Don’t know about you, but it seems I’ve been getting about 5 spams a day telling me in broken English to have a happy year and my family member sent me ecard. Here’s the whois on the bad guy:

(p.s. don’t go there and download anything).

happy2008toyou.com

Domain name: HAPPY2008TOYOU.COM
Name Server: ns.happy2008toyou.com 68.251.106.142
Name Server: ns10.happy2008toyou.com 89.35.121.187
Name Server: ns11.happy2008toyou.com 58.9.65.61
Name Server: ns12.happy2008toyou.com 222.209.139.28
Name Server: ns13.happy2008toyou.com 82.59.136.43
Name Server: ns2.happy2008toyou.com 68.36.252.81
Name Server: ns3.happy2008toyou.com 71.230.66.163
Name Server: ns4.happy2008toyou.com 68.61.185.117
Name Server: ns5.happy2008toyou.com 70.232.142.1
Name Server: ns6.happy2008toyou.com 66.75.86.71
Name Server: ns7.happy2008toyou.com 85.29.202.180
Name Server: ns8.happy2008toyou.com 86.139.75.35
Name Server: ns9.happy2008toyou.com 86.130.251.39
Creation Date: 2007.12.29
Updated Date: 2007.12.29
Expiration Date: 2008.12.29
Status: DELEGATED
Registrant ID: X05O1TC-RU
Registrant Name: Larry Claus
Registrant Organization: Larry Claus
Registrant Street1: 1874 str. office 923
Registrant City: Los-Angeles
Registrant State: CA
Registrant Postal Code: 320784
Registrant Country: US
Administrative Technical Contact
Contact ID: X05O1TC-RU
Contact Name: Larry Claus
Contact Organization: Larry Claus
Contact Street1: 1874 str. office 923
Contact City: Los-Angeles
Contact State: CA
Contact Postal Code: 320784
Contact Country: US
Contact Phone: 1 320 5216723
Contact E-mail: larryknower931@yahoo.com

Registrar: ANO Regional Network Information Center dba RU-CENTER
Last updated on 2008.01.01 03: 36: 27 MSK/MSD

The full list of domains we currently have is:

familypostcards2008.com
freshcards2008.com
happy2008toyou.com
happycards2008.com
happysantacards.com
hellosanta2008.com
hohoho2008.com
newyearcards2008.com
newyearwithlove.com
parentscards.com
postcards-2008.com
Santapcards.com
Santawishes2008.com

The filename downloaded is happy_2008.exe

Because this guy has been sending me happy new year e-mails over and over through unsuspecting bots-oh-I-mean-friends, I sent him one just now, my first official e-mail of 2008!

Samsung’s microsite, highlife.fr .  It uses Flash the right way - showcasing the products, and not flash for flash’s sake.  You find yourself longing to be in a Samsung world, filled with mostly unnecessary electronic gadgetry.  Or at least it does to me

This reminds me of good site for reviews and ratings on Mostly Unnecessary Electronic Gadgetry.  Retrevo.com is an online clearinghouse that offers reviews and ratings from thousands of expert and user reviews.

Wondering about where NOT to buy digital cameras and other electronics?  This site is a great place that weeds out all the shady shopping sites out there, like “bestpricecameras.com” (watch the “Product Reviews” section of this blog soon for my current horror story).  Sheddingsomelight.com was born from a few burned consumers, but actually tries to be as impartial as possible when describing the companies listed.  As well as revealing the many aliases of the same shyster companies, it sheds light on some of those shopping cart sites that always look reputable.  Beware, and do your homework!

NBC and Full Circle Entertainment are in the planning stages of a summer comedy based on the book “E”, by Matt Beaumont.

The reason this is breaking new ground isn’t that it is about an ad agency pitching to win business from one marketer and fighting to keep another whose account has gone into review. It is because it seems the network’s stance has changed from the traditional “off-limits” view on product placement for comedies and dramas -Full Circle Entertainment is searching for two advertisers for the prominent plot integrations. NBC refused product placement for its series “Las Vegas” in 2003 so as not to offend traditional advertisers, but now marketers are looking for ways to advertise on TV that DVR and time-shifters can’t skip over.

The original book’s characters are venal, bumbling, and very flawed - not the kind of that would be best to showcase valued brands, so the program’s producers will be viewing the brands as ‘pearls’, making the success of the characters.

I am looking forward to this comedy if it comes to fruition - its about time there was something for me on TV.

Egg.com, a UK credit card company now owned by CitiGroup, is axing its famous guinea pig ads it started running in 2005 (TV and print). If you didn’t already know, this was a great campaign, with kooky music, people dressed up in funny outfits and superimposed guinea pig heads.

Both creative and addicting, the idea was:
“Egg Money is so revolutionary we had to test it on guinea pigs and our TV commercials show you the outcome.”

Glassworks produced the videos, which can be seen on their site, but also this dude has the collected videos and magazine spreads available for download. Go on - you know you want to. These ads worked because people have an inherent distrust of actors on TV, but animals are innocent, right? And left in their ‘natural habitat’, the Egg card solved all their problems. Plus, the art direction was amazing - I mean not many people realize that guinea pigs don’t really have shoulders, but these guys were convincing. That can be attributed to this explanation given on Egg’s site:

The advert was filmed using actors wearing specially constructed guinea pig body suits with custom-made clothes. They were trained and choreographed by an expert in animal movement, to give them the correct body articulation associated with guinea pigs. The heads of real guinea pigs were filmed later, to match with the movements of the actors; these were then combined in post-production with the bodies.

What’s next for Egg? A dolphin named Raoul, jumping through a hoop to draw attention to Egg Card’s zero per cent offer with the strapline ‘You know where you are with Egg’.

I dunno. It doesn’t do anything for me. Reminds me of those old ‘Cadbury Bunny Audition’ commercials. There’s just no replacement that makes sense

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