Wow, two posts featuring work from Australia in one day (that's a first). For the Outdoor Media Association's inaugural Australian Outdoor Awards, this billboard, on a Sydney highway, depicts the award show's logo made from 10,000 $1 lotto scratch cards--meaning the best outdoor of the year honoree can win much more than $10,000 if he or she is lucky (does that also mean it's a gamble to enter? - joke). The billboard is being guarded 24 hours per day. Agency is The Glue Society. The full story, with a video, is posted here. Scooped from Creativity.

This great ad has been floating around for a few weeks now, but the controversy around it has just been brought to my attention. Many people have applied, but many were also rejected to a glitch in the site's programming. Submissions have to be 60 seconds or less. The ones that got rejected were right on the 60 second marker and Queensland Tourism's technical system tacked on one or two seconds on the end automatically rejecting them. There are hundreds if not thousands of people being rejected because of it. Check out the site here. Agency is CumminsNitro Brisbane. Thanks to JN for the scoop.

My friends over at Holiday Films have just signed Adam Massey for Canadian representation. He just completed a spot for Trident (the first spot on his reel) that cracks my guy up every time he sees it. Nice VFX on those lips. My favourite spot on his reel is Draggus Posterioralis for Altoids which was shortlisted in Cannes last year.

The latest from Psyop is this dark journey into Dante's Inferno for EA Games. Dante's Inferno, headed-up by Psyop Creative Director and Partner Eben Mears, is almost two minutes long and Psyop says it's one of their most dense CG projects to date. Full credits, a selection of stills and more background on the spot and its production are posted here.

In Canada these spots for Milk, called dots by their creators at Head Gear Animation and Due North Communications, can be seem on TV and in cinemas all the time. Head Gear has created a ton of them, there are 67 on their site, and all are different and great in their own way. Check them out.

To me Easter seems like a long time away, but Cadbury started promoting their yummy creme eggs last week in this amazing Release the Goo campaign. Check out the ads on the site (I didn't have time to play the game). Maybe I'm demented, but there is something about suicidal creme eggs that really appeals to me. The blender one is my favourite because of its unexpected ending. Agency is Saatchi & Saatchi New York. Must go get one of those yummy eggs (I like them frozen).

Speedway for Sprint is the latest VFX creation from MassMarket via Goodby, Silverstein & Partners. Production of this spot involved creating all CG cars in a CG stadium and racetrack, with CG "light monsters" attached. Detailed VFX information and full credits are posted here.

Here's the latest from the Viral Factory for Samsung's new UltraTouch phone. 38 cute animals. What's not to love?

A number of Toronto-based ad folk have gotten together to create 100wishes.ca to raise funds for the Make-A-Wish Foundation's backlog of 100 wishes. I made a donation. You should too.

These two beautiful image spots, Ink and Rice, are the latest from Psyop via JWT New York for T. Rowe Price. Full credits are posted here along with some comments from Psyop Creative Directors Gerald Ding (Rice) and Mate Steinforth (Ink).

Toronto-based The Purchase Brothers (they really are brothers aged 23 and 25) have created a bit of a YouTube sensation over the week with their short film Escape from City 17, based on Half-Life, that they made for $500 (makes me wonder what I'm doing with my money). When it was posted on YouTube last Friday it garnered over 1/2 million hits in a 24 hour period, achieving the number one top-rated video of all time. By the end of the weekend the film surpassed a million hits and yesterday it registered No. 1 top viewed in the world. Watch it as a 640x360 QT here or on YouTube. The Purchase Brothers are repped by Sons and Daughters in Toronto.

I've been meaning to post a link to this site by interactive designer Paul Neave since Friday. I adore the television section so much that I spent at least ten minutes on it (I managed to get through all the content and back to the beginning). Check it out. Found via Motionographer.

Here is the latest from New York City based director Pugsley for Partnership for a Drug Free America (abovetheinfluence.com). The spot, titled Problem, is via McKinney, Durham (they have a cool new site) and Rabbit NYC. You may remember this equally creepy spot that Pugsley did a while back for Time out London. Full credits for Problem are posted here.

This year Valentine's Day is falling on the 18th anniversary of Toronto creative agency Lowe Roche. To celebrate they sent out Valentine's gift bags with a bottle of champagne (Veuve Clicquot - yum) with this card enclosed. Congratulations to everyone at Lowe Roche for 18 great years and thank you for the bubbles.

