No more edgy comedians for Aflac.

After firing Gilbert Gottfried for tasteless tweets about the recent disaster in Japan and launching a nationwide search, Aflac today announced the new voice of its duck mascot — Dan McKeague, a 36-year-old classic rock radio station sales manager from Minneapolis, MN, who beat 12,500 contenders for the role.

His first Aflac spot (below) will debut, appropriately, during tonight's premiere of The Voice — a competition to find America's next great singer — on NBC.Continue reading...

Yesterday we reported that the Fargo Tourism Bureau had finally done the right thing and embraced its cult status by displaying an official Fargo "wood chipper" with which tourists can take photographs. It's an admirable display of a sense of humor.

Staying in North Dakota, we have another story that could use a little more of a sense of humor about doing the right thing. Except, nobody in the state can agree on what the right thing is. No matter, the NCAA has ruled and the University of North Dakota's Fighting Sioux logo and name must be scrapped… even though the state passed a law prohibiting the change.Continue reading...

As we highlighted last week, Ford and Travelocity are teaming up for a cross-promotion that leverages one brand's classic mascot — Travelocity's Roaming Gnome, currently hosting a #greengnome pre-Earth Day scavenger hunt in New York — and a newer upstart in Doug, the 2012 Ford Focus "spokespuppet."

In a just-released video that includes a nod to Travelocity partners such as the Beverly Wilshire hotel, the co-branding move is pegged to a sweepstakes that kicks off today.

Doug, the felt mascot for the 2012 Ford Focus, has a human handler in John, the orange puppet’s constant companion in Ford’s ever-unfolding YouTube campaign. But, without even a Dear John letter, Doug has found a more simpatico companion: the Travelocity gnome.

As teased on the Facebook pages for Doug and Travelocity's intrepid gnome, along with their Twitter feeds, the duo hit Los Angeles to shoot a video for a co-branded sweepstakes in which participants can win a trip to L.A., including some of the locations featured in the video.Continue reading...

Doug the Orange Puppet is barely two weeks old, and already it’s been a wild ride watching him grow up. In Ford’s latest YouTube spots featuring the cheeky mascot for the 2012 Ford Focus – released this week – the emphasis of Doug’s life returns to the automobile.Continue reading...

When the world’s biggest fast-food brand goes on a hiring spree, it's certainly a sign of optimism for the brand and the sector. McDonald's plans heavy marketing of the fact that it and the chain’s franchisees are hiring new employees this month in close to 14,000 restaurants across the US.

McDonald's is looking for up to 50,000 new people to fill what it’s openly calling “McJobs,” taking ownership of what was once a term of derision.

And whatever the drawbacks of becoming a burger flipper or a manager, in this U.S. economy – with the unemployment rate still hovering near 9% – any jobs are looking better than they used to.Continue reading...

Leave it to Doug — the mouthy orange puppet birthed by Ford — to turn an April Fools’ joke to his advantage. But that’s exactly what the mascot for the 2012 Ford Focus is doing in one of three new videos that the brand has debuted this week.

“Friends like to play tricks” on this day, Doug says in a new webisode, then taunts viewers: “April Fools! You don’t have any friends.” Messages on the screen then quickly temper his remark. “Don’t listen to Doug. You have plenty of friends,” they say.

Then comes the real punchline: “Now become one of [Doug’s] friends” by friending him on his Facebook page.Continue reading...

So you think that Doug, Ford’s orange puppet, is an irredeemably chauvinistic piece of felt who can only get laughs in the brand’s social-media campaign by offending female sensibilities?

Guess again. Doug – the just-introduced online-video “spokesman” for Ford’s new 2012 Focus – will evolve. Ford digital marketing manager Jon Beebe tells brandchannel that Ford anticipated criticism of the rakish personality of its new puppet, which some would say borders on misogyny.Continue reading...