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Another important phase of our advertising & direct mail campaign for YWCA Durham — the original photography — has gone off without a hitch.

Well . . . maybe one hitch. Severely backed-up traffic made the drive into Toronto on Saturday morning very slow going for some of us. But with the dedicated work of the photographer and the enthusiasm and hard work of everyone involved, we managed to rework our shoot schedule and finished the day in excellent time, with fantastic results.

Environmental watchdog Greenpeace has stirred up the online world with its recent campaign, a subversive competition inviting people to "redesign" BP's identity in the aftermath of the company's massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

This month, Domino's wants you to photograph your pizza and send your images back to them for a chance at a $500 prize.

In July, Harvey's asked you to submit possible names for their new premium burger in the Facebook-based "Burger With Your Name On It" contest.

And a Canadian woman just won a year's supply of Ben & Jerry's ice cream in a contest to name the company's newest "exclusively Canadian" flavour. Temporarily called "We Are Waffling," the flavour was renamed "Oh, Cone-ada!" by the Burlington woman, and will be on shelves in the new packaging this fall.

In the age of new media, advertisers are coming up with new and inventive ways to engage consumers — the basic idea being, of course, to get and hold people's attention for longer than a 30-second television spot will allow. (And, of course, to gather more email addresses and Facebook friends for direct marketing purposes).