TheSpunker - by Ben Popken. Published by Gattaca, Inc.

New Shots Spot Wows with Toronto Mystique

Shot on the tippy top of the King Edward hotel in a ballroom left untouched for 30 years, director Graydon Sheppard scrabbles our brains with his new spot for Shots Magazine London UK. Graydon is a new director at Runt, the youth division of UNTITLED Toronto. Fresh, funny, disturbing and highly stylized. Just how we like it. For a neat trick, crank the volume. When played in The Spunker's office, our boss ran out to see if someone threw themselves off the smoker's landing in the stairwell.

UPDATE: If you're as enchanted by the locale as we, don't miss this photo gallery of the ballroom.

Orange Paper Packages Tied up with Tape, this is One of my Favorite Things

200 seconds of stop-motion tape grows all over the wall in this fantastic orange commercial. After the jump, wait for the load and click the play button. The vid is for a UK mobile phone company but in the end you 1) don't know 2) don't care, it's just tasty to look at and you feel like calling anyway because the ad makes you feel good. via.

Why are Canadian's Hands so Dirty?

Nice new work for Hockey Canada from Reginald Pike & Director Mark Gilbert. Why do all these Canadian men have one dirty hand? The answer may surprise your heart. Perhaps it's the ineffable guilt over giving the wrong present to their baby boys? Agency: DDB Canada

Little Clydesdale that Could

I didn't understand the Budweiser "Little Clydesdale that Could" SuperBowl ad but luckily Hanasiana's got the inside scoop. It's a political allegory. "George W. Bush, represented by a young Clydesdale, slips into a harness and tries to pull the Budweiser beer wagon—which represents both the United States and the free-wheeling lifestyle he has only recently left behind..." Read more.

Super Bowl Roundup

'Dern Superbowl ads rounded up. Black underlines lead to videos. All videos here at Google video.
Godaddy: Edited together at the last moment. After all the hype--whatever. The *uncensored* version is still tame.
Burger King: Scrumptious but didn't completely satisfy. Just like fast food. Have the commercial your way at the whopperette's site. They'll be releasing the "more mayo" version on February 8th and the "extra cheese" on Feb 14th.
CareerBuilder: One of the best spots. Spot on. Introduction of jackasses was a good twist.
Budweiser: Mostly boring except for the streaker spot. I didn't understand the one where the horse decides to pull the beer truck on its own. The fan one where everyone turns their cards to make a Bud and a glass and then pours it in the glass and everyone goes ah - a yawner. We know this is all done in CGI so there's no magic and you're left thinking, who are these ninnies with their hyper-coordinated placards?
Cadillac: Super sweet production values. However, it all got ruined because they put up the disclaimer "2007 model shown" before it actually got shown. It's supposed to be a tease, fellas, couldn't you have waited a few nano-seconds?
Fabio: Fabio hair gel or something. Gayitudinous Maximus. The Third.
Degree: We've already seen Stunt City a whole bunch but it's stays strong, long after initial application.
Ameriquest: The airplane awkwardness. Funny setup and punchline but it didn't connect to the brand for me. Sidebar: Does Ameriquest offer insurance if you fall off the Mile High Club?
Emerald Nuts: Dumb. No one cares about your nutty anagrams anymore.
Hummer: City stomping robots and monsters falling in love and birthing an H3. Decent showing, okay, you placed. Here's the two's love web site.
Motorala: New small cell phone shoots in from outer space as an asteroid. Millions years later man invents cell phone towers & you can actually use it.
Miller: Touch football isn't hardcore. Unless the stunt models are drunk. Blahh.
Mastercard: We love Macgyver. Macgyver has to buy lots of little things from the convenience store to make his bomb. Funny, self-aware of both brands and dare I say, priceless?
I'm not going to comment on the tv and movie trailers because really, who gives a crap. There's some spots missing but I started the game late and then fell asleep in the third quarter. Sorry, guess I wasn't sufficiently entertained! Go Steelers! Adfreak was good and live-blogged the whole thing. Go VNU! So did Adrants. Go indie blogger barons! So did Adjab. Go crappy AOL blog network! American Copywriter will have a podcast of them watching the whole thing up later today. Go sheep!

BK Super Bowl Ad Leak

Here's a first glimpse at what CP&B's dancing whopertte ad will feature. I think that's a crowned Brook Burke in the background, confirming my suspicion that all those paparazzi pics are going to dovetail in a giant Burger King/Brooke Burke Super Bowl extravaganza. As you can see, there's a hamburger bun  and a princess/queen, possibly in mid-dance move. You heard it here first, there's going to be dancing whoperettes in the dancing whopperette ad. Pic from today's AdCritic email.

Max Headroom for New Coke

Now this is advertising! Please, whoever made this, go back to hell. via.

Pepsi's Hot Latin Void

Something strange lives in a perverse, guzzling, cola loving hole under the beach in this disturbing Pepsi ad. via. Agency: AlmapBBDO/Brazil

The Fable of PSP

PSP: It's like cheese you can listen to outside. Video. Also, there's one with squirrels. You can go here to see Mexican hairballs and some other versions but I don't think they're as good. Credits - Director: Monkmus. Animators: Dan Abdo, Jason Patterson, Masako Miyazaki. Creative Director: Jerry Gentile. Copywriter: Patrick Almaguer. Art Director: Blake Kidder. Sound Design: Neil Uchitel / Slappo. Agency: TBWA/Chiat/Day

Nice Cancer Videos

A good PSA is hard to find. Maybe this Postal Service business is making me all emo and gooey inside but I like these cancer videos. Cancer 1 & Cancer 2. Touching, honest and earnest. via. Andre writes in that the line for the first vid reads, "It´s necessary to believe in the cure of cancer. We believe" and the second, "Everybody needs some help to deal with cancer. We too."