1. The 20 Most-Viral Ads of 2012 (So Far)
2. Infographic: Advertising People Are Hopeless Social-Media
    Addicts
3. Martin Agency Staffer Gets Marriage Proposal via Banner Ads
4. Guinness Turns a Submarine Into a Branded Underwater Bar
5. Condom Maker Asks Women What They Won't Put in Their
    Vaginas
6. Guinness QR Cup Reveals Scannable Code When Full
7. Keep Your Kitten or Puppy From Becoming the Town Whore
8. This Mother's Day, Literally Pay Your Mom Back for Her
    Pregnancy and Labor
9. Depressed Copywriter Alters Ads for Maximum Self-Loathing
    and Despair
10. Tiny Man Frolics in Giant Cleavage in Fiat Ad

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Friskies is taking aim at the national "CATastrosphe" known as Cat Boredom, or CB. "There's nothing more tragic than a blasé cat," Chris Parnell explains in the video below. So true. Luckily, Friskies has a plan. It's so simple—how did no one think of it before? Thanks to AFG& (formerly Avrett Free Ginsberg) for this important addition to the Internet's somewhat sizable collection of cat videos.

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QR codes have been exhibiting an uncharacteristic characteristic lately—they've been not sucking as much. We had the Korean retailer's 3-D sunlight-activated QR code, which was scannable only at lunch, when the shadows lined up. Now, we have this Guinness QR code on a beer glass, dreamed up by BBDO New York. It's literally activated by the product—you pour a Guinness into the glass, and the beer's black color fills out the code. (Those inferior amber-colored beers are useless here.) Scan the code with your smartphone, and it "tweets about your pint, updates your Facebook status, checks you in via Foursquare, downloads coupons and promotions, invites your friends to join you, and even launches exclusive Guinness content." In a pinch, it might even send out an SOS signal if you happen to be stuck on the Guinness submarine. More images after the jump. Via @TheSmarmyBum.

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Walmart's "Get on the Shelf" contest, which saw more than 4,000 inventors and small businesses compete for the chance to get their product into Walmart stores, has wrapped up, and the winners have been announced. They are: HumanKind Water, PlateTopper and SnapIt Eyeglass Repair Kit. Wait, really? Huh. Well, at least two of the three are ethical companies. HumanKind gives 100 percent of its net profits to organizations that provide access to clean drinking water in underdeveloped communities worldwide. And PlateTopper—a plastic gizmo that covers food on plates, replacing plastic wrap—donates to the anti-bullying campaign Jaylen's Challenge. SnapIt offers no such pretensions, but that also means they'll spend less time talking around their decision to work with retailers as unethical as Walmart. See ads for all three products after the jump.

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With their fluffiness, big trusting eyes and adorable attempts to learn how to operate their oversized paws, kittens and puppies are the essence of the word squee. But take that fluffy kitty or puppy and multiply it by six. Now, you need to provide a load of living creatures with veterinary care, food and water, love and attention, space—and let's not even talk about the number of litter boxes or walks in the park necessary to corral the byproducts of six adorable poop machines. The solution, for many, is a pit stop at the local overcrowded animal shelter—or worse, alongside a highway.
     Most people do spay or neuter their pets. Utah-based Best Friends Animal Society says more than 80 percent of pet owners jump on the snipping bandwagon. But Best Friends says there's still a lot of confusion about when animals should be sterilized (at 4 months old). So, with the help of TM Advertising and MRM in Salt Lake City, it launched the Fix at Four campaign. The creative features furry friends as they face the daunting task of parenting much too soon. The campaign, created with a bare-bones budget, spans video, TV spots, online ads, merch, posters and screensavers, all housed within a website centerpiece that utilizes a cutting-edge continuous scrolling navigation technology called Parallax.

     "Given the fact there was very little money involved, there was a tremendous number of resources and offices and production companies, artists, illustrators, editors, musicians and artists helping with this," says Bill Oakley, TM's chief creative officer. "We told them we had very little money; it was pretty remarkable how many people said yes. Lots of expensive talent gave up their time and effort for these."
     Among the stars of the PSAs are Modern Family's Eric Stonestreet, Oscar-winning actress Linda Hunt and musician Paula Cole. The spots are lighthearted—not a single crying puppy behind jail bars to be seen. For example, one of the "Fix at Four" PSAs uses a plot twist to make it appear as if a harried father is trying to keep a bunch of horny local boys from impregnating his young daughter.
     "We purposely made them lighter," Oakley said. "When I see those Sarah McLachlan commercials, I turn them off. I can't even watch them."

