Pill bottles: the height of cool

Target, the store that brings you design-heavy products from tea pots to hand soap, has gone one step further, redesigning the classic cylindrical prescription pill bottle, in part by turning it upside down. (The photo shown here is merely AdFreak's interpretation, BTW.) Debuting on Sunday, the new bottle rests on its cap, is an oblong, square shape, and has a wide label that wraps around the top of the bottle, according to an AP story picked up by USA Today. It was designed by  Deborah Adler and Klaus Rosburg, according to this feature in New York magazine, and was created in part to lessen the chance that meds would be taken by mistake. But we suspect the real reason is to induce pill bottle envy (which Target does well—remember the Michael Graves teapot frenzy of '98?). The new design could make pill poppers everywhere think their pill bottles aren't cool enough, thus forcing the style-conscious to use Target pharmacies exclusively.

—Posted by Mae Anderson

Published on April 29, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

You, too, can be in an iPod ad (pun not intended)

It's a Friday afternoon in the spring and you really don't want to be working right now, do you? We didn't think so. That's why we thought we'd send you to this helpful link we found yesterday which teaches you how to make your own iPod silhouette ad in Photoshop, which seems like a fun way to wile away an afternoon. It's a tutorial by Jennifer Apple (that can't be her real last name, can it?). Just one word of caution: best to keep your silhouette creation to yourself as Apple doesn't like it when people rip off the campaign. Have fun.

—Posted by Catharine P. Taylor

Published on April 29, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Search is so hot, Tony Danza wants in!

Search is hot, very hot and everyone wants in on the party, even Tony Danza. (Why there are two mentions of Tony Danza this morning on AdFreak, we really can't explain—see below.) Anyway, the TV-housekeeper-turned-talk-show-host helped Ask Jeeves give away $1 million to Ronald Kinsey, a software engineer on an air base in Norman, Okla., for using iWon.com, Ask Jeeves’ gimmicky portal that rewards searchers with prize entries for using its site. Danza, whose first-year talk show gamely battles soap operas and Montel Williams for the attentions of the housebound, surprised Kinsey on Thursday with the news he was a new millionaire. Kinsey was lured to New York thinking he was the winner of a $10,000 prize, only to find Danza with an oversized check for $1 million. We’re happy for Ronald, who was cagey in an interview with AdFreak—“I haven’t won anything like this before, anything remotely”—“Most likely, there will be a house involved”—“Tony seems to be a pretty nice person.” But whatever he decides to do with the money, we would warn him to learn from other sudden TV millionaires like Survivor’s Richard Hatch. As you might recall, the oft-nude winner of the reality TV show’s first season forgot one thing after receiving his prize: paying taxes. The IRS sent him a reminder in the form of five felony tax evasion charges.

—Posted by Brian Morrissey

Published on April 29, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Filed under Morrissey

Bill Cosby a Cos to believe in

It looks like Bill Cosby could jump right back into hawking Jell-O Pudding Pops, according to a survey that polled more than 2,000 new parents on their way out of the maternity ward. The Pere Partnership in New York asked new moms and dads which of their onscreen counterparts they would be most likely to buy a product from. Cos ranked No. 1 among dads, while his onscreen wife, Felicia Rashad, topped the charts among moms. But the list of also-rans gives pause when you consider just who The Huxtables were up against. True, most trusted Tony Danza, whose turn as housekeeper Tony Micelli on Who’s The Boss makes him a natural fit for cleaning products. But James Gandolfini. who plays mob boss and serial murderer Tony Soprano, rounds out the top five. Maybe least-trusted Redd Foxx played a cantankerous old scrapper on Sanford and Son, but at least if you bought a clunker from Sanford’s yard you could be sure there wasn’t a body in the trunk. 

