Music: White Stripes rip-offs

Have you seen the ad for the Honda Insight with the song that sounds like a parody of "We're Going To Be Friends"? Apparently, it's a band called Rabbit. (Google returns two other Rabbit bands, so I would think a name change would be in order - if I thought they had any future. I think this kid has more potential.)

This Magnum ice cream bar ad is a more obvious rip-off (this time of "My Doorbell").

On a happier note, here's the new video for The Dead Weather, "I Cut Like A Buffalo" - with a B. P. Fallon cameo! Truly the Zelig of rock & roll.

Advertising: AdSense

Google's worst ads ever - when AdSense's contextual advertising misfires. The funniest is the non-Google "severed foot" one.

And this is old, but you can kill those sponsored links in Gmail by adding a few words about death and other tragedies.

Advertising: Sharp

Why is Sharp using that freaky albino scientist (Dr. Gerard Fasel, in their TV ads? He's almost as creepy as the Lipitor guy. Apparently, he'll play an albino security guard in a movie.

Advertising: 12 Kinds Of Ads

There's a good Slate article and slideshow about the "12 kinds of ads" proposed by ad man Donald Gunn. One of the examples cited (Chris, take note) is the football-through-a-tire ad for Levitra.

Advertising: TV Commercial Roundup

• Sounds like Blockbuster has replaced Alec Baldwin with Albert Brooks for their TV commercial voice-over. Presumably because he was calling renters at home, chastising them for their overdue videos. "Once again, I have made an ass of myself trying to get to a phone to remind you that your movie is four days late. I am going to fly out there to Des Moines to straighten you out, you rude little pig. You do not have the common decency of a human being to return 'Oceans 11', or 'Oceans 12', or whatever it is. You have humiliated me for the last time." (Credit Robb with the Oceans joke.) Anyway, this switch is ironic because Baldwin actually replaced Brooks on "Glengarry Glen Ross".
  
• That American Express commercial with Martin Scorsese, Sheryl Crowe, Andre Agassi, Alicia Keys, Ellen DeGeneres and Carrot Top - is that the best they could come up? The non-actors sound so dead, the whole thing drags, and who thought Ellen's "punchline" was remotely funny?
  
• I don't like that Ask.com "chicks with swords" ad either. The guy is creepy. And the whole concept is hinky. Did they think, "let's appeal to straight guys by showing half-naked women, and gay guys by doing a musical number"?
  
• Here's a web news item on a commercial campaign that Ask.com ran in the UK. It's interesting only for the little monkey reading the news. She has a terrible voice (and says "Brit-ain" in an odd way) but she's got something.
  
• Here's a great ad - for British mobile phone company Talk Talk.
  
• Another good one - VW ad with hand shadows.
  
• And by the way, Wilco sold out and are allowing VW to use their songs. (CMJ story.)
  
• iPhone commercial from Conan O'Brien.
  

Advertising: Aveeno

It's the question that all America is asking: Who is the Aveeno Girl? Here's a photo. She's a Dutch model named Daniella van Graas. Her accent coach was Doug Honorof. She played a "beauty" in "Something's Gotta Give", directed by that hack, Nancy Meyers