I would have expected to see this on Mumbrella but TV3 thought they could
copy one of the most popular campaigns of the last 12 months and get away with it. It's bad to copy TV shows but the commercials.... yeah lets go with it.

Here is the ad in question. You can't get much more of a copy and paste job than this.

And the original

What did Sony do? send threatening legal letters? No they had Kevin Butler send a great response via the Playstation blog (which is one of the best blogs in the industry)

"It's been said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. If so, color me flattered. However, I do have some constructive criticism for the work that I would like to share.

1. No title for your guy? VP of Big Bigness? PS3 Commercial Tribute Manager? Details, folks.

2. The TV3 version was completely lacking in PS3 video game footage. Clips from Uncharted 2, MAG, God of War 3, or even clips of our upcoming releases Killzone3 and Twisted Metal would have really added some epicness to the spot.

3. The beard. I think it should have been longer.

4. I did like the slow motion effect at the end on the guitar solo. Way to plus it out.

5. Two-color mylar confetti > rainbow paper confetti. Just sayin.

It's clear to me that TV3 appreciates great advertising and I'd like to thank them for their efforts. In fact we'd like to help them out and make our ENTIRE LIBRARY OF COMMERCIALS available for them to copy in order to promote their programming. I only ask that TV3 doesn't use our actual footage, but all future homages of this sort are now Kevin Butler sanctioned.

You might be asking, "What's in it for you, KB?" Well, I asked that too, and here's what I've come up with: I'd like TV3's support in making the PS3 the OFFICIAL GAME CONSOLE OF NEW ZEALAND. I see this as the only way to make it right with the world. Our super hero team-up could bring the benefits of incredible HD games, Blu-ray movies and the wealth of content available on the PlayStation Network to billions of New Zealanders. Only a total victory in that fine country will satisfy this situation. That, and a box set of Flight of The Conchords sent to the fine creative team in our marketing organization.

Let's do this.

I await your reply via my Twitter account: @TheKevinButler"

To which @TV3nz responded with: "@TheKevinButler sounds like a fair deal to us Mr Butler!"

The issue was raised in an NZ gamer blog Button Masher and then reposted at many other blogs like Kotaku where I saw it.

The whole debacle has now fully played out with TV3 pulling the campaign.

Gamer Justice is served. While 4chan is feared don't mess with gamers. They are just as organised and scary. As seen by the NZ actor Dai Henwood of the TV3 ad getting attacked on Twitter. Fair go he's just a guy earning paper.

Kevin Butler & Old Spice Man

Sony's "Kevin Butler It Only Does Everything" campaign by Deutsch would be the talk of the advertising town if Old Spice Man by W+K didn't come into the picture. The two campaigns are actually similar in the fact we have a fake spokesman with fantastic comic timing with a tight script talking at the viewer. Both resulted in increased sales and both created catch phrases that . Oh and I personally love them both.

If only Kevin Butler responded to real consumers on Youtube instead of just Twitter and fake consumers.

Check out @TheKevinButler & @OldSpice on Twitter and you'll see even more similar tone, probably due to the fact you have just 140 characters to get across the punch line.

And while the entire world loves Old Spice Man, Gamers love Kevin Butler. As seen here with his cameo at the the Sony E3 keynote.

I look forward to many more Old Spice man and Kevin Butler ads in the future and the waft of copy cats to come.

The presentation below was presented today to in NYC at the Ad Age Digital Conference 2010 by a nervous Ashley Ringrose who in Sydney time did this at 7am. Thanks to the Ad Age team for the opportunity to speak and their support.

If you saw the talk we hope you enjoyed it and have provided the presentation to share the links and also get the extra two article links that were discussed.

We posted yesterday from there about Twitter's new "Promoted Tweets" (not ads but tweets!) and we'll have a roundup of highlights in the next few days. You can get lots of iPad RT's and pull quotes from the Twitter stream.

We'd love some feedback (positive and negative) on the 6 foundations and also if we need more or less or to change them. If you also have some better examples that showcase the 6 let us know in the comments.

