The Radio Guru has arrived

Tattoo welcomes our newest Producer/Director & Radio Guru, Jason Deline. For the past ten years, Jason has been writing, producing and voicing radio commercials. A veteran of radio, Jason has worked as an on-air announcer, producer at KISS 92 and creative director at EZ Rock. For two years he was a member of the comedy troupe Radio Vault, performing in both the Toronto and Chicago Sketch Comedy Festivals. Jason has been the voice of a number of high-profile campaigns including Mitsubishi, Rona, Coca Cola Zero, OLG, Party Poker and Rogers. Jason brings to Tattoo a passion for great work, a love for cream-filled donuts, and an appreciation for good cigars. And lucky for us, he likes to share!

Many welcomes, Oh Guru of Sound.

Your new favourite band

Random Task Force - Toronto's answer to Flight of the Conchords - has released their first video, shown here on The Motion Show.
Directed by Nik Sexton, "Fingers" showcases the quadruple threat that is Dave Fletcher, Rob Sills, Kevin Flaherty and Stu.
[He doesn't believe in last names]

Tattoo has been backing RTF since the beginning. Below is a snap of some good old synthesizer action in the studio. You can tell we've been rooting since day one - the studio walls were still green!



For more on Random Task Force, visit their website here

Recommended Read

What originally began as an IM conversation between two friends taking friendly stabs about the stereotypical likes of white people has now been published in a 2008 paperback release from Random House.

Christian Lander, the brains behind stuffwhitepeoplelike.com [the blog that sprouted the book] has answered all questions about the blog and book here, namely to point out that the site isn't meant to be racist, but "a scientific approach to highlight and explain stuff white people like." Says the About section of the website - "They are pretty predictable."

The blog covers all sorts of hilariously cynical stereotypes.
My faves:
#105 Unpaid Internships
#103 Sweaters
#88 Having Gay Friends
#83 Bad Memories of High School,
and the one that brings me the most joy:

#9 Making you feel bad about not going outside.

Something tells me that Hating the New Facebook Layout will be making the top of the list any day now.

To read the Full List of Stuff White People Like, click here

Image courtesy of stuffwhitepeoplelike.com

If you like looking at other people's cool homes,

Click here



Photo courtesy of theselby.com

This blog makes our blog jealous

So much so that we're not going to even try to find a funky black and white half-in-focus, half-out-of-focus, "we're too cool 'cuz we're with the cool kids" photograph to compete with, mkay?
Instead you're getting a color snap shot of a Bill Cosby-esque graffiti character taken down a back alley on a disposable camera from Wal-Mart.

Yeah that's right, a disposable camera from Wal-Mart!



Damn you, Mikes.

To visit DesignPorn, click here

It's beginning to look a lot like dark-ness...

Shopper's Log, 2 nights ago, Queen Street West, Toronto.
After frolicking in and out of two stores in an after work shopping session, my dear friend and I realized that although our watches said 7 p.m., a darkness so black had crept upon the city that we suddenly feared for our once-sunny summer evenings and came to the conclusion of only one thing:

The winter hibernation is here.

But before you head off to Chapters to get your intellectual provisions of books and dvds, check out this article by Richard Wilson for the Times on 10 books NOT to read before you die.

Tattoo Sound + Music, giving you back your evenings and weekends.

To read what not to read, click here

Great Scott

Many welcomes to our new Music Supervisor, Scott McCreight.

Scott makes his way from independent label Last Gang Records where he was formerly the Head of Soundtracks/Film/TV Music. Scott was brought on board at Last Gang Records to create the licensing department at the label, which represented artists such as MSTRKRFT, Metric, Death From Above 1979, Boys Noize, Crystal Castles, Tiga, The New Pornographers and Chromeo. During his time at Last Gang he licensed music worldwide to many high profile television shows (Gossip Girl, CSI, Men In Trees); advertising campaigns (Motorola, MTV, So You Think You Can Dance Canada?); and video games (Grand Theft Auto 4, Need For Speed, Facebreaker).

Scott's genius Ear, his P Ditty-like Rolodex and his Donald Trump deal closing skills will make you wonder why you would deal with anyone else.

I saw the sign

As if our saving the earth with One Bottles wasn't enough, try not to be blinded by our new sign!


We like to call it "Reception bling"

Saving the world, One Bottle at a time

Long time, no blog.

