Everyone is raving about NeverWet, a spray-on waterproof coating that Rust-Oleum is manufacturing and distributing in North America in return for royalty payments. I didn't get what all the fuss was about, but then I saw the product demonstration video below. And, uh, holy crap. If any of this is legit, then NeverWet isn't so much hydrophobic as it is an ancient voodoo curse against liquids. Now if only they could rename it something that people could ask for in stores without blushing.

Australian yuppie hipsters … crikey, who better to pitch cars in Kia commercials? The answer appears to be anyone, judging by the pervasive negative reactions to the automaker's "Man of Now"/"Woman of Now" spots from ad agency Innocean. The spots popped up Down Under in January and were panned by pundits at the time, but they're just now gaining global traction (and fresh abuse) following recent airings during Wimbledon coverage on Australia's Channel 7. The Guardian, among others, asks if these might be the most irritating ads ever made, and warns viewers, "Once you've seen the spots, you can't unsee them, so be careful what you click for."

Each ad follows its subject through bustling city streets as the Man and Woman hurry to reach their Kias, extolling their own "virtues" in rapid-fire, brand-building beat poetry from hell. The "Man of Now" informs us: "I push the envelope, push a button, push a pram … push 'em real good. I wear the pants, I wear aftershave, I wear the blame … and I wear it well." Wow, I wonder how many roommates he goes through in a year. The "Woman of Now" confides: "I'm texting, typing, LOL-ing, OMG-ing, I'm digitally in touch, but not retouched. I'm a storytelling, canteen-helping, fundraising, muffin-making, party-going yoga lover." Hey, aren't we all these days?

This stuff's easy to criticize as smug nonsense. Yet, I'm not in the hater camp. Though it's largely unintentional (I think), the commercials actually do a fine job of both reflecting and skewering cultural modernism and revealing the shallow stereotypes that some self-styled "men and of women of now" have become. Viewed thusly, these ads are a hoot—irritating, yes, but also strangely compelling as warped signposts of the times we live in. (There's an ironic bit in both spots where the Man and Woman briefly bump into each other, but they're too self-absorbed to break their stride, too focused on their personal manifestos to really see the world around them.)

Kia has been a good sport, with a rep explaining that the campaign mirrors "the modern lifestyle—it's a metaphor," and adding, "Some people don't get it. You can't please everybody." The automaker even embraced a parody from Priceless Productions, which features a beefy rugby hooligan type who brags, "I spent $20 on my mum for Christmas. My haircut cost $80. I'm international, I'm interconnected, I'm interrupting people all the time because everything I say is f---ing hilarious." Good on ya! Now, go drop-kick a giant hamster, mate! ("We think it's great," Kia said of the spoof.)

In fact, the real spots play like parodies, and while that presumably isn't what Kia intended, they're generating commentary and heightened awareness without being offensive—and they're poised to go viral. That surely beats driving into instant obscurity, which is the road most car commercials take, after all.

Those still annoyed by Roxy's sexualized portrayal of a woman athlete will enjoy this more kick-ass 30-second spot for espnW. The first brand promo for the ESPN property, it broke Tuesday night during the premiere of the film Pat XO, part of the network's Nine for IX series. The spot, from creative agency 77 Ventures, was directed by filmmaker Raama Mosley and edited by Therapy Studio's Kristin McCasey. The original soundtrack was written and performed by Greta Gaines exclusively for espnW. Among the athletes featured are Serena Williams, Brittney Griner, Abby Wambach, Alex Morgan, Heather O’Reilly, Shannon Boxx, Sara Errani and Elena Delle Donne.

Colin Firth is a solid choice for any ad. But a 12-foot-tall version of the Oscar winner rising from a lake, wet shirt sticking to his chiseled physique, is marketing gold. UKTV made the latter happen in London's Hyde Park this week—installing a giant statue of Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice, as portrayed by Firth in the BBC's 1995 version, in the middle of a lake to promote its new TV channel, Drama. It's a fitting image to choose, as that scene was named the most memorable British TV drama moment of all time in a recent survey.

