Now you can name Pontiac’s new sport truck. (It looks like a newer version of the El Camino to me.)

Pontiac is jumping on the user generated content bandwagon and has created a mini-site where folks can suggest names for this ‘bad boy.’ (Their words, not mine.) What do you get in return? Well, bragging rights, and a chance to win one of the new vehicles in late ‘09. No, if they chose your name submission you don’t automatically win the car. It looks like that you could submit the most crap-tabulous name and still win ” it’s the luck of the draw.

The thing that gets me about these contests is that you never know if the name they picked was actually submitted by a real person and not created by the ad agency. (In fact, there are rumors that this very thing happened to our hometown baseball team. I’m just sayin’.) But how could it be remedied? A big ‘ol celebration for the person who submitted the chosen name?

There are some new developments at the Brains on Fire lair.

1) Happy new blog! Yes. It was time. So after ” what ” like 2.5 years, we’ve changed the design on the blog. (And we welcome your comments.) You’ll notice a few new things:

a) The FIRE CAM is, indeed, our YouTube videos. Here you’ll find many random things, updated bi-monthly (or hopefully more often), included rants, insights and work that happens around these parts.

b) The PHOTOS are, well, a Flickr gallery of ’slice of life’ images around Brains on Fire, our outings or just complete randomness. There will be two random images pulled from the Flickr gallery, but you have the option to go to the gallery once you open those pics. Make sense?

c) Yes, you still can customize the blog (scroll down and find it on the right hand bar). But now, along with changing the color to the hyperlinks, it will change the background image as well. Each time you load the blog, the header image will change as well. These are also random images from our lives and the Brains on Fire space.

d) There’s also a handy calendar of when and where Brains on Fire is speaking around the country (and the globe). Be sure and see if we’re coming to a screen near you.

2) You might remember the pro bono work we did for Justice for Children International - the organization united to fight the good fight against child sex trafficking. They have announced their new name and rolled out their new identity: Love146. Be sure and check them out ” and you HAVE to watch the video. (Brains on Fire didn’t do the video or the website.) Well, as a big ol’ unexpected ‘thank you,’ they cashed in all their frequent flier bonus points and got us a foosball table. It rocks. And it’s a great addition to our space.

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3) Partner and lead design rockstar, Greg Ramsey (we call him ‘Ram’) got a-hankerin’ for popcorn. So did he go out and get some popcorn to put in the microwave? Yeah, right. He bought a popcorn maker. So if you come by our office in the afternoon and it smells like a carnival, then you know what’s going on.

So consider yourself updated on all the goings on at the Brains on Fire.

P.S. I hate popcorn.

September 24th at Midnight, an apology letter from the Founder of Redux Beverages was posted on www.drinkcocaine.com. In this age of taking ourselves too seriously (healthy cookie monster, anyone?), I would have expected it to be a broad apology, a recall, a name change and something about “our best intentions” and “any harm done.” But instead… it was an apology for outages to their website which had been inundated with more hits than they could possibly have planned for (6.7 million from Sept. 17-23). What is drinkcocaine.com advertising? Well… it’s a road trip’s best friend - an energy drink called Cocaine Energy Drink (yup) that boasts 350% more caffeine (I said 350% more) than Red Bull. If you ever want to blink again, I’d steer clear.

Of course, what’s really great about this story is their marketing spending so far: $37.50. That was what it cost to pay a courier to deliver a case to the offices of The New York Post. The Post took it from there.

Learning lessons from the release of Red Bull - which involved a lot of rumors and speculation and concern over ingredients and such to build anticipation - Cocaine took the controversy a step further and let their name spark the conversation. If ever there were a case for building Buzz into an identity… this would certainly be on the list. It isn’t an example of great WOM based on an authentic community relationship (yet), but just try naming your product Cocaine and NOT being talked about. Of course, they’ll also have a lot to live up to. If you step out with that much daring built into your name, you’d better hope that the rest of your identity and consumer inroads can live up to it. Otherwise, all that buzz can turn on you… FAST.

They’re only available in limited release right now, but you can bet this burst of conversation over the last 2 weeks is going to translate into sales… even if it ends up tasting like shoe polish. But more importantly… will the excitement last?

Keep up with this if you can: themutal.net, one of the UK’s largest email advertising and direct marketing companies, recently bought EDR and The iD Factor. So, TO BETTER DEFINE THEMSELVES, they renamed their company TMN plc.

I’m sorry, what?

From a corresponding article, ‘The re-branding is not only designed to better define all three divisions of TMN, but also to help emphasize TMN’s growing knowledge base and number of client services.’ Um…what?

Come on. I would’ve loved to have been in on that presentation to see how some agency (assuming one was involved) pitched the idea to abandon themutual.net and go with TMN.

Just for fun, I did a Google search for TMN. The Movie Network was number one. That’s one out of more than 2.5 million results.

The movie Snakes on a Plane starring Samuel L Jackson isn’t coming out for months, but you have probably already heard a lot about it. Normally, movie pre-release “news” would be the result of the studio marketers or the tabloids touting celebrity romance, but the story here is about the extensive audience anticipation of the movie. The title alone has created a flurry of activity:

• 41 spoof trailers and interviews posted on YouTube
• 120 user-generated Snakes on a Plane (SoaP) designs that you can order as T-shirts or your favoite CafePress items (they’re even running sponsored search to support it)
• A dedicated site www.snakesonablog.com - the originator of which has been invited to the premiere

And in a shocking example of Hollywood listening to its audience, a line of dialogue requested by the fans was added into the final cut of the film.

What’s so exciting about this? This audience has drawn their inspiration from nothing more than the name of the film - a name that clearly identifies what the film is about and its tone. During production, the studio wanted to change the title to “Pacific Flight 121″. Sam Jackson and others stopped this as they thought the new title would misrepresent the film as something loftier than it is: an over the top action/horror flick about snakes on a plane. Can you imagine throngs of fans creating their own “Pacific Flight 121″ fansites before seeing a frame of the film?

Adopting a name that clearly represents who you are and what you stand for will help you and your natural audience find each other and start a dialogue.

Speaking of names, I’m Virginia Miracle and I’m new here. I look forward to starting the conversation with you.