Ryan Fitzgibbon

Apple iPod Touch - IGN Homepage Advert

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan Fitzgibbon) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 11:47:00 +0000

I highly recommend paying a visit over to the IGN.com homepage today to witness a fantastic new display advert for the Apple iPod Touch.

It is not the first time Apple have developed a display ad that features an iPod coming out from the confines of the box, with myself reporting them doing so on YouTube in November 2008. However, to reflect the "New Level Fun" to be experienced with the latest iPod Touch, the motion within the ad is replicated on the navigation bar at the top of the homepage.

For those that have turned up too late to see this ingenious use of digital advertising can instead take in the below examples:

A selection of motion seen on the IGN homepage

UPDATE - Thanks to Graeme for providing video evidence!

Amazing Online Display Ad for iPod Touch

Compare The Meerkat Jacuzzi Advert

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan Fitzgibbon) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 16:17:00 +0000

This week, the UK's favourite 'Russian Meerkat that heads up an advertising campaign for a car insurance comparison website' is back with a brand new TV commercial.

With all the success that the Aleksandr Orlov character has had on social media (with over 580,000 fans on Facebook and 27,000 followers on Twitter, at the time of writing), it was good to see that the new advert made it's first official appearance on YouTube and Facebook before either TV or the CompareTheMeerkat website.

Here is the new commercial:

Compare The Meerkat - Jacuzzi Advert

In terms of Brand awareness, the Meerkat campaign has been a huge success for CompareTheMarket. Throughout 2008 their TV adverts featured the 'falling car' theme to limited success. The graph below shows the relative online search interest in the terms "compare the market" and "meerkat":

Search Insights - Compare The Market / Meerkat (click for larger)

It is clear that the launch of the meerkat adverts in January 2009 had a massive boost on the interest in the brand (and also meerkats!). What has been fascinating, however, is that the interest did not simply peak at that moment in time, but has gradually built throughout the year. Surely this is a strong sign of the potential longevity that this character could have.

F.A.C.E. The Music

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan Fitzgibbon) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 15:54:00 +0000

It is not often I get the opportunity to attend live music events, but I was very 'glad' (there is a poor pun there if you continue reading!) that I attended a live music event at The Gladstone (a.k.a The Glad) in Borough, London last night.

The event was organised by the Featured Artists Coalition and the wonderful Elsie Creative Management, with the following featured artists:

Jo Stevens
Michael John
Josh Bray

I highly recommend anybody interested in upcoming musical talents should click each name to go to their respective MySpace pages for a decent sample of their work.

I personally would recommend Michael John's "Devil In The Corner". Song of the evening for me.

The Gladstone is a cosy (but not in a bad way), little pub and I look forward to more live music events there in the future.

Green Apple Smirnoff & Lime Smirnoff Launch

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan Fitzgibbon) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 20:24:00 +0000

Tomorrow (Friday 11th September 2009), Smirnoff will be holding a series of launch events around the UK for 2 of their new products.

The details of the event are best described in their own words:

"The Smirnoff Co. announces that it will be simultaneously unveiling five huge ice sculptures across the UK on the 11th September celebrating the national launch of two new flavours of vodka; Green Apple Smirnoff and Lime Smirnoff.

Appearing in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Manchester, Liverpool and London, the ice sculptures will recreate iconic landmarks from each of the five major UK cities in the form of scaled-down replicas.

In Glasgow’s Buchannan Galleries, an ice carving of the Armadillo measuring 8 metres by 2.4 metres high will be constructed.

The infamous Forth Bridge will be rebuilt on the rooftop of Edinburgh’s Prince’s Street Mall, Manchester’s futuristic Urbis will be reproduced at The Great Northern and Liverpool One will be home to an ice replica of the top of the Liver Building.

Meanwhile coming to the capital’s beautiful Covent Garden piazza will be an ice sculpture of London’s skyline featuring Canary Wharf, Big Ben, Tower Bridge, The London Eye, St. Pauls Cathedral and The Gherkin, measuring 10 metres in length and 3 metres in height.