Three sculptors spent two months designing, constructing and painting the fiberglass model."We took Colin Firth's famous lake scene as a starting point for creating Mr. Darcy, but we also read the book and looked at performances of the brooding hero by Matthew Macfadyen, David Rintoul and even Laurence Olivier," says lead sculptor Toby Crowther. "The challenge for us was capturing the spirit of Darcy as handsome and noble but also aloof and proud. The Mr. Darcy sculpture is a real mix of the many portrayals of Jane Austen's most famous hero."

The statue will head next to Scarborough beach in North Yorkshire before finding a semi-permanent home at Lyme Park in Cheshire, where the scene was was originally filmed. It will remain there until next February. The campaign, including the survey, was orchestrated by Taylor Herring PR. Check out the case study here.

Witness the cautionary prankvertising in this viral spot for a Belgian bank warning you not to give out financial information online. Recounting more than just a simple case of credit-card fraud, the video shows how one truly creepy guy befriends an ordinary Belgian dude on Facebook—who was stupid enough to give out his deets in response to a phishing email—and tries to steal his life. Not content to post hilarious or insulting messages on the poor guy's hacked Facebook page, creepy bank rep has facial prosthetics made so he looks exactly like his victim, and starts posting pictures that the guy's wife probably won't find too funny. Then the doppelgänger orders an antique harp, has it delivered and signs for it, eventually appearing face to face with our our woebegotten protagonist to serious freak the crap out of him. Duval Guillaume Modem, the same agency that was behind "A Dramatic Surprise on a Quiet Square," brings the whole thing to life in a chilling way. Those who heed the warning can check out tips at safeinternetbanking.be to make sure they don't become the subject of the next freakishly disturbing identity theft.

Undeniably stupid, but worth banning? That was the tough call facing Britain's ad watchdog as it dealt with 176 complaints over the spot below, for soft drink Irn-Bru. The plot, such as it is, involves a mom proudly showing off her push-up bra to her son's friends—much to the acute embarrassment of the son, and the slack-jawed awe of the friends. The soft drink is positioned, also stupidly, as an antidote to the embarrassment. Each time the kid takes a swig, he becomes blissfully mellow again despite his dire circumstances.

The Ad Standard Authority's ruling? It cleared the spot on all grounds, saying the interaction between the mom and the friends did not constitute irresponsible behavior. "We considered that the action relied on the mum being confident and attractive, but not consciously or overtly behaving in a sexualized or flirtatious way," the ASA said. "We also considered that the focus of the ads was the son's embarrassment at the effect his mum's appearance was having on his friends. Therefore, and particularly in the context of ads intended to portray a surreal and lighthearted comedic approach, we did not consider that the action or depiction of the female protagonist was sexist or demeaning and concluded that the ads were not in breach of the code."

For its part, Irn-Bru maker AG Barr said it simply wanted the ad, created by The Leith Agency in Edinburgh, to "stay true to the traditionally cheeky and irreverent sense of humor" of its previous ads.

The stats suggest you've probably watched this already, but here it is again—the official gameplay video for Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto V, coming Sept. 17. Gaming spots often blow up quickly online, but the engagement with this one since its release on Tuesday is staggering—7 million views already, and more than 230,000 shares, according to Unruly Media. It's an interesting spot, too, with a woman's voice narrating as we get a comprehensive look at the fully revamped game, which includes three lead characters, a more fully realized Southern California landscape, and a dual-environment structure that lets you toggle between heists and open-world exploration. The trailer is the perfect mix of informative and exciting. And the game quite simply looks badass.

Colle+McVoy has its fishcake and eats it too in a new Times Square ad campaign urging people to get the hell out of Times Square already … and go fishing. The Minneapolis agency is kicking off the summer season for the Recreational Boating & Fishing Foundation (RBFF) with a digital billboard urging passersby to "Get away from all of this"—as arrows point to the urban hell all around the sign. (It is indeed a tempting suggestion.) The next screen promotes TakeMeFishing.org, the RBFF's boating and fishing resource. The campaign will not heed its own advice, however—it will stay in Times Square all summer long.

It's an image that was nearly too hot for Los Angeles, a town that regularly sees bare bums and lithe bodies in various states of undress along its famous streets and highways. But after some wrangling with ad sellers, and the threat of a ban, Lifetime will be able to launch its risqué billboard in L.A. after all to promote the 12th season of Project Runway.

