Oh my word, If you have even the slightest interest in cars and have any sense of humour don’t miss the Top Gear Live world tour. Last night I was invited to the Launch of the event in Cape Town by the legends from TomTom and I simply can’t thank them enough. The whole evening was one big joyous occasion for me, as a Top Gear addict I don’t think I could have asked for more. On arrival I was given a tour of the stands, several manufactures launched cars at the show (for South Africa) such as Lotus and Volvo, more importantly though look above at the girls above that Audi Cape Town had for the show!. Pictured to the right is the wonderful Avish from TomTom,and I at the TomTom stand ( what a man !). There was a Gala dinner, then the main show, then Q&A with Jeremy Clarkson, then a tour backstage, all in all it was epic. In addition my great companions for the eve were the heads of Cellucity, Cape Union Mart and Due South, all bloody nice chaps doing great work. TomTom also kindly gave away tickets to tomorrows Cape Town show to 2 lucky winners but more on that another time. If your in South Africa or any of the other countries Top Gear Live is visiting I highly suggest you click here, find out when they are coming, then get in your cars, turn on your TomTom’s and make your way there, you wont be disappointed. p.s. I sat next to two of the great chaps than run Cellucity (SA largest independent mobile phone dealer) and check out what one of the bosses uses as his mobile phone (The cheapest Nokia you can buy, pic below) If you’re in SA click here to book tickets

If you’re very Jewish, now might be a good time to stop reading, as this post is all about the wonderment of Bacon, possibly man’s greatest discovery and a sure cure for next day hangovers worldwide. The above video is by the John St agency and is part of a large campaign for Maple leaf’s new re-sealable bacon packs. The campaign is called “The Republic of Bacon” and so far they have released several Viral ads on YouTube and TV as well as a dedicated campaign site (win free bacon there for a decade!) , and even a made up bacon national anthem. If you like the above ad, check out these two video’s: “The Proposal” and “Sorry”. Not sure about you but I’m off to make a fry up.

Apple just released all the details of their new tablet computer called the iPad. The short of it is its a 9.7 inch LED multi-touch screen computer, great for browsing, email, photos, video, music, games and eBooks. The iPad can run all the existing iPhone apps full screen and apps are being developed as we speak for its launch (Estimated 1st April in USA for WiFi version and 1st May for 3G version).

The iPad 3G is unlocked to any network and includes a deal in the USA for unlimited web use for $29.99 (offers are expected to be arranged for other countries in the future). Battery life is 10 hours and the iPad comes complete with built in speakers and mic as well as a 3.5mm headphone jack and 3 USB sockets.

Prices are as follows:

iPad

16GB

32GB

64GB

WiFi

$499

$599

$699

3G

$629

$729

$829

For pictures look below (click to zoom in). For full specs visit http://www.apple.com/ipad

         Sony Ericsson very kindly lent me their new Entertainment Unlimited branded phone called the Aino over the festive season and so I thought I would finally share with you my thoughts on it. To make things simple I have broken it down into my likes and dislikes. Likes: Firstly the Aino has a fab 3” hi-res touch screen, when the slider is closed the touch screen works very well allowing you to easily browse pictures, music, movies or radio. The keyboard and user interface are up the usual easy and logical to use Sony Ericsson standards. The phone also comes with a nice built in 8GB  Micro SD card, great Bluetooth headphones (great speakerphone too) and a very neat charging dock. It was also very easy to connect up to my laptop and sync all the contacts as well as working great as a mobile modem (wireless or wired took only a few minutes to set up). I didn’t get a chance to try out the Playstation 3 remote play feature, I’m more of an Xbox chap, but this feature allows you to stream music and films stored on your PS3 wirelessly to your Aino anywhere in the world !. Finally the Aino is also remarkably durable, after a couple of months heavy use it doesn’t even have a scratch on it.  Dislikes: The only slight problem with this phone is that the touch screen is for some reason deactivated when you slide out the keypad. Every person I showed it to tried to use the touch screen to navigate from around the menu, including me the first time. I guess once you know though you soon forget about it, but still think its a bit odd. The only other problem was when I first had the phone the software was very buggy, however after a week I updated it and now it’s been behaving nicely. Overall: A great phone if you want to get a touch screen / number keypad smart cellphone. The camera works well (see pics above) and as an entertainment unlimited phone I can honestly say its lives up to its name. More apps are constantly being released and the phone comes pre-loaded with facebook, Google maps and a nice selection of games. For full stats see below: Aino Touch Phone Specs

