30 Most Viewed Stories at RandyMatheson.com in 2011

Top 30 Posted Stories of 2011

The following list is an interesting collection of the the top 30 most viewed, searched for and shared stories on RandyMatheson.com in 2011.

30 / The 12 Days of Christmas Underwear
Bonds Christmas ad features Rachel Taylor eating canned pears in lingerie as Aussie crooner Jack Ladder channels Joy Division’s ‘Atmosphere’. Read more…

29 / Volkswagen AR Experiences
VW Canada’s campaign for the 2012 Beetle features an awe-inspiring AR experience over Toronto’s Dundas Square. Read more…

28 / Jonathan’s Starbucks Card
Mobile consultant Jonathan Stark invites the world out for coffee in a short-lived and much-debated ‘social experiment’. Read more…

27 / Moosejaw X-Ray App Reveals All
Outdoor clothing retailer Moosejaw launches x-ray vision app that reveals what’s underneath the warm clothes of it’s catalog models. Read more…

26 / Spongebob’s Frozen Face-off Goes Social
Nickelodeon uses Twitter to promote Spongebob Squarepants special with a week of Twitter trash talk between characters. Read more…

25 / Infectious Billboard for Contagion
Warner Brothers Canada posts a living billboard of bacteria and fungi to promote the release of pandemic-themed movie Contagion.Read more…

24 / Tetley Canada’s Shopping Butlers
Tetley Canada brings joy and confusion to grocery shoppers by replacing shopping carts with personal shopping butlers. Read more…

23 / Biker-filled Movie Theatre
Carlsberg directs unsuspecting couples into a movie theatre full of burly growling bikers. Who goes, who sticks around for a surprise ending?
Read more…

22 / Reebok Street Art
Reebok promotes Crossfit program at London’s Canary Wharf with an amazing record-breaking work of 3D street art.
Read more…

21 / Ballatine’s Interactive Tattoo
As part of their Human API campaign, whisky-maker Ballatine’s creates the world’s first interactive tattoo streamed live from their Facebook page.
Read more…

20 / Jack Daniels Letterpress Posters
Knoxville-based printers Yee-Haw Industries create gorgeous hand-crafted posters for Jack Daniel’s campaign.
Read more…

19 / Nike’s Back to the Future Shoes
Nike shoe designers create 1500 real-life versions of the Back to the Future MAG shoes and auctions them on eBay to benefit Michael J Fox foundation.
Read more…

18 / Starbucks AR mobile app
Starbucks releases ‘Magic Cup’, an augmented reality app that brings the coffee shop’s holiday-themed cups to life with animation.
Read more…

17 / Boston Pizza’s Playoff Rebrand
Boston Pizza jumps on the Canuck playoff bandwagon by rebranding it’s BC stores as Vancouver Pizza for the Stanley Cup finals.
Read more…

16 / Ariel Fashion Shoot
Laundry detergent brand Ariel lets Facebook users shoot a remote-control gun filled with chocolate, jam or ketchup at designer clothes… and win them.
Read more…

15 / O.B. Says Really Really Really Sorry via Song
Johnson & Johnson tampon brand O.B. responds to miffed customers by creating personalized apology song.
Read more…

14 / Karen O sings for Chipotle Halloween promo
Yeah Yeah Yeah’s Karen O provides vocals for Halloween-ish short film promoting the Chipotle Boorito campaign in benefit of the American family farm.
Read more…

13 / Honda Pilot’s Crazy Train
Ozzy Osbourne’s iconic 1980 hit ‘Crazy Train’ gets a unique a capella treatment in this fun Honda Pilot commercial.
Read more…

12 / You’re Never to Old to Sit on Santa
New York’s Improv Everywhere comedy troupe performs a holiday-themed surprise-musical for shoppers in a New Jersey mall.
Read more…

11 / Nissan Damned Ponies
A frustrated pickup driver opens the hood to find a group of prancing ponies that want nothing to do with getting dirty. Just when you think it’s over the leader turns into a demonic fire-breathing horse.
Read more…

10 / State Farm Giant Robots
The insurance provider brings the giant house-wrecking robot from their TV ad to your neighbourhood via an inventive Google Streetview mashup.
Read more…