The installations will see some of the world’s top ice sculptors, Duncan and Jamie Hamilton, Ben Edson, Jack Hackney and Darren Jackson work through the night to carve the structures from a mix of clear and white ice. The ice blocks for the sculptures, being prepared in giant freezers at the Hamilton’s workshop in South West London, will be transported to each location on the 11th September. Upon arrival, they’ll be slotted into place and shaped into their illustrious designs, incorporating limes, green apples and frozen bottles of Smirnoff flavoured vodka."

Each of the sculptures will contain 60 limes and 40 apples and take 4 men up to 5 hours to construct!

Members of the public will be able to view the sculptures from around midday at each venue until the displays melt.

Courtesy of the event organisers, I welcome the readers of my blog to visit the displays. There will be a prize draw to "win Green Apple Smirnoff and Lime Smirnoff take home packs to share with friends" for the 1st 50 people quoting "ryanfitzgibbon.co.uk".

Enjoy!

Electricity Untamed - Audi Teaser

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan Fitzgibbon) — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 13:07:00 +0000

On 15th September 2009, Audi shall be making an announcement at the Frankfurt Motor Show that will be based upon some new "electricity" based vehicle.

To correspond with this announcement, Audi have created a series of viral ads that direct viewers to their "Electricity Untamed" website.

Audi - Electricity Untamed

At present the website does not give too much detail away, but emphasizes that "electricity has been dumbed down" and that this new technology will "unleash the untamed power of electricity".

The rumours are that the car to be announced will be a performance version of the R8, or a completely new vehicle, dubbed the 'e-tron'.

However, I am a little disappointed that a website that is trying to emphasize the sheer scale of the engineering feat achieved features some very Physics-poor statements:

"A single bolt of lightning contains 1 billion Volts of power" - I am sorry, but Volts is not a unit of power! Apologies, but that is the purist in me coming out.

However, the virals released are indeed a bit of fun, and do get the point across:

The Lawn Mower:

The Static Shock Kid:

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves - In-Game Footage

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan Fitzgibbon) — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 12:50:00 +0000

It is now only 36 days until the rumored 14th October 2009 release date for "Uncharted 2: Among Thieves".

The PS3 exclusive game is a sequel to the fantastic "Uncharted: Drake's Fortune" that was released back in 2007.

Much has been discussed over the spectacular graphics that Publisher 'Naughty Dog' have been showing off over the last 6 months. However, the below footage shows just how addictive this game is going to be.

Game of the year 2009 looks to be in the bag!

As you can probably tell, I am a HUGE fan of the original game, being a cross between Tomb Raider and the best of 3rd party shoot-em-ups. The game-play felt very natural and easy to control. The storyline was engaging (Indiana Jones style). Basically it had everything you could possibly want in an adventure/action computer game.

The sequel looks to have taken this to a whole new level. It is reported that the game takes up 100% of the capacity on the Blu-Ray disc with a vastly longer game.

My gut feeling is that this is going to be the game that sets the bar for this console generation (and it may not be beaten).

Enjoy!

Uncharted 2 - Among Thieves - In-Game Footage

Beck - Loser - Literal Video Version

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan Fitzgibbon) — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 14:36:00 +0000

Literal versions of classic music videos have been gaining increasing coverage over the past month or so.

One of the main reasons seems to be based around the success and popularity following the DASjr Productions version of Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart" which built upon the Dusto Films (Dustin McLean) version of A-Ha's "Take On Me".

DASjr (David Scott) has put together a collection of footage from various news stations that highlight the coverage the videos have been receiving:

DASjr Coverage

In with this footage is a brief interview with Dustin McLean that shows him working on his new video, Beck's 1993 single, "Loser".

This new video is now finished and I can proudly feature it here (thanks to "Funny or Die"):

Beck - Loser: Literal Video Version

Although I would love to embed the YouTube video here, due to copyright issues, I can only provide this link:

YouTube - Beck's "Loser" - Literal Video Version

Catching Laptops With His Butt - MSI X-Slim Viral Ad

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan Fitzgibbon) — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 18:52:00 +0000

MSI (the computer motherboard manufacturer) have released a great new viral to correspond with the launch of their new X-Slim Series of laptops.

