Is there any advertising more rote and shopworn than winter ski advertising? There’s the requisite photo of some dude who skies better than you ever will leaping from a cornice that’s probably not even in bounds to a slope with more fresh powder than you’ll ever see. Attach bad-ass headline. Ship.

In its new winter out-of-home campaign, Tahoe South says enough already and foregoes photography altogether in favor of a psychedelic illustration from Finland’s acclaimed Kustaa Saksi. Said illustration makes abundantly clear that when it comes to choosing sides at Lake Tahoe, the south side, with its 24-hour gambling and cocktail-fueled nightlife, is definitely the wild side.

And in case you missed it: D/C makes a splash with Tahoe rebrand.

There are actually two Lake Tahoes, north and south. With a half-dozen isolated resorts and few winter activities beyond skiing, it has been easy for consumers to grok an image of the north as the lake’s quiet side. On the other hand, with tons to do at every hour and for every budget, including great skiing at every skill level and conveniently located bars, restaurants, shopping and 24/7 gaming, it has been tough for consumers to envision a singular image of the south — or for marketers to project one cohesive brand.

No longer. The Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority, which is tasked with promoting the south side, hired D/C for a complete rebrand. Eight months later, client and agency unveiled the new brand and an entirely new name for the destination — Tahoe South. The strategy embraces the truth of the destination, that it’s the place for the up-all-day-and-night visitor, and the brand identity celebrates this spirit. The website is curated by local experts and serves as a digital concierge to the region, connecting visitors and would-be visitors to the best web content about Tahoe South, as well as relevant real-time feeds from YouTube, Flickr, Facebook and Twitter.

Brand strategy and art direction – Duncan/Channon
Custom logotype by Underware

Site strategy and UX design – Duncan/Channon
Technical development partner – Noble Studios

And in case you missed it: Tahoe South goes wild.

Time flies when you’re having fun. Thanks for a great 2011. See you on the other side.

As anyone who has stayed up ’til 3 AM exploring it can attest (I’m looking at you, Bob Duncan), Ancestry.com is a fascinating and, yes, somewhat addictive experience. But while folks who’d gotten a taste were hooked, it seemed that the uninitiated didn’t know quite what was in store for them at the world’s largest online family history resource.

Enter a simple and compelling idea. Find people who are interested in their family history, but have never tried Ancestry.com, put them on camera and see what they discover. To bring their experiences to life, D/C enlisted the help of award-winning documentary filmmaker Sean Dunne. The result is sometimes poignant, sometimes funny and always totally real.

Look for D/C’s latest spots to roll out over the holiday break, complementing Ancestry’s existing work.

View the second spot after the jump.

Millions around the world are blowing off work today to stay home and groove on Gary Wilson’s new Tip Records album, Feel the Beat, available at iTunes, Amazon, eMusic, Spotify, Google Music and a digital outlet near you. Evidently, Gary Wilson Day was first proclaimed by the City Council of Escondido, CA, but the movement soon spread to El Cajon, Santee, Chula Vista, Elfin Forest and Pueblo Siding, among other San Diego area municipalities, as well everywhere else on the planet.

Sonic and Mario are gearing up to compete in the 2012 London Olympics next summer. Not sure if the Olympic committee is fully aware of it, but apparently a certain royal family is and recently hosted the mischievous duo at their palace. Or at least that’s the scenario sketched out in Duncan/Channon’s new spot for Sega’s upcoming Wii and Nintendo 3DS game “Sonic and Mario at the London 2012 Olympic Games.” Spot will run throughout North America, in Brazil and online in the EU. Both the game and commercial are aimed at the young and the young-at-heart. (But oldsters are welcome to watch, too.)

Check out the alternate Sonic ending.

You were truly en fuego. Get a load of the pictures and video. Or see them on the handy-dandy Tip Records app you downloaded at the party. Or download the Tip Records app right now and then check ’em out. Way to bring it.

The year’s Tipmas finds devotees at Duncan/Channon celebrating the First Annual Tip Records Holiday Extravaganza on Friday, November 4. This solemn/utterly ridiculous day marks the official launch of Tip Records and official release of the new Gary Wilson album on Tip Records, as well as the official annual celebration of the entire Tip Records roster of superstars. It also marks the official release of a bunch of whoop-dee-do involving food, fire, booze, hotpants and rubber gloves. Due to overwhelming demand, 2011′s Tipmas observances will be taking place at the Public Works venue in San Francisco’s swingin’ Mission. A happy Tipmas in advance to all!

