Ad Campaign That Lets You Fill in the Blank

A billboard just doesn’t cut it in the advertising world anymore. Today, more than 4,000 mostly blank posters will go up on walls in New York and L.A. as part of a new campaign. To sell what? Air, perhaps?

No, Converse Chuck Taylor rubber-and-canvas sneakers. The hook is that people can create what they like on the posters.

The “Just Rubber and a Blank Canvas” campaign draws on the fact that Chuck Taylors have historically been a favorite of artsy types (according to press materials, anyway.)

Individual posters are also being distributed to people who e-mail requests to blankcanvas@branddevelopment.com.

For those who would never win a sports trivia contest, Chuck Taylor was a Hall of Fame basketball player and Hoosier who conducted basketball clinics for the Converse Rubber Co. in the 1920s.

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Everyone’s buzzing about the invitation for Tuesday’s party for the new W Los Angeles Hotel in Westwood. It’s a faux diamond ring, which comes in a velvet box that says, “Our diamond is no longer in the rough.”

People must wear the engagement-type solitaires to gain admission.

Note to unmarried guests who might be looking for some action: Ditch the ring before mingling.

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Fashion Wire Daily reports incarcerated actor Robert Downey Jr. is becoming quite the painter.

Downey, serving a three-year sentence in Corcoran State Prison for violating probation for a drug conviction, has been filling his canvases with the kind of cryptic religious imagery and esoteric phrases that might attract a rock star clientele.

And they have. The online fashion magazine says that Downey’s actor pal Josh Richman has sold the artwork to Gavin Rossdale of Bush and Mark McGrath of Sugar Ray.

Downey’s art. . . . Heidi Fleiss’ crafts. . . . Prison must really bring out the artistic side in people.

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Boy, was my mom steamed when an item in my Friday column implied I am older than I really am.

I reported that the tendency to fall asleep at work seems to be highest among workers who experience a lot of stress, and that generally the most stressed-out workers are between 32 and 40 years old, because they are in the “assertive career-building stage.”

That, I wrote, explains why I am so tired all the time. I guess I’m so tired I actually forgot my age (27).

As my youthful, not-about-to-be-prematurely-aged-by-me mother said, “You are probably the only woman in Los Angeles adding years to your age.”