Creepy Saatchi ads battle domestic violence

I’ve had roommates who looked like this guy after a night out at McCormack’s. But seriously, the context here is more sobering: It’s a domestic-violence PSA ad from Saatchi & Saatchi in Singapore. (Click the image to see a larger version.) The text reads, “Your mother acts as though nothing happened. She makes dinner and sits at the table, staring into her plate. He stumbles in drunk, stands behind her and says, ‘I’m sorry. Do you forgive me?’ She sits silent for a long time. You can see the bruise over her eye turning purple. You can feel her sadness filling the room. She nods without looking up. He forces a kiss on her then smiles at you as if to say everything’s fine now. You stare into your plate.” Ugh. The tagline is, “No child should have to live with a monster.” See more executions here and here. Via Ads of the World.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on May 31, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (6)

Is it worth watching ads to get free minutes?

Over the last few days, we've been reading about Virgin Mobile USA's plan to give people free cell minutes in exchange for spending an equal amount of time watching ads—subscribers could get up to 75 minutes per month of free calls, as long as they watch the ads served up on their phones and respond to them via SMS. (We're assuming that's to verify they actually watched). Virgin, according to this story, sees potential in the idea from a highly-desirable youth market that will do anything—including watching ads!—to preserve cash, but a Forrester analyst says cell calls are already so cheap anyway, it won't make a bit of difference. So, AdFreak readers, time to tell us what you think.

—Posted by Catharine P. Taylor

Published on May 31, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (8)

Amnesty International fights anti-immigrant bias in Europe

Hard-hitting spot here, including racist language and a brief moment of horrific violence, from McCann Portugal as part of Amnesty International’s efforts to tackle prejudice against immigrants in Europe. In Portuguese, with English subtitles.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on May 31, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (2)

It’s the weekend. Let’s get back to work.

Summer in the Hamptons. It’s fun. It’s sexy. It’s where spoiled publicity princesses mow down pedestrians who get in their way. And where high-powered New Yorkers go for the weekend to get away from the pressures of work. Or it’s supposed to be. Of course, some people never tire of work, or of thinking about the issues that preoccupy their industries. And that’s just what a couple of Manhattan-based PR guys—Ronn Torossian of 5W Public Relations and Joseph Anthony of Vital Marketing—are counting on. They’ve just launched a series of roundtable discussions and networking events to take place in East Hampton featuring luminaries from the worlds of entertainment, sports and business, which of course Torossian and Anthony spend most of their waking hours promoting. But don’t expect to able to just waltz right through the front door of the “super-luxurious house” (shown here, according to the e-mail we got) and start dialoguing. Invitations are hard to come by, Torossian tells Newsday. “You have to be culturally relevant in your space,” he says. OK, that leaves out about 99.9 percent of the people I pal around with. “The people we are targeting run major American companies” or are entertainers, he says. And for those who question whether the Hamptons is the proper setting for such weighty talks, Torossian responds, “Today’s big business is not just done at the boardroom. ... I don’t know the difference between business and personal.” Poor bastard.

—Posted by Steve McClellan

Published on May 31, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Diet Pepsi tops Commercial Closet awards

A few weeks ago we wrote about the nominees for Commercial Closet’s 2006 Images in Advertising Awards, which honor outstanding representations of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) community in advertising. The votes are in, and DDB’s “Guy Watcher” spot for Diet Pepsi, featuring Carson Kressley, has walked off with the award for Outstanding Commercial. The PFLAG ad with Ben Affleck, which we ran with the earlier post, won for Outstanding Print/Outdoor-Mainstream. As we mentioned before, the turnaround mainstream advertiser of the year award and the “Clean Up Your Act Notice” were kept secret until May 23 event. Those awards went to T-Mobile and Nabisco, respectively. Check out all the award winners here.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on May 31, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (3)

Defining ‘user’ in ‘user-generated content’

While advertisers try to figure out what (if anything) to do with “user-generated content,” they’re likely to see more of it as broadband connections become increasingly common. A new report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project says the number of Americans who have broadband at home jumped from 60 million to 84 million between March 2005 and March 2006. Growth has been brisk among middle-class households “and particularly fast for African Americans,” as well as among people with low levels of education. The report notes that broadband users are significantly more likely than their dial-up counterparts to post material online. Thus, the spread of broadband is changing the demographics of user-generated content. When Pew first looked at the matter in 2002, such content was largely the province of “a ‘broadband elite’ of mostly male technophiles.” No longer. In the current research, broadband users in households with income under $50,000 were slightly more likely than those in higher-income households to say they’ve put content online. Of course, we can take it for granted that most of this content has nothing to do with advertising. But there’s a growing base of people who are candidates to make brand-related postings online—whether the brands in question like it or not.