I love the French - their food, their wine, their perfume, their clothes and these quirky new spots for Volkswagen out of Agence V Paris directed by Tim Godsall (Les Télécréateurs / Biscuit Filmworks USA). View all four spots here. Full credits here.

Sky Arts and the English National Opera recently launched Sky Arts Opera Shorts, a unique collaboration with leading figures from the visual arts. This particular film, (my fav of the three) by Dougal Wilson, is a rendition of Largo al Factotum (here at your service to do or die) from The Barber Of Seville with a dash of stop-motion hair monster. Scooped & partially plagiarized from Motionographer. View all three films here. Agency is Cake.

This beautiful spot for Jordan Brand titled "Field Generals" broke last night. It's out of W+K NY, directed by MJZ's Rupert Sanders with visual effects by MassMarket LA. View here and full credits are here.

Lowe Roche Toronto has followed up their emotional broadcast spot for the ALS Society of Canada (also known as Lou Gehrig's disease) with this thought provoking print campaign titled No Signal. I like how the child-like theme was carried over from the TV to the print. One with a children's song, and the other with a children's game. The print campaign broke today in Canada's national newspaper the Globe and Mail. View all three executions as full credits (the the bottom) here.

I'm a huge fan of the 118 118 ads (the UK's 411). And I'm happy to see the lads are back, and in fine form, in this new spot Who You Gonna Call featuring the legendary Mr. Ray Parker Junior. Awesome (I don't say "awesome" often). "I ain’t afraid of no goats" - nice touch. Agency is The Brooklyn Brothers. Directed by Kinka Usher. Want more 118 118? Watch this, this and this.

For the past two weeks these teasers have been airing in Canada and generating quite a bit of talk and hits to peerintoasoul.ca (check out this shout out on Toronto's Breakfast Television). The campaign is created by Publicis Toronto for the new Kia Soul and the full length spots broke today. I like how each spot is born from a specific film genre - Cabin, the horror genre, is my personal fav. View them all here. The campaign is directed by Untitled Films' Mark Gilbert with post production by Rooster. Full credits, campaign info, some words from Mark Gilbert and the print campaign are posted here. Trivia: the DP, Robert Yeoman, shot The Royal Tenenbaums, Life Aquatic, Drugstore Cowboy and The Squid and the Whale.

For those of you who read glossy regularly, you'll know that I'm a fan of Yay!Monday. This week I took time to enjoy Heimo Photography. Images 1 Book 1, Images 2 Book 1 and Images 2 Book 3 were my favs.

I stumbled across this spot from Vancouver's Rethink on Ads of the World (not sure who directed it). Who doesn't love the "do" and "don't" pages in the backs of mags? But the end tag (the white slate) just doesn't seem to fit with the rest of the spot. Don't be a Don't is for vitamindaily.com (like a Daily Candy for Canada). Oh & I see my friend Daniela's new killer shoe store is in the Toronto section of the site (little plug for her).

It's been a busy few months for Todd & Kylie over at Psyop, Los Angeles as they've had two spots for Coca-Cola released over the past two weeks. First is Heist, which you've probably seen as it aired during the Super Bowl, and there is also this new installment in the Happiness Factory series, Happiness Factory 3 Yawnbusters (I love Wendy's cowgirl outfit - nice touch). Agency is W+K Amsterdam and full credits are posted here.

It's my birthday today - I like birthdays & silly things. So in honor of both I'm posting this amazing Christian Bale remix that Shots Mag posted on my wall on Facebook. Enjoy.

Biscuit Filmworks' funny man Clay Weiner is the director behind these two Never Hide films, Disco Ballers and Green Screen Guy, for Ray-Ban via Cutwater San Francisco. Clay is also the director behind past viral successes Bud Light Dude and the hilarious"Mom" films The Christmas Tree and The Phone Call for HBO Comedy.

I have something to confess. I never watch the Super Bowl. I always wait until the day after the game to check out all the TV commercials. I'm about to get a big cup of tea and watch them all on AdvertisingAge's site. Then I'm going to watch Bob Garfield review them and later today I'm going to check out AdLand where they have an amazing archive of 37 years of Super Bowl Ads.