Blogads, Wieden+Kennedy, and ABC have been presented with the Internet Advertising Competition’s “Best Advertising Online Ad” award for 2013.

The award was given for a series of interstitial ads on PerezHilton.com that responded to reader behavior and tied into the theme of ABC’s “GCB,” which features former nemeses who hide their disdain behind the veil of Southern charm. The show starred Kristen Chenoweth and was produced by Darren Star (of “Sex and the City” fame).

If a reader wanted to tweet a PerezHilton.com story, a pop up reminded them “Thou Shalt Not Tweet More Than 140 Characters.” Other behavior on the site prompted similar commandments, such as “Thou shalt not look at sexy photos” or “Thou shalt not covet another man’s wife” when viewing stories about attractive married celebs.

A big congratulations to our sales, programming, design and project management teams for their work. Thank you IAC!

Blogads joins other IAC prize winners in other categories including The Coca-Cola Company, Target, Huge, and CNN.

[Image via reactiongifs.com]

The blog, “Best Ads Ever,” hasn’t posted a new ad since October 2011. Does that mean the last ad they posted is truly the BEST EVER?

No! Here are the best ads ever — since October 2011 — according to the rest of the blogosphere.

1. Best Ad. Ever. EVER!!!!!!!! (Why Advertising Sucks)

2. Best. Technical College. Ad. Ever. (Brent Rose, Gizmodo)

3. Perhaps The Best Ad Ever (Rob Schwartz, Forbes)

4. War on Women: Best Ad Ever, Courtesy of MoveOn.org (karoli, Crooks and Liars)

5. Dollar Shave Club: The Best Ad Ever? (The Hollywood Gossip)

6. Best Commercial Ever? Could be. (Waylon Lewis, elephant journal)

7. Friday Flick: Best Ad Ever? (Jeff Alworth, Beervana)

8. Best Boat Ad Ever (Kim LaCapria, The Inquisitr)

9. Best Ad EVER! “I Want To Be Addicted To Rollerskating, Not Crack!” (Greg Kretschmar, 100.3 WHEB)

10. Best Dog Commercial Ever: Volkswagen Bark Side – Super Bowl 2012 (Tails, Inc)

11. Is This the Best Craigslist Ad Ever? (Terri Pous, Time Newsfeed)

Thinking of leaving a comment on one of Perez Hilton‘s posts? Today, there’s a commandment for that.

To promote its controversial comedy-drama GCB, ABC is running a series of interstitial ads throughout the popular gossip blog, featuring tongue-in-cheek commandments related to reader behavior.

The show, based on the book “Good Christian Bitches,” is full of religious imagery and references, including the tagline, “Love Thy Neighbor,” making this ad campaign divinely inspired indeed.

For example, click through from page 1 to page 2, and the sexy pop-up will deliver the commandment, “Thou shalt not waste any more time at work.” Other commandments are hidden throughout the site, including rules for Tweeting and sharing on Facebook.

Feeling sinful? Visit PerezHilton.com today through March 4 and let the Commandments of GCB guide you.

The Planned Parenthood Action Fund grabbed prime real estate today — at exactly the right moment!

As news of the President’s decision to compromise on his controversial birth control announcement unfolded on Daily Kos today (see three screenshots below), Planned Parenthood’s bright pink ads ran right alongside the story. The ad takeover and fully-clickable background skin encourages the active readers of Daily Kos to voice their support of women’s access to birth control.

Seeing little green men on your favorite political blogs today? No need to adjust your monitor for this takeover. Frontline is advertising their new special, “Nuclear Aftershocks,” on Daily Kos, Power Line and Wonkette with fully clickable skins and embedded promo videos. This gorgeous execution should make other advertisers a little green with envy.

Click on the images to see the executions at full size:

To civilian gamers and journalists, the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 commercial starring Jonah Hill and Sam Worthington is an instant classic. The video, by 72andsunny, features the two A-list movie stars gleefully battling their way through war-torn New York geared up with army vests and kick-ass weaponry. When Tim Nudd featured the spot in November as the Adweek Ad of the Day in November, the video had already amassed 2 million views on YouTube.

But to writer and Afghanistan vet DB Grady, the commercial is “hideous.” “The advertisement trivializes combat and sanitizes war,” Grady wrote in the Atlantic. He invites readers to think about the “stupidity” of the commercial as he describes the real-life heroics of a real-life soldier in a real-life war. And he makes a valid point. On some level, the ad trivializes and sanitizes the perils of real warfare. And it’s not the first Call of Duty spot to do so. 2010’s Black Ops ad from TBWA\Chiat\Day offers a similar interpretation of the “There’s a soldier in all of us” slogan, with normal looking people (and Kobe Bryant and Jimmy Kimmel) waging war in street clothes.

AdFreak’s David Gianatasio suggests that the Modern Warfare 3 video isn’t even the most santized version of war being sold to the public. “The violent though admittedly sanitized action,” he writes, “might even be slightly more indicative of the actual Army experience (and in some ways seems no crasser) than the military’s rah-rah recruitment campaigns that tout technical training and college tuition while steering clear of bloodshed and body bags.” Geoffrey Tim of lazygamer agrees: “it’s not as if Call of Duty or other similar shooters make the military more glamorous than real-life recruitment propaganda.”

But gamers know the difference between fantasy and reality, right? GameKudos’s Joseph Regan says he had no question about the ad campaign’s intended tone:

Personally, when I first saw the ad, I saw it as intentionally camp, not a genuine attempt to make battle look fun. But all the same, his points are valid and he has made it clear enough his only beef is with the commercial itself. Still, it begs the question- how would we sell a game about war unless we made war look fun? And furthermore, if we’re worried about that, should we even be making games about war in the first place?