The viral features a guy (wearing a lovely lycra outfit!) catching laptops between his butt-cheeks that are thrown at him from a series of distances and heights. With over 1.2 million views in just under 6 days, it is proving to be quite the hit on YouTube. However, the number of comments by people that feel that they need to point out that the video is a fake always amazes me. The whole point of virals is to create talking points and entertain, not provide real, true-life stories.

MSI X-Slim Series Viral Ad

The viral makes it clear that it is a tribute to the original Ray-Ban viral that I featured in the very 1st post of this blog!

Ray-Ban Sunglasses Viral Ad

In the Ray-Ban viral, the trick was that sunglasses were thrown by one guy to another and he would catch them on his face. This just takes the concept to the next level.

In the Ray-Ban Ad, the trick was accomplished by having the sunglasses pulled off the face using a piece of string. The video was then played backwards to achieve the desired effect. I would doubt that this method was used for the MSI viral as a laptop would be much too heavy to pull using string. The alternative would be a case of some very clever video editing to splice the footage of the laptop being thrown with the footage of a laptop that is stuck between the butt cheeks! Well done.

Bing Usage Statistics

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan Fitzgibbon) — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 16:28:00 +0000

There has been conflicting reports over the last few days regarding the market share that Microsoft's new Bing Search Engine has been gaining following it's launch at the end of May 2009.

The situation in the US is being watched very closely as this is where Bing is initially concentrating it's efforts, both in terms of the engine development and testing, and in terms of advertising.

The below graph (courtesy of Statcounter) shows how that over the past 2 and a half months, Bing has been gradually building market share from 6% to 12% in the US. During the same period, Yahoo has remained considerably stable, dropping from around 12% to 11%, and Google has dropped the other 5%. Google is still clearly the dominant force, with around 77% share:

Statcounter - Search engine market share

This is clearly great news for Bing. The initial objective was to be the 2nd biggest player in the market. With the gains they have made in the last few months, plus with Yahoo giving up in the search engine battle and handing their share over to Bing, it looks like the first battle has gone in favour of Microsoft.

However, Mashable have reported that statistics released from Nielsen tell a different story.

Whilst the lose in share for Google from June to July is still recorded, the Nielsen figures suggest that it was in fact Yahoo that gained the market share and not Bing.

June 2009 figures:
Nielsen June 2009 Search Figures
July 2009 figures:
Nielsen July 2009 Search Figures

These results are quite intriguing and unexpected. All 3 major engines gained volumes of search queries month-on-month with the industry as a whole recording a rise of queries by 5%. However, Yahoo's volume of searches rose 11% (compared to Google's 3%), which took it's market share to 17.1%.

It is thought that the increase could be explained due to the huge amount of media interest surrounding the Yahoo/Microsoft deal and the launch of the new Yahoo homepage. It will be interesting to see what figures Nielsen release for August and whether this trend continues.

Either way, it is good news for Bing, as any market share loss for Google is a step in the right direction for them. However, with Google creating their own media interest around the new caffeine platform, it is quite probable to see things swing back in their favour.

Becoming Batman - The Feature Film

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan Fitzgibbon) — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 12:18:00 +0000

As my regular readers may know, I featured a particularly brilliant series of videos entitled "Becoming Batman" over the course of the past 9 months or so.

Whilst I still eagerly await the second series, the guys at WindowSlaws Productions have made the excellent decision to put together the footage from the 1st series into a feature film, "Becoming Batman - The Feature Film".

Not one to miss an opportunity to highlight the work even further, I present the first trailer:

Becoming Batman - The Feature Film

A masterclass in trailer making!

Compare The Meerkat - Sergei Bloopers

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan Fitzgibbon) — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 10:58:00 +0000

The activity surrounding the Compare The Meerkat commercials is continuing to build momentum.

The major development today is the launch of a brand new bloopers video on the Compare The Meerkat website. This is the second blooper video to be created for the website and I still hope that they decide to use some of the content on TV directly.

It could be argued that the cultural penetration of the meerkat commercials has been strong enough that these videos (even without direct branding themselves) would further assist this awareness.

Compare The Meerkat - Sergei Bloopers

In fact, the launch of this new bloopers video also managed to make the front page of this morning's Metro:

Compare The Meerkat - Metro Front Page

The story also highlights that, based on Twitter followers, Aleksandr Orlov is now more popular than Lily Allen and Katie Price/Jordan.