9 / Red Hot Chili Peppers QR Code
A street poster campaign for the Peppers’ ‘I’m With You’ album features a QR code nicely integrated into the band’s logo.
Read more…

8 / Volkswagen Fans Vote on TV Ad
Volkswagen Canada’s Facebook Fans invited to choose scripts, car, cast and music for the latest TV commercial.
Read more…

7 / Spotify Launches in U.S.
After years of false starts, it was big news in July when European-based online music service Spotify finally launched in the U.S. (but still nothing for Canadian listeners)
Read more…

6 / Müller Wonderful Stuff Ad
German yogurt-brand threw everything on the screen, including unicorns, the Knight Rider car and Yogi Bear in this crazy TV commercial and campaign.
http://randymatheson.com/muller-wunderful-stuff-yogurt-campaign-features-unicorns-yogi-bear-k-i-t-t/

5 / Pan-Am Social Media
ABC launched an ambitious promotional campaign for Pan-Am using Facebook, Twitter, GetGlue to no avail as the series was shelved after just 9 episodes.
Read more…

4 / Mercedes Benz Blurs
Mercedes Benz Canada creates an attention grabbing street installation that makes their C-Class Coupe look fast even when parked on a Toronto street.
Read more…

3 / Canadian Tire Spirit Tree
Canadian Tire lights up Toronto’s Union Station with a 30 foot tall Christmas tree powered by the positive sentiment of social media.
Read more…

2 / Dermablend Covers-Up Zombie-Boy
Dermablend demonstrated the power of their skin coverage make-up by covering the tattoos of Montreal model Zombie-Boy.
Read more…

1 / TakeThisLollipop Creates Creepy Facebook Connection
A mysterious project provides Facebook users a creepy peek behind the screen.
Read more…

What were your favorite campaigns of 2011?

Karen O Covers ‘Mama’s Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Cowboys’ for Chipotle Campaign

Chipotle and Karen O - AbandonedI love when great stuff seems to appear out of nowhere, such as last month’s video of Willie Nelson covering Coldplay’s ‘The Scientist’ for Chipotle’s Cultivate Foundation. The video also helped to raise awareness of industrial farming practices over traditional sustainable family farming practices.

Chipotle is back, this time teaming up with the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s Karen O for ‘Abandoned’, a short film and cover of the Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings 1976 classic ‘Mama’s Don’t let Your Babies Grow Up to be Cowboys’. The video features a group of boys off for a night of exploring an abandoned farm house, stumbling upon the items left by the previous residents. The video ends with the poignant message that ‘Each week in America, 330 farmers leave their land’.

The David Altobelli directed short film conveys an obvious Halloween theme that relates to Chipotle’s Boorito campaign, where customers in costumes inspired by the family farm get $2 burritos on Halloween night. Proceeds from the sale of the burritos from 6pm to closing will be donated to the Cultivate Foundation and Farm Aid.

Customers can enter the Boorito costume contest by taking a picture of themselves in-costume in front of a Chipotle restaurant. The winner will receive a grand prize of $2500. My costume suggestion would be a scarecrows. Scarecrows scare me just about as much as clowns.

Willie Nelson Teams Up With Chipotle to Promote Sustainable Farming

Chipotle - Willie Nelson performs The ScientistWillie Nelson is no stranger to helping raise awareness of the crisis of family farming in America, having started Farm-Aid in 1985 with John Mellencamp and Neil Young.

Now Willie Nelson has teamed up with Chipotle Restaurants for ‘Back to the Start’, a short film and recording of Coldplay’s 2002 song ‘The Scientist’ that looks to promote sustainable farming through Chipotle’s Cultivate Foundation. The video produced by Irish animtor Johnny Kelly shows a family gradually replacing their traditional practices with a factory farm until the farmer has a moment of realization and takes things ‘Back to the Start’.

These days more and more people want to learn about where their food comes from and how it was grown. If you’d like to learn more about the issues with factory farms check out the documentary ‘Food Inc.‘ or read more about Chipotle’s Food with Integrity campaign.

The track ‘The Scientist’ can be downloaded at iTunes with proceeds going to benefit The Chipotle Cultivate Foundation.