My colleague Mark Dolliver, perhaps the least weird person imaginable, christened HBO's ComedyFetish.com campaign "truly weird" over at Adweek.com. What's really weird is how genuinely amusing the spots by Venables Bell & Partners turned out, given the potential for disaster inherent in mixing elements from cut-rate cable-TV commercials, porn come-ons (it's only a pun if you think it is) and Chiller Theater-type programs. It probably works because the cues are immediately (almost subliminally) familiar to generations of comedy fans, so combining them to promote a site that houses humor clips feels perfectly natural. In others words: If you get the campaign, there's a strong chance you'll also enjoy the programming it promotes. Personally, I found the host's passing resemblance to Kenny "Footloose" Loggins circa 1981 exceptionally weird. His sidekick was just annoying. With her phony Euro-accent, slinky get-up and litany of faux-fetishes, she seems more like a representative of the PR industry than a sexcapades mansion.

—Posted by David Gianatasio