Citizen Eco-Drive - Kevin Pietersen

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan Fitzgibbon) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 08:47:00 +0000

Nick Burcher beat me in highlighting a great advert in the press from Sure, following the success of the England team in the 2nd Ashes Test. In particular the use of Andrew Flintoff and listing his 5 wickets followed by "No Sweat" is brilliant.

Sure Advert - Flintoff - No Sweat
Hat Tip to Nick for the picture

Citizen (the watch maker) currently has Kevin Pietersen as their cricket celebrity endorser. So it is of no surprise to see an advert in today's Shortlist featuring his image.

Kevin Pietersen Citizen Eco-Drive Advert

However, following the news over the last few days that confirms that Pietersen shall not be taking any further in the ashes, it is a tad unfortunate that Citizen decided to describe him as "Unstoppable" (just like his watch!).

Kevin Pietersen is Unstoppable!!

Microsoft Office 2010 - Online

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan Fitzgibbon) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 17:07:00 +0000

The announcement was made today that Microsoft Office 2010 shall be available in Web-Based versions, much like their Google Docs competitor.

These lightweight versions of the applications will enable various users to access and edit the information from anywhere in the world through an internet connection.

You can see previews to the changes being made in the upcoming Office Suite by visiting the official information page from Microsoft.

In line with Google Docs, the Office Web Apps shall be free to use for those with a Microsoft Live login (all 400 million or so of them!). Other users shall be able to purchase subscriptions to the service as well.

To coincide with this announcement, Microsoft have created a movie-style trailer for "Office 2010 - The Movie" which directs viewers to a website that gives them a "Backstage" look at the development of Microsoft Office 2010.

I have seen a number of spoof action videos on YouTube that use Microsoft Office as the source of the problem, so I was not expecting for this video to be particularly original or funny. However, provide the concept with a bigger budget to give the trailer a true movie feel (minus any acting ability), and it actually works very well.

See for yourself:

Office 2010 - The Movie

"Spell-check THIS!....D.E.D."

The Killers - Read My Mind - Literal Video Version

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan Fitzgibbon) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 11:48:00 +0000

In general, the highly popular literal music videos have been classic hits from the 1980s. I have always maintained that the 80s produced the majority of unusual music videos that hold no relevance to the lyrics of the song. This is why they make idea videos to create literal versions of.

However, the latest brilliant video from DASjr Productions has bucked the trend by using the music video to the 2007 song 'Read My Mind' by The Killers.

A great song in its own right (even if not yet a classic) the video is sufficiently odd that it works incredibly. Credit must also go to the creators of this video as, once again, the lyrics are spot on and the vocals are fitting for The Killers.

My personal favourite line takes advantage of my love of TV/movie references:
"Why am I dressed like Bret Maverick?"

Genius!

The Killers - Read My Mind - Literal Video Version

HD Video - Slow Motion Surfing

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan Fitzgibbon) — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 16:32:00 +0000

I have previously stated my keen interest in HD technology. The HD picture of the Obama Inauguration still amazes me at the level of detail that was captured.

However, the BBC has decided to stun me again with a fantastic HD video of a slow-motion wave.

Made for the TV documentary 'South Pacific', footage is of big wave surfer Dylan Longbottom in a 12 foot monster barrel - the first shots of their kind ever recorded.

This is without a doubt one of the most impressive pieces of footage ever taken.

Needless to say, the below video should be watched in HD:

Dylan Longbottom in a 12 foot monster barrel

Happy Independence Day

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan Fitzgibbon) — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 05:00:00 +0000

Happy Independence Day everyone!

P.S. Jeff Goldblum is alive and well (despite what Twitter says) and on The Colbert Report! Any man that can hack an alien computer system with just a mid-90s PowerBook is a legend.

Compare The Meekat - Puppet Theatre Advert

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan Fitzgibbon) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:31:00 +0000

This weekend sees the launch of the 4th main TV advert from Compare The Market featuring Aleksandr Orlov from Compare The Meerkat.

