• by Amy Corr , Staff Writer @MediaPostOTL, June 28, 2006

The Rabbit is back. "Save the Penny." Sunoco shells out free gas. Let's launch!

The Oxygen Network has launched a branding campaign entitled, "She Did What?" highlighting three new shows: "The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency," "Mo'Nique's F.A.T. Chance," and "Breaking Up With Shannen Doherty." "Janice," Monique," and "Shannen," will air nationally on network cable, syndication, satellite and spot TV. "Janice" shows a group of women at a bridal shower talking about Dickinson's new show. Shocked by the show's plot, each guest throws the breakable object they're holding, and discussion ceases when a mom walks in holding her baby. Click here to watch "Janice.""Monique" shows two women having coffee and discussing the premise of Monique's show, a beauty pageant for overweight women. One women spits out her coffee upon hearing this, then reconsiders and tells her friend it might be "hot" to watch. Her friend then spits coffee right into her friend's face. "Shannen" shows two women using the phrase "shut up" way too many times. Click here to watch "Shannen."In addition to the TV spots, a fake "Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency" storefront, where aspiring models can drop off a headshot for Janice's critique, has popped up in New York's Soho neighborhood. "Modeling has met its mouth" proclaims billboards and bus sides running in New York and Los Angeles. Toy New York created the campaign and Media Kitchen handled the media buying.

The VW Rabbit is back with "Multiply," a thirty-second TV spot that launched yesterday. It's the first part of a multimedia campaign. The spot shows two rabbits doing the dance that is called love--and before you know it, more and more cars are appearing in the city, multiplying well, like rabbits! Wild postings and billboards are running nationally and in Canada. Crispin Porter + Bogusky created the campaign and MediaCom handled the media buying. And it wouldn't be a CP+B campaign without an online component! Check out GypsyCabProject.com and VWfeatures.com/rabbit.

The official fuel of NASCAR, aka Sunoco, has launched "The Free Fuel 5000" contest, which awards 5,000 drivers spotted with Sunoco decals a $10 gas card. One driver will win 10,000 gallons of gas. Supporting the contest is a hysterical 30-second TV spot that shows a NASCAR race underway. The announcer rewinds the tape to highlight a small decal placed on the front bumper of each racecar. Hidden amid the sponsorship clutter is the Sunoco decal. The spots, featuring NASCAR drivers Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart and Kasey Kahne, will run through August on Fox, NBC and Speed Channel. The campaign also includes radio spots, print ads in Sporting News, Nascar Scene, and race programs, and online ads on NASCAR.com. SFGT created the campaign and media buying was handled in-house.

File this under awkward. Sour Patch Kids resurrected "Pigtail," an ad created in 2004 that ran only on kiosks in movie theaters, for a prime-time TV run. The spot ran during "American Idol," an ideal venue to showcase the brand's sweet and sour tastes--Paula Abdul and Simon Cowell, anyone?--and can still be found on networks such as Fuse, MTV and MTV2. Here's the awkward (sour) part: Deutsch created the ad back in 2004 but JWT currently handles the account. Talk about leaving a strange taste in JWT's mouth. The ad shows a teenage girl waking up to find that one of her pigtails has been chopped off. A cute Sour Patch Kid is found holding the evidence (a pair of scissors and the hair), but the teen quickly ditches her angry demeanor for something more tolerant. Click here to watch "Pigtail."

Universal Studios Hollywood (USH) has launched a TV, outdoor, print, online, and radio campaign targeting consumers in its own backyard--the greater Los Angeles area--while leveraging the theme park and studio tour as the "Entertainment Capital of L.A." The TV spot highlights that USH is more than just a theme park; it offers additional entertainment options such as concert venues and restaurants. "Pilgrimage" shows people from all walks of life holding up hitchhiker signs that read "Black Eye Peas concert," "Ogre central," "Death defying raft plunge," and "a steak the size of my head." The spot ends with everyone reaching their destination and throwing their cardboard signs into one large pile. Davidandgoliath created the campaign and DDB LA handled the media buying and planning.

Orbit gum's latest ad launched last week on cable and network TV and features the Orbit Girl coming to the rescue of a foul-mouthed Snoop Dogg. "The Ultimate Clean-Up" shows the rapper being sent to hell, thanks to his filthy mouth, and surrounded by creepy old women. Orbit Girl comes to the rescue and the spot ends with a cleaner, kinder, Snoop Dogg dressed in white and kickin' it with the ladies up in heaven. The ad is running through mid-September and is supported by a microsite, GoodCleanFeeling.com, where users can watch behind-the-scenes footage and enter a friend's phone number to receive a phone call from Snoop Dogg. Energy BBDO created the ad, EVB developed the Web site, and Mindshare handled the media buying.

Virgin Mobile found itself the perfect spokesman to pitch pennies. Kevin Federline, better known as Mr. Britney Spears, teamed up with the mobile phone provider to sign the "Save the Penny" petition, collect pennies to donate to charity, and launch Penny Texting, which offers 1,000 text messages for $9.99 a month. Federline sent the first penny text to Britney; I bet he used his own money for that message.

Who doesn't have a MySpace page at this point? Coinciding with the World Cup, adidas created a page on MySpace where visitors can sign up to win an XBox 360, view player bios and photos, upload a video to try out for the Impossible Goal Team and download wallpapers and exclusive videos. Carat Fusion developed this site and the brand has garnered an astonishing 47,116 friends as of this morning. Looks like adidas scored a gooooal.