As of today, the commercial, entitled “The Vet & The n00b,” has been viewed over 20 million times on YouTube and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 has sold over 20 million copies for both XBOX360 and PS3.

These phones aren’t for media geeks. Or social mavens. Or tech ninjas. They’re for you. And your pretty face.

Kudos to Mullen for breathing real life into these ads. Like last year’s Dear Sophie spot by BBH, they treat our new relationship with technology like the fact of life that it is. We’re no longer surprised that we can do these fantastic things with our phones. Welcome to the future, George Jetson.

Calling All

Smile

More ads from this campaign on adsoftheworld.com: Bohemians | Social MCs

Here are our favorite Blogads from 2011:

Current TV – Countdown and The Young Turks

Why we love them: When Current TV launched the revamped Countdown with Keith Olbermann, they embedded custom videos that spoke directly to the readers of specific blogs. For maximum reach, they also made the ads tweetable. The campaign was so successful that, 6 months later, they took a similar approach for their newest show, The Young Turks.

Here’s a sample of the videos that ran in the ads:
Keith gives a shout out to Alternet readers
Cenk says hey to Crooks and Liars readers

Lawyers.com
Agency: Definition 6

Why we love them: These are classic Blogads that do everything right. With simple and provocative (and funny!) images placed over link-rich text, they provide a lesson in Blogads 101.

Modcloth.com – “Dresses that Impress!”

Why we love them: With multiple text links and subtle animated GIFs that showcase different products (or sometimes just the front and back of the same dress), Modcloth are masters of creating Blogads that impress – and work. We especially love the text-as-navigation technique. Each link at the bottom of the ad goes to a very specific page.

For more ads from Modcloth and other fashionistas, check out our great fashion ads page.

Mizuno Wave Rider 15 – “What if Einstein Ran?”
Agency: Media Two

Why we love it: As the animation gets going, we’re captivated by the science-meets-sports aesthetics of the creative. Simple, but not too simple.

To see the full animation, check out our great sports ads page.

Julie Klam – “You Had me at Woof”
Riverhead Books 

Why we love it:  A recent study showed that a cute cat photo in an ad can get more clicks than one of a sexy model. This seems to hold true for cute dog photos, too. This simple ad did great, and the “tweet this” button helped the book reach new readers.

Arcade Fire – “The Suburbs”
Merge Records

Why we love it: This is a great case study in the quick turnarounds advertisers can expect with Blogads. Arcade Fire and Merge Records previously partnered with Blogads to launch The Suburbs album to the top of the Billboard charts.  Surprised by Grammy win for Album of The Year, they were able to quickly mount this campaign with Blogads to capitalize on the buzz with thousands of blog readers.

C.W. Gortner – “The Tudor Secret”
Ads by: AuthorBuzz.com

Why we love it: Subtle changes in an animated GIF are often more effective than busy flash ads. With multiple links in the text, and a call-to-action with a lot of options, this ad does GIF right.

To see the full animation, check out our great publishing ads page.

Looking for some creative inspiration? Browse our Great Ads from over the years!

image via stockshits.com

Camera Clara Photography, a studio in Brazil, has presented a clear choice for advertisers: Use a great photographer and get a great ad. Use a stock image and get shit.

Don’t believe them? Check out stockshits.com and see what could have happened if memorable ads had used forgettable stock photos.

(via Ads of the World)

It takes a really great ad to impress the advertising blogerati, who see and opine about every ad in every medium. Chipotle has a real winner on its hands with its “Back to the Start” video, which will soon be airing in US movie theaters. Here’s what 8 bloggers who have seen the best and worst our industry has to offer, think about the spot:

Darryl Ohrt, Brandflakes for Breakfast:

This new ad for Chipotle is beautiful. Or as beautiful as you could ever make the act of harvesting animals for food.

David Burn, AdPulp:

Chipotle is committed to sustainable farming. Willie Nelson is committed to sustainable farming. So it makes sense to feature Nelson covering Coldplay in this new stop-motion animated short film called “Back to the Start” that depicts a farmer’s journey to sustainable farming.

The Denver Egotist:

We’ve been hard on the work that BSSP and the internal team have done for Chipotle over the last several years because, frankly, it’s been pretty dismal for a Colorado brand that we quite like. This ad puts them on the road to recovery.

Gabriel Beltrone, AdFreak:

Willie Nelson wants you to stop drugging your pigs and smashing them into compact, easily shippable pork cubes. So does Chipotle. So, the country icon and champion of family farms covered Coldplay’s hit “The Scientist” for this two-minute-plus pseudo-PSA, commissioned by the sourcing-conscious burrito chain.

MB Quirk, The Consumerist:

In a combination we never would’ve thought would be so likable, Chipotle has enlisted the help of Willie Nelson covering a Coldplay song to make an animated piece that is anti-factory farming.

Morgan Clendaniel, Fast Company:

The refrain–“I’m going back to the start”–is meant to evoke Chipotle’s desire to take American farming to a healthier, more natural place. It’s amazingly animated by Johnny Kelly.

SylviaG, Great-Ads:

What do you get when you combine Willie Nelson, Coldplay’s song “The Scientist” and the Chipotle Mexican Grill? A captivating animated ad supporting sustainable farming.

Steve Hall, AdRants:

It’s beautiful and all. But we still kill pigs and eat them.