The Web of Evil

Not only is this an actual album but this is the actual album cover:

Tracks include the classic Angry Birds Theme and (I am still not making this up) Call Of Duty 4 - Modern Warfare: Main Menu Theme.

It’s not the first ad campaign that has tried to stimulate the audience’s interest by encouraging them to intervene in its storyline, but it’s certainly the most lacklustre. It’s apparently five years since Kris Marshall (him off My Family) and Esther Hall (her off Spooks and Waking the Dead, it says here) started making ads showing how BT products could be seamlessly integrated into the chaos of contemporary family life. He had moved in with her and her kids, the storyline went, and whatever challenges and obstacles this domestic situation might produce, at least they would all be able to rely on the phone and internet connectivity of a BT Home Hub.

This campaign rumbled on for about three years, troubling no-one particularly, and then Marshall, in real life, was hit by a car. At first there were fears that he had been seriously injured, but he made a full recovery. After that, though, something went very weird. The ads continued to be made but, as far as I can remember, at no point after Marshall's physical recovery did he and Hall appear on screen at the same time. The storyline took a new turn: his character had to move a long way away due to work and their long-distance relationship got a bit awkward for a while, but they were determined to make it work (in their separately filmed sequences). Eventually she asked his character (on the phone) to marry her, and around that time it became clear that the writers were trying to inject a note of suspense—would he say yes? Would he turn her down? Would the Home Hub keep disconnecting because the data limit had been exceeded? Was anyone actually invested in this thing?

By now, I was hooked. What was really going on with this situation? It seemed clear that Marshall’s real-life accident had had some kind of impact on his fictional character’s life. What would be the twist? Were the ads subsequent to the collision all just “Adam’s” dying thoughts about his newly adopted family? The episode where “Jane” appeared to tell people she was getting married didn’t even mention “Adam’s” name; was this a cruel flash-forward to her rebuilding her life after his untimely death and marrying someone else? Was some kind of alternate reality involved? Where, basically, was M Night Shymalan?

Now BT is apparently offering us the chance to decide this couple’s future. Rather than going the full Web 2.0, though, the makers are staying firmly in the 90s and offering us only two options to choose between, so we don’t have carte blanche to write in with something like “They can’t get married—he’s clearly her son”. If neither of the storylines on offer involves, at a minimum, “Adam” falling into a parallel dimension in 2008 and struggling ever since to find his way back, I will officially lose interest.

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EDIT FEB 2011: BT's latest transmissions from inside Kris Marshall's head don't bode well:

Sadly not my own photograph; if I had stumbled across this actual item anywhere, several people would already have received them as presents by now. Because seriously.

“If you like this hotel so much, why don’t you…”

DR MARTENS SHOES APOLOGISES FOR KURT COBAIN AD

The head of Dr Martens shoes apologized Thursday for an ad featuring Courtney Love’s late husband, Kurt Cobain, and other dead rock stars. “We are really, really, really sorry,” Dr. Martens CEO David Suddens tells PEOPLE. “We do think that it is offensive. We made a mistake. My message to Courtney Love is: This is something we shouldn’t have been doing.”

On Wednesday, Love lashed out at the company via her publicist. “Courtney had no idea this was taking place and would never have approved such a use,” said her rep. “She thinks it’s outrageous that a company is allowed to commercially gain from such a despicable use of her husband’s picture.” The ad shows Cobain wearing black Dr. Martens boots, draped in an angelic robe and sitting on a cloud. In the corner, it reads: “Dr Martens. Forever.” The ad also includes similar images of the late Sid Vicious and Joey Ramone.

Suddens says the ad appeared in a single UK publication and was intended for a one-time use only, though it got greater attention with it showed up on Web sites this week. Suddens says it was a mistake to have allowed even that limited use of the ad. “I wasn’t even aware of it,” Suddens says. “I was still unaware until [Wednesday]. When I found out what happened, I fired [the agency].” [I’d like to know what he said here instead of “the agency”.]

The ad agency that created the effort, Saatchi & Saatchi London, released a statement Thursday. “We believe the ads are edgy but not offensive," executive creative director Kate Stanners says in the statement. “We regret that the controversy has led Dr. Martens to terminate the contract with Saatchi & Saatchi.”

Suddens says that Dr. Martens also takes responsibility. “We never should have done that,” he says. “It’s not a campaign we want to be associated with.” [Source: People.com]

( Those other “edgy” posters )

Why have they never used the slogan, "Me love you Longleat"?

Older brother Yeslam bin Laden is a businessman based in Geneva. Late last year he finally launched his own brand of perfume, which he had been planning to call "bin Laden" until 9/11, after which he felt the name wouldn't work in the product's favour.

However, he appears to have missed a trick:



No, I really didn't fake it. I didn't need to.