• by Amy Corr , Staff Writer @MediaPostOTL, August 17, 2005

The Parrot is calling. Gap unveils its latest musical spokespeople. Court TV rebrands in a killer way. Let's launch!

Draft London has created an online and offline campaign to support the launch of Vauxhall's New Zafira. The campaign resurrects the animated "Little Dads" that were featured in previous Zafira ads.The campaign is comprised of e-mail, direct mail, and interactive executions that reacquaint audiences with the characters from previous Zafira ads as well as introduce a new "child" to represent the new car. A DM pack plays on the car's stylish new features, such as its panoramic roof, which features four separate sunroofs. The outside shows the latest "Little Dad," Amir, and the line "There's a new kid on the block." Inside, lines such as "Panoramic roof? Looks good from where I'm sitting." and "They love it. And now all their friends want a go." describe the car's new features. Online, the agency has created a microsite that uses the three "Little Dads" to guide visitors around the car's features with an "I spy" style game. Each letter of the alphabet is aligned to a corresponding part of the car ("D is for dash," "G is for gearbox," etc.), with copy, images, and streaming video used to bring the features to life.

McGarrah/Jessee has developed a series of 15-second TV spots for Whataburger. The ads zero in on some of the elements that distinguish Whataburger from its competition. "Drive Home" celebrates the restaurant's signature ketchup, distributed in plastic "tubs" rather than squeeze packets. The TV spot highlights a major advantage of Whataburger's ketchup - the ability to dip your french fries while sitting in your car. All 15-second spots follow a trivia question and answer format, narrated by the grandfatherly voice of Whataburger. "Brace Yourself" guides viewers on the best way to eat a made-to-order Whataburger and "25 Hours" assures viewers that Whataburger never closes.

Would it be too cliché if I mentioned George Michael's song "Monkey" now? Giant Ideas has created a campaign that encourages you to get that monkey off your back. The debt monkey, that is. The two spots broke this month and feature two friends talking around a water cooler in the middle of a field. As if the water cooler in the middle of the field wasn't odd enough, one of the friends has a monkey on their back! The campaign for CCCS/Advantage Credit Counseling uses humor to break the mold on debt consolidation services and helps to distinguish them from a crowded marketplace. The campaign also utilizes radio, print, and online elements and will run through November.

The Chicago Crystal Meth Task Force launched a public service announcement in an effort to educate at-risk populations, particularly gay men, on the harmful effects of crystal meth. The campaign was developed by Lopiz Integrated Hispanic Marketing, which crafted the "Crystal Breaks" campaign theme. Starcom USA was responsible for placement of campaign materials. The "Crystal Breaks" campaign messaging was placed on bathroom mirror coverings, bar coasters, free branded water bottles, and moving truck billboards to drive traffic to the newly launched Task Force Web site. Future phases of the campaign are slated to include print, radio, and online executions and include facts and statistics on the dangers of meth use, plus a series of documentary vignettes featuring people in recovery.

When I first saw this creative I thought, "Norman Bates has gone from a motel owner in the middle of nowhere who's up to no good to a city dweller, living in a walk up, and still up to no good." Talk about finding a clever way to make outdoor advertising attention grabbing. As part of Court TV's branding campaign, Venables, Bell & Partners has created "advertecture," located on King Street and 6th Avenue in New York City. The creative - complete with realistic bricks and windows - contains an interesting view for all you voyeurs out there. One window scene shows a person, and behind them stands a man with a cleaver ready to do some damage. The spot will remain up for one month and highlights Court TV's new logo and tag line.

Liz Phair, Joss Stone, and Keith Urban (all EMI music artists...) will appear in Gap's Fall 2005 TV and print campaign entitled "Favorites," beginning this month. The new campaign focuses on how jeans and songs are expressions of a person's character and style. The spot features Stone's and Urban's recordings of the Beach Boys' "God Only Knows," and Billy Thorpe's "Most People I Know Think I'm Crazy." Stone and Urban will perform their rendition of these songs in the TV campaign.

In an effort to reach college kids on campus, The Douglas Stewart Company enlisted Campus Media Group to place ads for Adobe's Creative Suite 2. Adobe is offering its product to students at a discounted academic rate. The agency will place posters on college campuses throughout the summer. Print ads will run through September in orientation and welcome back issues of 19 college newspapers, including Arizona Daily Wildcat, Ucla Daily Bruin, Stanford Daily, Cornell Daily Sun Washington Square News, Chicago Maroon, Daily Free Press, and Golden Gate Xpress, to name a few.

Diageo has launched a campaign for Captain Morgan's Parrot Bay brand showing the contrast between the laid-back lifestyle associated with rum and the energetic lifestyle that complements Parrot Bay. The campaign, created by Grey Worldwide, captures people being transported in a Parrot Bay bus that carries the tag line: "The Parrot Is Calling." The spots are running on A&E, Comedy Central, E! Style, FX, Fox Reality, TBS, TNT, TLC, Travel, USA, VH1, and VH1 Classic. A print component is slated to break this month.

Web site launches of the week include Nike's Run London event and a search engine where users can buy tickets online.

A digital campaign and CRM program has been created by AKQA for Nike's annual Run London event. The RunLondon.com Web site, also created by AKQA, enables more than 45,000 Londoners to register for the run and create their own pledge using the site's "Pledge Maker." The site incorporates Google Maps to find the best running routes to Niketown. Entrants can also upload a photo of themselves pledging to run the 10K and send an animated version to their friends. Nike will then broadcast the pledges in the window of Niketown on Oxford Street.An e-mail marketing campaign will accompany the launch of the site, along with outdoor (poster sites around London and buses) and print components. Outdoor ads were created by Wieden + Kennedy London and MindShare handled media planning and buying.

FatLens is out of beta and serves as a shopping search engine designed to make purchasing tickets easy and fast. FatLens is focused on event ticket sales, but plans to deliver the same relevant search experience for more shopping categories later this year. The FatLens site also offers two new capabilities to help consumers narrow down ticket search results: preferred sellers and preferred seats. It scans hundreds of sites, including Ticketmaster, Craigslist, and eBay. Agency.com created the site.