No two things go hand-in-hand quite like a car and a drive-in movie theater — especially in the context of American nostalgia. The shift toward digital film, however, threatens to send the drive-in the way of the dodo. Stepping in to help keep this American icon from utter extinction is automaker Honda.

By the end of 2013, Hollywood is expected to stop distributing 35 millimeter film to all U.S. movie theaters. While most indoor theaters have already made the switch to digital projection — a move that costs roughly $75,000 per screen — hundreds of drive-in theaters will find it difficult to manage such an expenditure, given their limited ticket sales (most drive-ins close during the colder months, after all).

Part of Honda’s goal is to raise community awareness of the perilous situation in which beloved local drive-ins find themselves. The campaign’s website, projectdrivein.com, features a video (below), which visitors are encouraged to share via social media. Supporters are also asked to pledge to see one movie at their local drive-ins. Read more

What does HTC stand for, anyway? “Hold This Cat,” perhaps?  Could it be “Hipster Troll Carwash?” Or maybe, “Humongous Tinfoil Catamaran.”

These are just a few of the possibilities suggested by HTC’s new spokesman, Robert Downey Jr., in the company’s just-launched “Change” campaign, the tagline for which is: “Here’s to Change.”

See what they did there?

New ads featuring Downey Jr., who has signed a two-year contract to be HTC’s “Instigator of Change,” will debut first on YouTube on August 15th and will also appear on television and in pre-movie spots. The first few ads will be mostly dedicated to playing out some of the far-fetched interpretations of the HTC acronym (yes, “Hold This Cat” will actually be a thing), while later spots will focus on HTC products like the One smartphone and software features like BlinkFeed, Video Highlights, and BoomSound.

The “change” comes roughly six months after HTC retired its “Quietly Brilliant” tagline, and is the company’s first attempt at refreshing its brand since doing so. HTC has invested a great deal in this rebranding, and says that the accompanying social media campaign is the largest it has ever crafted. Read more

Our lives are non-stop — we hear it all the time. If we’re not in a meeting, running an errand, cooking dinner or squeezing in a workout, then we’re probably on our smartphones either planning these things, doing them virtually, or posting about them on social networks. We, as a society, have forgotten how to be still.

Enter Amstel beer and its own take on the smart vending machine trend — stand perfectly still for three straight minutes and this harbinger of serenity will reward you with a free beer. The message is pretty clear: take a break from your hectic life with an Amstel. Simple, yet perfectly on point.

If this sounds like an easy way to earn a free beer, take three minutes of your Friday and try actually remaining perfectly still (no checking Facebook, no fidgeting, no phone calls) without getting antsy — it’s harder than you’d think! But it is rewarding (even without the free beer).

Here’s the associated commercial out of Bulgaria:

Sharing the color of your panties with the Twitterverse will make you feel liberated, independent, sassy and sexy! At least that’s what Hanes‘ new Undercover Color campaign would like you to think.

After selecting my hue from the color wheel provided on the campaign’s website, UndercoverColor.com, I am brought to a page that applauds my selection. “You’re wearing red underwear. Bold Move,” it says. “Are you brave enough to tell the world?”

I’m not so sure “brave” is the right word. It should realistically read something like: Are you vain/silly/bored enough to believe the world cares what color your panties are, and would be impressed by your oh-so-brazen and sassy over-share? Nonetheless, in the name of research, I press on.

I am then prompted to select a pre-composed tweet by clicking on tiles, each of which boasts a picture of something red, including a rose, a pair of red pumps, a melting cherry popsicle, and a tile made completely of red glitter. One of the tiles features text that reads, “Super Awkward.” Obviously, I click on that one first. It flips over to expose the corresponding pre-composed tweet, which reads, “I’ve got a scarlet secret,” which, to me, kind of sounds like the tweeter has a seriously inflamed rash. But it did say it would be awkward, so I assume the rest of the tweets must be better.

Wrong. Read more

Women’s rights group Women, Action, & The Media (WAM), one of the organizations that blew the whistle on Facebook’s failure to crack down on misogynistic content this past May, has now set its sites on Clear Channel.

Recently, the South Wind Women’s Center in Wichita, KS, which provides access to full-spectrum reproductive healthcare — including abortion care — tried to run ads for their services on several local radio stations owned by media conglomerate Clear Channel. Clear Channel, however, pulled them off the air for violating “decency standards.” But those same stations, WAM points out, run ads for the local “adult boutique,” without similar concerns about decency.

In response to Clear Channel’s decision, WAM, in partnership with the South Wind Women’s Center, launched the #changethechannel campaign in order to insist that women’s health care is never indecent, and that everyone has the right to know where they can get medical care.

Since the launch of the effort, thousands of citizens in Wichita and across the country have phoned, emailed and tweeted the Wichita Clear Channel office as well as Clear Channel’s corporate representatives, calling on the company to run the ads. Many thousands more have signed petitions to the same effect.

Amidst the uproar, the GM of Clear Channel in Wichita, Rob Burton, left his post on July 31 without public explanation. Burton had been responsible for the final call to pull the ads. A few days before his sudden departure, he had said simply, “As members of the Wichita community, KZSN has a responsibility to use our best judgment to ensure that advertising topics and content are as non-divisive as possible for our local audience.” Read more

We usually like to make you smile on Fridays, but I’m afraid the only smile this new musical Mercedes ad will bring to your face is the Oh-God-I’m-So-Uncomfortable-Please-Make-it-Stop kind.