—Posted by Mark Dolliver

Published on May 31, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (1)

Get your World Cup sex souvenirs now

Every four years, someone trots out a study that says men (in Europe and South America, anyway) overwhelmingly prefer watching World Cup soccer to having sex. Erotic retailers naturally wonder why it has to be one or the other. As the 2006 tournament nears, many of them are rolling out World Cup-themed sex toys and apparel. The thongs shown here, done up in the colors of Germany, Brazil and Italy, are among a large selection of World Cup sex products on sale at Beate Uhse, Germany’s erotic superstore. The company is also selling six “sporty vibrators,” tight-fitting soccer jerseys for women and an “erotic energy drink,” guaranteeing “an erotic home game that is a lot more exciting than any football tournament,” say the promotional materials. Not to be outdone, U.K. sex shop LoveHoney has introduced the England Victory Vibe, a vibrator emblazoned with St. George’s Cross. The product description pulls no punches: “G-oh-oh-ooal! Come on, England! Go 45 minutes each way with this mini orgasm machine and you’ll feel like you’ve won the World Cup of sex!”

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on May 31, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ottawa screws up Arabic on anti-pot ad

Whatever they’ve been smoking up in Ottawa, Canada, it’s caused them to royally screw up the Arabic version of a billboard encouraging people not to drive under the influence of marijuana. “The first time, I thought it wasn’t Arabic,” one Arabic speaker tells CBC News. The problem? Both the sentence and the individual words in it are written backwards—left to right, instead of right to left. (You can see the fixed version of the ad here.) “This is an embarrassment for the city,” a councilman points out. The city says it used a professional translation firm to create the ad, and tested it on a focus group. The error, says a spokesman, occurred during production. Where have we heard that before?

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on May 30, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (1)

Columbus, Ohio, gets a giant working iPod

A Columbus, Ohio, magazine called Alive! has set up this giant working iPod billboard in the city’s downtown area. The playlist is kept online, so passersby can look up the songs they hear while passing the ad. It also takes requests. It’s unclear whether Apple had to approve the use of the iPod image, or if it even knows about this. Via MacDailyNews.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on May 30, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (3)

It’s not just sharks you have to worry about

“Read before diving,” says this humorous ad for a Brazilian diving magazine. (Click to see a bigger version.) Another ad in the series reminds me of the opening segment of Magnolia. And this one has a Planet of the Apes thing going on. All of the work is by Giovanni,FCB in São Paulo. Via Coolz0r and Ads of the World.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on May 30, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (1)

Cell phones aren’t actually this exciting

Most people pass the time on the bus or subway by reading a book, listening to their iPod or playing Breakout on their BlackBerry. The bored guy in a new Taxi spot for Amp’d Mobile prefers to order his fellow passengers around—having them fight, turn up the music and shake their junk. He also gets a pair of women to make out. The tagline is, “Have the power to entertain yourself.” It’s kind of amusing, but there’s always a bit of a letdown with these kinds of ads when you see the product. Via ’boards. Spotted on Advergirl, who writes that she’s “bored with the whole women are hot kissing cliché ... but, I am clearly not the target.”

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on May 30, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (4)

Are men not seeing enough sunscreen ads?

Memorial Day weekend is over, and men across the U.S. are perched gingerly in their cubes, nursing painful, lobsterlike sunburns. Is this because they are stupid and oblivious and lack even a basic appreciation for skin-care products? Probably. But maybe advertising can shoulder some of the blame, too. According to a new study, 77 percent of sunscreen ads published between 1997 and 2002 appeared in women’s magazines. (The study looked at 783 ads in a total of 579 summer issues of 24 publications.) Outdoor and recreation magazines, typically read by men, contained less than one sunscreen ad per every six issues. The researchers think this is a large untapped market. “I’ve argued that advertising and communications should go on in boating, tennis and golf magazines,” says David J. Leffell of the Yale School of Medicine, who wasn’t involved in the study but does skin-care consulting for a large U.S. company. Adds Alan Geller of the Boston University School of Medicine, who was involved: “We know that men know much less about sun protection than women. Research has shown us that many, many people use sun-protection products and still get burned.”

