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B|Net's Jim Edwards noticed something of interest out of Adoi Magazine, which, in an interview with M&C Saatchi CEO Moray MacLennan, threw the guy a bunch of sweet, sweet meatball questions. That means they were easy, without depth and therefore not worth reading. Adoi is a Malaysian magazine that believes "everybody is creative."

MacLennan's response to said line of questioning: he talks about his childhood, his aspirations. Then he says he wants his competitors to do worse so he can do better! "On a more serious note," he professes, "I think the public has fallen out of love with advertising over the years." He goes on to talk about how advertising is an honorable industry and he wants the public to trust advertisers again etc. Amen, brother.

More! "[Consumers] have become slightly mistrusting of [advertising]. Unlike in the 80s when customers were easily sold, today they are much more sophisticated and do not buy into the media easily. Without being too pompous, I think advertising is quite an honorable way of earning a living. It is for the vital function of society. What advertising does is it promotes democracy, choice and better product at lower price because it creates competition. Thus I’d like the ad industry to advertise itself better so the public will trust us. We should stop telling them we are great and do something good. I am sure we are capable of being great communicators and earnings our consumers trust again."

So, even in the face of quite possibly the easiest homerun article in all of advertising history, MacLennan manages to sound like a quarter operated cliché machine. Then again, who am I to judge. You all know much better.

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Maybe it's time to get out of advertising and get into something truly cool. For once. What we're talking about is augmented reality (AR), an idea that won't so much change the way you advertise as it will bring consumers (us) closer to the products they (we) buy online. AR is yet another vehicle meant to get your clients' products closer to the people who may want them, hopefully in exchange for some money.

The first time you saw AR was probably when GE launched the "Plug into the SmartGrid" campaign — a piece that showed is the "cool" factors of AR, but with little payoff beyond that. That's all changing; the first time I realized the potential was while watching a demo for Project Natal, Microsoft's next major advancement in in-home gaming. In the demo, we see a young woman trying on clothes via her TV. How's it work? A camera built into the XBOX reads the girl's shape and then applies clothing to her body. The girl asks a friend's opinion, but the friend is piped in from her own home via web cam. Who needs social interaction?

Today we came across a similar project from LA based Zugara, a digital shop with delusions of awesome, which built the technology you see in the video above. Their "augmented reality meets utility" tool is called the Webcam Social Shopper, and it makes good on Natal's idea (though seemingly both were in the works at the same time, Natal won't be out for another year). "Everything in that video is fully functional," reports Zugara CEO Matt Szymczyk. Neat-o.

Here's some potential benefits for users:
— Livestream their webcam's feed to friends and loved ones, and get comments and feedback right next to the application in real time.
— Receive "clothing care packages" from loved ones who might be somewhere else in the country and set up times to "shop together" online.
— Enter their measurements into the app and get a "fitted image".
— Match entire outfits at the same time, both top and bottom.
— Shop right within a branded Facebook application.

Presumably, Natal and Playstation equivalent EyeToy will offer similar usability. So in concept, Zugara is ahead of the curve — if you consider Microsoft and Sony leaders.

We spoke to a female online shopper we know who has a habit of buying up to 4 versions of the same item, all different sizes, in order to get right fit. She tells us she's not going broke with delivery fees, and here's what she said about Zugara's technology: "That's so cool! I would definitely try that!

"The one thing to keep in mind however, is that although this would be helpful, you never know how something is going to look/fit until you try it on. A size 4 at H&M is vastly different than a size 4 at Ann Taylor, and certain fabrics cling and can make you look fat, etc."

"The point being, although this is a good step and may help online sales, nothing can substitute for actually trying on the clothes."

Or buying 4 sizes of the same item, I suppose. Nonetheless, the "wow" factor seems to be of most interest here — and that may be important for retailers having trouble in the area of online sales. The opportunities are just budding.

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Thanks to the magic of the inter webs, you too can be in Cannes — without having to deal with all the dbags. How, you ask? Easy! Head on over to Aosep.com, a little site built by our friends at Tribble.

