The beginning of the college-football season gave fans plenty to watch this weekend, but much of the Tuesday-morning quarterbacking seems to be about ESPN’s commercial featuring Ole Miss and Admiral Ackbar. The ad, shown below, recaps a months-long push by students who want the tentacle-chinned, trap-foiling Ackbar from Star Wars to be the school’s new mascot. (He would replace a rebel leader of a different sort, the recently retired... 

Publicis Mojo is behind the latest oddvertising candy ads—an Australian campaign that features the tarantula-like, disembodied “Hairy Hand,” a feared predator that’s out to steal your Cadbury Crunchie Rocks and Caramello Nibbles. “Maybe they do not bite, but they do pinch,” says the voiceover, as we see a male Hairy Hand deliver a painful purple nurple to an office drone. A second spot, posted after the jump, features... 

Our ad critic, Barbara Lippert, digs the beat of Team One’s tricky new music-minded effort for Lexus.  Read More →

She joins the IPG shop from Starcom MediaVest as director of insight and innovation.  Read More →

The review of creative duties on Arby’s’ account comes as the chain seeks to raise its national profile, partly through a shift in TV buying patterns.  Read More →

John Ross knows a thing or two about retail. Before he joined Interpublic Group’s Mediabrands in July 2009, he spent 12 years at home improvement giant The Home Depot, including a stint as CMO. He joined Mediabrands as president of its Emerging Media Lab in Los Angeles. During his tenure there, the lab was retooled to focus on retail activities. In June 2010, Ross was given a new assignment — build a new agency at the holding company... 

Per a recent Gallup survey, more than half feel they’re paid about the right amount or (in a few cases) feel overpaid.  Read More →

Here’s a bizarre campaign allegedly promoting safe driving. Starting next Tuesday, drivers on 22nd Street in West Vancouver, Canada, will be startled by a 3-D image of a girl chasing a ball in the street . The girl is an optical illusion, but the drivers won’t know that. They will react as though she were real. Officials say if you are driving at the posted speed limit of 30 kmph, you will be able to stop in time. And if you are not?... 

These Campari spots from Euro RSCG in Milan have been around for a while. But it’s appropriate that I’ve discovered them a few weeks late, given their visually beguiling depiction of moments frozen in time. Yeah, these self-absorbed scenesters are in no hurry at the local hotspot. They can wait forever for the camera to flash and for those cocktails suspended in mid-air to spill on the floor. The tinkly ambient music, so annoying in... 

CarMax has confirmed selecting Amalgamated for creative chores on its ad account. The client spends $50 mil. annually on ads.  Read More →

Timberland is launching a global campaign showcasing its Earthkeepers collection of eco-friendly apparel. The effort, dubbed “Nature needs heroes,” includes TV, print and retail ads, as well as social media and a microsite that uses 3-D technology to help consumers become better acquainted with Earthkeepers. Also, select store windows in the U.S. will feature special graphics that consumers can bring to life using 3-D glasses.  Read More →

PlayStation’s vp of everything , Kevin Butler, returns in this new Deutsch spot promoting the PlayStation Move, the forthcoming motion-sensing game controller platform for the PS3, due in U.S. stores Sept. 19. Everything about the Move is epic, and by the end of the spot, Butler looks like he stepped out of a Capital One commercial. PlayStation shows off the Move a bit more in this earlier Butler-less video .  Read More →

People act like their pets in Vermillion’s cute campaign for the Humane Society of Boulder Valley, which exhorts viewers to “Find your counterpart. Adopt today.” In one spot, a chick uses her tongue to groom herself in front of a mirror and tries to cough up a hairball. Reminds me of a few women I dated in college. See two more spots after the jump. As for the guy who digs a hole with his “paws” to bury a phone, well,... 

Korean Air this week is launching a new theme, “For life on a whole new scale.” Ads take a global approach, but retain local flavor.  Read More →

This new NRA ad with Chuck Norris is, for the most part, a pretty insulting portrayal of gun owners as goofy, mulleted hicks. Where’s the Kenny Powers cameo? Maybe the point here is to convince NRA members that civic participation beats violent rhetoric that plays up stereotypes, but they have too much fun mocking rednecks for this to be a completely benign gesture (not to mention, Norris is a jerkoff). Kudos for the karate-chopping-the-boombox...