Commentary

Out to Launch

Wonderbra celebrates its 10-year anniversary in a big way. Dunkin' Donuts debuts new latte flavors. Political ads. Let's launch!

P. Diddy is on an important political mission. A life or death one at that. Sean "P. Diddy" Combs and Citizen Change intend to blanket every space that young people travel in (and they are all over NYC) with images that they relate to with the VOTE OR DIE! message. Images of Citizen Change's "Coalition of the Willing" will be seen in 35 markets across the U.S.A. The collation of celebrities include: P. Diddy, Mya, Leonardo DiCaprio, Alicia Keys, 50 Cent, Ellen DGeneres, Jimmy Fallon, Mariah Carey, Usher, Nelly, Paris Hilton, Queen Latifah, Russell Simmons, Ludacris, and Mary J Blige. Citizen Change is an organization created to educate and empower the more than 42 million Americans aged 18 to 30 that are eligible to vote in this year's election.

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The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) unveiled the winner of its "I DO" contest, a national advertising competition designed to promote equal marriage rights and protections for gay and lesbian families. GLAAD partnered with Rock the Vote to take the ad and its message of marriage equality to young voters in key states and promote young voter turnout in the upcoming election. GLAAD placed the 30-second ad in select markets. "I Believe in Love" depicts a woman who traces her family's history of overcoming prejudice and discrimination against the backdrop of her own fight to marry the woman she loves. The ad closes with the recent quote by Vice President Dick Cheney: "Freedom means freedom for everyone."

Old Spice Red Zone is launching a presidential election of its own, in support of a new body wash. To launch Old Spice Red Zone Body Wash, Procter & Gamble and Comcast Spotlight came up with The "Old Spice Red Zone Presidential Election." The campaign combines grass roots marketing at college football games across the country, TV spots that will drive consumers to OldSpice.com (aka campaign headquarters), partnerships with cable networks and long-form features on VOD. After three candidates are chosen at college campuses in each market, they will star in their own promotional spots showing their campaign strategies and "cross-party" appeal, thanks to Red Zone Body Wash's proprietary "8-Hour Scent Technology." Visitors to the site can vote for the "Old Spice Red Zone President" on Nov. 2. The candidate spots will air on Saturdays during college football games beginning Oct. 16 in 20 Comcast Cable markets on key networks including ESPN, ESPN 2 and Fox Sports Net.

Wonderbra celebrated its 10th anniversary by unveiling a new billboard and its new model, in person, two stories above Times Square. As hundreds of spectators looked on, the veil covering the billboard came down, revealing not only the ad, but Maja (Wonderbra's new model) herself, thirty feet above street level. The billboard builds on Wonderbra's tradition of using a beautiful woman displaying a saucy attitude, combined with an attention-grabbing tag line. In this case, it's "Yes they are, thank you," Maja's apparent response to an off-camera question about the authenticity of her cleavage. In addition to Times Square and other New York City locations, the billboards will appear in high-traffic areas in Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Miami, and Houston. They'll feature the "Yes they are, thank you" tag line as well as "Your not-so-secret weapon," "Plan to run into your ex," "He loves me, he loves me not. Who cares?" and "Whiplash warning zone" tag lines. KraftWorks, New York, created the ads.

Dunkin' Donuts launched a multimedia campaign this week with ads touting a new brand positioning around "Rituals that Revive." The campaign introduces a new tag line, "Bring Yourself Back," which reinforces the way that Dunkin' Donuts products can help revive you, and to the ritual of making it a regular part of your life. The campaign, created by Hill,Holliday, Connors, Cosmopulos, will feature Dunkin' Donuts' line of Espresso beverages, and will consist of TV, radio, outdoor, and POP components. The effort will begin with ads promoting Dunkin' Donuts Espresso drinks. Joining the rotation in November will be ads introducing seasonal products, including holiday-flavored lattes - Peppermint Mocha and White Chocolate Raspberry - as well as Coffee-by-the-Pound and the Dunkin' Card. A 30-second spot, "Mom," shows an exhausting day a mother has taking care of three kids. After picking up toys, heating baby bottles, and feeding the children, she finally packs the kids into the minivan. Here we see her begin to relax while sipping a hot latte from Dunkin' Donuts, as the screen splits and a child's feet kicking into the back of her seat become a pair of hands giving mom a massage.

Mitsubishi Motors North America is telling its customers in a national campaign launching this week, that your vehicle manufacturer is ready to back you up when you need it The ad shows hundreds of people in red Mitsubishi technician coveralls visually demonstrating what Mitsubishi Motors means by its "best backed cars in the world" commitment. Created by Deutsch LA, the campaign opens with a pair of :30 and :60 spots called "Anthem." "Road Trip" debuts in November. The campaign will run through March 2005 on cable stations such as TNT, BET, History Channel, USA, Food Network, and MSNBC, as well as on network television in spot buys. "Anthem" features a Mitsubishi driver traveling through various locales in many seasons and weather patterns, while men and women in red Mitsubishi Motors technician coveralls line the road in a "wall" of red wherever the car drives. As the Mitsubishi pulls to a stop, a technician steps out of the line to tighten the tire valve cap, smiles at his colleagues, then steps back into line.

Cossette Post unveils a campaign for Keyspan, a distributor of natural gas in the Northeast, using the tag line "Climate is Everything" in a series of TV, radio, and print ads. Climate is more than just temperature or weather. Climate is the atmosphere of our lives. KeySpan is an energy company, known for its natural gas delivery. More than any other company, KeySpan affects their customer's climate: not just merely warming you up in the winter but it's also a customer service representative who takes the time to solve a problem. The TV campaign broke this week in New York and New England.

In Web site launches this week:

The days of the handwritten note are not gone! Soleberry Modern Stationers has launched. The site is loaded with eclectic and unconventional stationery, scrapbooks, journals, photo albums, frames, gift bags, wrapping paper, and boxes. Many of the products are created by a host of artists handpicked by Soleberry founder, Gabrielle Dudnyk. The site also includes a Q&A sidebar on each page that offers insight into modern-day situations from what gift to bring to a commitment ceremony to how to entice your kids to write a thank you note.

ChefPrats.com has launched. It intends to store more than 10,000 recipes in English and Spanish, and contain write-ups of all the restaurants in both Mexico and the United States. Chef Prat's exclusive video series will be sold online, and there will be a monthly contest give-away for members to win a free trip to Mexico, to be catered to for three nights and two days by Chef Prats himself.

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