• 3 inch widescreen 16:9 touch screen and slide out Keypad
• 8.1 megapixel camera with Photo flash and intuitive touch focus, Video VGA 25fps
• Bluetooth™ stereo A2DP portable headphones included with docking base for phone/headphones
• 55MB Phone memory and 8GB MicroSD memory card included
• Remote Play for PLAYSTATION®3, Exchange ActiveSync®
• A-GPS with Google Maps™
• 3G HSDPA, Wi-Fi, (Quad-band GPRS/EDGE and tri-band HSDPA)
• Talk Time: 13 hours, Standby time: 380 hours
• Dimensions: 104 x 50 x 15.5 mm, Weight: 134.0g
• PlayNow™ arena and Track id, Built in Step Counter and GPS tracker
• DLNA Certified™ (connect wirelessly to other electronic devices via Wi-Fi. i.e: See your photos on your TV)
• Media Go: Transfer your files from PC to phone wirelessly & automatically when docked (using Wi-Fi)

Another fantastic commercial for Bud Light by DDB. This one is the follow up to the extremely successful swear Jar spot they made for Bud Light two years ago. This time the office is on a donate clothing drive and in exchange for any items of clothing donated they give you a Bud Light in return. I still prefer the Swear Jar ad but good fun either way.

Several people have recently sent me the above very popular YouTube clip that looks like an ad for Nolan’s Cheddar but its the Show work of a UK animatronics professional called John Nolan. John has done work for several films and adverts such as Harry Potter, Orange, Where The Wild Things Are, and T-Mobile. Pretty impressive work, check out his showreel here to see more. You can now be sure no mice were harmed in the making of this clip 

A crazy in love couple called Jeff and Erin may have just created the best “Save the Date” viral video I have ever seen and it’s becoming a huge hit on YouTube. The Couple who recently got engaged produced the fantastic clip above to encourage friends and family to save the date for their upcoming wedding (10-10-10). Love the video and as Jeff works for Canon now might be a good time for them to offer the happy couple a nice treat in return for a little tastefully done PR. Check out their website to read more at: http://www.jeffanderin.us/

Adidas originals (the select clothing section of Adidas) have just released a line of Star Wars branded items. To launch the new line they first created a online app that puts you inside the death star and lets to vaporise your friends via Google maps, and then send them the footage (click here to try it out). Secondly they added a collection of pictures of the products and some great Adidas/ Star Wars branded profile badges to their already popular Facebook page. Lastly they created the above ad to showcase some of the new rags by using stars such as Dave Beckham, Snoop Dogg and Daft Punk (Great soundtrack).

Especially love some of the artwork used in the badges below, and nice to see another company experimenting with some fun and easy digital work, so far the video alone has had almost 600,000 views in just 4 days.

Well done to the Sid Lee agency.

Now I’m off to the shops as have taken a fancy to the X-WING SAMBA shoes, would love it if i could get some samples (hint hint Adidas ) To have a look at the new clothes and find your nearest dealer go to: http://www.facebook.com/adidasoriginals

Lovely short spot for Shreddies UK featuring the return of the cereal knitting Nanas’. The above ad has been made to help launch a new scrumptious recipe. The ad also features a rather charming fellow in a convertible that likes to say “Well ding dong”. Good work from the guys and girls at McCann, London.

Axe and the wonderful people at BBH are at it again, this time showing men of the world that cleaning your balls can be fun and easily accomplished using the new Axe Detailer shower scrub.The spot features Jaime Pressly and is shown in a similar manner to a QVC spot but with an extra large helping of double entendres. Hilarious.

Recently a pretty famous golfer that some of you may know as Tiger “Love monster” Woods has been reported to be hiding out at the luxurious addiction treatment rehab clinic in Cape Town called Montrose Place. As a bit of tongue in cheek fun, Cape Town based agency King James placed the above print ad in the sports section of  the weekend edition of popular local newspaper, The Cape Argus. Love it. Hat tip: Paige Nick

Great work from agency Definition 6 who managed to create a Coke happiness vending machine and promptly placed it in a collage food hall area. The machine dished out random prizes to punters including pizzas’, a  20FT sub, flowers for the ladies, balloon animals and plenty of free Coca-Cola. Great work and really would love it if coca-cola could install one at our office, would make us very happy. The nearest I ever experienced happiness with a vending machine was at school for about 2 days when our coke one started giving £2 change if you put in £1, I managed to get about £40 before it was disconnected, good times.