I saw a whole mess of Toyota marketing money that looked like it was trying to bite Jim Phillips’s style, but it’s probably legit.A quick search for Jim Phillips and Toyota reveals that he appears in a Toyota commercial that airs in Japan, so it’s highly believable that they also hired him to illustrate for the Extreme&trade:! sports market.

Crocs, the manufacturer of those ubiquitous vinyl shoes has released a shoe they are marketing as “street smart.” I don’t think they are positioning the Devario as an actual skate shoe, but just look at that cute creature on the skateboard. Actually, it’s more creepy than cute.

– Thanks to Zach Olsen for the tip.

Viral marketing from Volkswagon (don’t ever buy one) that equates the fun life with Volkswagons (don’t ever buy one). Does anyone want to buy a 2000 Eurovan with 110,000 miles on it? Don’t ever buy one, unless you want to buy mine, which is awesome. These guys affixed skateboards to some shopping carts. Stuck them in a grocery store somewhere in Europe obviously, because that shit would never fly here in the US. Kids crashing into the canned peas, knocking over old ladies, ruining the packaging on all Xtreme snack foods.

– Thanks to Zach Olsen for the tip.

Flip Video, that is. It’s short. You will only waste 20 seconds of your life. I don’t know what Cisco has to do with the camera, but someone at their ad agency must like skateboarding.

I’m unclear as to whether or not this XBox commercial ever aired or not. It looks kind of low budget, and I can’t believe a skateboard commercial for such a high profile client would have gone unnoticed by, well, me. Maybe it was online only, or something they wanted to see conceptually before they decided to air it. The director Billy Paul has two first names… What? Oh yeah. He said he had to act out the storyline in front of a bunch of Microsoft execs to convince them shoot it. As you can see by the look on the faces of the guys bottom right, things get a little dicey on that rail. But don’t worry, things work out in the end.

– Thanks to Matthijs for the tip.

He ain’t gonna play Sun City, but he will travel back in time to pose in youth for a Circuit City email advert. I thought Circuit City went out of business. The funny thing about this is that the web link embedded in the email pulls up a version of Silvio without a skateboard. I mean, he looked kooky enough with the skateboard, but without it he looks like a mental patient. And Speaking of Little Steven, His Underground Garage radio show is pretty good. I heard an episode once a few years ago while traveling and I enjoyed it. As I recall, It was a mixture of old and new bands. I think it’s on satellite radio now too.

– Thanks to Troy Sliter for the spam, I mean tip.

Sounds like an adult film of dubious nature, but its two commercials for shoes by Sketchers, the Airwalk of the new millennium. Ok, that’s not fair to Airwalk. There was another Sketchers Z-Strap commercial a year or so ago. Anyway, animated ninjas and sparkly girls shoes make me want to skate.

There are two versions of this Sharpie commercial playing right now. The gist is that Sharpies help you express yourself. What if you couldn’t express yourself? There would be no protests, passion, art…. or graffiti. You’ll notice they covered over the expressions spray painted on the bowl.

Oh Icee bear, who shall remain nameless because it apparently doesn’t actually have a name other than “Polar Bear.” How I love you neo-Igloo Caps type face and your permanently retro identity. You’ve been holding out on me for so long, always on an ice surfboard, and in the past decade, an ice snowboard. Countless are the times that I’ve put a crick in my neck doing a double take while passing an Icee machine, only to find that it was still just a snowboard. I’VE GOT NOTHING AGAINST SNOWBOARDING. I imagine I’d love it if I was still doing it. Talk to me again in a year, my son is dying to go snowboarding on “Mountain Hood.”

I’m in the market for a new digital camera, specifically a Nikon because that’s what my lenses are leftover from my now defunct D70, which has suffered a fatal casualty in the memory card reading connection. Repairs cost about exactly what the body goes for used on eBay. When I went to the Nikon USA web site to price the current lineup, I noticed this skateboard shot gracing the front page of the web site. They have a randomizer selecting from a pool of images, so this one might not be prominently displayed, but you should see it flash briefly regardless. Hey Nikon, check out those nice, big new banner ads…

– Tip of the hat to Orezona, what’s up?