Yes, a TV commercial. That’s a post. Or at least, it is when it’s for game of the year decade forever, Portal 2. This charming, informative and cute TV spot is due to debut in the coming weeks, and I for one hope it leads to Valve selling millions of copies. The game hits North America on April 17th.

I’m already in love with those two little robot dudes. I bagsy the fat one.

[Via YouTube]

[VIDEO] First Portal 2 TV spot released is a post from: The Inquisitr

Say what you like about Wii commercials full of cereal box families, but at least they showed games.

Below you can see the first ever TV spot for Microsoft’s Kinect commercial. It will begin airing soon, yet shows almost no game footage and very, very little of the Kinect controller itself. In fact, I counted around three seconds of game footage in the whole thing, and even this is seen on a distant screen, several meters away from the camera, behind a bunch of dancing models.

I have no problem with this kind of gaming, per se – I’ve played my fair share of Wii Sports and competed with my family at golf and bowling and it was a riot. I like a lot of these games, and think the inclusiveness of things like Kinect can be a wonderful thing.

But must game manufacturers be so fixated on showing us toned dancers and almost zero footage of the game you’ll spend all of your Kinect time watching? Are companies like Microsoft now so petrified that people may catch a glimpse of a videogame that wheeling in the models is the answer? Do games still carry such a stigma with the kind of people Kinect is aimed at?

Honestly, Microsoft, show us your software and save a few bucks on the models, because some of the Kinect stuff actually looks fun. This, however, is shallow, transparent nonsense:

[Via YouTube]

[VIDEO] First Xbox Kinect commercial forgets what it’s selling is a post from: The Inquisitr

It doesn’t seem anyone really ever bought the official explanation that commercials were being played in a somehow different way from regular programming, causing advertisements to often sound far louder than regular programming through no intention of TV stations or advertisers- or that ads were never really louder to begin with.

The disparity seems to have grown ever further in the past few years, and you’ve probably experienced straining to hear programming dialogue only to have someone come in and chide you to “turn it DOWN” once the “super loud” adverts come back. It seems lawmakers are finally tired of shouty commercials blaring forth from their tee-vee sets, because both the House and the Senate have approved legislation to prohibit advertisements to play at a louder volume than regular programming.

Ars Technica quotes New York Senator Chuck Schumer’s remarks on the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act:

“It’s about time we turned down the volume on loud commercials that try to startle TV watchers into paying attention. This is a simple step that will keep ads at the same decibel level as the programs they are interrupting,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), sponsor of the Senate version of the bill. “TV viewers should be able to watch their favorite programs without fear of losing their hearing when the show goes to a commercial.”

The legislation has to make one more trip back to the House before it goes to the President for approval.

House, Senate move to ban screaming loud commercials is a post from: The Inquisitr

For a mere $120, you can spare yourself the nightly horror of your spouse’s flatulence issues. Worth it?

Video: The ‘Better Marriage Blanket’ actually exists is a post from: The Inquisitr

Commercials – we all hate them. They are a necessary evil in our media world but for the most part they are boring, insulting or just downright stupid. However every once in a while there is a bright ray of cool that shows up on the horizon and we actually have a chance to watch a commercial that is worth our time to stop and enjoy.

Here’s six commercials that I found while cruising the net that I think rise to that high bar of worth watching if only because they are so damn cool.

Nike – Leave Nothing

I’m not a big sports fan so already sports related commercials are a hard sell but this one from Nike caught my eye. There is also an extended version of it here.

Barclays – Fake

This ad from Barclays has a real touch of the Twilight Zone to it. Then they had to ruin it by letting us know it’s all about money.

Audi – Intelligently Combined

Sorry but they had me at the transparent Rubic’s Cube of car parts.

Guinness – Music Machine

Who would have thought a head of beer could play such cool music

Levi’s – Knockout

My jaw still hurts.

Phillips – Carousel

Saving the best for last. This is just a freaking awesome commercial and there is also a “how’d they do that” video as well over here.

6 “Who knew commercials could be this cool” is a post from: The Inquisitr

Dissing your own brand seems to be up and coming as a new marketing strategy.

First Domino’s admitted in a series of ads that its sucky pizza was basically ketchup and cardboard. Now Kotex is taking aim at its ownself, releasing some ads that mock the traditional euphemistic style of feminine hygiene product advertising. A hip, twenty-something woman tells someone off-camera how her period just makes her “want to dance” and other assorted digs at tampon ads:

“How do I feel about my period? I love it.”