The ad shows Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn lording over a bunch of nude models. The same image, by the way, got a swift and unconditional OK in New York, where it's debuting Wednesday on hundreds of bus shelters, kiosks, newsstands and other high-visibility spots. Guess the Nanny State of Bloomberg doesn't extend to public displays of flesh. The cable network, which wouldn't comment on the flap but said privately that it didn't want to scrap the campaign, and had planned to make adjustments via Photoshop for L.A. But now, the image, sans added clothing, will appear in a single spot in L.A.—above the storied Sunset Strip, where no one impressionable ever goes.

If the models had had Glocks in their hands like all the one-sheets for Hollywood action flicks, this would've been a non-issue to start with. The series, which has used suggestive advertising with the smokin' hot Klum many times in the past, returns July 18.

Re-enter the dragon? Johnnie Walker and BBH resurrect Bruce Lee via CGI technology (and footage of lookalike actor Danny Chan) for this boring Chinese commercial. The spot, approved by Lee's daughter Shannon, has proven predictably polarizing. Some critics trot out the old objection that showing dead stars in ads is in poor taste, while others claim the memory of Lee—a paragon of physical fitness and athleticism before his death 40 years ago this month, at age 32—is somehow tarnished by his doppelgänger pitching whisky.

The bigger problem is that the ad is dull, something its inspiration never was. Fake Lee walks around a Hong Kong balcony, runs a hand through some water in a pool and mouths lines like, "Dragons never die, because dragons draw power from water. Water. It's like instincts … You cannot grasp hold of it. But let it flow and it has the power to change the world." Dude, drop-kick the faux-losophy … you're supposed to be Bruce Freakin' Lee! The guy was a human CGI machine who routinely defied gravity with furiously elegant fighting moves he choreographed himself. How can you bring him back and not put him in motion—shirtless, freaky, fists-and-feet-flying motion!?

Heck, they should have shown CGI Bruce battling barehanded against Undead Audrey Hepburn—or at least something more groovy than what's on display here. Far from being disrespectful, I believe a highly physical, even frenetic approach would have honored Lee and captured the essence of the man. Bruce Lee was a mischievous badass who reveled in his sensational stunts and brought a transcendent sense of subversive fun to his movies. His violent yet controlled release of kinetic energy forged his connection with audiences around the world. Flying through the air while screaming at the top of his lungs was his defining spiritual statement. Instead, the spirits brand pours us prattle about being a ... "game changer"?! Bruce would have demanded such jargon expunged from his film scripts and employed his unshod feet to smack the silly screenwriters upside their heads.

Sadly, the ad fails because Lee is present in body—sort of—but not in spirit.

Today's toy ads aren't perfect—the one for Kackel Dackel is disturbing in its own way—but at least they don't give you nightmares. The one below, for Remco's 1971 toy Baby Laugh-a-Lot, is not something your kids ever need to see. The horror-movie style editing and the deranged voiceover certainly don't help. In fact, the only thing more frightening than Baby Laugh-a-Lot might be Baby Laugh-a-Lot with her batteries running low.

Saturday Night Live alumnus Bill Hader has teamed up with T-Mobile to become the brand's first spokesperson in several years not to wear a bright pink dress. The spots, directed by Adam & Dave of Arts & Sciences, advertise a new program called Jump, which does away with the crazy multi-year wait times for phone upgrades—a $10-a-month fee lets you upgrade twice a year. The spots, created by Publicis, show Hader in unfortunate but familiar situations like dropping his phone in a urinal, trying to dry it out in some rice, getting one-upped by someone with a better phone, having it squished by a large mustachioed man, and getting stuck with a phone that won't hold a charge. Hader is funny, but even funnier is Brian Huskey of Swagger Wagon and Sonic commercial fame, who delivers his usual awkward deadpan brilliance.

