Brian Laesch .com

We are halfway through June–about two and half weeks from the fourth of July. What do you do? What do you do? Summer is here. It is going somewhere. You better seize the moment. (Or maybe this is just what I’m telling myself right now.) Either way, enjoy these links from around the creative world, check out Marina del Rey-based Eleventh Hour, and then go outside and do something.

• Karate Kid won a, quite frankly, really weak box office this weekend, grossing $55.7 million.
• Two different studios are trying to talk Peter Jackson into directing “The Hobbit” films. At this point, it seems that we can expect these films in 2020.
• Hollywood Reporter: Boxoffice futures market gets green light
• AdAge: Japan’s BeeTV Draws Big Buzz by Only Broadcasting to Mobile Phones
• ADWEEK’s Ad of the day: ESPN’s “Power of 10″
• BRANDWEEK: Exxon Blogs About BP Spill
• Best Buy has released a mobile app that works in conjunction with the new 3D film Despicable Me to translate the speech of the “minion” characters in the film. I don’t know what the minion characters are, but it sounds cool.
• Mello Yello is back with a retro logo. (I didn’t know it was still around either.)
• Bud Light has crammed 32 fans (one from each country competing in the World Cup) into a house and “eliminating” them from the house when their team is eliminated. Should be interesting. Hopefully they checked criminal records.
• Speaking of the World Cup: The Internet Loves/Hates the Vuvuzela [Randomly Viral]

Brian Laesch is an independent blogger blogging for Marina del Rey-based recruiting/staffing agency Eleventh Hour.

This blog written for

Hope you had a good Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday. I only participated in one of the three. Can you guess which one?

After finally recovering from the Tryptophan (aspiring witty-types love this word; I only use it for search engines), I’ve decided to get back to work and post another edition of “Around the Creative World.” So here are your links for this Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009. (It’s hard to believe we’ve been through a decade of the 2000s.)

• Guess which movie won the Box Office this holiday weekend? You guessed it…Frank Stallone. I mean, Twilight Saga: The New Moon.
• You’ve probably seen this, but here is the Chinese news reenactment (using The Sims) of Tiger Woods’ recent accident. (Also featured in this morning’s Rundown.)
• Are you ready for MTV’s “Jersey Shore”? Taking back the word “Guido.” (There is nothing I can say that would add to the ridiculousness of this show’s cast members.)
• AdvertisingAge: How Will Accident Affect Tiger Woods’ Blue-Chip Endorsements?
• I have no idea which round we are in of the Verizon-AT&T “Battle of the Map,” but I’m really enjoying it. AT&T decided to relate to the Idiocracy crowd by responding with a campaign from the out-of-shape Luke Wilson. (Full-disclosure: I’m currently a member of “Team Verizon.”)
• Is this the future of TV? (I’m gonna be completely honest, I didn’t read this one. I don’t have time to read science fiction novels these days, unfortunately.)
• PETA loves trying to ruin Thanksgiving.
• Spirit Airlines wins the award for “Most Unnecessary Use of a Current Pop Culture Event in a Sales Promotion.”
• TechCrunch: Google Gives Publishers More Control Over How It Crawls Their News
• I think the CIA is probably following me on Twitter. (You know that Eleventh Hour is on Twitter, right?)
• Maxim magazine will not go gently. It is going to unleash hell in December! Oh…sorry. I thought I was Pittsburgh Steelers’ coach Mike Tomlin for a second.

On that note, I’m done. Try not to unleash too much hell this month. Enjoy the holiday season while it’s here. Recession, or not.

Brian Laesch compiled this list of links. It is the most important list of links that has ever been compiled.

This blog written for

I wonder what this guy does for money.

Today is Tuesday, November 17th, 2009. Did anybody watch last night’s Monday Night Football game (Cleveland vs. Baltimore)…?

Good, me neither. I’m going to go ahead and forget it happened, and imagine the Sunday Night Football game (Colts comeback against the Patriots) was the Monday night game. The mistake by the lake has major problems with their football team. I’m really glad I missed the game.

Anyway, that was just the obligatory small talk I like to throw out there before I get to the meat and potatoes. I like to treat my posts like the Regis and Kelly show (minus the housewife audience). I’d tell you some light stories about my weekend, but all I did was move. It wasn’t too exciting. Although, I did tweet that I think Budget Rental Truck is now better than U-Haul (based on price, at least) and a U-Haul representative on Twitter responded within a couple of hours, stating, “Next time you need help, let us show you how U-Haul is the better choice.”

Now that’s good brand monitoring right there. But unless U-Haul starts offering me the same 20% discount that Budget does, I beg to differ. At least, for my moving purposes, I just need the extra cash.

