No, it's not a new game show on NBC featuring a celebrity host and a bunch of girls with giant noses that might contain money, it's a new advertising idea from the folks at the financial paper.

As Chris mentioned earlier, they're a new version of the old "scratch and sniff" ads called "rub and sniff," which actually sounds like some sex position, or maybe a play that will be run in the Super Bowl coming up in February. These ads will use a technology different from the typical peel and smell ads (like cologne ads) you see in mags like GQ and Esquire. It's a rub, not a scratch.

For now the ads will just be included in newspaper inserts, not as part of the newspaper itself.

All of the Super Bowl commercials that Budweiser will run have been posted to YouTube. You can see snippets of all 8 of them on this page, or you can check out the video below. It condenses all the ads into 3 minutes and 9 seconds. The ads this year feature crabs, Clydesdales, a space station, and a hitchhiker with an axe.

One of them, "Rock, Paper, Scissors," has already run on television (at least I think it has, or did I see it online?), so it's not new or special for this Super Bowl. As for the other ads, again I say...eh. I've never been a fan of the Budweiser commercials, and I can never understand why they seem to win ad critic and viewer polls for best ads every year.

I like the one with the dog though. Dogs are cool.

The newest ad from Cisco jumps on the viral video craze, but I wonder if it confuses as many viewers who it attracts.

It's the one that shows the kid in the kitchen dancing, and he's filmed via cell phone camera by his dad. The video is put online and it becomes a sensation, a la that Star Wars kid on the "Lazy Sunday" video. Kids are watching it, the entire population of China is watching it, it's even broadcast on the big screen in Times Square.

First of all, I don't think any viral video has gotten that kind of attention. Second, the video seems to be perfect and flawless, on every screen it is shown on. And the way the ad is edited it seems like it's going over the web live, straight from cell phone to the web.

Will most people even know what Cisco is and why they are advertising?

So many dumb moments in business, so little time. But Business 2.0 mag has their picks for the 101 dumbest of 2006.

Wal-Mart is #1, for hiring a big firm to create their "Candidate Wal-Mart" campaign. #2 is Northwest Airlines, for giving their employees a "How To Save Money" booklet after laying them off. #3 is the contest McDonald's held in Japan, with the winners getting free mp3 players with a virus on them. The rest of the top 10 are GM, Kazakhstan, Steve Wynn, The New York Times, Spirit Air, Porter County, and Comcast.

There are 101 in all, so grab a hot beverage and get comfortable. You can't see the entire list on one page, which is a little annoying, but there is a handy scroll function at the bottom.

I always get a little bummed out after the holidays. I really love Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Year's, and it's always sort of a letdown when Jan 2 comes around and we're back to the same old grind and same old "feeling" to the year. I don't mind if there are holiday specials after January 2 or if people have their lights up after New Year's Day.

But I think that January 22 and beyond is a little too much.

There's a new commercial for Special K cereal that shows a mom dressed in red and white, next to her family's Christmas tree, and her daughter calls her "Santa!" She then realizes she's too fat and needs to lose weight so she goes to the cupboard to eat Special K (is that how dieting works, you're overweight so you go to the kitchen to get something to eat?). "Joy to the World" plays in the background, the family is under the tree, and the dad helps the kid with her toys.

Merry Christmas, it's almost Valentine's Day.

Funny satire of Second Life, the game that is sweeping the nation (though I've never played it once, gone to any sites about it once, or read much about it). It's called Get A First Life, and there really isn't much to the site (no links to click, etc). It's more of a one page parody of the entire Second Life genre, how people can actually access the real world outside of their homes.

"First Life is a 3-D analog world where server lag does not exist."

"Fornicate using your actual genitals."

Ha! You can get T-shirts too.

[via Boing Boing]

I like those Staples commercials that have the big red button. You can even buy the button in stores, though I keep forgetting to pick one up. Might be a cool thing to keep on my desk.

Now I've noticed that Office Depot has a new campaign, though I'd have to say it's a bit creepier than a button. In the new ads, the ones that feature the song "Whooooooa, Office Depot, Whoooooa!", employees and customers use a hand that pops out of a box to direct them to products around the store. Sort of like Thing from The Addams Family.

My question is, does every store get their own hand? Whose hands are they? Can the hands think and feel and dream about a life outside of the box?

I'll stick with the button. I don't want to think about severed limbs when I shop for pens.

• Behavioral targeting networks are just going to get bigger as advertisers look to, well, track how people are behaving across a network of websites. For example, Dow Jones has switched to Tacoda to handle its profiling.
• Yes, the web is for entertainment as well as info and search. Anyone who has spent hours on YouTube watching "Robot Chicken" clips could have told you that.
• Memo to Apple: The iPhone still needs to have a marketing campaign behind it in order for it to be successful.

Continue reading AdAge In Another Couple of Minutes

Yes, I'm one of those people, the ones who watch the Super Bowl for the commercials. I have no interest in football whatsoever.*

I'm a tennis and baseball fan (my brief affair with basketball stopped when the Celtics stopped being good, too long ago to remember), but I never miss the Super Bowl even though on most days I'd rather watch a Sex and the City marathon than watch football. I get involved in the pre-game hype of the commercials, what the ads cost, who is going to advertise when, how many ads a particular company has during the show, and even the post-game analysis the next day, usually in USA Today, where they have people watch the ads with meters and pick their favorites and least favorites (Budweiser wins many years, and I've never understood that). So I'm looking forward to the game in a few weeks, and we'll have full coverage of the ads here at Adjab.

*Of course, if the Patriots make it, this could all change.

I was watching Demetri Martin's new special on Comedy Central last night (funny, as usual). Can someone tell me what the hell was going on with those Microsoft Vista ads that ran throughout the hour? I know that Martin is a spokesman for the product, and he even starred in some of the spots, but they were very confusing and offputting, especially if you tuned into the special halfway through and didn't hear anything about Microsoft Vista.

Actually, the whole idea behind the ads makes me think someone at the ad agency or Microsoft is a Lost fan. The old guy in charge of an odd secret organizations (The Institute For Advanced Personhood), telling you to go to a site that will help you get rid of your clutter, the retro look of the spots, the use of old footage and computers. Very Hanso-ish, very viral. But I wonder if they're too odd to be successful?

I always thought that AAA's commercials were rather clever. Especially the tag line, which was "Sooner or later, you'll break down and join AAA." I thought it was a great play on words and simply told what AAA does and why it's important to be a member. And that's not easy to do in one slogan.

So I'm a little confused as to why they seem to have changed their slogan. Actually, the new line is so mundane that I swear I've completely forgotten what it is, even though I just heard it about 10 minutes ago. That's never a good sign when you're trying to get the consumer's attention.