You might have spotted the Ad Age power 150 and looked to find that SEO blogs count higher than personal blogs (of course!), but since it takes so many different number crunching things into account, it's surprisingly democratic - and it adds "Todd Points" to the score. The many different sources also causes the list to move around a lot more than any others, since for example Technorati - despite many years on the web - can suddenly go all wonky. I've seen Adland be on #17 and #70 on the same day as Technorati has acted funky for some reason. Media Culpa also notes that the power150 only counts his atom feed and not his many feedburner subscribers. Not to mention that Alexa is still shunned by most mac-people (even though the alexa toolbar is now available for Firefox) giving the SEO (and thus PC users) blogs a leg up with that score over the blogs more often frequented by mac-driving creative types.

Spinning around made a list of the top UK blogs found on the Power150 where Russel Davies is the leader of the pack.
But there's a European ranking out there as well, it was Kullin's Media Culpa that brought this to my attention in his July 18 post - Nick Burcher counted all the european flags on the list to make a European version and even made little graphs, and then he did one based on Alexa traffic where Adland is number 2 again.

The Daily Mail reports that Nick Park of Aardman Films was approached by Harvey Nichols because they wanted a worldwide icon from the Bristol area to promote the opening of the new Harvey Nichols Bristol store. Posters and magazine ads feature Wallace, Gromit and Lady Campanula Tottington sporting designer-wear from the likes of Alexander McQueen, Dolce & Gabbana, Giorgio Armani, Ray-Ban Wayfarer, Duchamp, Christian Louboutin and Zagliani.

There's also a making-of video that can be found here.

The Seattlepi reports that the Star Wars droid R2-D2 has a new job - to collect mail.

The post office is wrapping mail collection boxes in some 200 cities nationwide in a special covering to look like R2-D2.
It's part of a promotion for a new stamp to be announced March 28, said Anita T. Bizzotto, the post office's chief marketing officer.
"It's a little teaser for the upcoming announcement and we decided to have a little fun with it," she said.

Cracked.com just listed: The 5 Creepiest Advertising Techniques of the (Near) Future - bless the little sods for looking over their stats and realizing that the "5-lists" bring them traffic so that they could bring us this.

They freak us with the funny, as when they say:

Google is already working on customizing its search results based on your personal browsing history, which requires only that it maintains a comprehensive database of every single thing you've ever tried to find on the web.
No big deal, right? After all, it's not like it would be embarrassing for you if all this information ever got out. You know, like when AOL made that information public on millions of its customers.

This reminds little ol' me of when I witnessed one of the fellas from Chaos Computer Club hold a lecture at HIP97. He explained that credit cards will "eventually hold all information about me" -- "and you"- so therefore; "I go out of my way to fuck up the system. I rent those (porn) films in a hotel rooms even when I'm not in the hotel room." (laughter from audience) "No, because I don't rent those films!" (loud cackling from audience)

This is a sneak peek on the 2008 D&AD annual as designed by Neville Brody. See what he's done there? See the pencil shapes? So undeniably Brody, so perfectly D&AD themed. Don't you just want to lick it? Ok, fine, so tht's just me but the best design & advertising in the world will be immortalised with the publication of the D&AD Annual 2008 on the 18th of September. This book is themed ‘Digital vs Anti Digital’ and for the first time this year, all of the work will be published online, as well as in the iconic book.

D&AD President Simon Waterfall said, “The theme of 'Digital vs Anti Digital' represents the evolution of the digital industry. Clients and creatives are moving away from ‘Can we do this technically?’ to ‘Should we do this for the brand?’. Digital design today is more joined up, more integrated and more about brand behavior than bits and bytes - what a great time to be a part of this industry."

I don't know about you but I can't wait to get my grubby little hands on this book and run my fingers across the pencil-polygon pattern. And then lick it.

We've spoken about the burgers = sex thing before; "Between the buns of a Big Mac, there is special sauce", but this sex-obsession won't die just yet. While Hardee's/Carl's jr used overexposed in more ways than one Paris Hilton in their latest ad - see Paris Gets a Little Too Spicy - McDonalds knows that it's all about the burgers buns and less about the scrawny celebs pretending to eat them. After the "I'd hit it" flash ad, and the headline on the ad below, I'm wondering if the word "sex" is actually in the McD ad brief?

Hello world, I've been chatting with Chad Rea, founder and creative fountain head of 86 the onions in sunny Venice beach L.A. California, a full service, inside out, outside the box agency - or creative hub if you prefer. I asked him a few things, and to flaunt some of their recent work off. In the hot seat this month, 86 the Onions, with extra everything so it's in two parts, the interview part two is here.

DB: Show us 86 the onions creative hot spot. Where are the ideas born?

Chad Rea:

When last I left you in Part One, I had traveled to Miami under mysterious circumstances with a few haunting questions on my mind:

What is DIME?
What is going on here?
What’s up with Sony?
Did I forget to pack underwear?

After leaving me burning with curiosity for days (which turned out to be quite intentional), Sony finally revealed things.

Finnegans Irish Amber backlit sign seen at the Minneapolis St. Paul International Airport.

It's not often that we get questions regarding ursine sexual organs here at AdLand,* but one of our site's good pals was watching his large screen HDTV (show-off) when a Lowe's commercial came on featuring a ornery grizzly bear. The minute-long commercial was about 32 seconds in when he noticed "something dangling and wiggling 'down there'" on the bear.

Of course, AdLand had to investigate, and what did we find? Was it indeed a wee bear penis? Was it simply a matted clump of bear hair? Is Mrs. Bear even grumpier than Mr. Bear? Judge for yourself.

Superadgrunts, see the full commercial here, and then, thanks to our patented AdLand Bear Penis Detector Zoom 3000, see a close-up of the scene in question here.

*I know! I know! Hard to believe!