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What if reincarnation were like buying an app? Would you be able to afford the premium version, or would you have to settle for an ad-supported afterlife? Could you pay the monthly licensing fees on memories that involve copyrighted material? These are the entertaining and mildly haunting questions posed by British tech humorist Tom Scott (who also recently launched the popular Klout parody tool Klouchebag.com). Scott's new video imagines a login process for the newly deceased, who find their consciousness uploaded into "The Life Network." If you had plenty of money in the bank, you can be reborn as an attractive immortal with a dizzying intellect. For the working class, there's the advertising-supported option, in which the sky is slathered in ads and "your personal brand preferences may be altered to align with those of our sponsors." Then there's the "value option," which makes reincarnation start to sound like more of a living hell. Via Geek.com.

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The Depressed Copywriter blog makes my brain ache with angsty self-awareness and vague postmodern loathing for the commercialized world. I think. Four writers, fresh from a two-year masters program at the VCU Brandcenter, alter actual advertising and news copy, producing grimly humorous, pointed and at times even poetic results. In most cases, the changes are minimal—a few words added or replaced via torn bits of paper or crudely scribbled-in pen. In an ad for a Bluetooth earpiece, the text, "You move. It adapts" gets a new conclusion: "It's a pandemic." Another is headlined: "Behind Amway products there's a slave story," the penultimate word being the lone addition. A DirecTV ad reads, "You know what will make your girlfriend happy? Someone else." The fact that these folks are seeking real jobs in the industry drives the project's meta factor off the charts. They've brilliantly revealed somber, soul-crushing truths behind the kind of work they hope one day to create for huge paychecks—before their careers have even truly begun. They deserve raises! Or pink slips. Maybe both. Or neither. Am I overanalyzing? Man, I'm depressed. Via Co. Create.

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The 10 most-read AdFreak posts from the past week:

1. Colle+McVoy Enlists Timesheet Slackers for Motivational Posters
2. Infographic: Advertising People Are Hopeless Social-Media
    Addicts
3. Billboard Likening Climate Change Believers to Unabomber Is
    Taken Down
4. Martin Agency Staffer Gets Marriage Proposal via Banner Ads
5. This Mother's Day, Literally Pay Your Mom Back for Her
    Pregnancy and Labor
6. Cee Lo Green Creates a Purrfect Meow Mix Remix With His Cat
7. Ikea's Porta-Potty Is the Tardis of Toilets
8. Minnesota Man's Desperate 'Hire Me!' Billboard Actually Works
9. Solar Power: It's Not Just for Hippie Freaks Anymore
10. Domestic Violence Billboards Let Passersby Drag Away an
    Abuser

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JWT Atlanta's new campaign for the Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation is a passion project for outgoing CEO Rob Quish, whose 19-year-old son Will was diagnosed with cancer at age 11. Will is cancer-free now and a freshman at Boston College. But the experience inspired Quish to join the PCRF's board, and now his agency has created a TV spot and a Facebook page to raise money for the organization. Central to the pro-bono campaign is Boston Red Sox pitcher—and cancer survivor—Jon Lester. The TV ad, directed by Picture Park's John Huet and shot at Fenway Park last September, uses the enormity of the stadium's towering left-field wall to illustrate the prevalence of childhood cancer. At one point, the wall appears covered with white baseballs. "Each ball represents a child diagnosed with cancer—over 125,000 in the last decade," Lester explains, before firing a ball of his own to break down the wall. It's a powerful image. The white balls, which are embossed with the letters NVRQT, short for "never quit," also appear on the Facebook page as a mechanism for soliciting donations. Other shops that worked on the campaign include special-effects house Hydraulx and media agency Mindshare. Quish and Lester (above) unveiled the effort at a Fenway Park press conference this week.

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Given its name, ad agency Mother has a daunting responsibility when it comes to Mother's Day campaigns. This year, it has launched a suitably heroic effort—a campaign to help moms literally get paid back for those nine months of hell known as pregnancy and the agony of labor and delivery. The American Coalition for Labor Reparations, set up by Mother, has a very helpful form where you can "calculate and repay the expenses you incurred as a fetus." These include, but are not limited to, a base labor fee (for the hours spent trying to push you out of her body); embarrassment, weight gain and emotional instability during pregnancy; and stretch marks and navel disorders discovered later. There are other costs, and a few possible deductions, so please read the form carefully. Mom deserved better than this. Now you can make things right.

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