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on May 30, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Henry is on fire, and other World Cup news

Just 10 days now until the World Cup kicks off in Germany. Once the tournament begins, we’ll probably end up saturating the blog with soccer news, hopefully some of it ad-related. So we’ll keep the previews short and sweet. Here’s a fun World Cup trailer created for the BBC by DFGW. (Good use of the Who, as well.) One of the weirder World Cup themes I’ve seen is Electronic Arts’ “Stop Holland” campaign, running in Germany. The TV spot and Web site combine to imagine Germany’s worst nightmare: Holland winning the World Cup. German gamers, though, can do their part to fend off the Dutch by beating them in EA’s computer soccer game. Via ’boards.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on May 30, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (1)

Bronson Arroyo swings, misses, hits home run in Cincy car-dealer ad

Bronson Arroyo can sing. He can also pitch—on the mound and off. Check out this hilarious spot he's done for a local car dealer in Cincinnati. So bad it's good. Arroyo's acting—another reason the Red Sox may regret having let him go. Via Deadspin.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on May 26, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (2)

Pub patrons in receipt of responsible drinking messages

We guess this is a form of targeting—during the World Cup, ATMs in Leicestershire, England will display ads about drinking responsibly, to try to discourage those who think the perfect thing to do right before the pubs close is to get more cash to buy another drink. The machines themselves will remind people about fines for anti-social behavior. (OK, in this context, let’s spell it behaviour.) The receipts will carry the message, “Drinking could seriously affect your balance.” Not a bad theme line, but the last thing most people are apt to do when they are in, um, a certain state of mind, is take a gander at their ATM receipt.

—Posted by Catharine P. Taylor

Published on May 26, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Despite this email, CPAs and rock stars still have nothing in common

So, yesterday, we were watching the denouement of the Enron trial when we got this pitiful attempt at getting in on the media action—an email with this subject header: “CPA OF ENRON’S ACCOUNTING FIRM WHO QUIT TO BECOME A ROCK STAR SPEAKS OUT ON PRESSURES CEOS PUT ON YOUNG AUDITORS.” The ex-CPA in question, one Chris Sernel, now of the group Escape from Earth, “aced” the CPA exam and was immediately hired by Enron accountant Arthur Andersen back in the day, the email says. It’s probably a good thing that he’s got a talent for math, because apparently his spelling is so bad he can’t even get the name of his former employer right. In the release, he repeatedly spells Andersen with an “o” where the second “e” should be. Anyway, here is a bit of his wit and wisdom regarding the well-known CPA/rock star conundrum: “Between the scandals and tons of new rules, it was frustrating. While at Anderson [sic], I just got sick and tired of working 100 hour weeks finding potential errors and issues, only to see that the client ultimately was given an auditor’s ‘clean opinion’ by Anderson [sic again!] managers. This was due in large part to the pressure of knowing that the client is paying the auditor’s bills. In Rock and Roll [his choice of capitalization, not ours], our fans pay our bills. The pressures are the same to give people their money’s worth but rising up to meet the pressures in the world of Rock and Roll are more in intellectually honest and rewarding.” Uh, thanks for the insights, Chris.

—Posted by Catharine P. Taylor

Published on May 26, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (4)

Stick your neck out with this trusty compass

We’ve come across several ads for navigations systems lately that make literal the new perspective the products offer. The guy here, with the stretchy neck, is creepier, though, than Renault’s giant building, found with the help of a GPS system. Check out another long-necked character here. Via Cool LOking Ads.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on May 26, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Stay away from the giant chocolate billboard

If it’s true that chocolate prolongs depression, then the characters clambering all over this giant Cadbury’s ad won’t be able to get out of bed tomorrow. Via Advertising for Peanuts.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on May 26, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

U.K. journalist to burn all his branded stuff

I’m not sure I’d be brave enough (or dumb enough) to burn all of my branded possessions. Without my iMac, I’d get no work done. Without my Skechers, I’d be digging NYC glass out of my feet. Without my Scientific-Atlanta DVR, I’d miss The Sopranos every week. Neil Boorman doesn’t care about things like this. A self-described “label-obsessed journalist and music promoter,” based in the U.K., Boorman is planning to build an enormous bonfire this summer, with every last piece of his branded stuff as fuel, and set it gloriously alight. Sure, he has a book deal to go along with this stunt (title: Bonfire of the Brands), but maybe he’s half-serious about how lost he feels in the sea of modern brands. Thus, on August 26 of this year, “I am going to gather every branded possession of mine into a warehouse, douse them with petrol and burn the lot,” he writes. “Jacobson chairs, Christian Dior shirts, a Louis Vuitton bag; I’m too frightened to calculate the financial cost of this action, but I know it’s a lot. Far more unsettling than the money is the emotional cost I’m going to suffer. You see, It’s not simply a pile of expensive clothes and accessories going on the bonfire. Neil Boorman is being destroyed too. … Until recently, I thought I knew who Neil Boorman was. I felt sure how the outside world regarded me because I had spent a fair amount of time engineering an image. I found the best way to understand and articulate ‘me’ was through the owning and displaying of things made by brands. They provided a source of comfort, a reassurance of my own self-worth, they project my identity to others around me. … Frustratingly, this attempt at branded self-identity has been accompanied with a numbed sense of dissatisfaction. Attempting to cure myself, I have sought comfort and reassurance by buying yet more branded goods, treating myself ‘because I’m worth it.’ I now understand that this behavior only made matters worse. For all the time and money I have devoted to collecting these brands, these symbols of self, I have absolutely no idea who I am. ... With every new emblem of identity I add to my collection, I lose a piece of myself to the brands. They cannot reciprocate the love I give. They cannot transport me to the places I’m promised exist. I am not, nor will I ever be remotely similar to the people that appear in their ads. It is a lie, a lie I have believed in for too long.” He’ll presumably be knitting his own clothes for the occasion.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on May 26, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (10)