—Posted by Deanna Zammit

Photo credit: PR Newswire Photo Service

Published on April 29, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Your chance to be Jerry Springer for a day

If you've ever wondered what it's like to be Jerry Springer, (and c'mon, who hasn't?) here's your chance. The man who has provided untold hours of astonishing gazing into the lives of people who probably shouldn't be walking around unsupervised is holding auditions for prospective guest hosts of The Jerry Springer Show. And as if such a stunt isn't enough to elicit at least a sly smile from you, dear readers, this part of the "Rules" section for the contest made us guffaw:  "Entrants must have nothing in their background that would be an embarrassment to The Jerry Springer Show. " Uh, pardon us, but if it weren't for people with embarrassing backgrounds, there would be no Jerry Springer Show. Anyhow, if you find yourself in Manhattan, say on Friday at about 4 p.m., bop on down to the Virgin Megastore at 14th St. and Broadway where you can meet Springer and make a play to be his co-host for a day. There will even be photo ops. (Note to the wind-averse: the show tapes in Chicago.)

—Posted by Kathleen Sampey

Published on April 28, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (4)

Earbuds are over

We wrote several weeks ago about how a recent rise in New York subway crime has been pegged to thefts of iPods and other digital devices, but as of a story in today's New York Times, we think it's time to declare earbuds over. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the story says, is actually now running ads that caution, "Earphones are a give away. Protect your device," and it says some people, "have jettisoned the signature white earphones in favor of less distinctive ones." Now, we could quibble here about how earphones and earbuds are two (slightly) different things, but if we were trying to rip off someone's iPod and we saw one person with earbuds and one with earphones which would we be more likely to target? The one with the earbuds, obviously, since we doubt anyone goes out of their way just to buy earbuds. They're just not as good a product as earphones for many reasons—including that they only stay in one's ears properly when one hasn't been paying close enough attention to one's personal hygiene, if you catch our drift. But without earbuds, those silhouette ads from TBWA\Chiat\Day will never be the same.

—Posted by Catharine P. Taylor

Published on April 28, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (1)

Stampeding buffalo prove Levi's spot wasn't a fantasy

Two photos and a bizarre story in The New York Times yesterday about cops herding bison that ran amok in the suburbs outside Baltimore got AdFreak thinking: Maybe Bartle Bogle Hegarty's 2003 Levi's spot in which buffalo stampede by a 20ish couple on a dark city street wasn't so out there after all. In the spot—which ran on the Super Bowl—the couple stands in the middle of the road, feels the vibration of the stampede but remains untouched while dozens of buffalo gallop by. In Baltimore County, nine bison escaped a farm, meandered through "several affluent neighborhoods" and were herded by cops onto a fenced-in tennis court, the Times reported. A cop holding a folding chair to guide the animals got knocked down but wasn't hurt. What's more, an "uppity" bison even scaled the net before finally getting into a trailer. The buffalo owner, a local farmer named Gerald Berg, threw up his hands and said, "It's out of hand . . . They're going to the slaughterhouse, and they're going to be buffalo burgers." AdFreak guesses that only PETA, Levi's or BBH can save them now.

—Posted by Andrew McMains

Published on April 28, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (1)

Does Mattel know from California?

We here at a remote West Coast AdFreak bureau may have some insight into the recent Mattel woes. Have you seen these "Cali Girl" and “Cali Guy” Barbie dolls, meant to be authentically Californian? Seeing a 3-year-old receive Cali Guy Blaine at a recent birthday party made a group of native Californians spit up laughing. Most suspect was the fact that no one had ever heard anyone in California call it “Cali,”—that term possibly having been invented by Queens, New York native LL Cool J in 1989.  Secondly, it’s a bit of a stretch that we all live the "extreme lifestyle," walking around in beach gear and carrying a surfboard like each doll does. It's like a box of extremely stale stereotypes. Cali Girl Barbie and friends “are always up for sunshine and beach fun!” They say “radical!” and “awesome!” a lot. It sounds like they are not only from Cali, but are also lost in the ‘80s. You want to really get Californian? Where is the "sitting in traffic" Barbie? That must be on the same shelf as “Botox at age 23” Barbie. And just for the sake of accuracy, both would come with a non-fat latte, a pair of Citizens of Humanity jeans and an iPod. Just so they don’t stand out in a crowd.

—Posted by Celeste Ward

Photo credit: Mattel

Published on April 28, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (3)

Exclusive photo from the Donny-brook!

