European mobile carrier Orange has launched a phone charger powered by dance energy.

"The Orange Dance Charge is the result of months of research into alternate, sustainable energy sources to power mobile phones during summer music festivals," says the pressie with a straight face.

The unit was developed with help from GotWind, whose unfortunate name refers to renewable energy research, not the thing that happens when you pull Uncle's finger. The charger's system of weights and magnets provides an electrical current when a person flails about.

Orange Dance Charge was tested at the Glastonbury Festival last month. A promotional Dance Charging Man helped newbs charge phones in exchange for a dance.

Yeah, I've fallen for that one before. Just one dance, baby ... and I'll give you a charge, all right.

- What is that white stuff on the back of the woman in this Trojan ad? It's not what you think but pigs and white stuff do make a compelling condom ad.

- WPP has made a $2.2 billion hostile takeover bid for research company Taylor Nelson Sofres.

- Want some more IKEA website freakiness? Check out this new site where two dudes dance backwards and do other weird things inside a closet the size of a room.

As part of the Philadelphia Tourism campaign, Red Tettemer found (created) a bunch of geeky bike weavers and adopted them for inclusion in the campaign. For an excruciatingly boring experience, check out The Weavers here. Maybe there's some witty twist at the end of the video but after three minutes of outrageously geeky lameness, patience was expended and attention moved elsewhere.

Apparently, there's more to the tourism campaign which will, hopefully, redeem the boredom The Weavers have caused.

Just what is it with those Japanese who use guards to cram people into trains or those people with seemingly endless amounts of time on their hands with nothing better to do than...take their cat scuba diving? While these two new commercials for HowStuffWorks can't promise the site will explain why people do the strange things they do but they can definitely tell you how.

The campaign, created by Preston Kelly Inc. is a first for the site which was recently acquired by Discovery Communications six months ago.

With but two words, this commercial for Heineken which involves the beverage saving a man from committing suicide wastes no time illustrating the power a good beer has in times of need. It's like copy-based white space. Why say more than you have to? And this commercial doesn't.

And for all you suicide prevention cause group types ... IT'S JUST A COMMERCIAL!

You know that military recruitment poster with Uncle Sam pointing outward accompanied by the tagline, "I Want You?" Well, a slight modification to that might put and end to the fuckery the ad industry can't seem to remove itself from of when it comes to diversity. Perhaps an image of Don King or Al Sharpton above the tagline, "We Want Your Black Ass!"

It's getting seriously tiresome to discuss diversity in advertising over and over and over again ad nauseam without the industry making even one tiny step toward a solution. All that's occurred is endless meeting after meeting after meeting at which all parties, for the most part, pay lip service to the issue.

Word has it Twitter might buy Summize, a really useful Twitter search tool.

And despite a higher number of outages in the past coupla weeks, visits to Twitter nonetheless grew 500 percent for the week ending July 5 compared to the same time last year, says Hitwise.

Plurk and FriendFeed continue to fight the good fight, but they're swimming uphill against the microblogging first-to-marketer: Twitter beats both with 12 and 24 times higher traffic, respectively -- yeah, even if their services are more reliable in terms of up-time.

If Friendster's watching right now, it's probably sighing, "I remember when I was the prettiest girl at the party." Yeah, things change fast.

Under Pressure, little more than transparent hype for Dove's self esteem fund ("You support our efforts every time you buy Dove!"), is probably the weakest of its Ogilvy-manufactured Real Women series. The parts that aren't naked promotion look cobbled together from scraps of Onslaught.

The spot follows up from Amy, the lonesome story about a lovestruck boy who doesn't understand why his girlfriend hates herself so much; and Hair, one woman's pursuit of gorgeosity via shoe polish and peroxide. It kinda brings Requiem for a Dream to mind, except it's missing "ass to ass!"

- Hit the honeys where it hurts. Effort by the Association of Women Against Genital Mutilation.

- Stitch up a rosebud. Because where our ladyparts are concerned, we just love ourselves a flower pun. Effort by Amnesty International, variant ad at Copyranter.

Now that you've been primed, here's some reading on female circumcision. (Because while the image of a dirty blade in new panties might make my eyelid twitch, it doesn't really tell the whole story.)

Earlier today, Gay List Daily sent its (mostly male) subscribers an invitation to try John Allan beauty products. The pitch began like so:

Meet John Allen. He's been quietly hiding in New York developing a line of men's care. His set of products satisfies a man's every grooming need, from hair care, personal care, shaving, and skin beautifiers.

Skin beautifiers?

Okay. I realize I'm on a gay mailing list, but mens' increasing willingness to explore beauty regimens -- and shop for style's sake (think Beckham!) -- isn't a gay vs. straight thing anymore. For a growing number of guys, the pursuit of youth, beauty and expensive jeans has become a norm. And not just among metrosexuals. (In fact, most men we'd call "metro" don't even like the term.)

How much do we know about mens' changing self-perception -- and their shopping habits? Probably too little. Marketers and book writers like shining the spotlight on the so-called gender minority with her iron hand on the family pocketbook. She's always stealing the show!

Meanwhile, we've let Axe run off with the New Male Order.

Looking to change that? Then you should read Branded Male.

Goodfellas Peanuts!

You will smirk until the last Peanuty-tense moment.