Here at Tattoo we've been busy saving the world, One Bottle at a time.
Toronto alone has an annual consumption of 65 million individual plastic water bottles every year, a number that contributes to the 7% annual increase the world experiences. 6 out of 10 plastic bottles aren't even recycled in Ontario, and studies show that plastic bottles are linked to certain health risks.

So in our efforts to move away from plastic bottle usage, we've purchased reusable stainless steel eco-friendly bottles for your use and pleasure.

Come here for a session? Help save the world!



For more information on Onebottle click here

Adbeats has a Facebook!

All your dreams are coming true! Adbeats now has its own official FACEBOOK GROUP. Look for us under: "ADBEATS: Where Advertising and Music Make Out"
Because at Tattoo, you know they do. Ooo Matron!

Worldwide Short Film Festival

To help spread the word about The Worldwide Short Film Festival - we helped Doug Agency call the local press, festival supporters and random people from the phone book with a telemarketing survey pushing the idea that shorter is better.

Here are some of the calls.

Help Hunger Disappear

June 5th was National Hunger Awareness Day.

The superstar creative team of Steve Persico/Anthony Chelvanathan thought of a clever way to raise awareness and get people involved in helping hunger disappear.

They videotaped the entire thing and asked us to help with the score.

AdBeats | 2008 | Episode 3: DooDaaa feat. Ralph Steadman

Miami Beach is a nice place.

A place where everything is bigger and shinier.

It's a wonderful setting for an advertising award show.

And the last place you'd expect to run into Ralph Steadman - the legendary illustrator/artist/author and the longtime collaborator/friend of Gonzo aka Hunter S Thompson.

In this episode - we talk to Ralph and find out what he thinks about advertising.


Peep it herrre:

Tracklisting:

1. air vs lilly allen - all i need is a smile
2. 4hero - beat 8
3. The Cool Kids - Pump Up The Volume (Flosstradamus Remix)
4. Notorious BIG - Party and Bullshit (Ratatat Remix)
5. Jazz & Milk Breaks - Snob
6. Kraak + Smaak - Squeeze Me
7. Jazz & Milk Breaks Vol 2 - Shamma Lama Ding Dong
8. Jazz & Milk Breaks _ Jazzhole
9. Golden Bug - Rocket City
10. Midfield General - Disco Sirens
11. Lismore - More
12. Headmen - Catch Me If you Can (Bag Raiders Remix)
13. Gonzales - Working Together (Boyz Noise Remix)
14. Cut Copy - Lights And Music (Boyz Noise Remix)
15. The Presets - This Boy is in Love (Lifelike Remix)
16. Purple Crush - Shopping on the Dancefloor (Mike Genius Rmx)
17. WSGM - You Should Be Someone Else (Moulinex Remix)

Once upon a Superhero Power, there was Fusion Man

For more on Fusion Man, click here

Photo courtesy of MSN UK

How this shirt will save the world

Before royal blue was back in style, I picked up this t-shirt at a Roots in 2004. I was catching a one-way flight to London, England and needed something comfortable to wear on the plane. The shirt was never long enough for me. Even in the change room I kept on tugging it down, hoping it would grow. But I did the irrational shopper-thing and the in-denial of being a tall-girl thing and bought it anyways.

Three days later I found myself at the airport's Bureau de Change trying to juggle my wallet, my bags, and the tugging of the shirt. In the reflection of the stainless steel walls of the Bureau, I noticed a guy smiling at my apparent struggle. We ended up going for a drink in the airport bar, a drink in the airport Tim's, and a four hour walk around the airport's interior, exchanging tales and woes and hopes for our travels. By the time we had to walk to our gates, he had already convinced me to catch a flight once I landed in London to go see him in Amsterdam. His gate was to the right. Mine was to the left. It was an airport romance tragedy. The fork had been reached and we had to say good-bye.

I will always remember this shirt for this story. I'll remember walking down the hallway to my gate tugging at the silly thing and being filled with a world of disappointment. I had the boy's email grasped in my hand, and any movie I'd ever seen was replaying in my mind telling me to turn around and run after him. Every step I took I was adjusting my tee, debating whether to turn back or to let him go. But by being distracted with trying to stretch it out I had failed to see that the hallway to my gate was shaped in a half-circle formation. And that the hallway to his gate had been shaped in a half-circle formation. And that when I finally reached my gate and tugged one last time at my Roots' navy blue tee, the boy was once again in front of me. All along during the shirt tugs and the airport bar drinks and the email grasps, his gate had been right next to mine.

The fork in the road turned out to be a gigantic spoon.

