Kim Kardashian is following in the noble footsteps of Audrina Patridge, Padma Lakshmi, and Paris Hilton, for another lovely little saucy number from Carl’s Jr, for their new Chicken salad. (You can’t go wrong with salad cream dripping out of Kim’s mouth !) This time the ad was done by Mendelsohn Zien, LA. They also created a nice behind the scenes video (click here to see that), and they are also running a competition via Facebook to win a lunch date with Kim on the 13th of January, to enter click here.

Check out this brilliant idea in the above video from agency Mother, London. I wont spoil it too much for you, but it involves an innovative way of giving away $10,000 and a happy ending. (seen via: Brand Architect)

Have just been sent this fantastic creative print campaign for the Russia Today News (RT News), courtesy of the fantastic ladies and gentlemen at McCann-Erickson, London. (Click on the relevant picture for the full size) As the name suggests, RT News have a different perspective on world events. So the breaking print, poster and online campaign encourages consumers to question the somewhat narrow, accepted view on the news.  Congratulations for some great work to Jamie, Harriet, David C, James and Melissa, Kasia, Aidan, Tim & Miguel, Mark (Carter), Jon, Gary T, Colin, Sophie, Pam and Emma Storer. To see the 2009 highlights reel from McCann-Erickson Click here.

Thought I would share two great must reads with you today. The first is a study commissioned by the Wall Street Journal on the 2010 global ad spend. The basics are that there will be a small rise in spending but magazines and radio spends will see a small drop. The winners are; digital spends (+11.6%), TV (+2%), and Outdoor (+2.1%). Lucky I do digital work then.

The second must read is the latest Contagious report of 2009. The report lists the most talked-about trends and technologies to have influenced global marketing over the past 12 months, its a pretty essential read if you want to know what works and what doesn’t.

To download it either click the image above or Click here.

Google recently released this presentation showing 87 digital campaigns and creative ideas that they think have stood out for 2009. Most of the examples make use of the YouTube or Google Maps API but all are pretty good examples of how to WIN.

Almost forgot to write about this little beauty from Brisbane-based advertising company Play TV, which was submitted to an online competition to find a new Yaris car ad by Saatchi & Saatchi Australia for Toyota. The ad features some classic / classy lines like “I hope I haven’t come too prematurely” and “she can take a good pounding in any direction”. Needless to say it won the competition but didn’t manage to air for long as petty people with no humour / wit started to complain. They couldn’t stop the ad from spreading virally via YouTube etc though, and its now become a huge success. Congrats to all involved and what a fab outing in the digital world for Toyota Australia, this amount of exposure would normally cost a fortune !

Had a great catch up coffee session in Soho yesterday with all round gentleman & legend Steve Clayton from Microsoft. After our meeting Steve suggested while I was in the area to check out the Lazarides Art gallery. If you like Banksy you will love the gallery and the other works on display here, check out the slide show above for a look, and if your in London just go visit them on Greek Street.

UK Pet food brand Go-Cat, owned by Purina recently launched this humorous campaign featuring a free-running cat called Bobo. They also set up a dedicated Bobo page on their main website for the campaign. My cat would whip Bobo in a free running match any day, but nice try and good to see cat free-running getting some press. Agency: DDB, London.