The new Mercedes-Benz Service Song, sung from the point of view of a Mercedes car in desperate need of the sort of…um…handling that only a Mercedes repairman can provide, features lyrics like: “I like them to be strong, that they can catch me when I skid/Like them to turn me on, I thought that some of them did/But just as I needed a helping hand, so many men were ‘out of service,’ not like you … You only give your best, won’t stop until I smile.”

Oh, and in the 5-minute extended version (yeah, that exists AND we listened to the whole thing) nearly a full 30 seconds is dedicated to throaty, over-the-top “oh yeah’s.”

The atrociously cheesy, over-wrought song is accompanied by an equally terrible video, chock full of overly-Photoshopped images of heroic mechanics, smiling families and glistening sunsets. It seems the ad is trying to be nostalgic, sexy and epic all at once, and failing miserably on all counts. Read more

Remember Dunkin’ Donuts’ breakfast sandwich that replaced a bagel with two doughnuts? Well, just in time for the hottest part of summer, Carl’s Jr. is unveiling its own frosty version of a sandwich between non-traditional bread substitutes, and is doing so in truly epic fashion. In the latest promo from the burger chain (below), the Strawberry Pop-Tart Ice Cream Sandwich (a mouthful in more ways than one!) receives a debut befitting a modern marvel of mythic proportions…which, of course, it is.

The ad, created by agency 72andSunny, pairs the immediately recognizable and unquestionably epic theme from “2001: A Space Odyssey” with rave reviews from notable sources like The Huffington Post. The viewer is then given an up-close view as the tantalizing treat is assembled by hand, and is completed (in all its glory) just as the music reaches its climax.

We must say, even though we were taken in by the intensity of it all, we were left wondering one thing: Weren’t we just given detailed instructions on how to construct such a wonder of epic deliciousness ourselves out of things we probably already have in the kitchen (a pop tart, an ice cream scoop, and some ice cream)? Read more

Can a woman really be completely satisfied in only seven minutes? Liquid-Plumr promises she can.

Turning mundane daily routines into hyper-sexualized hunk-fests seems to be the tactic of choice for some female-targeted brands like Kraft’s salad dressing and Clorox’s Liquid-Plumr. The latter’s latest spot, titled “Quickie“, leaves behind the double entendres of their “Double Impact” ad (two sexy plumbers clean out your pipes for the price of one!) in order to market its Urgent Clear formula — for women who “need it now.”

The ad (below) depicts a busy woman selecting a bottle of Urgent Clear from a hardware store shelf, and then immediately lapsing into a fantasy about a hunky plumber arriving at her door as she is on her way out. “I hear you need it now,” says the dreamy handy man. “I only have ten minutes,” giggles the rushed woman, to which the plumber seductively replies, “I only need seven.”

The viewer is then informed by a Barry White-esque voice that the formula “penetrates…to leave you satisfied in only seven minutes.” Read more

Vending machines are no longer just logo-covered boxes that trade coins for products. Over the past few months, we’ve covered everything from Hot Wheels’ tweet-powered vending machine to Coke’s slender, patriotic, and peace-seeking ones.

Now, coffee roaster Douwe Egberts has equipped one of its java-dispensing machines — which resides in a busy South African airport — with facial recognition software, enabling it to recognize when a person yawns. When a sleepy traveler approaches the machine, he or she is given a complimentary cup of joe.

The catchphrase attached to the accompanying campaign, created by Joe Public, is simply: “Bye bye, red eye.”

Forget blocking Facebook…a yawn-detecting coffee dispenser might just be the office productivity-booster the world’s been waiting for!

In case anyone out there actually had hopes that Abercrombie & Fitch might change its marketing tune after finding itself embroiled in controversy this past spring, the brand’s latest campaign will probably be a major disappointment. If the clothing retailer’s newest effort seems like more of the same to you, that’s because it is — exactly the same.

Rather than make any sort of attempt at re-branding, A&F is doing exactly the opposite: the company is reincarnating its successful “Stars on the Rise” campaign from the early 2000s, which featured then-budding celebs like Taylor Swift and Ashton Kutcher. The updated effort features 11 “up-and-coming” actors including Alexander Ludwig from The Hunger Games, American Horror Story’s Lily Rabe, and Glee star Jacob Artist (we’re particularly sad about this last one, as we sort of thought the whole Abercrombie-is-only-for-cool-kids thing would make for a great episode of the equality/inclusion/self-esteem-themed show).

When asked about the campaign, Abercrombie’s director of marketing and public relations Michael Scheiner told Buzzfeed, “For many of our consumers today, they might not know what we did in 2005, so it seemed relevant to discuss this concept we’ve done in the past.”

It seems A&F is hoping that recreating a campaign from its heyday may also recreate the popularity the brand experienced during the same time period. But this strategy assumes the current audience will be equally receptive to the message, an assumption which — given the recent backlash against the brand and the current anti-bullying/pro-inclusion landscape — may be a gamble. Read more