Here's how it works: folks attending the Cannes Lions festival will go to events, seminars, bars, strip clubs, bathrooms etc where they'll overhear the adverati say stupid, ludicrous things. They will then Tweet those comments, using the hashtag #cdbags, and the rest of us will chortle with glee. Yeah, we can't be there, but we can benefit from those who are! Things kick off Sunday, June 21.

Why aosep.com? We'll spare you the SEO-related explanation. But if you want to read everything that's being said using the #cdbags tag, you can do it there. Oh the fun we'll have! I'll remind you about it Monday.

Big thanks to Tribble Ad Agency for making the site possible. We're tech averse, so without him this enjoyment would not be possible.

Note: The first three tweets you'll see are fake. We had to test the site, so that's that. This is the first announcement we're making, so obviously there won't be much aggregated so far.

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WebMediaBrands, our parent company, has a commenting policy. Who knew. We're publishing it here so you can familiarize yourselves with the right way to interact in our comments section. Yeah, saying whatever you want is fun. But let's be honest, it's possible to have fun without telling anyone they should die or become a nun or whatever. You're creatives so those of you who are big meanies don't really have an excuse. You want creative freedom? You've got it. Click continued for the rules.

On Monday we posted asking the big dogs to come out and use their real names. Only one did, a Hugh G. Rection, from some unknown agency. Apparently he's trained most of the industry's top peoples.

Look, we know what we are and yeah sometimes we post average news that maybe you can find elsewhere. Well poop on my face, that's just terrible. Here's how it works — if a story comes across my plate that I think might be mildly interesting to some of you, I work it in. But then things happen like last week when you flamed the shit out of Chiat LA all loved it. You tore it apart. So the exciting offsets the less-exciting. It makes for a well rounded blog, and that's OK with me.

For real though, you guys make this thing what it is, and without your tips this wouldn't mean anything to anyone. I read AdAge and Adweek all the time, and they do some of the same stuff we do in regards to quoting anonymous sources — but it's the presentation that's different and that seems to be what you like. Here's why we do it that way: everything in news is spin. The only time anyone goes on the record is to nail some competitor to the wall or defend their honor. But it's still spin. We don't make this stuff up. So help us avoid the bullshit (er, traditional news style) and send us your news. You are AgencySpy; I'll be your mic.

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Faceless intern Ryan laughed at me yesterday when, while looking over my shoulder (it's OK, I knew he was there), he saw me type "the Facebook dot com" into my browser. Hardy friggin har, intern, that's just how we did it back in the day. Now it's all streamlined and whatnot, which we think is plum outrageous.

Not really. To the point: we don't have many friends and would like it if you'd share your thinky-thoughts and diddly-doos with us on Facebook. Click here to see our page, or just visit facebook.com/agencyspy. Personally, I only use the thing for photos but we've been meaning to give you another place to get in touch with us. Another way to connect. It'll be sweet.

Oh, we also have a blog and fan page. Faceless is working on that stuff too, but I think it's maybe overkill. Whatevs.

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We've asked Yaybia editor Erin Lamberty to give us the low down on digital campaigns she comes across. First up, Squarespace's iPhone giveaway.

Right after the WWDC on Monday I noticed tweets with #squarespace and "iPhone" trending high and popping up in my feed. My memory was a little fuzzy about the Squarespace name, so I checked it out to be sure of what it is. Squarespace is a DIY website builder with some high profile users — Ecko and Element to name a few. Anyway, while the geeks were geekin' about WWDC, Squarespace was busy plotting a Twitter contest to give a "gigantic THANK YOU to all of our favorite Squarespace fans." All their fans had to do was send a tweet with the #squarespace tag to be eligible to win a new iPhone. That's great and all, but it's quickly turned into a hashtag fest with hundreds of thousands of non-fans just in it for the goods.

So I'm wondering: How do you separate the fans from those that just want to get their hands on a free iPhone?

To thank users, there are better ways to leverage Twitter than a flood of tweets from people who will never use Squarespace:

— Current users could post success stories, favorite features or job-winning portfolios on Twitter, still using #squarespace, to highlight the brand's name AND functionality at the same time.
— @squarespace could send tweets showcasing the unique ways people are using the platform. People could then be entered into the contest by voting via Twitter for their favorite designs. @extendr is doing a great job of showing off their users' profiles in order to gain more fans.
— Facebook is also another great space to connect with existing fans because it gets others interested in what's going on. Fans could post status updates, notes or even photos expressing love for Squarespace in order to win a new phone.