Despite trying to feed you an Aesop Fable, there is a point to this story. If you ever saw my shirt hanging on a rack at the ole Value V, you'd probably notice the toothpaste stains, the faded colours, and the strange wave formation of the hem from all that tugging. But I wonder if you'd pay an extra $3.50 more if you knew the tale behind the t-shirt, and keep it for much longer. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants, anyone?

This is the premise behind Australian shirt store Re-Shirt. Their website poses one startling question: "Do products last longer if you know their history?" Re-Shirt invites anyone who has a shirt to sell to post it on their website along with the story about why that shirt is memorable to them. Then the purchaser of the "Re-Shirt" [ha! ho! clever Trevor] is invited to post their continuing story of their experiences with their new shirt. Consumer recycling at its finest.

By preserving the 10,000 liters of water it takes to produce a new cotton tee, the shirt off your back may one day save the world. Or help someone to meet one of the Great Loves of their life, like mine did.

For more on Re-Shirt's philosophy, click here

A shmoke and a joke at Portfolio Night 6

I always dig a bit of strategic placing. I like how my supermarche houses the eggs next to the bacon and the cheese to develop thoughts of delicious omelette perfection. I dig how the milk follows the egg shelves, and leads one down the path of bread. The great land of Margarinus and Orangus Juicus is not far off. I'm a consumer. I've got no shame when it comes to product placement. I like my eggs and soldiers, and I like them in the same spot to remind me of just how good they are when purchased together.

So when I went out for a shmoke and a joke at ihaveanidea's Portfolio Night 6 in Toronto, I couldn't help but give a little high-five in my head to the kids at Taxi 2. Not only was there a fabulously interactive ad spot for Mini firmly in my eyeline [and a pretty amusing one at that], but it was strategically placed right outside of the entrance to the Rivoli, which housed this year's Portfolio Night 6 - an evening between Toronto's top creative directors, the young & hopefuls, and the young & hopefuls' portfolios o' dreams.

The ad for Mini is placed upon Toronto's triple slot garbage bins. For those of you who have never graced the T-Dot, our garbage bins are no simple means of disposal. Each silver bin, cylindrical in shape, has three compartments for the following categories: one for newspapers and magazines [to put in your transfers from the streetcar], one for cans and bottles [to put in the pop can that was chucked at your head on the streetcar], and one for litter only [to put in your snotty kleenex from when you cried after having at pop can chucked at your head on the streetcar].

Now, advertising on the city's bins is no new thing, nor are displays of art or graffiti. The following photo [in its original form at http://torontoist.com/2007/10/trashy.php] displays photographic work part of Magneta Foundation's Flash Forward exhibit from fall 2007, where twenty garbage bins across the financial district were given a temporary makeover by displaying the work of emerging photographers from North America and the UK.


What Taxi 2 has done with their Mini ad campaign is to not only take advantage of the small-scale billboard space that the bins provide, but to incorporate the existing functions of the original bins into their design. First gold star!



They have been able to link the copy seamlessly in with the function of the object to create an amusing advert raging with referential metaphors! Second gold star!



AND... they placed their advert RIGHT before the entrance to Portfolio Night 6 - a spot in the eyeline of Toronto's top creatives and future creative superstars. Third gold star!


Whether this placement was purposeful or omelette-by-chance, it couldn't have been in a better spot. Many creatives spent last night losing their voices trying to encourage the young guns to start incorporating more interactive and 'stunting' spots into their portfolio books. Although print ads full of puns are still in demand, the CDs want to see more of a consumer-engaging quality to the work. This is the stuff they're begging for! Right outside the doors.

I just hope the young & hopefuls were paying attention to example A on their smoke breaks. I also hope that no one owning a SUV, Sedan or Minivan take the ads literally, because car keys are just like bad eggs...

Once gone, but never forgotten.


Photos courtesy of Me.
For more on Portfolio Night click here

AdBeats | 2008 | Episode 2: Human After All feat. Jeff Goodby

In case you didn't know...Tattoo produces a monthly mixshow where advertising and music make out. World's biggest creatives with the world's hottest music. It's got thousands of subscribers around the globe and it's the official show of Ihaveanidea.org.

Fresh out the oven...a brand new episode of Adbeats featuring Jeff Goodby from Goodby + Silverstein + Partners.

New music from: Santogold, MIA, MSTRKRFT, MGMT, DJ Mehdi and many others.

