Hasta La Gadget!

Face? Meet palm. Microsoft’s decided to pull out of its co-sponsoring of “Family Guy Presents: Seth & Alex’s Almost Live Comedy Show” after execs attending the taping came to the sudden conclusion that Family Guy-caliber jokes were to be told, tackling such topics as “deaf people, the Holocaust, feminine hygiene and incest.” We’re not sure how 10 years and over 120 episodes of offensive precedence bypassed Redmond’s radars, but man, that’s gotta be some strong personal bubble. A Microsoft representative said of the taping, “it became clear that the content was not a fit with the Windows brand.” The show will still air November 8th, pre-recorded Microsoft references in tow, but with a new as-of-yet unnamed sponsor. All we have of the now-doomed partnership is this brief video from the Windows “741” student site — it’s after the break.

[Via The Raw Feed]

Continue reading Microsoft ditches Family Guy special… for being Family Guy

Filed under: Software

Microsoft ditches Family Guy special… for being Family Guy originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Because television and the internet can’t be the only media feeling the touch of the Droid’s marketing blitz, it looks like promotional mailers are being sent out. No new details or screenshots, but you can’t get enough of Motorola / Verizon’s Android device anyway, can you? A few more pics past the read link.

Filed under: Cellphones

Motorola Droid ads invading mailboxes, too? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 20 Oct 2009 22:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Of all Microsoft’s advertising moves, this certainly falls in more clever side of the spectrum. Redmond et al. have announced they’ll be “sponsoring” a November 8th variety special on Fox, “Family Guy Presents: Seth & Alex’s Almost Live Comedy Show.” The episode’ll be a mix of live-action musical performance and animated shorts with the usual celebrity cameos you’ve come to expect. This show will be commercial free, so long as you don’t count all the Windows 7 that’ll somehow be integrated — and that’s the most interesting mystery of all, how Microsoft will get its brand recognition without too many jabs from showrunner Seth McFarlane and company. If you don’t recall the last time McFarlane teamed up with a big company to enliven its image, check out video from “Burger King presents Seth MacFarlane’s Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy,” a venture also done in tandem with one of the ad agencies responsible for this new deal, Crispin, Porter & Bogusky. It’s just after the break.

Update: As commenter Zebb reminded us, Bill Gates pulled off a cameo in Frasier “answering caller questions” about Windows XP. We couldn’t help but add it to the post just below, jump to the 2:20 mark for the relevant scene.

Continue reading Windows 7-branded ‘Family Guy’ special to air November 8th

Filed under: Software

Windows 7-branded ‘Family Guy’ special to air November 8th originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 13 Oct 2009 22:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You may think that once you’ve seen one building turned into a massive billboard you’ve seem them all, but that would mean you probably haven’t seen the so-called “Media Facade” now adorning Bayer’s former HQ in Leverkusen, Germany. Built by ag4 media facade GmbH and GKD AG, the massive display apparently consists of 5.6 milion LEDs that cover the entire 17,500 square meters of the building, and which can be lit up at will to pump out gigantic advertisements worthy of any science fiction movie. You’ll note this is the former Bayer headquarters — it seems that the promise of ’round the clock ads visible for miles around saved the building from the wrecking ball. Head on past the break for a video of it in action, and a second showing the facade being constructed.

[Thanks, Gerrit]

Continue reading Bayer’s ‘Media Facade’ redefines building-vertising

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Bayer’s ‘Media Facade’ redefines building-vertising originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Oct 2009 05:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We can’t say this was unexpected, but Sony just pinged us to say that that Nazi PS3 ad is “totally fake” and was made without their approval — here’s the statement from the executive president of BBDO Chile, which made the ads:

This creative design did not involve and was never approved by Sony Computer Entertainment or Sony. This “mock campaign” was developed by BBDO Chile staff and was submitted to various creative competitions/festivals without prior notification or approval from SCE/Sony, and it is not representative of the views or advertising policies of SCE/Sony. BBDO Chile apologizes for using this creative concept without authorization or prior approval, and for its misrepresentation of the PlayStation brand and its values.

Settles that, we suppose — although we’re guessing BBDO Chile isn’t going to be Sony’s agency of record very much longer.

Filed under: Gaming

Sony says Nazi PS3 ad is a “mock campaign” and not real originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Oct 2009 13:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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