Congratulations, Tarheels

Congratulations to the University of North Carolina Tarheels, 2009 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Champions.

Game highlights will no doubt be on YouTube shortly.

Meanwhile, two advertising-related observations from the game:

(1) Although they broke a first-half scoring record (55 points), Carolina did not score more than 100 points in the game, meaning that it won't be two-sausage-biscuits-for-a-dollar day at Bojangles tomorrow (explanation here, sort of. It's definitely a Southern thing.)

(2) Here are college basketball coaching legends Roy Williams, Rick Pitino, Bobby Knight and Mike Krzyzewski in their underwear, pimping Guitar Hero Metallica:

The UN model comes with simultaneous translation

The comments on this post have me thinking (not particularly original thoughts) about advertising.

As my age cohort has now entered what are alleged to be our peak earning years, I've gotten used to advertisements that have a strange resonance with me. :-) Advertisers have been taking dead aim at us fortysomethings for a while now.

The best example I've seen recently: Pontiac's commercial for the new G8; it's an extended homage to the 80s arcade game "Spy Hunter," which I fed plenty of quarters into back in the day.

Left unexplained, of course: why anyone would want to drive a sports car named after an international political and economic forum for the governments of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Next up, the Pontiac IMF and Pontiac UN.

The properly accessorized pig

"This ad, depicting a condomless pig, was rejected by Fox and CBS." (New York Times, June 18, 2007.)

It's a jungle out there

Sometimes, you've gotta fire the client.

(Hat tip: Greg.)

Mac and PC

Apple's "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" ads (starring John Hodgman and Justin Long in the US) are running in other markets too, with local actors playing the Mac and the PC.

I don't speak a word of Japanese, which is one reason I may find the Japanese ads the best.

The UK ads are pretty good, too.