McDonald's have launched a new campaign to name their new burger. Yes I know its so exciting that why are they offering a $20,000 prize when the act of naming a burger should be the prize itself.

Another promotion running where consumers are giving the power to determine product decisions is Master Foods' Dolimio pasta sauce promotion. Wow and you thought naming a burger was fun!

Doritos did this earlier as did Pepsi when they let people design their cans.

And speaking of McDonald's I thought I'd throw to these great posters for McDonald's in France done by illustrator Andy Smith. I'm not sure what they say but I probably wont eat at Quick Hamburger when I'm in Paris next time.

The Simpsons movie is 8 days away (I would say how great it is but I've been told not tell anyone I've seen it) and we're heading into the biggest marketing push Fox has ever done. So big they have put together a website to showcase the promotions. See Yellow.

What's not on there is the new Simpsonize Me tool for Burger King. Just launched by CP+B.

Now it's a little rough around the edges (read: buggy) but when it does work it's actually pretty cool. Uploading a face definitely takes the grunt work out of creating a character.

Here's me Simpsonized. I had to adjust the hair but it's a pretty good likeness. It's even captured my terrible fashion sense. I also Simpsonized myself age 80. As you can see I no longer wear glasses and my ears are bigger but I've now got a great sense for fashion. I look forward to my Versace days to come in my 80's.

What's confusing is that the official Simpsons site has their own Create your own Simpsons avatar tool. Here's the Simpsons character I created a few weeks back. To launch two similar online initiatives seems a waste and also takes the allure off the BK one.

What's missing from both is a gallery function. I want to see other people's characters. I want to see them all in a huge crowd shot. I guess I'll have to browse the Flickr groups and fan forums for my fix.

And and if you dial you age in at 200 this is what you get. Don't do it as you have to upload your photo again after.

As for what else is happening outside of what's mentioned on See Yellow, there is also:

Harpers Bazaar:
This great Simpsons Harper's Bazaar spread. That will tickle the fashionistas.

Vans:
Twelve artist inspired limited edition Simpsons Vans. That should keep the sneaker freaks happy.

Samsung:
Samsung are releasing a Limited Edition Simpsons mobile. This and the Yellow XBOX 360 will keep the tech geeks happy.

And finally we have the Limited Edition Donut Packaging for The Simpsons Movie soundtrack. Now trust me when I say that you will be singing the Spiderpig theme when you leave the cinemas. This will keep me happy at least.

Both Samsung and Vans should have created official sites for these promotions. Their corporate sites (Vans | Samsung) don't even mention these at all. You can't rely on bloggers as your only form of information distribution!

Even more detailed info can be found on Wikipedia.

From Grand Union [UK] comes Private Dick Movie

It's a mock 70's porno. You could say a "spoof" but that word has a different meaning in the world of porn.

This is the latest work for the Department of Health, the previous campaign (one of my favs) can be seen here & here.

We'll post up the banner campaign for this soon.

And if the world of porn is something of interests you, then you might want to check out Ron Jeremy's The Hardest (working) man in Showbiz Rob at Soap is currently reading it and says it's a great read.

The press release explains this better than I can:
"Celebration Dance is where football fever meets Saturday Night Fever. Choose a Socceroos player and make them move. Pull off a star celebration dance routine and hear the crowd roar."

The 3D is a little uncanny valley for me but well animated. I would have also liked an endurance mode but like most people you only have a minute to spare for these things so the short gameplay works I guess.

I actually didn't even know there was an Asian Cup. So hopefully no dodgy Italian type team to steal a victory :)