David Fincher's Calvin Klein commercial starring Rooney Mara exists in a dreary, dreamless dimension beyond banality and cliché. It occupies a zone so soullessly stylized that "style" loses all meaning … a wasteland so unironic that irony screams for release, only to go unheard. This 60-second black-and-white spot introducing CK's Downtown fragrance plays like an unfunny parody of its putrid genre—yet it's very real, which makes irony scream all the more. In other words, it's like every other pretentious, faux-artsy perfume and fashion commercial. Maybe more so. Fincher previously directed Mara in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and The Social Network. "Runaway" by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs plays on the soundtrack. The ad features puppies, buses, rain, subways, earbuds and a press conference. A lot of stuff happens in slow motion. Mara cracks a smile, which The Huffington Post seems to think is a big deal. I'm not sold on the name of the perfume, either. How does downtown usually smell? In my experience, it stinks. Print ad below the video.

In this strange ad by Made Movement for Stonyfield, a woman with an Oompa-Loopa-ish complexion and a deeply annoying voice asks her lunchroom friend if she ever wonders about pesticides. Stonyfield fans like myself will recognize that a similar question is contained inside every yogurt container. But our protagonist gives it a good ponder anyway, and we are transported into her mind's eye. A farmer and his son are seen petting a cow, when three neon-colored dweebs wearing costumes that say "Pesticide" hop the fence to cause trouble. So, the Stonyfield farmer breaks out his kung-fu and defeats his brightly colored enemies by employing more cowbell. According to the release, "While most opt for a slick, stylish approach and keep verbiage vague such as 'Pure' or 'Natural,' this high-energy, color-saturated spot highlights Stonyfield's commitment." Indeed, it does look like someone vomited highlighters on it. And it does stand out in a category full of real cows in realistically colored fields. I guess Stoneyfield is finally going for the stoner crowd.

CREDITS
Client: Stonyfield

Agency: Made Movement
Chief Creative Officer/Partner: Dave Schiff
Chief Design Officer/Partner: John Kieselhorst
Chief Digital Officer/Partner: Scott Prindle
Creative Director: Claire Wyckoff
Cheif Strategy Officer: Graham Furlong
Art Director: Marybeth Ledesma
Writers: David Satterfield, Claire Wyckoff
Consulting Head Of Integrated Production: Chris Kyriakos
Junior Integrated Producer: Isaac Karsen
Visual Effects Company & City: Ingenuity Engine, Hollywood CA
Music Company & City: Beacon Street Studios, Venice, CA
Composer: Andrew Feltenstein, John Nau
Sound Design Company & City: Soundelux
Editorial Company & City: NO6, Santa Monica

Business Manager: Jennifer DeCastro
Vp Account Production: Rachael Donaldson
Production Company: Hungry Man
Director: Jim Hosking
Executive Producers: Kevin Byrne, Dan Duffy
Line Producer: Leora Glass
Director Of Photography: Marten Tedin

Editor: Dan Aronin
Assitant Editor: Doug Scott
Executive Producer (Editorial Co): Crissy DeSimone

Lead Flame: David Lebensfeld
Visual Effects Producer: Oliver Taylor
Telecine: Company 3
Colorist: Siggy Ferstl

Sound Designer: Harry Cohen
Audio Finishing: Lime Studios
Audio Engineer: Sam Casas

Here's an airport stunt from Heineken that truly embodies the brand's adventurous spirit. Twice this week, Wieden + Kennedy in New York set up a board at JFK's Terminal 8 and dared travelers to play "Departure Roulette"—changing their destination to a more exotic location with the press of a button. They had to agree to drop their existing travel plans—without knowing the new destination first—and immediately board a flight to the new place.

On Tuesday, a man played the game and ended up going to Cyprus instead of Vienna. (He had been planning a six-week visit with his grandparents, but soon learned he would be headed to Cyprus on a 9:55 p.m. flight. Heineken gave him $2,000 to cover expenses and booked him into a hotel for two nights.) W+K set up the board again on Thursday, and brought cameras along to document the gameplay. The game is inspired by "Dropped," the new Heineken campaign that launched a month ago from W+K Amsterdam in which four men are sent to remote destinations and film their adventures. We should have footage from Thursday's event next week. For now, Heineken should set this up in the Moscow airport. There's a guy there who would welcome any chance to fly to oblivion.