The official backstory to this new commercial goes as follows:

"While doing a rootle around my nursery the other day, I find my old meerkat marionette theatre. Quick as flash, I realise I can use to help my business. So please be excite for comparethemeerkat.com theatre spectacular. Show is based on true story of man who ask me for insurance deal at a party and so I battle him with salami."

This actually ties in well with the newspaper interviews the meerkat has been carrying out over the last few days. It does seem that Aleksandr has a small obsession with the concept of salami as a weapon!

The new commercial:

Compare The Meerkat - Puppet Theatre

Aleksandr Orlov - The Meerkat Interview

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan Fitzgibbon) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:34:00 +0000

Aleksandr Orlov (the meerkat from the Compare The Meerkat/Market commercials) has been a huge success for the company's brand awareness and the character appears to have been warmly adopted by the UK audience. It has also been great for the awareness of Meerkats!

The graph below shows how the interest surrounding 'Compare The Market' and 'Meerkat' really took off in January 2009 with the launch of the first Aleksandr Orlow commercial. As time goes on the interest only seems to keep building.

Compare the Market Insights for Search

At launch I recall having some concerns that the concept could potentially get old very quickly if the character wasn't kept fresh with new material on a regular basis. Thankfully this has not been the case. By investing in continued activity, we have seen:

Multiple additions to the website (comparethemeerkat.com)

3 major TV commercials

An appearance in a Red Nose Day special

A Facebook Fan page

A Twitter feed

A Blooper Reel

We can now add interviews in a number of press publications to the list.

To coincide with a feature in 'The Sun' Newspaper, a video interview with Aleksandr Orlov has been created and uploaded onto the CompareTheMeerkat YouTube channel.

The video continues to build upon this brilliant personality that the character has been given and never fails to make me laugh (or at least smile).

Here is the interview with 'The Sun':

Official Interview with 'The Sun' starring Aleksandr Orlov - Founder of Compare the Meerkat

I look forward to even more great work.

U.R The Night - Smirnoff Facebook Vanity URL

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan Fitzgibbon) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 22:52:00 +0000

It has been a few weeks since Facebook introduced the vanity URLs ability to their system. The idea is that you can register an address so that it can be easy for users to find your fan page (e.g. facebook.com/coca-cola).

However, today I saw these vanity URLs in action for the first time to promote a Smirnoff "U.R The Night" advert.

The posters I saw were all over West London and were directing people to visit "Facebook.com/URTheNight":

Smirnoff - U.R The Night Poster

The Facebook page highlights upcoming events in the Smirnoff Experience calender, including the opportunity to win tickets to an event at the O2 on the 10th July. At this event they will be filming a music video in which the audience will play a big part.

U.R The Night Facebook Page

The use of the Facebook vanity URL is a great idea for promoting a social-based event, along the lines that bands have been doing with MySpace URLs for a number of years.

It will be interesting to see whether this will become an increasing trend and whether musicians begin to adopt this system in preference to MySpace. It would also be good to see some interesting/innovative use of the format from companies outside of the entertainment/alcohol industries.

Google vs Bing - Usability Study

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan Fitzgibbon) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 16:09:00 +0000

With the emergence of 'Bing' (Microsoft's Latest Search Engine), the comparisons being made to Google were obviously going to be made.

I am personally a big fan of Bing. The results page is much clearer and it easier to navigate to various other aspects of the search (e.g. images, videos and other related searches). It is also similar enough to Google for the way it operates to be familiar.

However, I do not feel that it has enough benefits (yet!) to be worth switching from Google. The fact that I have iGoogle as my home-page means it does not make sense to use anything else. In time this decision may change, if Microsoft introduces some of the features available in the US to the UK version.

The Farecast option in Bing is a great tool that lets you compare flight prices. It also has historical data that allows it to predict when the ticket price will be at its cheapest. This allows you to decide on whether to buy the ticket straight away, or hold off a few more days/weeks!

I do not seem to be the only one that feels this way. The Catalyst Group have carried out a study to highlight how users interact with Google and Bing. The PDF of this study can be viewed below:

Catalyst Group Bing V. Google Usability Study

The main points to come out from the study were:

Most users preferred Bing visually and felt the organisation was better.

Both engines were deemed to provide equally relevant search results

When searching for a digital camera, Bing attracted 150% more user viewing time to the ad space above the natural results compared to Google.

