and now preferred standing).

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During the NBA Finals last month, PlayStation debuted a new mini-film from BBH NY titled “Greatness Awaits” which featured a wide array of game characters and a whimsical narrator talking sternly to the camera (much like in this 2009 spot BBH NY did for Johnnie Walker). With over 5 million YouTube plays, the big budget ad was hailed as a mild success, falling somewhere between “Hedgehog Reacts to Fart” and “One Direction Crash Barbie’s Party! 1D Dolls Party All Night! OMG !.::Original Video::.”

To the untrained eye, it would appear that the spot’s success was owed to its subtle nods to some of PlayStation’s biggest titles paired with the sort of over-the-top visual effects that gamers subsist upon. However, any true gamer knows that the ad’s success is owed predominantly to the elaborate costuming employed, causing PlayStation to make a second ad in order to offer the costumes as prizes of some sort. Yes, it’s an ad for an ad, or “Adception” if you will.

Anyway, gamers can bid of the costumes from the spot using trophy points or something that they earn by being good at video games. Then everyone will play dress-up and have a great time. Learn more at bidforgreatness.com and view credits after the jump.

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To showcase their back-to-school dorm room wares, Target and Deutsch LA have built Bullseye University, a 4-day interactive installation housing social media stars such as actor/musician Chester See and Jenn Im of Clothes Encounters. Online visitors can see live-streams of the University’s inhabitants and then click to purchase the items in each of their rooms. The Bullseye U site also hosts back to school-centric giveaways and events like a Ben and Jerry’s milkshake dunk tank, which starts at 10am PST today by the way.

As a preteen who once waited with bated breath for the newest Pbteen catalogue, I can imagine getting into this scheme as a college freshman. Especially if I was already a follower of the social media celebs involved, Target’s campaign would play to my college fantasies. Alas, we all know the truth is less colorful and more drinking-oriented, but Bullseye University’s version lets us run wild with creative, Internet-savvy roommates and purple throw pillows.

Seeing as it’s lunchtime and all over here on the East Coast, figured you may have a few minutes to view a new web series concocted by a handful of folks including current and former ad creatives/execs who decided to delve into a completely non-agency project. Ladies and gents, we bring you Transfurter, essentially an adults-only animated series filled with innuendo, breasts, phalluses and more. And that’s just one episode (“A Hotdogbit’s Tale, Pt 1/1000,” which you can see above).

You might cringe, chuckle or just shut if off, but whatever the case, you can blame it all on mastermind Joe Croson, a former VP group executive producer at BBDO and writer for [Adult Swim]. Obviously, Croson’s latter gig informs this current effort aplenty, but the Transfurter creator tells us that the seed was planted four years ago. He tells us, “It was a seed idea in 2009 that I drew on a post-it note and did some stupid VO for.  With the help of my friends Miguel, Mike, Rachel, Nick and Justin and some of my awesome interns, I pitched it to a few different cable networks, who either told us that it was too sick for broadcast, or wanted to see it in action online first.”

Along with Croson, Transfurter features the handiwork of Dan Cordella, currently a senior copywriter at Digitas, Monica Lo, whose day job is senior art director at kbs+, and Jake Grupp from Sound Lounge. If you have more time to kill, you can view more episodes from the ongoing series as well as learn more about the project here. Reminder: It’s kinda NSFW.

While we’ve seem almost every iteration of brands turning fans’ tweets into ads by this point, here’s a new spot for Wendy’s new Pretzel Bacon Cheeseburger from agency VML that adds a musical component to this formula.

Using that hashtag #PretzelLoveSongs on Twitter AND Facebook (gah, Facebook has hashtags now), consumers who say exceedingly positive things about Wendy’s new burger had the opportunity for their praises to be turned into a musical number, with some having even been sung by former 98° frontman/Jessica Simpson spouse Nick Lachey during a live event last night in New York, where live-streams always take place for some reason. While the press release doesn’t say if the specific location was Times Square, we’re going to go ahead and guess this happened in Times Square.

Nothing like watching a former boy band member/reality star sing about a cheeseburger in probably Times Square. Oh, and VML offered the chance to participate via your social media, because the most effective use of it is to either praise or make fun of brands who spend a lot of money on advertising. If we’re lucky, it might even be a trending tweet. Update: The event actually took place at a Wendy’s location, natch, on 34th St in NYC.

Many top brands have preferred Instagram to Vine when deciding how to complement branding with viral videos, but that hasn’t stopped Snapple, with creative direction from NYC-based Code and Theory, from choosing six over 15. As part of Snapple’s Re-enFACTments digital campaign, here’s a little stop-motion animation to kick off the weekend. The above clip was designed by Khoa Phan, who Mashable declared “Vine’s Most Creative Stop-Motion Animator.”

Snapple and Code and Theory have reached out to a number of unique people on the platform to visualize the signature series of under-the-cap facts that lost their novelty appeal about ten years ago. Phan worked with fact #754 – an alligator can go through 3,000 teeth in a lifetime, a ridiculous number that probably excites dentists and orthodontists around the world. And, as you can see in a few additional Vines below, makes eating an apple more troubling than you’d expect.

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