Take a break from online shopping; check out humorous marketing campaigns

Online shopping isn’t the only activity sapping worker productivity this holiday season. Clever marketers are luring Internet users into time-sucking interactive advertising campaigns.
J.C. Penney launched a Web site called “The Doghouse,” ostensibly designed to help prevent men from upsetting their wives or girlfriends and being sent to the proverbial doghouse. It offers men such tips as: “Speak less, listen better,” “Apologize without caveats,” “Express your feelings” and “Stop checking out other women in restaurants.”
Best of all, there’s a funny 4-minute 40-second video portraying the doghouse as prison-like purgatory and showing the men stuck there and why.
The true purpose of the Web site is to promote J.C. Penney’s jewelry department, but it’s handled with subtlety. Check it out here.
Less nuanced is OfficeMax’s hit campaign “ElfYourself,” which is back for its third straight year of spreading holiday cheer. The “ElfYourself” Web site enables users to create free personalized holiday e-cards by uploading photos and transforming themselves and others into dancing elves.
The office equipment retailer teamed with JibJab Media, best known for its animated political parodies such as “This Land,” on the project.
Over six weeks during the 2007 holiday season, “ElfYourself” received more than 193 million site visits.
And finally Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning is back with another promotion that lets people send personalized video messages from Manning to their family and friends.
Sponsored by MasterCard, the site lets users choose from a list of phrases that they want Manning to tell their friend or family member to cheer them up. As the Web site says, “When giving advice to a friend, it’s important to remember – it’ll mean more coming from Peyton.” Check out "Suite Talk With Peyton Manning."