So unless you've been living under a large rock (with no wifi), you'll have read that Twitter has announced that businesses can now purchase "promoted tweets" - tweets that will appear as part of the results page when users search. It seems like a pretty smart, user-focused move and one that a lot of folks will be watching super closely. They claim that any tweets that don't resonate well with the audience (ie. get retweeted) will disappear. They also say that users will only be subject to one promoted tweet per results page. It's the second big ad model announced this week (following up after Apple's in-app iAd framework from yesterday). How will it all go? Who knows? But it's all verrry interesting to watch. Does it mean users who never search will not ever see promotional tweets? (How many times does the average user search Twitter?) What's going to be the first creative use of promoted tweets? Will Justin Beiber ever stop being a trending topic? Lots of questions ahead.

Update from Ashley: I saw this announced at the Ad Age Digital conference and a few more details. There was a lot of Twitter activity when it was being discussed

1: It's being tested with search just to iron out initial kinks. It will then be rolled out to more areas
2: No mention of pricing model
3: No real mention of location or geo-targetting
4: CPM model initially
5: Ads will be given a "resonance" score and this score will determine if your tweet will continue to be promoted
6: Launch partners are Virgin America (launching a new route through it exclusively), Bravo and it seems Starbucks.
7: Revenue sharing for publishers and apps (like Tweetdeck, Hootsuite, Seesmic) and some more details revealed tomorrow at a developers conference
8: You will be able to promote multiple Tweets and the system will automatically pick the one with the best resonance.
9: Resonance will NOT be available for general tweets just for promoted ones you paid for. This seems like a real lost opportunity.

It looks like Google Adwords 1.0 right now

Steve Jobs goes through an example of a new iAd, Apple's new platform for in-app advertising.

We've received an overwhelmingly positive response to the inaugural Campaign Brief / Bannerblog Digital Hot & Cold Index. We thank everyone for participating and we believe the response from the creative community has demonstrated the value in an index of this kind.

We always expected an index of this type to generate debate, however we wish to set the record straight regarding its purpose.

The index is not a precursor to a new world order.

For anyone to suggest the index is an audit of the digital agency landscape is grossly inaccurate and misleading. The index was only ever intended to be one measure of our industry's output - its creative product.

It has never been positioned as a definitive ranking of the industry and it joins a long list of other industry rankings created for their own purpose and audience.

The index's intended audience was always the Australia & New Zealand creative community - both traditional & digital. That should be obvious by the association with Campaign Brief which has enjoyed considerable success & continued agency participation in its annual Hot & Cold survey.

The critics of this process have had ample time to air their views & shape the debate over how a Hot & Cold index would be formulated.

In November 2009 we emailed the Creative Social mailing list, the Australian chapter of a global digital community made up mostly of CDs and the occasional MD, stating the intention to produce a Hot & Cold Index. Debate ensued. We also discussed it in Creative Social gatherings on at least two occasions. Sixteen people put their name forward to judge and these names were circulated on the Creative Social mailing list for feedback.

The judging short list included representatives from the following agencies : The Hallway, Pusher, The White Agency, Leo Burnett, Clemenger (x2), Reactive, Holler, Soap, Host, Tongue, Tribal DD, Publicis Mojo, Bullsye, The Furnance & Tequila.

The above list included representatives from two agencies that didn't submit an agency entry. Host & The White Agency.

The final judging panel of eight was selected by pulling names from a hat. This list of judges can be seen here.

We believe the process leading to the formation of the Hot & Cold index allowed everyone who wanted to input on the index, ample opportunity to do so.

We believe the level of participation in the index from the creative community validates its format.

The index represents a substantial cross section of the AU / NZ digital creative community and as long as the index continues to find an audience we'll continue to produce it. If there isn't an audience, or the audience believes the index is flawed then it simply won't survive and the industry will move on to the next one.

Based on the feedback we've received over the past few days, we expect to see even greater participation in the next round. Agencies that have communicated their intent to participate in the next index include Ogilvy, @www, Droga5, GladEye & Colenso BBDO.

Ashadi Hopper &
The Bannerblog Team

Note : Comments above were echoed to the Creative Social mailing list earlier this week.