Sale Phone

If you love shopping, and you own a phone, you’ll flip for this trend! Forget going to stores or even shopping online, now you can shop straight from the billboards thanks to a hi-tech new campaign. Just snap a photo of the Semacode on the latest H&M ads, and you’ll have full access to their fashion catalog. The items can be bought from your phone and charged to your mobile’s account.

Some Clean Fun

This supposedly live webcam invites users to control the temperature of an ocean-side beach shower. After turning the dial up or down while it is being used by a beautiful babe, the user is rated on what type of person he is, in life and with the ladies. This is a neat example of online interaction and internet marketing.

Come Hell or High (priced) Water

Fred apparently isn't just any old bottled water. Fred is a bottled water with a MySpace page, listing lots of friends and plenty of comments. Fred doesn't just have consumers – if you drink it, then you are a friend of Fred. In fact, you are a friend with benefits. Fred has a blog, much like any other, it's filled with up-to-the minute pop culture, like links to puppetshow re-enactments of the newest Harry Potter book on YouTube, as well as potential actors to replace the current cast of the Potter films. Fred sells t-shirts with taglines like "Fortified with irony." And, of course, there's the "Friends with benefits" version. While only available in New York and online, I wouldn't be surprised if Fred's unusual marketing campaign will gain him national attention.

Anya Hindmarch Madness

Another Anya Hindmarch knock-off has come to town, it’s the “I AM a Plastic Bag AND I’m 100% Recyclable” bag. It was created by the Progressive Bag Alliance, an organization dedicated to ensuring that plastic bags are recycled, reused, and disposed of properly. Oh, and it’s founded by all of the big plastic bag manufacturers. They are here to remind us that plastic bags can be reused and recycled - and that they are better than paper bags. In fact, they are serious about this bag - it’s for sale on eBay, complete with some myths & facts that the Alliance wants you to know.

Free For All

The newest trend in pharmacy and prescription marketing is: Give away the medication. Publix, a supermarket group in the South, is the latest chain to start giving away seven of the most common antibiotics in order to drum up business. The antibiotics available are amoxicillin, cephalexin, sulfamethoxazole, trimethoprim, ciprofloxacin, penicillin VK, ampicillin and erythromycin, the Associated Press reports. Most Publix stores are in Florida, but others are located in Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama and Tennessee. In other words, a big swath of the Southeast. The plan mimics one already in place at Wal-Mart and Target, which sell similar medications for only four dollars.

Mini Buzz

Single serve wine isn't all cheap stuff, but it certainly has that reputation. That stereotype is on the way out, it seems, as more and more high end wine and champagne makers are coming up with and marketing creative 'minis' of their product lines. Methods that have been previously unheard of for classy brands, like wine in a carton or serving it with a straw, are now selling like hotcakes and becoming the next big thing. In fact, even though minis only account for 2% of the wine market today, they're expected to eventually outgrow traditional wine sales.

Hostel Enviroment

Anyone who has ever been to Ikea knows that it can be a very tiring experience. But according to The Guardian, shoppers in Oslo will get to stay the night at Ikea hostels so customers can have a place to crash if they haven't finished shopping. Guests will be allowed to stay free of charge and will even get to chow down on the usual Ikea grub — like Swedish meatballs and cranberries for breakfast and dinner. I personally like to get in and out of Ikea as quickly as possible, though a trip can admittedly take hours. But apparently, Norwegians see it as a major tourist attraction so I guess it makes sense to add dorms. Would you want to spend the night at an Ikea?

Advertising Cells

Celebs behind bars is nothing new but jail themed ads are. Apparently Sarah Jessica Parker thinks shooting her new campaign for her second fragrance Covet in a jail cell will increase perfume sales. Parker is not the only one celebrity working the bars, Kelly Osbourne recently did this shoot for her new role in Chicago. Do you think this new trend in advertising will work? I guess only hard time will tell.

Singing In The Rain

Now that it's raining more than ever so you can stand under my umbrella, ella, ella, eh, eh, eh. If you recognize those lyrics from Rihanna's latest hit, "Umbrella," then it'll make sense why the singer has come out with her own line of umbrellas for Totes. There's nothing fancy-schmancy about Rihanna's umbrellas, but they get the job done. I personally have my eye on an even cooler umbrella.

Are musician endorsements the new celebrity endorsement? Marilyn Manson is selling Absinthe so I guess its only a matter of time before you can purchase R. Kelly closets or maybe even Lil' Mama's Lipgloss. What song do you think would have the weirdest endorsement product?

(Un)Business Cards

There's a new kind of business card for the stylish set called Moo Cards. For those of you who don't work for a big corporation with fancy business cards, Moo Cards are definitely worth a look. They've taken what is essentially a fairly boring & standard product, the old business card, and breathed new life into it. These pint sized little beauties are about half the size of your normal business card so they already look different. Plus they link in with Flickr account so you can use your personal photos on the back of each card. Talk about business in the front, party on the back! The cards come in packs of 100 for $19.99 and there's currently a free shipping promotion going on, so be sure to take advantage of it!