For reals. The man about whom Beck sang, in “Where It’s At”: “My man Gary Wilson rocks the most.” The man whom the New York Times called “odd” and “wonderful.” The man about whom they made the documentary You Think You Really Know Me, which premiered at Lincoln Center. The man who performed on Jimmy Fallon last year because ?uestlove is one of his big fans (another one is Matt Groening).

Yeah, that Gary Wilson.

And on November 4, 2011, Tip Records — yeah, that Tip Records, an otherwise inexplicable division of Duncan/Channon — is going to release Gary’s next album, Feel the Beat, which happens to be the same day he headlines the First Annual Tip Records Holiday Extravaganza at Public Works in San Francisco. True story (unlike some of the stuff on this site).

Robbie Whiting, most recently an SVP at Draftfcb, has joined Duncan/Channon, as director of creative technology and production. He’ll serve as one of the agency’s key creative and strategic leaders, with a special emphasis on the digital practice, and oversee the entire spectrum of production.

Prior to Draftfcb, Robbie spent five years at TBWA\Chiat\Day LA as creative technology director, helping build that agency’s digital practice and working with clients like Nissan, Pepsi, Visa, Mars and Gatorade. Before that, he developed a comprehensive digital capability for the LA agency Ignited Minds, where he worked on Activision, Vivendi-Universal, Sony and Electronic Arts, among others. Early on, he was a hands-on web producer, and he started his career as a reporter for this thing called a newspaper.

Medical anthropologist and cyber sexpert Laura G. Duncan brought her rollicking, yet thoroughly educational, “Hey, Where’s My Robot Girlfriend?” multimedia show to the Tip on Friday night, accompanied by the dulcet electronica of Chel C. Faith and the ritual rooftop sacrifice of 600 Hog Island oysters. Any androids that showed up were well-disguised, but the joint was packed with meatware, who giggled nervously, ogled admiringly or drowned rampant feelings of inadequacy in custom cocktails like “Robot Sex on the Beach.” Photos, video and more at the-tip.org.

This past May the Brooklyn-based, world-dominating hipster brand VICE finally expanded into Russia. It turned out the Russian franchisee was an American expat with, let’s just say, Duncan/Channon connections. Here are a couple of the teaser videos D/C developed, one for the arrival of the brand, one for the brand’s big Moscow launch party (below), sponsored by Puma, styled as a Puma Social Club event (for “after-hours athletes”) and featuring bar sports. Like darts.

Founded in 2004, GREE is the fastest growing tech company in Japan, according to Deloitte, as well as Japan’s leading mobile social gaming platform, with 26 million unique users, over a billion daily page-views and $168 million in revenues in the second quarter of this year alone. It’s listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and was founded by Asia’s youngest self-made billionaire, Yoshikazu Tanaka. Now this digital leader is expanding globally, acquiring OpenFeint, the largest mobile social gaming network, in April and now launching in the US with D/C as its marketing agency. Based in San Francisco, the mission of GREE International is to bring mobile social gaming to the next level, literally and figuratively. And D/C is literally, figuratively and totally psyched to help.

Brooklyn-based medical anthropologist/Trekkie Laura Duncan (no relation) presents the first officially NSFW Toast of the Tip, “Hey, Where’s My Robot Girlfriend? – An Exploration of Sexual Robotics, Teledildonics and Carnal Technology.” So you get our drift. But beyond the titillating (no pun) headline, it’s a fascinating picture of what’s really going on in sci-fi and in a real-life subculture that has discovered a deeper engagement with machines. It seems all too appropriately inappropriate that on September 30 she will find her way to the Tip.

D/C’s pretty proud, too, now that the world’s largest online resource for family histories, Ancestry.com, has tapped the agency to lead its creative efforts. The D/C team is developing a fully integrated campaign, including TV, digital, print and other media, set to launch in Q4.

With more than 2.4 billion individual profiles, six billion records and 24 million family trees, Ancestry.com is the leader in helping ancestral explorers in the US and overseas discover, preserve and share the histories of their families. Among its happy subscribers is San Francisco’s R. Duncan family, who were proud to discover this daguerreotype of great-great-great grandpa Benjamin “B.J.” Duncan (1834-1891), the caption to which reads (cross our hearts and hope to die): “So manly and handsome.”