You may have heard about the art director who got fired from Deutsch for sending around old pictures of Donny in a skimpy swimsuit. But for some strange reason, no one’s run any of the photos. (Not even The New York Post, which had a whole item on the firing over the weekend but included a picture of “industry heartthrob" Alex Bogusky—their words, not ours.) So, as a service to our loyal readers, here’s one of the pictures that got the art director canned. Notice the Joey Buttafuoco-style hairdo, prominent tan lines and what appears to be a pre-personal trainer bod. Donny couldn’t be reached for comment.

The picture ain’t pretty, but neither is the plight of the art director, Jeison Rodriguez, who admitted to AdFreak that while he “should have been reprimanded,” being fired seemed a bit much. A 10-year Deutsch vet, Rodriguez sounded positively wistful, recalling the days when he perceived Donny as “always being able to look at himself and laugh.”

Now here’s the follow-up: It seems e-mail, the very thing that got Rodriguez in hot water, is also getting him out of it—and leading to further distribution of the Donny pics. The firing incident, which actually dates back to late January, stimulated Rodriguez’s friend Mark Koelfgen to send around an e-mail to help his friend get a new job, with the offensive pics attached! Koelfgen, who also once worked at Deutsch, said of the pictures, “Hold up your hand if you didn’t go through a Billy Ray Cyrus stage.” Fortunately for Rodriguez, the e-mail campaign worked. (He now has a freelance gig.) Strangely the e-mail, having made the rounds throughout the ad industry, has tapped into not only empathy for Rodriguez, but also a weird dynamic in which at least one agency thought about riding Donny’s coattails for its own gain. Rodriguez told us that in addition to hearing from Crispin’s Bogusky and BBDO’s Eric Silver, he also got an offer from Modernista! in Boston to bankroll his job search and “put some sort of publicity thing in the trades.” Rodriguez declined; Modernista! could not be reached for comment.

Below are partial contents of Koelfgen’s e-mail, though we're not vouching for this version of how the pictures got into the art director's hands. We hear he got them off the company server. It’s a poem, of sorts:

Today my friend Jeison Rodriguez was abruptly fired.
He's [sic] was an art director at Deutsch for close to a decade.

Jeison wasn't fired for incompetence.
He's a damn fine art director. And a gifted designer.
He was fired for e-mailing some pictures of Donny Deutsch.
Pictures Donny had taken of himself.
I'll enclose them so you see what I mean.

I worked for Donny.
I have no axe [sic] to grind.
He payed [sic] me regular.
But the more I think about this, the more it bothers me.

I can't speak for anybody else.
But you'll never see me squeeze my greasy carcass into a speedo.
And if I do, I'll never have a picture taken.
And if I do, I'll never keep it.
And if I do, I'll never give it to an art director with a scanner and some spare time.
And If I do, he's more than welcome to send it to whoever he wants.

It was probably stupid for Jeison to have done this.
But ultimately, I think he's a victim of ruthless vanity.

I'll hop off my soapbox now.

And get to the point:

if you need a talented freelance AD in the NYC area --or know somebody
who might--please have them get in touch with Jeison. You won't be
disappointed. I promise.

Thanks,

mk!

—Posted by Catharine P. Taylor

Published on April 27, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (33)

Did I just see the Aflac duck get electrocuted?

Please, please stop me before I watch an “entertainment news” show again. There I was last night, pummeling a clove of garlic into pulpy submission, when the siren’s call of Pat O’Brien (oh, wait, he’s not back to The Insider yet, is he?). Anyway, maybe it was the siren’s call of that guy from Sugar Ray, who is now fronting another entertainment news show, which forced me to turn on the TV in the kitchen. Within seconds, I was wallowing in a sea of smarm masquerading as news. The topper was this bit of information: Melania Trump is set to star in a new Aflac commercial opposite the duck. The complex plot involves some Bride of Frankenstein-like switch of superbillionairess for duck, and to my eyes there appears to be a scene where the duck’s being electrocuted (quick, call PETA!). After I stopped thinking about how animal-rights activists might go a little nut-zoid over this commercial, I got to thinking about the frightening synergy of it all. Linda Kaplan Thaler, without whom there would be no Aflac duck, hosts a reality series called Making It Big, loosely patterned after Donald Trump’s The Apprentice. And in the very same week the show debuts, Trump’s wife shoots an Aflac commercial. Run for your lives!

—Posted by Catharine P. Taylor

Published on April 27, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (5)