New ad out for Polaroid's "Free the Photos" campaign, which promotes the PoGo instant mobile printer. The phones go marching one-by-one, hurrah, hurrah.

Nifty. But the secret hope is that the video will go viral. My money's on "hell no" (or the more diplomatic "it's unlikely"). Cut down to :30, it'd make an okay TV ad, though.

So we have two conference passed to the Generational Communications 2008 X + Y + Boomers conference to be held June 19 from 1:30P to 6P at the Graduate Center/CUNY on Fifth Avenue in New York City. The conference will examine generational usage of the Internet and how that usage has changed over the years.

If you're interested in going the first two people who email generational@adrants.com will get the passes.

- It seems things are so bad at BBDO, employees are stealing from one another.

- Publicis laid off ten percent of its IT staff.

- Element 79 lays off 30, and 20 quit? So goes the rumor. Nothing confirmed. Repeat after me. There is no recession. There is no recession. There is no recession. Positive thinking, people!

- Oh, and JumpStyle? Tweeted about it yesterday. AgencySpy commented. Yes, it's destined to be the next most copied ad concept.

Alisa Leonard points to a video that explains social media to CMOs in plain English.

Perhaps worried about Lexus poaching the literary crowd, BMW released an ad where Kerouac's On the Road is the star.

Feels a little Moulin Rouge-ish. You know, with the fast-paced prose and the music, the random intrusions of hitchhiking bands and too many cars and, at some point, a horse. (The pressie calls it "vibrating and action-packed." Which sounds a lot like an ad for a very expensive sex toy, actually.) I didn't like it at first, but after five or six watches I found it almost breathtaking.

The spot went live on Barcelona-based Agosto.tv and will also run on television. It's supposedly the first ad to be broadcast in HD to the Spanish market.

Voice-over text from On the Road is below.

Apparently a thing called the Mac Monkey needs freeing. (He's "starved of creative stimulation." Guess he hasn't discovered his own poo yet. Also, why does he have people fingers?)

Intended to increase subscriptions to Creative Review Magazine, Free the Mac Monkey was conceived by London-based STEEL, which sought to distract us from calling foul ("SUBSERVIENT CHICKEN RIP-OFF!") with the tasteful inclusion of early Steve Jobs wall art. And they almost succeeded. Well ... no, not really.

What? Wait? Flash mobs? That's so...four years ago. Oh but wait. We're talking about advertising here. Not exactly the industry that latches onto trendlets in a timely manner. But since the press release also dubs the stunt "performance art," I guess it's OK.

To promote Taco Bell's Fruitista Freeze, Philadelphia's Lev*** hired actors costumed in iced-over beachwear with their skin tinted blue who would freeze in position for hours while a support team outside Citizens Bank Park last week during an MLB Phillies home game handed out coupons for the frozen tropical beverage. Also, a flash mob in street clothes would do the same for a few minutes.

Because the stunt was, apparently, so successful and because, it seems, Lev*** is so nice, the next day they did another stunt for free. Last Thursday during lunch, all agency employees wore orange t-shirts and walked to Philadelphia's City Hall. On cue, the majority froze in place while a few others handed out more Frutista Freeze coupons. Ten minutes later the mob thawed, walked to nearby Love Park and refroze.

So there you have it. The flash mob lives on. Or is it performance art? Hmm.

If you want your seafood fresh, John West is the seafood company for you. From sea to retail and nothing in between. Ooo, ooo! Did I just write a tagline there? hardly. Anyway, John West fishermen go the extra mile to deliver their goods.

The campaign,from CheethamDell JWT, launches June 23 in Northern Ireland.

What? What? What? Universal Motown just did this yesterday for Ashanti and now Mike's Hard Hard Lemonade? Please. Make it stop! While it is kind of fun to see your own image (even if it is an old, crappy one) affixed to a faux news story under the guise of a marketing promotion, these things are getting tiresome.

Of course, they're only getting tiresome to those of us who write about this stuff 24/7. Perhaps "normal" people actually like this stuff. Ya now, it's the "Ooo, Ooo. Look ! I'm on TV!" Yea. It's for all those idiots that stand outside the GMA studio in the morning waving like lunatics to the camera. Yea. This is for those people. And, since there seems to be a lot more of those wackos out there than us more refine advertising types, it's clear this personalized, faux news report thing has legs. Nice ones.

Jack Goldenberg tells the story of how he and Kevin Glennon turned a custom-made Obama for President watch into what could become a fairly sizable viral campaign for the candidate.

"Most people think of viral marketing is something they've seen on YouTube or a similar site. But in reality, a viral is any communication that causes one person to be so affected by "experiencing" the viral that they communicate it to another.

So here's some randomness. I used to work for an agency called BlackSheep Marketing. It's a small shop in Boston that focuses predominantly on high tech (Sorry, Kane, if you've changed since than). I did some new business work for them and sucked ass at it. Clearly, new business is not my thing. I had a great time working there though.

Anyway, Kane sent me this random video which introduces us to BlackSheep Marketing's Biggest Fan. Yes, there's a fan in the video. Yes, Darth Vader makes a vocal appearance. And, yes, that's Kane, himself, in the video. No, I have no idea what it's for but it's great to see Kane after all these years.

For Pittsburgh Passion, an indy women's football league, Garrison Hughes asks us to "celebrate the delicate flower that is woman ... as well as the beauty of one delicate flower drilling the other delicate flower into the ground." Touchdown, BITCH!

Also see variant: "A woman's hands can heal, teach, inspire and comfort. It can also deliver a wicked head-slap when the ref's not looking."

How very "I am woman, hear me roar! -- or at least pull a flag once in awhile." (Kidding. I'm sure women's football is ultra-rowdy.)

Would've been awesome if the talent were actual Pittsburgh Passion players and not just Corbis fodder. Maybe they felt put-off by the soft-focus lens technique.

- For client McDonald's, Leo Burnett/Chicago grew a lettuce garden spelling "FRESH SALADS" on a Wrigleyville billboard. Watch the garden grow. The effort won a Gold at New York Festivals' Innovative Advertising Awards. See other winners.

- Ritz-Carlton and AmEx caught the film bug. These three promotional movies "subtly weave exceptional and unique guest experiences into their story lines, demonstrating how The Ritz-Carlton has been able to elevate service to an art form." There's nothing subtle about the movies. But if PR were an art form, that sentence would be the template.

- It's a disappearing car door! Think De Lorean but without the retro wing action.

- Michelina's Mama gets a Facebook. Digging her profile photo. One commenter asks, "What would Mama think of 2 girls 1 cup?" Horrors.

Coinciding with the (coincidental!) release of a CDC survey that found Hispanic teens more likely to use drugs and try suicide than black and white kids, the Office for National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) launched this really weird campaign.

The heading above the girl at left says, "I sell drugs during recess." And here's one where a sheepish-looking boy divulges, "Yesterday, I offered marijuana to your daughter."

The effort will appear in print, on TV and over the radio.