Peep it herrre:





Tracklisting:

1 Daft Punk - Voyager (Revolte remix)
2 Alex Metric - In Your Machine
3 Victor Veros - Chasing Cool
4 Fred Falke & Savage - Wait For Love
5 DJ Mehdi - Signatune (Dave Dresden edit)
6 Fred Falke - Last Wave
7 The Ting Tings - Great DJ (Calvin Harris Remix)
8 Scenario Rock - Both Gotta Move On (Sebastien remix)
9 MSTRKRFT - VuVuVu
10 Daft Punk - Human After All
11 Santogold - Say Aha
12 Hercules and Love Affair - Iris
13 MIA - Paper Planes (dfa remix)
14 MGMT - Time to Pretend

Rethinking the music video

interesting concept - where each graphic element represents an instrument - and visual movements of these elements correspond with the movement of the music.

wanderlust

Bjork - Wanderlust - this is one of the most incredible music videos I have ever seen.

there hasn't been anything online that has glued me to the screen for its entirety.

watching it on YouTube doesn't do it justice...so here's a link to a hi res version:

http://media.ghostrobot.net/7020_wanderlust.html

and here's "the making of..."

The Great Facebook Rat Race

Wieden + Kennedy London have a few new interns.



Bill, Donald, Alan, Peter, Duncan, Theo, Stelios and Richard aren't your typical book-bound grad interns [one of them is named Stelios afterall]. But the eight young gentlemen take on a much familiar East London form - they're all cuddly, squeaky, freaky, bageeky [?] rats.

The crazy kids at Wieden + Kennedy have set up their superstar 8 to run around a miniature London Underground displayed in the W+K office windows in East Laaaaandan. The rats - who have been there since Friday - will be setting up house at W+K for one month.



Today is World Rat Day. If you're passing through London, please give Stelios our regards.

If you can't make it to London, fear not. The rats have a facebook and a webcam. And the point? Who cares. Kudas for W+K for having some creative fun. Mind the Gap. Mind the Rat.

I love you Stelios.

To track their progress and add them to your FB:
http://www.ratbook.co.uk

For more from W+K London:
http://wklondon.typepad.com/welcome_to_optimism/2008/03/rat-race.html

Photos courtesy of our homettes at W+K London.

Xbox 360: Parental Street Cred

If you're badly in need of street cred...here's a few lessons to help you deal with the kids.

This is an important issue and we were happy to help.

Generation Zoom... er?

Brave, Moses Znaimer. Brave Brave Brave, Moses Znaimer.

"The best reason for loving anybody or anything is still that they love you. As more of us figure out that these big companies don't love us and don't think we are relevant, we're going to start seeking out companies that do love us. I'm still flabbergasted by the number of major corporations who, day in and day out, consciously insult the majority of the market."

- Moses Znaimer [interview with Marketing Magazine, March 24 2008 issue] on the Baby Boom generation he's dubbed "Zoomer"

Animusic

animation and music like never before...

Saskatchewan, we salute thee

Now if I could only spell Saskatchewan...

Just want to send out a huge CONGRATS to everyone [ex-nay on Askatchewan-Say] who's survived the time change yet once again. Midnight mornings, Hawaiian afternoons, let the sunneth shine!

And as a bit of a kudos to our ever present winter - albeit sunnier now at times - this Expedia.Ca advert says it all. Here's to no longer being mugged at 4PM!

Bravo to Daniel Kleinman

There are few adverts out there that have ever brought a tear to my eye. The IKEA "Lamp" spot made me hoard every last piece of furniture I own like a live-action version of The Brave Little Toaster, GM's "Robot Arm" lead me to blow kisses at every piece of mechanical machinery I ever saw tipping over bridge waters, and when I realised that Wendy's Chicken Caesar Fresh Stuffed Pitas were no longer with us, their replacement "It's Hamburger Bliss" campaigns made me well up like a little girl, even though I was a little girl at the time.

No, Wendy's. It's not Hamburger Bliss.

Gleeful and fancy-free, I thought my ad watching days would no longer call for tears and tribulations. "Relax!" the industry guffawed. "Have fun and laugh with us at our products!"

And then of course came Daniel Kleinman.

"Stork" is Monster.com's fourth installment of their campaign headed by major directors. This epic short is directed by Daniel Kleinman; Agency: BBDO New York.

Get your box of kleenex, teen journal and copy of Catcher in the Rye ready.
Holden Caulfield's about to lose his Chicken Caesar Fresh Stuffed Pita, and Monster.com's about to win their Holden Caulfields.