Marketing With A Twist

Twitter is buzzing with the news that last night the Twitter accounts for Mad Men characters Don Draper (@don_draper) and Peggy Olson (@peggyolson) were taken down. At first the outrage was pointed towards the folks over at Twitter, with reports stating that it was because these accounts fall under their new spam restrictions - The accounts were not real people saying real things (yet all were promoting a similar product).

Twitter employees fired back that it wasn’t their initiative, but rather a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown notice issued by AMC. Apparently these twitter accounts were NOT all part of a marketing campaign for the show! I will say this, each of the accounts (there’s more than just Don and Peggy on Twitter) seems to have stuck to the character they were portraying. While AMC has the legal right to protect their brand, why ruin a good campaign? Especially one that is free?

Ben Kessler found the rest of the cast who had Twitter accounts and posted them on his blog. They are:

and

- Apparently a new Peggy Olson account has been created, this time with an underscore in her name. One of her first ‘tweets’ was in regards to the account suspension:

MG Siegler from VentureBeat was the first to report of the DMCA takedown:

Twitter has responded back to me on the issue. Apparently it wasn’t a spam issue at all, but rather a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown notice that Twitter’s support team responded to, co-founder Biz Stone tells me. I guess AMC didn’t like others playing the roll of its Mad Men characters besides the actors who play them on TV.

I wonder if this was the inspiration for the influx of fake Mad Men accounts (taken from SomeEcards.com):

I don’t think this is the end of this story….

UPDATE! Mario Parisé from the StrategicText blog has come forward to reveal that he has been twittering under the Paul Kinsey (@paul_kinsey) account. It is still (as of 12:45pm EST) online. He’s got a great post about it over on his site. Go check it out.

Here’s the latest commercial for the upcoming Mercenaries 2 video game. The music selection is uniquely awesome. We’re so use to seeing combat games being dressed up with special effects and a dark soundtrack that this one immediately stands out….High School Musical style. Also, THIS IS THE DIRECTORS CUT! Enjoy! (Original “on-air” version is posted below)

Draft/FCB, San Francisco was the agency responsible for this spot with Dan Watson as the Senior Broadcast Producer.

The folks over at Shilo directed this spot with co-founder Jose Gomez as Creative Director. Gomez, along with Curtis Doss, was also Lead Designer. Nate Davies, Eugene Gauran Ed Laag, Jon Lorenz and Curtis were the 2D Animators. Tamir Sapir, Cody Smith, Blake Guest and George Longo did all the 3D Modeling. Blake Guest, Trentity DeWitt, Nate Davies and George Longo also did all the 3D Animation. Kiel Figgins, Blake Guest, Jorma Auburn and Bren Wilson did the Character Animation.

Santino Sladavic and Jake Hibler were the Executive Producer/Producer team for this piece with Dara Norris as the Sound Producer for Wojahn Bros Music. Scott and Rojer Wojahn were the composers for the on-air version of this cheery-yet-badass soundtrack. You may have noticed that the music used in the directors cut is different from what was used in the “on-air” version, it’s because the directors cut audio was created by a team from Beacon Street Studios. Special arrangements for that song’s use were made between Shilo and Beacon Street for that release.

Here’s the version that made it to broadcast -
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This was first released a few weeks ago, but better late than never for stuff this good. Here is a BBC commissioned commercial for their Olympic Games coverage set to original music from Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett’s dramatic remake of the Chinese Legend Journey To The West. As for characters, those of you in the USA may not recognize them but they’re from the cult British TV series Monkey. Named The Journey To The East it shows the animated characters on their quest to “The East” or rather the Olympic stadium.

Damon Albarn, famous for being the creative mastermind behind bands Blur, Gorillaz, The Good The Bad And The Queen and various side-projects, is once again reunited with fellow Gorillaz founder Jamie Hewlett for this 2 minute advertisement. They had both just been involved with a massive stage adaption of the Chinese novel Journey to the West which premiered at the inaugural Manchester International Festival in June of 2007. Called Monkey: Journey To The West, Albarn composed the play’s score, Hewlett designed the costumes, set design and visual concept, and the resulting stage adaption was directed by famous Chinese opera leader Shi-zheng.

RKCR/Y&R was the agency used with Passion Pictures, Red Bee Media and Zombie Flesh Eaters as the production companies (Cara Speller and Deborah Stewart were the Producers). It was directed by Jamie Hewlett.

Well known artist, skater and writer Michael Sieben has just finished teaming up with adidas to release a fun video/interactive site to promote his latest additions to their “Original” collection. He was originally approached by adidas to only design one shoe, however shortly after starting this task both sides realized the potential for more than just a shoe design and a creative partnership was born. Two shoes, a shirt, a hoody and three magical creatures later and you have the mini-film that was shot bringing to life the characters that Sieben features in his designs. The film can be found on the special micro-site that was created for this project - www.adidas.com/michaelsieben

Here’s what the two Sieben-designed adidas Superskates look like (he created both a high and low-top version):

It was directed by Eric Noren for Juice Design with Jess Weinstein & Sara Clarkin as producers. Matt Uhry was the Director of Photography, Dan Wolfe was the editor and the music composition was by Johnnyrandom.

The mini-movie shows us Sieben accompanied by a few of his cartoon creations embarking on a treasure hunt that takes them all throughout the San Francisco Bay area.
“Behind The Scenes” footage of the making of this movie-clip can be found below:

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On the heels of the latest Kanye West Absolut Vodka ad, comedian & actor Zach Galifianakis has released his third Absolut Vodka advertisement featuring Tim and Eric from the “Tim and Eric’s Awesome Show, Great Job.”

Zach was asked to make an ad for the vodka brand as part of their ongoing artist series. According to the initial release, he agreed as long as he got to “do what he wanted without any restrictions.” This can be seen in the off-color, long-format releases that he has produced. If you’re a fan of Zach, or even Tim & Eric, you’ll most likely love these spots.

An interesting campaign by Absolut. These ads clock in at over 4 minutes long each, making them internet releases only, yet are being spread like wildfire through the various fan communities that support them.

You can view the first two Zach Galifianakis commercials below:
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