5.Los Angeles mayoral candidate Eric Garcetti, not to be confused with fictional Baltimore mayor Tommy Carcetti from HBO’s The Wire, has one thing in common with his surname almost-doppleganger; friends in high places. Here, actor and business owner and father of three Will Ferrell advocates for Garcetti in typical Ferrell fashion. For Spanish speakers, there’s also a spot by Salma Hayek. At just 34,420 views, Ferrell’s is just a little baby bump. Still, the man knows how to keep it fresh by popping up in random places doing fun things.

4. Back in 1985, someone started the first ever condom delivery service. It didn’t last. But the idea was reborn recently by a NJ college student whose company offers service in a snap. If you didn’t know, PR sometimes counts as “free” advertising. Because it’s free. And you have no control over the final product. Still, with 112,198 views, this kid’s company probably just reached capacity.

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Yes, folks, the muscle-bound, self-proclaimed “Alpha Dog” and proprietor of Omnicom-owned, Fort Lauderdale-based agency Zimmerman continues his apparent quest to reach Fox News-level punditry by offering his own response to President Obama‘s state of the union address (and without a Poland Spring water bottle in sight, no less). With printed talking points in front of him, Zimmerman, who last discussed “parking his assets” in the wake of Obama’s reelection, now preaches about the deficit, unemployment and more. To sum it all up if you can’t make it through the seven-minute sermon, Obama doesn’t “give a damn about the Constitution” according to Zimmerman. Happy Friday!

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Huge marketing strategist lead Josh Seifert returns with his monthly contribution to this here site. The headline should give you the basic premise of our scribe’s latest entry, in which he reveals who really won out in the wake of the 2012 election. Take it away, sir.

Living in New York, I thankfully did not have to endure the billions of dollars spent on political advertising this election myself, but now that the results are in and our feeds on Facebook and Twitter are returning to their normal political apathy, it’s probably worth exploring what we as marketers learned from politics this year.

Losing a United States Senate race in a conservative state as a Republican used to be the hardest thing in the world, but as Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock learned, the potential impact of saying something stupid is even greater than it used to be. Inflammatory gaffes now extend far beyond the news cycle with social media and instant memeification reaching people who have long since tuned out traditional media coverage. While brands rarely have occasion to address topics as controversial as politicians do, their offline behaviors still have significant potential to be amplified and shared for long periods of time far beyond the incident. Just ask FedEx executives if this old package delivery YouTube video is what they want people finding and watching nearly a year later. Fortunately for brands, this can be merely damaging and not wholly destructive.

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5. Where Jon Stewart points out some obvious skullduggery played by Bullshit Mountain News, where an avalanche (the election) rocked the mineral formation to its spurious core this week, in such a way that you are forced to take pity on the arbiters of the “Republican” story.

4. John Lewis has here a holiday commercial you may take interest in. Here, a snowman treks a long while in order to, well, something. The narrative is rich and the payoff sweet, like a perfect holiday truffle wrapped in pretty gold foil. Enjoy this tidbit before some client thing sucks what remains of your hapless soul.

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With the 2012 presidential election now in the books, where do we turn to bring the country together, to unite us as people, to separate wheat from chaff and tell us “how to protect our assets?” Well, until we find that special someone, for now, we’ll have to make due with some sage post-election thoughts from Jordan Zimmerman, namesake of Omnicom-owned, Fort Lauderdale-based agency, Zimmerman.

The self-proclaimed “alpha dog” and “huge success” posted yet another clip on his blog, “You Sleep When You Die,” following the election results and after viewing it above, we can’t figure out if he’s some scary Donald Trump/Donny Deutsch hybrid, a male Suze Orman, an Obama voter or all of the above. All we can tell now is that thanks to the president’s reelection, he will be “parking some of his assets” in Switzerland. You 99 percenters out there should follow suit.

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Who needs Wolf Blitzer and his CNN Elect-a-Tron 2000 when you have Facebook to tabulate the nation’s votes. A friend sent us this link a little while ago showing us that Facebook is keeping tabs on the nation’s vote in real-time? How? According to the social network, the map you see above reps those who click on an Election Day prompt to share with their friends that they’re voting in the 2012 US election.

We voted at 7:15am EST, when Facebook stats reflected that such activity was dead as fried chicken. But judging by current stats, the number of those taking part in “America Votes” has skyrocketed to well over 200K per hour. Thus far, the expected25-34 Facebook demo is topping the list of those participating and females almost double males on the constantly whirring infographic. We’ll see how dimple chads and crooked Pennsylvania voting machines will play a hand in the final numbers.

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Now, this is democracy at work and it comes to us from of an agency outside the U.S. no less. Just six weeks after turning print ads into iPhone loudspeakers for Coca-Cola, Mauro Cavalletti and crew at JWT Brazil–specifically, the innovations lab at Agencia Casa JWT–have returned with a Twitter-centric effort just in time for Election Day called “Tweet Punch-Out.”

Not quite unlike what a couple of creatives from Dailey came up with back in August, Cavaletti and the JWT lab rats’ project pits Obama versus Romney in the form of blue and red Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots. The Agencia Casa camp hacked the scrappy bots and connected them to live Twitter feeds, which will trigger the toys to throw punches when either Obama or Romney is mentioned. Unlike the real-life debates, there’s no Candy Crowley or Bob Schieffer to rein things in, though judging from the score sheet, Obama’s camp might have to throw in the towel in this particular fight. Go here for all the streaming fun. Credits after the jump.

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Election season isn’t just a convenient time to realize which of your friends have fundamental beliefs completely different than your own. It’s also a wonderful time to remember that a good portion of American citizens still think that homosexuals should not have the ability to marry. We can send a man to the moon, but we still cannot agree on whether or not we should treat our fellow human beings fairly.