Passport Status

With Playboy Passport, the company’s new members-only concierge service, a $10,000 annual membership buys the ultimate in luxury and service for a Hef-like lifestyle. Aside from letting you go behind-the-scenes at shoots and attend events at the Playboy Mansion (and the mag’s parties across the country) the Passport offers practical luxury for the jet set: private jet and yacht services, discounted car rentals, automatic upgrades at hotels, spas, and resorts. The 24-hour service also extends to dining and nightlife benefits, including a personal assistant/shopper. Plus the Passport boosts your status, allowing you to breeze into club openings, private sales, galas, premieres, and big sports events. With playboys Jamie Foxx and Wilmer Valderrama already on board, the memberships, limited to 1,000 are going fast.

Playboy photo shoots. Poker with the Playmates. Parties at the Playboy Mansion. Whoever said money can’t buy happiness never had the chance to pony up for Hugh Hefner’s lifestyle.

Do You Look "Like A Virgin"?

How do you prove you're a virgin in the town that inspired "Sex and the City''? The producers of an off-Broadway show are giving away free tickets to anyone who can demonstrate his or her chastity. Which raises the question: Just how will the theater know? Producer Ken Davenport, 34, had a hypnotist screen people standing in line for the free tickets to the first preview of his 90-minute comedy, "My First Time'' to determine their status. The show, which opens July 28, is based on a decade-old website that invites people to anonymously share their stories about losing their virginity. Great, another "who's done it" play - just what Broadway needed!

I Smell A Rat

Animated movies always have products associated with them but the latest Pixar movie has produced merchandise that goes far beyond the usual fast-food restaurant tie-ins and themed bedroom sets. Ratatouille is about a Parisian rat with culinary aspirations has spawned a new line of cooking accessories for kids sold through Sur La Table. Even more interesting is the Ratatouille wine. The wine will be carried by Costco and is a 2004 white Burgundy from the Mâcon's Château de Messey. You can buy it starting on August 1 at Costco stores in 18 states for around $13. This may just be the first wine your kids encourage you to buy. I wonder why they aren't promoting cheese with this movie? Do you give a rat's ass marketing a chance?

The Pop-Up Club

A couple months ago I read about the latest trend in pop-up establishments, the pop-up club. Much like a pop-up store, restaurant or hotel, the space can be constructed overnight and be gone before dawn.

Following in the success of Southern Comfort's SoCo Cargo Experiment, Kubrik is a modular open-air club located in Barcelona, Berlin and Lisbon for the summer. The club is an open construction of light-up plastic boxes that make up the walls, hallways, DJ station and bar.

Playing the Cloverfield

Everyone's talking about the trailer for JJ Abrams' top secret movie, tentatively titled Felicity: The Movie Cloverfield, which is being shown before the Transformers movie. Watch the pirated trailer here, or here. It's not coming out until January 18, 2008.

What's with not giving the name of the movie at the end of the trailer? Something tells me they are going for a major grassroots marketing campaign (ahem) Blair Witch. What do you think about the trailer?

Green Card

If you hand in this business card to your clients, I’m sure that they definitely want to keep it on their table rather than keep in their pocket or dump it to the bin. Growing Business Card is an idea from Another Bloomin’ Designer, Jamie Wieck. The card works just like a miniature house-plant. Just dip in water, alfalfa or cress will grow. Talk about a budding talent!

Men(tos) At Work

This Summer Mentos’ intern isn’t just working for them: rather, the mint company has made college student, Trevor, available to the public. Like any good intern, he’ll do anything ranging from ordering your lunch and proofreading to calling in sick for you and creating party playlists. You can watch him live and can call or email him to put him to work. Just check his schedule to see when he’s available.

The Simpsons Life

As a promotion for upcoming feature The Simpsons Movie, 7-Eleven stores in 12 U.S. cities have been made over into Kwik-E-Marts, the convenience store from The Simpsons.

The stores will feature products such as KrustyO's cereal, Buzz Cola and other Simpsons-related merchandise. The stores will not, however, sell Homer Simpson's favorite drink, Duff Beer, because of the movie's PG-13 rating. The Simpsons Movie is due out July 27.

Assvertising

Forget about Moons over My Hammy, today it's all about Moons over Broadway. A giant billboard of smiling butts comes to Times Square today. The new ad campaign for Toto's add-on bidet, the Washlet, is the latest example of butt advertising.

Have You Tried, Tryvertising?

Beauty companies are taking sampling and testing to a whole new level and their marketing departments have coined the term Tryvertising.

Bottom line: More free stuff for you!

Touted as Europe's first beauty testing program, recently launched Brand New You Tube sends subscribers a tube full of beauty products to test. By the way, the venture is related to Brand New You magazine, not the website YouTube.