This is one of those weird ads from the ‘Best Rejected Advertising’ website from the BenQ Taiwanese electronics manufacturer which was stopped from circulation in China. The ad was seized because many complaints objected the depiction of the boy in the ad emerging from the rubble of a post 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center.

Obviously, many people were highly offended by the ad and the slogan of the ad. The company did not make a public apology for the ad mostly because they never thought that is what the ad depicted.

XpressDirect has launched this new innovative print advertising campaign to promote its’ services which are a true delight to watch. Although the imagery is innovative, the only downfall is that UPS and numerous other delivery services have used the age-old “delivery whenever and wherever” over any landscape idea before.

To exaggerate the idea of the campaign and wish to bring more innovation they use landscapes such as Antarctic, Islands, and Moutain Ranges to point out that they will deliver “whatever it takes.”

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Ikea has made a hilarious effort to promote its’ “Sultan Mattress” by focusing on the benefits of getting quality rest. The colors in the ads are a little bland but the comedy is superb.

The various ads could have used other subtle changes to make this campaign completely rock. As you can see, the backgrounds and colors remain very consistent while only the people and facial expressions change from one ad to the next.

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Online car guide website, CarGuide.com.au has launched their ‘Choice is Everything’ advertising campaign which features a spectacular series of visuals and clever imagery. The ad aims at depicting that users of the website are on the cutting edge of technology and attitude while providing cars to people of every taste.

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Google and Orange (mobile phone operator) are in a multi-billion dollar discussion on bringing the web to phones for the 21st century. According to the UK’s Observer, Google is in talks with the France Telecom company to develop a ‘Google Phone’ which comes with built in Google software and having the screen size of an iPod. “There are numerous situations in which people say ‘I wish I had Google in my hand,’ and I can imagine the younger generation of users would think that a Google phone is a cool idea,” said Tony Cooper, a telecom consultant. “It could bring in location-based searches like ‘Find a Thai restaurant in my area.’”

Digg recently celebrated its’ second birthday with beautiful technical and functional improvements. Digg users are now able to ‘Digg’ their favorite podcasts on the Digg podcasting homepage by category. Digg hopes this marketing strategy will bring in web users who will use Digg as their first stop when looking for podcasts.

If this is successful, look for Digg to launch a whole new slew of features and content areas. Another new feature of Digg is the ‘Top 10 Stories” area where users can see the hottest stories of the day. Seperate ‘Top 10′ areas are made available for each category on the website. Other changes include Digg being widescreen now with a flexible layout for bigger computer screens and video enhancements which allow you to view videos directly on Digg with a ‘lightbox’ feature.

Facebook has verified that they have received an offer for a $1 billion buyout. The CEO Mark Zuckerburg announced that they are not selling the website and company and may build towards an IPO worth at least $8 billion.

Mark Zuckerberg:

We are not necessarily focused on what the exit is going to be - whether it’s selling the company or an IPO or when that’s going to be,” Zuckerberg said in an interview. “But we obviously think that there’s a lot of potential to keep growing.”

Peter Thiel:

“It’s going to remain an independent company,” Thiel said in an interview last week. “The plan is to actually build it, maybe at some point take it public, but definitely not to sell it.”

PayPerPost, a place for bloggers and advertisers to connect and profit, has made a significant change on Monday which will force bloggers to disclose that they are being paid for their posts. This is due to a recent move by the Federal Trade Commission to force word-of-mouth advertisers to disclose financial inventives to promote products. The move doesn’t completely fix the problem but it is a definite move in the right direction for the company.

Orlando will be tripling its’ tourism advertising budget for 2007 to lure families from other hot-spot destinations. The campaign will cost the city $68 million over the next two years and be funded by a higher hotel tax in Florida’s capital city. The campaign will consist of print and television adverts with the slogan “Built for families. Made for memories.” The campaign hopes to target women in an effort to bring more families. Television commercials will air during prime time shows such as ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ and ‘Dancing with the Stars’.

Internet comics are getting their own geeky network called Project Wonderful this year for Christmas. The network will be a hot-spot for advertisers to place their ads next to online comics with a cost per day pay rate which will be based on a comic website’s popularity. Advertisers can be outbid and knocked off a website just like the Google Adwords network. Ad buyers can track what ads are on what comic sites currently including their click through and impression rate which will help an advertisers determine whether or not to buy ad space.

A series of new photos will be running in ‘W‘ and ‘Vogue‘ magazines this February featuring the spunky and overly mature 12-year old movie star. The article from the magazine states that Fanning is a terrific spokesmodel to rearch young and ambitious youngsters. Fanning is a very good actress I must admit but her upcoming role as a teen being sexually abused just creeps the hell out of me.

On the upcoming sixth season of ‘The Apprentice’ with Donald Trump the company Dial will be placing their products throughout episodes to promote their new ‘Renuzit Super Odor Neutralizer’ and the ‘Soft Scrub Deep Clean Bathroom Cleaner’.

The first episode of ‘The Apprentice’ will involve teams competing to develop an internet web-i-sode for the ‘Soft Scrub’ product. For the task, the Apprentice teams will have to develop a 60 second advert spot which will be shown before AMC movie theatres.

Williams Sonoma is ready to launch a new ad campaign which will be an 8 page insert into bridal and women’s magazines hopes to convice the wife-to-be that cooking utensils should be on her holiday shopping list. The company hopes brides-to-be will consider kitchenware after getting engaged and going shopping. This is apparently the best time to get engaged and therefore Williams Sonoma was quick to launch the campaign in the nick of time.

A new report from the General Accounting Office announces that the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) has not been doing the best job of protecting consumers from drug advertisements both on television and in print. The GAO claims that the FDA has been completely blinded by drug advertisements and lack consistency with enforcing the laws. The FDA claims that the GAO recommendations would cause the FDA to bring on a larger staff and drastically increase their budget. Sounds good enough to protect consumers then it sounds good enough to me.

Southwest Airlines has been working with a new “Wanna Get Away” ad campaign for quite some time now and are now turning the tables by asking us what we wanna get away from. Whether it’s work, the kids, or your wife Southwest wants to hear your answers. Southwest Airlines will be the most recent company to use consumer generated content and opinion in a new ad campaign. As Ben McConnell says “it will liekly get a number of entries from people who just love the company.” The winners of the Southwest Airlines campaign will get to see their commercial on air and a family vacation for four.