Brrrr....it's a very cold and snowy minus 22 celsius with the wind-chill here in Toronto and more snow is on the way (yuck - it looks pretty but the stuff is a darn nuisance). It's definitely going to be a white Christmas here (luckily, thankfully & joyously I'll be spending part of the holidays on a beach). This will be my last post for 2008. I wish you all the very best for the Holidays and a very happy 2009.

Blip Boutique is sending around this funky and festive online card. It's very Blip. Thanks Mary & James!

Australian designer Luke Lucas creates original typography & striking editorial design. Check out the interview with him on Computerlove.

I'm finding so many good things to post today (this is my fifth post of the day). I'm actually not very busy (shhhh...don't tell my clients) so I have more time to look for goodies. This is Laurie Hill's Photograph of Jesus which won Getty Images Short & Sweet Challenge, which asked filmmakers to create a film using visual content from Getty's Hulton Archive in London. It's long, but do take the time to watch it. More info on Short & Sweet and other films are posted here.

It's a Wonderful Life is my favourite Christmas film. Did you know that it was a box office flop? I digress. Twist Image has "twisted" up a scene from the film and inserted a slew of Canadian ad references and product placements. Hilarious. Watch it here.

I LOVE this. LOVE. Watch it. Thank you AKQA. Found on AdRants.

This spot, by Saatchi & Saatchi Toronto for Evil Dead: The Musical, is making the rounds on the ad mag sites and ad blogs to much praise. I love zombies and zombie humor (I own a copy of Sean of the Dead and have watched it at least five times) but I just don't like this spot. I'm not a fan of the music, the film look or the vfx. People seem to like it, but it just doesn't work for me. I do however really like the print campaign they did back in May. Thoughts?

A link to this spot landed in my inbox from Julien Nantiec.

To me Christmas is synonymous Baileys. When I was little, I think 12 or 13, at Christmas time my mom would give me and my BFF Teresa Craig a little bit of Baileys mixed with milk in the fancy glasses. We felt so grown up and posh. Listen to Your Lips was created by Psyop via Stink and JWT London. Psyop says the brief was "to create a surreal, playful, and sensual visual interpretation of the Baileys taste experience. Sensual but not overtly sexual". Full credits and more info on the spot is posted here.

Admittedly, I'm a bit tired of this campaign (time to retire it I say). But these two spots, I Can Do Anything and Tree Trimming, are festive and utilize stop motion (love stop motion). Scooped from the quickies on Motionographer & updated thanks to Dek.

Graphic artist Dyna Moe (great site) has painstakingly reproduced scenes from Mad Men. Check the entire stream on Flickr including a Joan Halloway paper doll set and a Xmas card which are both available for purchase (cool). Found on Stimulant.

Birds for Treo is the latest from director Brian Lee Hughes via his Swedish pro co St Paul Film, Stockholm agency Garbergs and visual effects by Fido Film (so cute & evil those little birdies are). Treo is a fast-acting headache effervescent tablet which comes in handy when meeting your new girlfriend's parents for the first time or after your staff Xmas party (which I'm sure many can relate to this time of year). Trivia - the mom in this spot is Swedish singer Lykke Li's mom (love Lykke Li). More notes on this spot, full credits and some stills are posted here.

Speaking of social experiments (see post below), if you have not checked out Whopper Virgins yet, please do. I think it's amazing and it makes me want to eat a Whopper (mission accomplished CP+B).

Euro RSCG Chicago is sending this spot for Western Union around. Although I think it's entertaining and an interesting social experiment, isn't the "gift of cash" something you usually get from your grandma in the form of a personal cheque (that's what my Baba gives me - that and her yummy homemade raspberry jam) and not from a strange dude on the street?

"You know that feeling when you wake up in a basement with a massive gaping hole in your chest?" - how can you not love a spot that starts off this way? It's the latest campaign for Frank out of Mother, London. The four spots, Pablo, Bank Note, Cocaine and Heart, direct traffic to talktofrank.com. I'm pretty sure the VO is the voice of David Mitchell (Mark) from Peep Show (LOVE Peep Show - you can watch all the episode on this YouTube channel). Scooped from Boards.

There is something about Lego that is wonderful, no? The colours, the feel of them and the fact that you can make them whatever you want them to be - with a little imagination. Here's a simple and fun print campaign for Lego out of Blattner Brunner. Found on The Hidden Persuader.

Here's Psyop's latest for Nokia's new E71 via W+K Shanghai. Psyop directors are Marco Spier and Marie Hyon and I've requested a few words from them on how this spot was created. I hope to hear back from them in the next 24 hours. I'll put the extra info I get from them with the credits and stills that are posted here.

I love this 3-D billboard and the other executions for Ikea out of Zig Toronto. Simple idea that's well executed. ECD: Martin Beauvais; AD: Mark Puchala; CW: Geoff Morgan; Photographer: Matt Barnes. found via Creativity.

Bos Toronto and Trevor//Peter Communications put on these street stunts to promote Conference Day, part of Canada's first ever Advertising Week. The stunts are being followed-up by this print campaign photographed by Angus Rowe MacPherson. Conference Day, January 27th, features a great line up of speakers including Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, who suffered a rare stroke and temporarily lost partial function in the left side of her brain forcing the creative right side to blossom, Chuck Porter, architect Clive Wilkinson and Disney Media Labs' Duane Varan.

With the arrival of the holiday season, Lowe Roche and Lowe Worldwide have launched a festive campaign at StellaArtois.com. The site features a spot titled "Dove", created by Psyop, that tells the story of a master craftsman who creates a paper cut world. Also on the site visitors are encouraged to send their friends a star – an invitation to meet over a chalice of Stella Artois and download the patterns to create intricate paper ornaments that you can craft together to create your own festive decorations. Full credits and some stills from "Dove" are posted here.

For some time now I have been anxiously anticipating the launch of this new site for Diesel with video content created by my friends at Legs via Farfar (full credits are here). I urge you to make some free time to watch the films on the site. They are pretty out there, but in such a good way, not in that "weird for the sake of being weird" way. Congrats to GG, Adam, Gregory and Geremy for work well done (and I can't wait to see what comes next). x

Scrabble is the latest delight from PES. While you are on the PES site, check out their free festive fireplace screensaver. Found via Shots' Facebook page.

Uniqlo, the Japanese apparel company that swept the advertising award shows this year with its entertaining blog widget, is teaming up with the Cannes International Advertising Festival for a contest to select the official T-shirt of next year's festival. The design must be original and include a lion. While only one design will honored as the "official T-shirt", ten entries will be sold as T-shirts next summer in Uniqlo stores. Full contest details are here. This is good news as the only place I have worn my T-shirt from last year's awards is to the gym and to bed (it ain't sexy). Scooped from AdFreak.