Click here to read the rest of this piece.

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Last night Conan O'brien shared with the world a vision of the future; well, it's less future and more stereotypical Italian. Is it strange to anyone else that the once-German car company is now Italian?

Via

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Our favorite part of this video is the repeated calls to drink, proving two things: 1) the stereotypes about Russians and advertising creatives are all true and 2) it's about martini time.

Via ForeignPolicy

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24DP is a production house led by executive producer Brian Cristiano. The shop decided to copy CP+B's auction intern auction and now they're trying to get $20k for Cristiano, on eBay. Look, a video from the Museum of Modern Art with scantishly-clad ladies bearing signs. It's totally safe for work, which kinda sucks.

As of right now they have 37 bids for a whopping $2.325. Whaddya get if ya win? "Winning bidders will receive end to end production for a complete spot/TVC/pitch/test/viral/job of their choosing. Pre-pro, production, post, deliverables and original music are all included FOR NO MORE THAN THE COST OF THE WINNING BID. So start your bidding now and rest assured ALL production services and advertising materials will be provided."

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Earlier this week we introduced you to the NetflixFindYourVoice film-making contest and one of the top ten finalists, which happens to be based on a story we broke late last year. Oh, it was that sex tape video thing. We spoke with writer/producer Cami Delavigne who revealed that the entire project is rooted in the ad world, most specifically BBDO; if it wins, it will be a slap in the face to the competition who are mostly of independent film backgrounds.

Delavigne and boyfriend/director Ivan Herzeler along with BBH senior producer Julian Katz and ShortBus exex. producer Alexis Fish are the behind-the-scenes crew of this one-off story. It's thematically linked to a full length feature they'll get to produce if they win.

Here's how the contest works: 2,000 entrants submitted scripts hoping to win $350,000 in camera gear and cash as well as a secured spot in the LA Film Festival. For Delavigne and crew, they entered a script for "Church", a story about a pastor who plots to murder someone and then...as if we'd spoil it. Months later, the Netflix crew have narrowed the field to 10, of which Hatchet Man is one (currently in 8th place, tho).

See, each of the filmmakers had the option to a) create a trailer for the script they entered; b) shoot a scene from their script or; c) create a short film thematically linked to the plot of the feature script. For Delavigne's team, the obvious choice was to find a story that resembled the script. Cue the sex story, refine the idea and bam, a 3-minute masterpiece called Hatchet Man is born.

And we're sure glad they did, because now that Atmosphere sex tape story is forever memorialized in film.

Clearly, Hatchet Man takes the tale a bit further. Our main character, played by Matt Boren (of How I met Your Mother fame: imdb) is a guy who has never done anything wrong. When he finally does by filming the aforementioned office sex, he's liberated by the act despite losing his job as a result.

Undoubtedly, many of you can see the benefit of losing your agency job. Who wants to live that hell anymore? The other leading role is played by Billy Warlock formerly of Baywatch, Damages, The Young and the Restless; imdb. Warlock's character makes the same note Gawker writer Hamilton Nolan did — the sex was l.a.m.e. And the story changes from one of illicit sex to wow, is this the kind of inspiration we can expect from Atmosphere?

Speaking of BBDO, Delavigne and bf Herzeler are both regular freelance video editors for the agency. Specifically, they work in The Kitchen, working on any number of projects. Hopefully BBDO is laughing at the mishap by now and can appreciate the value of the now legendary story.

Notes Delavigne, "If you can't draw from real life..."

So as of right now the film is in 8th place. We'd be remiss to outright ask you to vote for it. But here's a couple reasons why you might want to:

1) It's rooted in advertising, an art that's long played 2nd fiddle to film.

2) It's a true story.

3) 3 of the 4 principals are your colleagues.

4) It's the only short of the whole lot. The rest are trailers.

5) We said so.

Whatever you choose, we hope you'll at least give it a watch. We posted the film after the jump. Head on over to NetflixFindYourVoice to vote.

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