She continues, “Sometimes I just want to run on a beach,” as footage shows a woman running along the shore. “Usually, by the third day, I really just want to dance,” she says, to footage of women dancing ecstatically. As blue liquid is poured on a pad in another clip, she concludes, “The ads on TV are really helpful because they use that blue liquid, and I’m like, ‘Oh, that’s what’s supposed to happen.’

A subsequent ad in the campaign addresses the models and actresses cast in typical tampon commercials:

Another spot, which will make its debut next month, opens with a woman strolling confidently toward the camera. “I’m a believably attractive 18- to 24-year-old female,” she says. “You can relate to me because I’m racially ambiguous. Market research shows that girls like you love girls like me.”

Interesting, three unnamed networks declined to air the spots, first because of the use of the word “vagina,” and then because the word was replaced with “down there.” The commercials use footage from feminine hygiene products that aired as recently as this year, and Andrew Meurer, vice president for North American feminine, adult and senior care for Kotex’s parent company Kimberly-Clark told the Times that Kotex is as guilty as their peers in clouding over the whole vagina issue, but that they’re hoping to change:

“We’re really out there and we’re trying to touch women and say we care about this conversation,” said Mr. Meurer, of Kotex. “We’re changing our brand equity to stand for truth and transparency and progressive vaginal care.”

Ha, ha. They’re trying to touch women regarding their vaginal care. Below is the first of the new hoo-ha positive clip, is it a step in the right direction for tampon makers?

[NYT via Consumerist]

Kotex mocks its longtime ad strategy in new spots is a post from: The Inquisitr

God of War III launches next week on the back of some tremendous reviews, so you better believe the scene played out in this commercial for the game perfectly mirrors what will be happening in my house. Except I don’t have a wife. Or a girlfriend. Or anyone. GOD I’M SO ALONE.

[VIDEO] Familiar: God of War 3 advert funny because it’s true is a post from: The Inquisitr

A new and very meta Nintendo DSi commercial really shows off the little handheld’s capabilities … because it was made on a Nintendo DSi.

Specifically, it was made on Flipnote Studio, a completely free downloadable application for the DSi that has been called “freakin’ awesome” (by me, just then). The app allows users to draw pictures with the stylus, add their own sound through the DSi’s microphone, and piece them together to create frame-by-frame flipbook-style animations.

It’s simple, but horribly addictive, and you can even upload your animations to the interweb.

Most Flipnote animations, alas, end up looking like this, so to highlight the potential of this wonderful little program, Nintendo turned to the big guns of animation, and hired Aardman Animations to make the Christmassy TV spot you see below:

[YouTube, via Go Nintendo]

[VIDEO] A Nintendo DSi commercial, as made on a Nintendo DSi is a post from: The Inquisitr

I took a double take the other night when this commercial interrupted Tosh 2.0.

The jarring bleeping draws your attention, and I can’t recall a commercial in the past that has implied so much profanity. The advert is shilling a charging pad called Powermat that might be worthy of purchase if you have a lot of money and counter space. At a hundred bucks a pop, I’d personally be more inclined to buy a spare generic charger and spend the rest on boxes of wine and obscene comic books.

But hey, it looks pretty f***ing cool.

Powermat: The sweariest commercial, but is it worth $100? is a post from: The Inquisitr

I’m not even sure what to say about this commercial from Air New Zealand other to say – watch it very carefully. It took me a few moments even to catch on to what is happening, make me almost wish I was a cameraman.

via Boing Boing Gadgets

This would be a hellva fun plane to fly on is a post from: The Inquisitr

The new spots, released today, strike me as being quite akin to the “Seinfeld” show’s season four plot line in which Jerry and George create a show about nothing for NBC. In Apple’s case, the company has created a commercial about a commercial that was about their commercials. Still with me?

Maybe it’d be easier just to watch. The first spot directly takes on the cash spent in Microsoft’s Seinfeld-started $300 million campaign:

The second makes light of the lack of “Vista” references in the latest Windows ads:

The irony, of course, is that outside of the initial “I’m a Mac” line, both spots largely avoided any actual Mac references themselves. One also wonders how much money Apple is paying for its own advertising efforts, since it’s bringing the subject up.

Ah, the art of negative campaigning. You can turn off the political coverage, but you can’t escape it. Will the slamming tactic work for Apple, or will it deliver a negative response such as what we often see within the political arena? The commercials are comical, no doubt, but let’s see how much of an impact they actually make.

Latest Mac Ads Get Seinfeldian On Microsoft is a post from: The Inquisitr