When I think escalating mega mobile phone carrier ad war, I think actor Luke Wilson. Oh wait, no I don’t, and yet here he is, again, striking back on behalf of AT&T against Verizon Wireless.

Now, good on AT&T for fighting back with more ads and not more silly lawsuits and all, but the Verizon holiday ad lineup is pretty strong, and I don’t see many Verizon customers losing sleep over Luke Wilson covering a giant coverage map with post cards.

As tipster Eric notes, AT&T selectively does not mention Edge, 3G or voice/data distinctions in this commercial, opting instead for vague blanket statements like “AT&T covers 97 per cent of all Americans – that’s over 300 million people.”

Cross promotions sometimes don’t make much sense. I’ve got nothing against Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson for agreeing to pitch NASA to youngsters, but really, there are better ways to capture youth attention.

The Rock just wants to make sure we remember that NASA’s responsible for the rubber soles on our shoes, and the (apparently humorous) inclusion of freeze-dried fruit in cereal. But c’mon, NASA. We need fewer celebrity endorsements, more trips to Mars if we want to keep kids convinced the organisation has reason to exist. [Techland]

I assume the consumption only increases through time, but let’s take the daily 2007 numbers from Global INForM Cases Sales database, the total number of Coca-Cola cans sold per worldwide is 67,873,309. Diet Coke and Coke Zero sold 35,387,241, while MyCoke sold 103,260,550. Yes, that’s all per day.

So taking only the classic Coca-Cola, that’s 24,773,757,785 every year. Twenty-four billion cans. That is indeed a lot of paint and paint removal products. Because this doesn’t only affect the production. It also affects the recycling, which will eliminate a step:

The naked can help to reduce air and water pollution occurred in its colouring process. It also reduces energy and effort to separate toxic colour paint from aluminium in recycling process. Huge amount of energy and paint required to manufacture coloured cans will be saved. Instead of toxic paint, manufacturers process aluminium with a pressing machine that indicates brand identity on surface.

Sounds good to me, and it even looks better if you take into account all kinds of Coke. That brings up the number to 75,380,201,500 cans. I don’t know how much paint that represents, but I’m guessing quite a few thousand tons. [7760 via Likecool, Sales info from Let's Get Together]

The ads were designed to highlight the better grip the new bottles offer. They placed them in bus-stop shelters in Paris, ready to rip cashmere cardigans and woollen scarves. But instead of hating them, the French bought 3.8 per cent more of their sugar water.

What I want to see is an image of one of these ads after a week of being there. I would imagine everything got stuck there, from giant balls of dust to cats to drunk people. [Daily]

It’s a simple text link that leads to Google’s mobile partners page which then has a link to the actual Verizon Wireless site, but despite that extra click, it’s still a damn ad on the otherwise clean homepage. Especially when it kinda conflicts with Google’s attempts to make the things even more minimalist lately. [TechCrunch]

[Copyranter]

I should celebrate this image, an army of Lloyd Doblers assembling in the name of hope, love and universal rejection of general societal pressure. But I can’t help but wonder what Dobler himself would say to hawking copies of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment’s release of Say Anything… 20th Anniversary Edition in this viral promotion that occurred in NY earlier this week.

“I don’t want to sell anything, buy anything or process anything as a career. I don’t want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought or processed, or repair anything sold, bought or processed. You know, as a career, I don’t want to do that.”

I guess that, sooner or later, we all sell out a bit. It’s OK, Lloyd Dobler. It’s OK. We still really like that song.

The Motorola Droid! It’s a robot from space, shot to Earth from fighter jets, letting you check Facebook! Or something like that. Apparently this ad, that shows you nothing about the phone itself, will start running next week.

[BGR]

Someone thought that the best way to promote their company was by attaching paper ad banners to real flies. I tried this at school to pass notes to a pretty girl called Carla. It ended in pain.

My maths teacher wasn’t amused. And Carla was grossed out. A clear lose-lose-lose situation. German company Eichborn, however, thought it was the best way to promote itself at the 2009 Frankfurt Book. Look Eichborn, it didn’t work with me, it’s not going to work with you. [Wired via Masahable]

Jason is in Japan now, looking for Godzilla. He sent this video tonight. It seems that Microsoft thinks that putting a Windows 7 presentation booth in the middle of Akihabara station is a good idea.

Dear Microsoft, Passengers don’t give a damn about Windows 7 — or anything else for that matter, in Japan, NYC or Buenos Aires. They just want to do one thing: Catch trains.