I caught up with our own Thomas Crampton last week in Istanbul. Thomas runs our teams across Asia and one of the big events coming up this year is the Shanghai World Expo.  To help inform our work and our clients who will participate in some way or another, Thomas developed some great research on the current buzz throughout Chinese social media on the Expo. I had a chance to ask him about what he found:

Q: Can you tell us briefly what the Shanghai World Expo is and what it may mean to China, its government, business leaders and even the people there?
A: Shanghai Expo has been billed as one of the largest events of its kind in China. While people outside of China may not have heard of the event, the organizers expect a extremely large domestic audience.

Q: You did a unique survey of what the Chinese people were saying online via social media about the Expo, what surprised you most?
A: One of the biggest surprises about the discussions online was the intensity of discussion taking place more than three months before the event began. While you might expect sponsor and the government to speak about the event, it was interesting to see the level of discussion going on among China’s netizens.

Q: Can you tell two of the insights in the survey?
A: The report gives insights into how individual citizens and companies are already gearing up for the Expo. In terms of Chinese citizens, the report shows that they are concerned about ticket prices and taking action. Among the initiatives are group purchasing of tickets and rural citizens asking for advice on how to buy tickets.

Q: How could brands engaging in the Expo use this survey to their advantage?
A: By understanding the concerns of consumers looking at the Expo, companies can find ways of offering value to those who may visit the Expo. One interesting example in relation to the ticket prices is one company, , that is offering tickets to Expo at the original price. The promotion costs them very little - the difference in ticket price is very small - but the publicity and discussion about it has been fairly extensive. As we follow the Expo with these publicly available reports, companies will be able to see possible hooks for their own Social Media strategy.

Old Navy and Crispin Porter + Bogusky continue to build out the year-old Supermodelquin ad campaign in pretty fun ways. We recently mentioned the "Supermodelquin Super Search" promotion, but if you weren’t able to pose with a mannequin at an Old Navy store before the deadline, you can still get involved in the second challenge, "Modelquin Makeover." You have roughly three more days to design a digital mannequin version of yourself, which other visitors can rate on a scale of 1 to 10. Soon, the third and final challenge, called "Lights, Camera, Plastic," will be unveiled. The winners from each challenge will then be narrowed down to one final Supermodelquin, who will win $100,000 and appear in an Old Navy commercial. Speaking of commercials, be sure to check out the campaign's newest ads, like the “Sundown Gown Challenge” spot below, which is more entertaining at 30 seconds than a whole season of America’s Next Top Model.

—Posted by David Griner

Notorious white supremacist Tom Metzger is gearing up for a run at U.S. Rep. Mark Souder's seat in the House of Representatives, going so far as to take out a classified ad in the local Warsaw (Ind.) Times-Union for that little extra boost to his write-in campaign. (The text-only ad can be seen on the right.) Metzger's résumé includes cross burnings, a $12.5 million fine for inciting racial violence in Oregon, and being the inspiration for one of the Aryan leaders in American History X. Oh, and he also hates the government, which might explain why he can't seem to land a position anywhere in it — though he came scarily close when he won the 1980 Democratic primary in a San Diego Congressional district. While the introduction of a xenophobic freakshow into the campaign might not seem like an obvious threat to Republican incumbent Souder, it could cost him the coveted Glenn Beck endorsement.

—Posted by David Kiefaber

Texas-based Metro PCS continues to roll out its "Tech and Talk with Ranjit and Chad" campaign, despite complaints that the ads are offensive to the Indian community. Bob Fant, vice president of advertising and brand development for Metro PCS, admits there's been some negative response since the ads first debuted during the Super Bowl. But he insists that "Ranjit and Chad are meant to be viewed as endearing, smart tech experts who are knowledgeable about everything wireless." (You can see all the spots after the jump.) In the campaign's defense, it did go with the non-stereotypical name Chad, and it does make fun of dorky white guys too. But it's hard to argue the ads defy stereotypes, when they constantly make references to cobras, donkeys and livestock. So what do you think? Are Ranjit and Chad "endearing, smart tech experts," or is this good old-fashioned racist typecasting?

—Posted by Rebecca Cullers

Chemistry.com, which has previously positioned itself as a gay-friendly alternative to eHarmony, is now promoting a politically themed Romance Plan for America. With two TV commercials and a Web site that looks like it’s designed poorly by intent, the dating site has put out its Romance Plan as if it’s running for election — though it’s unclear who, if anyone, stands in opposition. Chemistry’s plan promises to make first dates great, skip bad dates altogether, never raise taxes, and put more cops on the street. Does anyone else think it’s odd to run a political spoof campaign in March of a light election year? Beyond that, isn’t it a bad idea to mention the shortage of cops on our streets to women who are about to meet up with a stranger? These are important questions that we’ll have to ask ourselves in the months leading up to Nov. 4, when we, as a nation, squeeze all our likes and dislikes into a tiny profile on our dating site of choice, press send, and hope for the best.

—Posted by Rebecca Cullers

• Hollywood movies follow a mathematical formula
  via kottke
• Comments on Cutting the BBC: No surrender | The Economist
  "Awesome use of last.fm playlist data to dispel ill-founded assertions in The Economist" - @tomskitomski

It's good to see Cornell is embracing its most famous son, even if he is a fictional moron. The Office's Andy Bernard, who often extols the merits of a Cornell education, is currently highlighted as one of several rotating features on the Cornell University School of Law's home page. It doesn't seem to be going over that well with some real alumni. My only complaint is that the banner just links to another site's list of Cornell quotes from The Office. It seems the law school is missing a great opportunity to have an article crafted in Andy's voice by the show's writers — or at least host a reunion performance by his a cappella group, Here Comes Treble. But that might be a step too far for a university that has never been too fond of the man who "graduated in four years" despite being "drunk the whole time."

—Posted by David Griner

• Consumer Generated Media
• Cup of Java
• Deep Tech Dive
• Flagged For Follow Up
• The Third Place
• Thought Gadgets
• Techno//Marketer
• Extrovertic
• digital axle
• Poke
• Ask A Copywriter
• Post Haste
• brand dna
• A Million Monkeys Typing

The guy in Microsoft Bing's new UK spot — the first in a series that builds on JWT's American campaign — is kind of like a young Rowan "Mr. Bean" Atkinson. Is that a good thing? Yes it is, and he excels at acting out the part of "Information Overload," confusingly tossing off random and unhelpful bits of information. He name-checks '70s art-rocker Bryan Ferry ("Love Is The Drug") and howler monkeys in the same sentence, which is a feat that most search engines would actually be hard-pressed to match. The scene escalates into a monkey-screaming mob, but it's still not as freaky as the U.S. version's cacophony of crazy. No one does mass hysteria like us Yanks. Via Adland.

 —Posted by David Gianatasio