Here are the links:

• 2012 easily won the weekend box office, taking home $65 million domestically. It will be interesting to see what it does this weekend, after everybody discovered they were lured by an awesome trailer to a horrible movie. (I haven’t seen it…but I did see The Day After Tomorrow, which was the worst movie in the history of movies, let alone apocalyptic movies.)
• Speaking of This Week’s Sign That The Apocalypse Is Upon Us (shouts out to Sports Illustrated, y’all), Boyz II Men is back with a new album. (OK, maybe that was a bit  harsh. I bought Colleyhighharmony and bumped it in elementary school like everybody else. “End Of The Road” is the number one 6th grade slow jam of all time. Of all time!)
• CNN: Dictionary word of the year: ‘Unfriend’
• South Park spoofs the upcoming James Cameron biopic sci-fi epic, Avatar, with “Dancing With Smurfs.”
• “YouTube Direct” plans to make it easier for “citizen journalists” to get exposure with online and TV news outlets.
• Philadelphia Eagles tight end Brent Celek has a little bit of captain in him, $10,000 was donated to charity, Captain Morgan received great brand recognition, and the NFL still stands for the “No Fun League.”
• Oxfam and 15 Ideas of Chicago want to spread a very special message this holiday season: You should give a sh*t.
• Miracle Whip vs. Stephen Colbert. Who you got?
• Verizon vs. AT&T. This is getting good.
• Me vs. Twitter. Crickets.
• In closing, a U.S. Marine urges us to fight terrorism by fighting extreme poverty… This probably should have been the first link. Matter of fact, here is the video:

Brian Laesch compiled this list of links for Eleventh Hour.

This blog written for

After Chicago lost in the first round of the bidding for the 2016 Olympic Games, I spent the weekend entire weekend in deep though, sitting on the same rock and eating nothing. I didn’t sleep. I just pondered the meaning of life. And at the end of the weekend, I came away with a clearer conscience, and a view of the future eerily resembled ABC’s new one-hour drama, FlashForward.

Just kidding. None of that happened. But it does suck that Chicago lost.

Here are the links:

• Is Twitter ruining the Hollywood studio movie marketing machine? (I’ve been saying this for months. About time someone wrote an article about it.)
• Speaking of Hollywood, Zombieland won the weekend Box Office with $25 Million, and here’s a Twitter search that shows overall good comments about the film.
• Have I mentioned in the past…and don’t stop me if you’ve heard this before…but have I mentioned that Eleventh Hour is on Twitter?
• The United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is starting to crack down on blogger payola and celebrity Tweets. Bloggers will be required to disclose any money or free stuff received in exchange for endorsing a product. There goes my under-the-table endorsement deals with Ab Circle Pro, Time Life’s Golden Age of Country CD collection and the Snuggie. It was fun while it lasted.
• Who else thinks Bud Light Wheat sounds pretty good for tailgating this fall? (Full disclosure for the FTC: I did not receive free Bud Light Wheat beer for posting this…unfortunately.)
• BrandFreak.com: Twinkies are beating Coke and Pepsi in movie product placement, as of late.
• AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com is blowing up, with a book deal and a Universal Pictures deal. I hope they are required to pay a percentage to every family member who appeared in a photograph on their site.
• Are you ready to watch the end of the world, again, in a movie? From the Director of Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow (no…seriously) comes 2012. Maybe I’d find this more entertaining if I’d stop watching those late-night Earth history shows on History Channel. Here’s my tagline for the film: “Trust us, the special effects really do make for a good movie this time!”
• Are you ready for the “Battle for Milkquarious”? (I actually saw this actor’s real band play at The Roxy on Sunset one time. Not surprisingly, it was just as weird as this commercial. But I give the guy props for getting paid, if nothing else.)
• And, The Simpsons recently did a send-up to social media.
• Did I mention that Eleventh Hour is on Twitter?

Brian Laesch is an independent blogger but would not hesitate to become a corporate on…as long as he was still able to write exactly what he wanted.

This blog written for

Uh oh. It’s 09/09/09. You know what that means…

That movie 9 opens up in theaters.

Here are the top “creative” stories from around the web today, September 9th, 2009. (It’s not as scary when you say it that way.)

