• by Amy Corr , Staff Writer @MediaPostOTL, January 16, 2008

Coca-Cola's Happiness Factory is hiring. Weight Watchers is not a diet. Match.com works faster than Cupid and Fate. Let's launch!

J.P. Morgan Chase sounds more like the name for the next James Bond rather than a bank. OK, not really. "Secret Agent Man" follows a covert agent on the run. He drives on the wrong side of the road, breaks through a motorcycle store window and grabs a Chase card from the hand of a prospective buyer. Turns out, he's stopped a fraudulent charge on his card before it could take place. And he did it via phone, not through all the action sequences. See the ad here. "TV Man" is not nearly as exciting; man needs a new TV and checks his account balance from his phone to see how big his purchase can be. Watch the ad here. Both ads conclude with a new tagline, "Chase What Matters." Mcgarrybowen created the campaign and Zenith Media handled the media buy.

Norwegian Cruise Line launched a series of ads this week on network and cable TV highlighting the advantages of the brand's Freestyle Cruising, where vacationers can leave a regimented schedule at the port. If you've ever been on a cruise, you can relate to these ads; I know I did. The first ad shows a family unhappily dressing up to the nines for dinner, for most cruise ships force the fancy attire on diners. Watch the ad here. Remaining ads focus on dinner itself and the fact that, on most ships, you don't get to choose the people you sit with, and you never know whom you'll get stuck dining next to for a week. See the ads here, here and here. GSD&M's Idea City created the campaign and handled the media buy.

Weight Watchers launched "Stop Dieting, Start Living," a TV, print, outdoor and online campaign that encourages people to actually eat in moderation rather than starve themselves or limit their food choices. One TV ad takes place in a coffee shop where an Internet search yields countless pages of diet plans, such as the bread and water diet, leech diet, or coffee and peanut diet. The last one sounds doable! Watch the ad here. Print and outdoor ads are everywhere with headlines including "Di*t," "Diets are Mean," "If diets work, why do we need a new one every 5 minutes," "Make the New Year's resolution to not go on a diet" and "People don't fail, diets do." Weight Watchers also created a Web site where dieters can share their craziest diet stories and upload pictures. The wackiest tales will be projected onto the 23-story-high Reuters board in Times Square. McCann Worldgroup created the campaign, Mediaedge:cia handled the offline media buy and Avenue A/RazorFish handled the online media buy.

Match.com launched a UK advertising campaign on New Year's Eve starring Cupid and Fate. Long story short: don't wait for these two to hook you up; get off your butt and move over to the computer, where you can search for love online. Five TV spots, running on ITV, C4, C5, GMTV and satellite channels through February, feature Cupid and Fate as lazy bums partaking of mindless entertainment. The boys ponder what names they would like if they were girls while aerobicizing in one ad. Existential thoughts, and why Cupid doesn't use his wings, are discussed in another spot. Grooming skills, female-centric magazine quizzes and skateboarding on a beer belly round out the campaign. Hanft Raboy and Partners created the campaign and M2M handled the media buy.

A tree uproots itself and moseys down toward a house in "Tree," an ad for GE promoting use of its advanced lighting and technology in homes. The voiceover describes how use of GE products reduces energy use and greenhouse gas emissions, while the tree arrives at its destination, giving the house a big hug. "House hugger," concludes a man upon seeing this sight. Watch the ad here. BBDO New York created the ad and OMD handled the media buy.

PC takes on present-day Mac along with Macs of the past in "Timemachine." The spot promotes Leopard, Apple's new OS featuring a time machine function that hourly backs up computer data so what's accidentally deleted can be retrieved. Watch the ad here. The ad is running on network TV and throughout NFL football games. TBWA/Media Arts Lab created the campaign and handled the media buy.

Stella Artois created a Web site last year that kept my interest through a combination of games, a short film, and a walk through history. Take note. La Bouteille follows the lengths a bartender will go to replenish his stock of Stella Artois, in an effort to serve a fresh glass to a female patron. Or so we think. The film stops at opportune moments and asks viewers whether they want to continue watching the film or visit other sections of the Web site that coincide with said moments. Other sections of the site include: Le Courage (looking at the role of a master brewer 600 years ago); L'Origine (company history); La Publicite (previous ads), L'Etranger (where users can test their pouring skills... not easy) and Le Defi (an awesome game where players must break through a trap that holds the ultimate reward: a glass of Stella Artois). Lowe Worldwide created the site.

Here's another Web site that kept my attention for a better part of this morning. Coca-Cola's Happiness Factory is looking for a few good workers. Question is, are you up for the challenges? The site takes visitors inside the factory to apply for a job. Prospects can follow Kissy Puppy, Chinoink, Mortar Man and Capper around to get an idea of what each position entails, whether it's kissing bottles, helicoptering them to another location, or operating the bottle cap catapult. The application process comes next; I will cling to elevated mechanical equipment by the tips of my fingers, but I draw the line at picking up after Kissy Puppies, although they have the best job out of the bunch. AKQA created the site in collaboration with Psyop and ShiftControl Media.