While this may seem like a completely ass-backwards way of thinking to most of you, let me break it down. There are two kinds of people who oppose gay marriage. The first, likely larger, group of people are homophobic bigots whose opposition makes a lot of sense when you consider that they hate gay people. The second group is comprised of those who belong to a religion whose doctrine was either penned by homophobic bigots or interpreted in a way that only selectively adheres to certain parts of scripture while ignoring everything else. The second group has been a strong and vocal part of American culture since this country was founded, being convinced by bigots throughout our history that there was religious justification for slavery, racism, sexism, and now homophobia.

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There’s no children’s choir singing hymns of impending doom a la Jeff Goodby‘s controversial pro-Obama submission (which has since been pulled, drats), but now-official Martin Agency CCO   Joe Alexander and a few of his pals make clear their political leanings via the clip above. The spot, dubbed “Let’s Finish the Job,” was created outside the agency and actually originated with SVA students who Alexander taught last year. It’s perhaps a bit less divisive than what Goodby was preaching, but reiterates what many were chanting during President Obama‘s stop in Ohio this morning: “Four more years.” Feel free to leave your kudos or scorn below. Credits after the jump.

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Well, at least we’ve been told this little online poll is the pet project of a handful of “politically-minded” Barkley creatives and seeing as it’s dubbed “Decide Your Side,” we imagine they are. Consider this web effort a quick game of 20 questions, where, for example, you can choose between Star Wars and Star Trek, dog and cat, booze and weed, etc. At the end, your answer for each gets lumped into individual infographics where you can see how Romney and Obama supporters measure up. Surprisingly, most questions have ended up with pretty even results, though Romney has clearly locked the booze-preferring demo. If this doesn’t help you undecideds out there, we don’t know what will.

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Though a registered, albeit “lapsed” Republican, Jeff Goodby is letting the world know where his allegiances lie this election year and is doing so via  a web film/song. The passion project, which was penned by Goodby and art directed by his GS&P partner-in-crime Rich Silverstein, lets a chorus of kids paint a rather drab portrait of the future, one that’s a result of their parents not voting for Obama. Here’s the intro verse that gives you a pretty good idea of where this tune is headed:

“Imagine an America
Where strip mines are fun and free
Where gays can be fixed
And sick people just die
And oil fills the sea”

The black & white motif surely aids the bleak imagery in this clip, which is not an official GS&P product, but one that pulls no punches in conveying whom Goodby’s vote is going to next week.

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For those of you who are somehow still undecided on who to vote for this Election Day, perhaps Stefan Haverkamp can make things easier for you. The New York-based Miami Ad School teacher and JWT/MRM alum, who’s given us everything from webcam stalker films to 9/11 memorials over the years, is back with another installment of “Gum Election.”

The video above should give you the gist of the street art project, which Haverkamp initially launched in 2008 as a way of not only encouraging people to vote, but making the streets cleaner in the process. Hell, with less than two weeks  left before we determine our 45th president, perhaps a stick of Juicy Fruit, Big Red or whatever it is you chew is the best way of proving that democracy really can work.

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While JetBlue is capitalizing on the Election Day hype with its “Election Protection” program, which awards free flights depending on which candidate wins, JD Beebe is doing his part on a, shall we say, more intimate scale via two dating sites. Beebe, who you may remember from his beard-selling venture or “Grab Some Goodby” effort, has launched both RedStateDate.com and BlueStateDate.com, which perhaps go to show that someone’s politics do play a big role in determining whether they’re right for you.

Yes, folks, these are legit dating sites, and Beebe and his team are currently offering an election special: sign up for a premium account on your preferred site before Election Day and if your candidate, you get the next four years free. That should give you plenty of time to find your perfect political soulmate or switch parties, whatever works. Even if you don’t care to take part, the exaggerated promo clips above and below to promote the sites might give you a few chuckles.

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Hey, after the 2000 election calamity and being a native Floridian myself, this is not the worst idea we’ve seen. Folks, meet Jordan Rich, a Miami-based art director–sorry, “art director for hire”–who’s served as an art directing intern at the likes of Jung von Matt and Ogilvy. Anyhow, Rich is in a bit of a pickle as he can’t decide who to vote for this year. So, in this day and age, where else does one turn to for guidance? You guessed it: Twitter. We’re not sure this is the best way of proving one’s not taking their vote lightly, but the indecisive chap is turning to tweeters worldwide anyhow to hit up @voteforjordan, tell him why he should vote one way or the other and then hashtag it #jordanvoteromney or #jordanvoteobama.

Surprisingly, Rich’s fairly ridiculous effort has received a fair amount of feedback (hey, it got our attention). Anyhow, the day before the election, Rich will check his absentee ballot whichever way social media tells him to. For all those who fought for “one man, one vote” over the years, our sincere apologies.

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With the first presidential debate set to get underway tomorrow night in Denver, why not highlight this politically-themed ditty from the folks at Chicago-based “attention” agency Third Street. The group, whose leadership including CCO, Yahoo “Ad Land” cartoonist and 15-year FCB/Draftfcb vet David T. Jones, has released this PSA encouraging young voters to hit the polls on Nov. 6. While not quite as blunt as Diddy’s “Vote or Die” directive from previous elections, Third Street is hoping to inspire Election Day turnout by telling us that real voters in ‘Merica complain, which the agency says is one of the benefits of voting.

The rapid-fire VO from improv comic TJ Miller matches the frenetic pace of the video itself, though both at times work against the message being relayed. Whatever the case, Third Street’s heart is in the right place. So yeah, kids, you wanna gripe about the state of the nation? Why don’t you vote first, then we’ll talk.

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