The Olympic Games would not exist without sponsors, that’s a fact. They bring the millions, they make it happen. But since early January, Burrard Skytrain station has turned into a giant ad for McDonalds and I hate it. Really, it is everywhere: platforms, corridors, walls, floors… It is so tacky and I don’t like being brainwashed! I guess I could stop at Granville station for a change, but there it’s all about Coke…

A few months ago, Mac Donald’s launched a new TV campaign in France ‘come as you are’. The campaign itself, created by EuroRSCG, is pretty nice but what really caught my attention was the logo: it has turned green!! Just like that, without a warning or at least a press release. French restaurants will shortly be painted in green too.
MacDonald’s and France always had a strong love/hate relationship. Synonymous of obesity, bad health, bad working conditions, the fast-food giant struggled to seduce consumers in a country that takes food seriously: it has to be both slowly made and slowly enjoyed. We made up the words ‘MalBouffe’ or ‘bad grub’ to describe their so-called food and ‘MacJob’ to describe a low-paid, unrewarding, rubbish job. One restaurant in Paris was on strike for a year, another one was dismantled by farmers and anti-globalization activists, and so on.
But today, you can get a BigMac on a 6 cereals traditional French bun, and a ‘green’ restaurant opened in Paris a year ago. Following this example a new pilot ‘green’ McDonald’s is scheduled to open its doors on July 14 in North Carolina, built with sustainable materials and integrating eco-friendly technology as well as electric vehicle charging parking spots.
It seems to be a very successful strategy: surprisingly France is now their world’s fastest growing market.
So a green logo to convince everybody that you are now sustainable and healthy? that’s a bit cliché design-wise. But hey, this is McDonald’s… That’s good news if they are moving in the right direction.

To celebrate the launch of Internet Explorer 8 in France, Windows has joined forces with…Speed Rabbit Pizza, a leading pizza company. Explore and devour the IE8 pizza!
8 slices, 8 ingredients, 8 euros. I can totally see the rational here! Double cream, mozarella-cheddar, reblochon, blue cheese, goat cheese, tomatoes, peppers… Can’t wait for the WhiteSpot burger 3.0.7.

I guess this isn’t anything new since we’ve seen choreographed dancing en mass (in a Philippines jail), performance in subway stations (Joshua Bell), and flash mob performance in many other forms the advertising side of this is available at Brand Republic.)

I won’t ruin the performance (follow the link!) but Saatchi & Saatch did a nice job of coordinating and capturing this event and then turning it into a polished ad for TMobile 36 hours later. Must have been quite a shock for morning commuters!

I totally dig this movie Poster. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a story of a man who is born as a 70 year old, and grows younger through his life; essentially aging in reverse. The movie posters are, for the most part, generic and average, but this one stands out as the text in the foreground has been reversed mirroring the plot of the movie.

Corporate level Viral marketing has, for the most part, appeared insincere and often completely backfired.

Tiger Woods ’08 was released by EA sport and earlier this year a fan posted a video outlining a bug where a player could walk out on to a water trap and chip the ball back into play. Dubbed the “Jesus Shot” the clip of this got over 700,000 hits on youtube.

Well EA stepped up and responded with a video of their own. And they hit this one out of the park. (pardon my mixing of sports analogies) For my money, the response from EA is one of the finer examples of corporate viral marketing (or responses) I’ve seen in a while. Enjoy.

Soccer meets martial arts – a great combo. This is a commercial or promo vid for Fifa Street 3 video game, check it out. Someone wondered if it uses CG but I’d rather believe in good old fashion skill and lots of practice.

Fill in the blank has never really been that fun for me until I stumbled on “Blank is like Blank” a blog by copywriter Justin Feinstein. You might remember him from his “If Taglines were Honest” post a few years back.

My personal favourite from Blank is like Black is “Body glitter is like mono: Don’t hug someone that has it unless you want some.” When I told this to Mark his response was “Man, you don’t know how appropriate and true that is for me today”. Thanks Mark.

And full props to anyone who writes a bio in four haiku.

We just sent our summer newsletter and all the prime cuts are going fast. Hopefully you have a copy of the newsletter in your inbox but if you don’t you can view it online, or contact us to be added for the next blast.