NBA BOOYAKASHA!> Ballers beware: there's no room for ego in the NBA 'cause Ali G will shut you down, no matter if you're Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O'Neal, Dwayne Wade or 2004 NBA MVP Steve Nash. In a series of spots to plug tonight's opening of the NBA season, directed by Spike Lee and edited by Lost Planet for TNT, Brit comedian Sacha Baron Cohen interviews various athletes as his hilariously arrogant, ill-informed and thick-accented alter ego, Ali G. In "Shaq & Wade", G asks O'Neal "Is it well annoying being really famous and having all the hangers on?" pointing to Wade, referring to him as Shaq's plus-one. Wade's attempts to legitimize himself are promptly slapped down by Ali G. Steve Nash endures a similarly futile attempt at clarification when Ali G accuses Nash of speaking unintelligible "Canadian" when Nash attempts to convince G that he was MVP and not "MP3" as he's repeatedly referred to. In another he questions Kobe about the laws of gravity and in "Announcers" G makes programming suggestions for the TNT announcers that include getting "three (pronounced 'free') fly honeys talking nonsense. Who cares what them talking 'bout." What makes the spots work particularly well is the fact that you can tell many of the athletes were not completely brief on Ali G's schtick, making their responses to his outlandish remarks awkward and priceless. In reality, there are just so many good one-liners and disses in this quartet of spots that we could just go on forever. Instead, we suggest you watch for yourself. [Agency: SpikeDDB; Prodco: 40 Acres and a Mule]
http://www.spikeddb.com

Watch the spots:

Shaq & Wade
Nash
Kobe
Announcers

VOLKSWAGEN REVS UP PASSAT CAMPAIGN WITH 120 SHORTS> In order to introduce the new 2006 Passat to consumers, Volkswagen has commissioned what's believed to be the largest roll-out of short films on the Internet via www.vw.com/passat. The idea, created by Arnold Worldwide, Boston, and developed with several prodcos (among them, Santa Monica's Brand New School, Boston's Brickyard Effects, New York's Curious Pictures and Tomato, London's Lifelong Friendship Society and Lobo from Brazil), was to highlight each of the Passat's 120 "not-so-standard" features in a :15 spot, with each team being given the latitude to interpret the features, tagged in a graphic at the end of each spot, as they wanted.

Among the highlights, the leatherette door panel feature is depicted via a dry yet hilarious snippet of a panel (as in seminar) on leatherette doors, a girl with braces smiles for the camera to illustrate the chrome front grille, and a vivid Lite Brite-style animation represents the blue/red illuminated instrument panel. The shorts, dubbed "Feature Films" by Arnold, are being introduced gradually to the Passat website, and Volkswagen is reportedly planning to incorporate the complete set on promo DVDs and a possible screening at the 2006 Sundance Festival.

http://www.vw.com/passat
http://www.arnoldworldwide.com