• DDB Brasil made a huge mistake (in my opinion) with this 9/11-themed ad for the World Wildlife Federation (you know, the group that stole their acronym from wrestling?): Tsunami.
• Allen Iverson just announced that he will sign with the Memphis Grizzlies via Twitter. Is this the first free agency sports signing announced first through Twitter? I can’t think of another…unless there’s an obscure arena football league player out there with 300 followers…
• Christina Warren, Mashable: New iPod Designs Leaked? [PICS]
• The Onion via Mashable: Teens Don’t Tweet Because They’re Too Busy Sexting [Satire]
• The Germans are starting another war…on traditional media. (Phew. That would have been bad…for the world, and for half of my ethnic background.)
• Did I mention that Eleventh Hour is on Twitter?
• Did I mention that I’m on Twitter?
• Vitaminwater is letting the consumer come up with the next flavor. (The kids call this “crowdsourcing.”)
• Some ‘Bruno’ ads are too racy for the subway in Hong Kong. (I forgot about this movie already. It’s still being released internationally?)
• Remember that long armpit-haired chick riding a bike with a dork behind her in that Boost Mobile commercial? Yeah, I hated that commercial too. Well, MSNBC agrees with me.
• In closing, I leave you with an Australian cheapskate, who kind of resembles Perez Hilton, trying to cut costs on a relative’s funeral and on the cost of a date.

Brian Laesch is a blogger for Eleventh Hour and really good at shooting a basketball.

—Written for Eleventh Hour—

Happy Monday from Eleventh Hour (a boutique agency specializing in the recruitment of skilled personnel).  As per usual, I’ve decided to provide some interesting links from around the “creative world.”  This pretty much encompasses advertising, marketing, entertainment, social media and anything else I find interesting.

You ready?  OK.

• The characters from Mike Tyson’s Punchout (minus Mike Tyson) are back, including Little Mac, for the Nintendo Wii.
• McDonald’s massive McCafe marketing blitz includes a “roadblack” on Hulu.  You know…because annoyances sell.
• Speaking of online ad interruptions, ShortTail Media’s D30 will soon be beta-testing traditional spots between web pages.
• Kool-Aid Man is back! In your face, Soda!
• Slap Chop remix may salvage the career of Vince Shlomi (the ShamWow guy).  Seriously, this remix is sick.  If I don’t hear it in a club soon, I’ll be disappointed.
• TBS wonders if you remember Borat.
• Did you know that tiny poor people live under the seats in your cars?  Yeah, it’s weird.  I had no idea.  Oh yeah…they also welcome the idea of a single McDonald’s french fry falling into their world.
• AdFreak’s Tweetfreak is up and running.  The amount of websites that expand upon the “Twitter experience” blows my mind…and makes me want to get out of the house more.
• Coca-Cola releases summer-themed cans.
• Current released another Twitter-themed video.  This one is about the celebrities on Twitter.  Again, after I saw this, I felt like getting out of the house more.
• CNN: “Standup comedy enters Twitter era” Me: “My head is going to explode.”

Brian Laesch can be found @blaesch.  Eleventh Hour can be found @11thr.

—Written for Eleventh Hour—

Obama’s Pepsi’s New Logo

We have a winner for the 2009 (this is the beginning of a 100 year run) Ultimate Pepsi Super Bowl Party Pack contest.  The contest is officially over.  Congratulations to Sam Littenberg-Weisberg for being the first to solve the riddle and comment on the correct blog: A week in Atlanta.

Shouts out to the runner-ups, Ann and Angie.  Sorry, ladies whose names both start with the letter “A,” you solved the riddle, but were too late.  Let it be a lesson for next year’s contest, when Pepsi launches their “Refresh Everything 2″ campaign.  (Not true.)

Thanks to everybody for playing.  Enjoy the big game and Refresh Everything with Pepsi! (This is how you sell out for swag…but in a good way.)

Also, special thanks to Pepsi and Tara for making this possible.

Brian Laesch uses his blog to give stuff away.  He’s a humanitarian, really.

I just found out via an unrelated Google Alert for “blogging position,” and a website called “Hypetrak,” that “Best Rapper Alive,” Lil Wayne is blogging for ESPN.  What?

Now I’ve listened to Lil Wayne mixtapes, so I know that he’s a huge sports fan (because during an interlude he states that all he watches is sports…and repeats this in the introduction of the blog).  But what I didn’t expect was the Michael-Phelps-inspiring-rapper to be so prolific with his blogging.  As Hypetrak puts it: “the clarity.”  I didn’t expect conversation about the Packers being his favorite team, Aaron Rodgers, Kurt Warner being a viable option for his fantasy team, and Federer and Nadal.  It’s pretty cool to hear a rapper with tattoos on his face talk about a broad spectrum of sports, including tennis.  Of course, being good at reaching a broad spectrum is why Lil Wayne sold a million albums in his first week.