Here's a customer-service story that will be music to your ears. Someone on the Spotify team created a custom playlist yesterday thanking user Jelena Woehr for some positive feedback she gave the music service. The titles of the songs spelled out the message "Jelena/You Are Awesome/Thanks a Lot/For These Words/It Helps Me/Impress/The Management." The gesture was a big hit with Woehr, a community manager for Yahoo's Contributor Network. "Oh my god," she wrote on Facebook with a screenshot of the playlist. "Spotify customer care is ADORABLE." It's hard to tell whether this is a common thank-you trick for the Spotify team, but it's especially impressive in this case considering her first name isn't exactly common. "I'm still just mindboggled they found a song titled 'Jelena,' with the J and everything," she says. It's yet another example of how small gestures to customers can go a long way these days, whether you're fixing a broken cheeseburger for a girl with autism or replacing a boy's missing ninja.

The fur flew, painfully, in Lowe Roche's recent street promo for Toronto's Fuzz Wax Bar. A guy almost completely covered in wax strips walked around town and invited people to tear them from his skin. Cartoon smiley or frowny faces on the strips indicated the level of pain the guy would feel. They were also emblazoned with copy such as "From bear arms to bare arms" and "We'll take the monkey of your back," along with the salon's slogan, "So good, it hurts." Yeee-ouch! Each strip could be redeemed for a 25 percent discount at Fuzz Wax. (Personally, I'd want to keep mine as a hairy, sweat-stained waxvertising souvenir.) Last year, the zany madcaps at Lowe Roche photographed a local dealership's Porsches in people's driveways to create ads targeting those very homes. That was clever, but this body-hair stunt was less creepy and provided an oddly memorable product demo. Congrats to the agency for pulling it off. More photos and credits below.

CREDITS
Project: Street Waxing
Client: Fuzz Wax Bar
Agency: Lowe Roche
Executive Creative Director: Sean Ohlenkamp
Copywriter: Jeremy Richard, Eli Joseph 
Art director: Ryan Speziale, Kunaal Jagtianey
Producer: Shannon Farrell
Make-up: Alyssa McCarthy
Account Director: Frederic Morin
Director: Dean Vargas
Post Production: Motion Pantry

It's no NeverWet, but as new products go, Tile has a wow factor that's helped it attract plenty of funding, if somewhat mixed reactions to its core concept. "It has never been easier to find your keys" is one of the product's big marketing lines—and indeed, Tile finds whatever you've lost, if you've stuck one of the little white Tile squares to it. Each Tile pairs with an iOS app, so when the item goes missing, you can use your Apple device to track it down. But that's just the beginning. The company is planning to build a community of users, any of whom could track down your item if it goes missing in public. The promo video dramatically suggests this could help track down and capture auto thieves. On the downside: It's currently available only for iOS, not Android. And it could be just another beacon by which its users could be tracked by Big Brother. Tile is being funded through a Selfstarter campaign and has raised almost $1 million—well past its initial goal of $20,000.

Old Spice had a couple of hits back in April with its "Shower" and "Watermelon" ads for its Fiji Bar Soap. Now, the brand's Swagger Bar Soap gets some play in this amusing spot from Wieden + Kennedy called "Architect." Again, it's a parody of '80s bar-soap commercials, complete with cheese-spirational song lyrics and meaningful brow-sweat-wiping moments … and a comically sideswiping ending. Nice slippy product shot at the end, too.

George Zimmer, who founded Men's Wearhouse in 1973 and served as its CEO and ad spokesman until two years ago, was fired in June by the company's board of directors from his new role as executive chairman because of disagreements over the retailer's future. Zimmer, of course, was a fixture on TV with his gravelly voiced tagline, "You're going to like the way you look. I guarantee it." Below is the first post-Zimmer spot. It's only 15 seconds long, and it has a charity angle, so it's atypical for the company. Yet you feel Zimmer's absence palpably. That's because, without him, there's no real brand voice left at all, literally or figuratively. Zimmer's ads weren't very special, but he was unapologetic about that. "I apologize to those … who are going into the advertising or marketing business," he told BusinessMakers last year, "but what really drives success, in my experience, is repetition and consistency, not creativity. I think people who are in the [ad] business tend to get more hung up on the creative aspects. They start to think of themselves more as artists and less as businessmen. We have the same problem with tailors, by the way."