In a recent study conducted by product review online TV site, ExpoTV, it was found that, yes, some people do actually want to "have a conversation" with a brand. The study found:

- Consumers not only want to talk to brands, they want to establish a conversation: 55% of consumers want an ongoing dialogue with brands

- Learning about new products in the pipeline is a top priority: Respondents were most anxious to talk to the product design (49%) department, followed by customer support (14%), marketing (14%) and pricing (13%)

- Positive brand experiences can generate word-of-mouth buzz: More than 60% of those polled said they tell 10 or more people about the products they like while a third tell 20 or more people

- Listening leads to loyalty: 89% of respondents would feel more loyal to brands which invited them to participate in a feedback group, and 92 percent of those who have a positive experience communicating with a brand will recommend purchasing a product from that brand to someone they know

- Consumers are open to engaging with the competition: 93 percent of consumers surveyed would be interested or very interested in communicating with competitive brands that expressed interest in their feedback if their first choice is not interested in hearing what they have to say

After listening to this jingle and the rest of the tunes over at the Archer Group-created HoagieFest site for convenience store chain Wawa, you absolutely will not be able to get them out of your head. And, after all, isn't that the point? The agency hired jingle writer Parry Gripp to create the songs which are also available as ringtones and, in acknowledgment of the many already existing Wawa loyalist sites, embeddable MySpace and Facebook sound files.

It's all so very....groovy in a sort of squeaky clean way.

- This one's for all the obsessive compulsive spelling and grammar police in the audience.

- Give Hayden Pannetierre and friends a hand. Send a virtual origami whale, courtesy of Greenpeace, to the Japanese Prime Minister and ask him to stop whaling.

- Oh look. The Nokia N-Series solves all the world's communications needs. Yup. Just one phone does it all.

- Why does a cereal brand need a website? Who knows but this guy tries his best to explain.

- Disney may have another High School Musical on its hands with Camp Rock which was the most watched show on TV this past Friday night.

Despite this week's drama over the Saatchi & Saatchi - "created" faux commercial for JCPenney, Grow Interactive, working with Saatchi & Saatchi double assures this new work for the retailer is, yes, APPROVED BY THE CLIENT! Now that that's out of the way, take a look at Rock Your Look, a new website developed as a sort of karaoke contest which awards the winner a trip to the stage at this year's Teen Choice Awards.

Oh for fuck's sake! Are you kidding me? "That's why we do more than just connect calls. We believe in connecting people." Seriously? Well, U.S. Cellular, if you are so great at connecting people and making the world a perfectly happy, feel-good place, why don't you dial up Osama Bin Laden, Kim Jong-il, Omar Al-Bashir, Pervez Musharraf, Than Shwe and the rest of the world's dictatorial idiots, feed them some of your feel-good crap and see if you can, in fact, help the world become a better place. That, at least, would be worthy of producing these sixty seconds of sugar-coated puffery.

I knew this webmaster who was out in the forest one night with her digicam, taking shots of the landscape, when suddenly she realized there was something in the picture that wasn't there in real life.

"It was a UFO," she insisted, "just floating in the sky, perfectly still. And I could only see it in the photos I took."

I called bullshit at the time. But since then, Julius von Bismarck -- a seriously Che Guevara-looking dude -- invented the Image Fulgurator. It senses when a flash goes off, then projects an image onto the pictures people took.

See it in action.

To promote certain houses on the Village Homes lot (Denver, CO), marketing director Barb Anderson said the company used a kiddie-ride. You know, like the coin-op space ships at grocery stores.

"One of the important influencers on a home purchase is the kids. At the end of the day ... the home with the kiddie ride is sure to get remembered by the home-buyer family," she said.

Gimmicky, but I can see the charm.

Kiddie Rides USA (KRUSA) of Denver, CO provides machines for this and other interested parties (doctors offices, car dealerships and reporters in midlife crises have also tried them). KRUSA also claims to be last indy kiddie ride company left in the country.

JWT plans to run a spot in Mad Men's upcoming DVD set, spelling MAD MEN out with letters and logos from its client roster. Tagline: "Making brands famous since 1864." See it right here.

"All I'm looking for is a nod of the head and recognition for what JWT is," CEO Bob Jeffrey whines. Which begs the question: from who?

To answer that riddle, AdWeek gleaned perspective from Chris Vollmer, a Booz Allen-based media guy: "It's an industry play rather than a consumer play, because I can't see how it would make sense to a consumer."

Aww. JWT needs a shoulder-punch from its peers. Before leaving work today, call your nearest JWT creative and tell 'em you really like what they're doing with, I don't know, Kit Kat.

The three consciously-casual males at left aren't new contenders for The Bachelorette.

They're competitors in Priest Academy, a French web-based reality show brought to you by the humble servants of the Besancon diocese.

A source in France said the premise behind Priest Academy is to encourage more men to become priests because there's apparently a shortage. Adrants reader Olivier Mermet, who sent us the link, exclaimed, "And do you want to know the worst about it? This is F***in' true stuff!!"

Indeed. The first episode, which debuted on June 12, generated 90,000 views.

For more social media fun and games with your immortal homeboy Jesus, check out the Pope blog. And hey, it's never too late to score one of those rad WWJD wristbands.

Loving the "Maestro" spot for HP's TouchSmart PC. It's a striking but natural development from the more casual "Hands" campaign. And it would have been absolutely perfect if a few origami airp***s self-replicated and staged a mutiny.

Produced by Psyop for agency Goodby, Silverstein & Partners/SF.