I’m sure the allure will wear off…but his first post did it’s job.  All you have to hear is, “Lil Wayne is blogging for ESPN,” and you are off to ESPN.com, or googling it.  Just when you think ESPN can’t get anymore Hollywood…

But they will continue to become sucked in by Hollywood, since they are moving to LA soon.  And I guess you can’t really blame them, considering they were originally supposed to be an Entertainment and Sports network.  They are just now getting around to the Entertainment part, I guess.

Check out the Lil Wayne blog post here.

Brian Laesch is a commercially unsuccessful rapper and major sports fan.

—Written for 11thr—

Ever played Afro Samurai–a game that comes out January 27, 2009–on XBox 360 in a conference room at the Mondrian Hotel, overlooking the Sunset Strip in Hollywood?

No?

In your face!

Because I just did.

Sorry for dunking on you so early in the blog, but I just got back from a cool event put on by video game developer, Namco Bandai, to start some early buzz for a few of their unreleased games.

I took my brother because he’s more of a gamer than me.  Basically, I just own an XBox 360, and play Madden 2006 and NBA Live 2006 when I don’t feel like working.  I have a few other games…but that’s pretty much the extent of me as a “gamer.”

That being said, I really do like video games.  It’s just that I’m not the type who can sit down and play for hours.  To paraphrase Lil Wayne (for no reason), “I ain’t got time.”

But, I do “got time” to tell you that my favorite game there, that I played, was Afro Samurai–a game voiced by Samuel L. Jackson (also featuring The RZA) and based on the Spike cartoon of the same name, also voiced by Samuel L. Jackson.

The game looks just like the cartoon, and my brother confirmed with the Namco representative that this was because of something called “cel-shading.”  I looked it up on Wikipedia.  I’m not sure why they have to be all pretentious and spell it with only one L, but the effect looks really cool.  Make that, “coo.”

This game is awesome.  You go around as a Black Samurai with an afro, fighting people with samurai swords, while a cigarette hangs out of your mouth.  That may sound a little bit cliche (How?  I’m not sure…but it does.  Oh yeah, Wu-Tang.), but it still makes for an entertaining game, and I’m excited to check out the Season 1 DVD of the actual show that I received as well.

There is a very good chance I will buy this game when it comes out.  And not just because of this free event.  Well…maybe a little bit because of this free event, but mostly because it’s a lot of fun.  It’s very violent and graphic…but it’s a cartoon, which makes it one level of offensiveness below the black-and-white, Crazy 88′s scene in Kill Bill.  (I wasn’t offended.  I’m talking general population levels of offensiveness.)

It comes out January 27th.  It’s still in development, but the version I played looks great.

There were a few other upcoming releases at the event:

• We Cheer for Wii
• Narutu
• Active Life Outdoor Challenge
• National Geographic Panda (an educational game for Nintendo DS)

(My apologies to Namco Bandai if I missed any, or butchered titles.)

The only other game I played was We Cheer for the Nintendo Wii.  I ain’t scared.  I’ll even admit that the game was pretty fun.  But every game on the Wii is fun.  So don’t start assuming that I played with Barbies as a kid or something.  You want to fight?  I’ll punch you in the face! (I have to throw stuff like this in, to balance out the fact that I played We Cheer, and don’t have a girlfriend.)

All in all, It was a successful event at the Mondrian.  Props to LAImposter for hosting it.

I also want to link to some fellow bloggers I met there: iJustine and i need to stop soon.

Low quality screenshot via iPhone

Brian Laesch is now a professional video game reviewer who works for one Heinken, a glass bottle of Coke, free food and free video games.  He never complains when he gets this stuff for blogging.

At the Mixergy event at Eleventh Hour last night, somebody suggested they would like to see more on our blog related to recruitment. Even though this is “the world beyond recruiting,” I decided to peruse YouTube for something relevant…or at least, something kind of relevant. I ended up finding something only relevant because it has “temp” in the title. And the title, “It’s Hard Out Here for a Temp,” is probably the only thing funny about this video. Still, I thought the effort was worth posting.

Actually, that wasn’t really funny at all. Funny concept, but not a great execution. And it definitely was NSFW, or appropriate for a professional blog. It didn’t even parody Hustle & Flow, or the song, “It’s Hard Out Here for a…. I think I’m digging myself a bigger hole here. I think I just got fired from this blog for posting this video–so I’ll stop here.

Don’t forget the message though: It’s Hard Out Here for a Temp…unless you are temping with Eleventh Hour, because they hook you up. (Genius tie-in. I just got rehired.)

Brian Laesch is a professional blogger who believes videos parodying the world’s oldest profession are somehow acceptable.