The overall sentiment towards Bing was that it was very nice to use, but it wasn't enough to switch the user away from Google. It may provide encouraging reading for us Search Engine Marketing folk, though.

Tiger Woods 10 - Walk On Water Follow-Up

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan Fitzgibbon) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 10:20:00 +0000

In August last year I reported on a brilliant video created by EA Sports that responded to a YouTube users that had highlighted a bug in the 2008 version of Tiger Woods PGA Tour computer game whereby the player was able to walk onto water and take a shot.

For those unfamiliar with the brilliant video, here it is again:

Tiger "Jesus" Woods

To mark the upcoming release of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10, EA Sports have continued with the same concept but this time using (at time of post) world number 113, Rocco Mediate.

Rocco "Not Quite As Jesus" Mediate

This is another brilliant addition from EA Sports to viral advertising around the Tiger Woods franchise. Although this will not cause as much of a stir as the original did, it is still great to see the company are happy to have some fun with their brand. After all, isn't that what computer gaming is all about?

The video is also highlighting a competition with the opportunity to win $50,000. In order to keep this wonderful series of virals going, EA Sports are looking for the next great idea to implement with Tiger Woods. Unfortunately as I am not a resident of the USA, I am unable to enter the competition.

By going to TigerWoods10.com you will be able to get the full details and download an Asset Pack that should give you everything you need to get started. I'm looking forward to seeing the outcome.

As a final piece of inspiration, here's one other Tiger viral that EA Sports created:

Square Peg, Round Hole

Mash Up Monday - Lily Allen vs Terry Bush

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan Fitzgibbon) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 08:00:00 +0000

It has been a while, but here is a brand new edition of Mash Up Monday.

Thanks to Dave Gorman (via his Twitter) for highlighting this wonderful mash up on YouTube from thriftshopxl.

Featuring the Lily Allen song "Not Fair" and the Terry Bush song "Maybe Tomorrow", it is an absolutely brilliant mix.

For those unfamiliar of Terry Bush's song, it was the title theme song to the 1979-1985 TV series of "The Littlest Hobo", which was essentially a Lassie-esque show except in that the dog wandered from town to town, with no owner, helping people.

It also featured as a cult reference in the excellent Simon Pegg show 'Spaced' in the episode in which their dog, "Colin", ran away.

The title of this mash up, "The Lilyest Hobo", is therefore inspired genius.

Until next time...

Mash Up Monday - Lily Allen vs Terry Bush - The Lilyest Hobo

I ♥ Hammersmith

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan Fitzgibbon) — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 17:00:00 +0000

Recently there have been hanging notices on street-lamps around Hammersmith Broadway featuring the slogan "I ♥ Hammersmith".

The body responsible for these banners is not the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham directly, but a not-for-profit limited company called HammersmithLondon
. HammersmithLondon is responsible for delivering a business improvement district (BID) to Hammersmith and was established to represent the views of local businesses in Hammersmith town centre. They will then identify and deliver tangible initiatives to benefit local businesses and improve their operating environment.

This campaign has been updated to now read "I ♥ Hammersmith In The Summer" in order to draw in extra business to the area and counter-act "the ever present media misery mood whilst at the same time engender some civic pride".

Although it is not an original idea (The "I ♥ NY" campaign was created in 1977!), it is a rather simple one that is harmless and gives a nice little slogan to run with while the weather is warm and sunshine keeps the public smiling.

The only slight issue I have is that one of the 'deckchair-style' banners that they are running with looks a little too close to the Tesco Value products styling! You wouldn't really want to try and advertise Hammersmith as being of a cheap and lower quality product.

Psychic Festival

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan Fitzgibbon) — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 16:22:00 +0000

Hang on a minute. Surely psychics should know when and where this is going to be held?

Psychic Festival - I know what you're thinking!

Chad Vader Is Your Father

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan Fitzgibbon) — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 08:00:00 +0000

As a fitting video to coincide with Father's Day, Chad Vader is insistent on Commander Wickstrom performing the usual yearly ritual.

Chad Vader - I Am You Father

For completeness (and some very questionable acting from Mr Hamill!), here is the original for comparison.

Star Wars - I Am Your Father