LUCKY BRAND JEANS HOPPED ON the “Denim Highway” in an effort to promote the opening of 45 retail stores within the next 18 months.

For the next 6 months, Lucky will travel the country in a 1949 Flxible bus/interactive showroom that was built, designed and pimped out by the crew of MTV’s “Pimp My Ride.”

The “tour” bus drives traffic online to DenimHighway.com, a hub that will house original video, blogs, celebrity interviews, party pics and an interactive concert map where users can track the bus.

The article written by Amy Corr, can be seen here.

The iPhone — combination iPod, cellphone and pocket Internet device — went on sale at 6 p.m. Friday for $499 and $599, depending on storage.

According to USA Today, it didn’t take long for sales to hit eBay. As of 4:45 p.m. ET on Sunday, more than 2,600 iPhones sold for an average price of $775.03. The highest selling price: $12,500, for a Saturday sale through eBay’s “Buy It Now” feature, which offers items at a fixed sum.

After Shakira and Panasonic had recently agreed to extend their partnership for one more year until March 2008, the new advertisements were released in Latin America. Shakira will continue promoting Panasonic audio visual products, including Lumix digital cameras, the Viera plasma television, print, and point-of-sale poster advertisements.  The commercials were filmed in the Bahamas.

A flash version of the advertisement can be seen at the Latin American Panasonic website.  The commercial for the Panasonic Lumix digital camera can be seen by clicking here, and the Panasonic Viera plasma television commercial can be seen by clicking here. 

The commercials are elegant, beautifully done, and should be a hit.

The advertising face of Nikon digital cameras is Kate Moss:

And the face of Canon digital cameras is Russian tennis superstar Maria Sharapova:

The GEICO cavemen became a hit almost overnight.  The whole series of 30 second GEICO commercials are based on Cavemen who live in modern society getting agitated with homosapiens who treat them as unintelligent and idiotic.  Along comes ABC, they notice this entertaining concept and view it as a money making machine.  ABC plans to pay for the pilot and the making of the show called Cavemen which will supposedly air on ABC’s fall schedule.

Whether or not this show will be a hit remains to be seen.  But how long can this concept stay funny? How long can a Neanderthal Cavemen who gets offended by prejudice against its species, stay funny? Why does GEICO, who gave permission and will get a royalty check for ABC’s use of their characters, have to ruin such a good advertising idea with oversaturation?  Who knows?

Here is what GEICO’s VP of Marketing Ted Ward had to say about the idea:

 “We are excited to have an opportunity to do brand extension.”

Sure this sitcom will serve as a brand reminder.  But at what cost?

Below is a video clip of the show:

Also created by GEICO is an entertaining website dedicated to the GEICO Cavemen, in this site a user can interact with the GEICO cavemen and their crib.  You the user are an early arrival to a party, but you can walk around their bedroom, bathroom, read their books, watch their television, listen to their voicemail, (one of the messages is from girl who seems like a caveman stalker!), and finally read their blog.  Check it out, can be entertaining for a few minutes.

http://www.cavemanscrib.com/

Steve Job’s felt generous and gave ALL of Apple’s 18,000 plus employees the high-end model of the Apple iPhone which currently costs $600 dollars.  This $11 million dollar gesture by the CEO of Apple is not a a big deal considering the launch of the iPhone generated around $400 millions dollars worth of free advertising.