Agency folks: you haven't missed your 'Idol' moment

This could get ugly. Agency types interested in getting their William Hung on should be advised that 24/7 Real Media is holding an “Agency Idol” night on June 1 at Cain in New York. The karaoke contest will have awards for solo and team performances. Non-singing gluttons for punishment are welcome to attend—and we suggest you drink early and often. If you need to warm-up, head on over to AOL’s In2TV, where you can sing along to classic TV themes like “Perfect Stranger.” Sign up at 24/7 Real Media's site.

—Posted by Brian Morrissey

Published on May 25, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (2)
Filed under Morrissey

JWT's 'Fast Company' story full of surprises

How come we were the last to know that JWT is in the midst of a great comeback? And that New York co-president Rosemarie Ryan looks so frightening in construction garb and pumps that we might avoid a certain stretch of Lexington Avenue in future, lest we run into her? (See picture from the story at left.) In a current cover story in Fast Company (click here for a PDF) chock full of surprises, JWT—in particular, the New York office—is positioned as the unheralded turnaround champion of Madison Avenue. We were pretty surprised, too, to see Ryan and office co-president Ty Montague touted as "Shakeup Artists: Dragging Madison Ave. into the 21st Century," considering that in the last few months, sources we trust didn't exactly give the shop a shout-out. (Not that we fault Montague or Ryan for trying.) In fact, the linchpins of the Fast Company story seem to be a couple of sledgehammers used to knock down the office walls and one nifty campaign for JetBlue, which, while one of our faves, does hardly a J. Walter Turnaround make. Having gotten that off our chests, let's explore some details that the piece gets if not dead wrong, then not quite right. At a Feb. 28, 2005, staff meeting, Ryan and Montague may have used the phrase "billion-dollar startup" to describe the shop's attempt at embracing entrepreneurialism, but it wasn't originally theirs. We traced it to a story nearly two years earlier, when it was uttered by Bob Jeffrey, then president of North America, before Ryan and Montague were even hired. (Sorry, it’s in the Adweek subscription archive if you want to access it.) To hear this piece tell it, Jeffrey, though now JWT chairman/CEO, sounds lucky to even have an office. Not only is he (peculiarly) not quoted in the piece, but when Montague and Ryan are depicted literally tearing the walls down, it's explained that the duo was "stripping everyone but Jeffrey and the payroll department of their private offices."  Um, who's the boss here? Another shocker: that BBDO is "the other behemoth Madison Avenue shop that's on a mission to reinvent itself." Strange. We thought that most big, traditional agencies were trying to reinvent themselves. There's also a claim that JWT New York didn't win any accounts in 2002 and 2003. No one will look back on those as the New York office's best years, but it did win the $30 million Novell business in September 2002. But what's perhaps oddest about the story is that in the end, it apologizes for its enthusiasm, as if the magazine, too, weren't quite sure of what kind of story it had. It describes "mounting frustration … that the outside world hasn't witnessed the transformation." Then, following a derisive quote from an unidentified search consultant, who says, "I don't see it happening," the story contends that "the primary reason she hasn't seen it is that, apart from the JetBlue campaign, most of the work done under Montague won't appear until the second half of the year." We'd like to believe that's why we're just not getting it. And, curmudgeons though we are, we still like to see agencies try to change, even when it seems all they might be doing is channeling Jay Chiat by tearing down walls. But Montague joined JWT in January 2005. Which, if the above is true, means it's taken him a year and a half to crank out a couple of ads. UPDATE: It's only fair to point out that moments after we posted this item, JWT won $200 million in additional assignments from Kimberly-Clark which will be handled by the New York and London offices.

—Posted by Catharine P. Taylor

Published on May 25, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (128)

Denny’s cooks up more dinners, but don’t sell your stove just yet

When I was 16, the occasional trip to Denny’s was a natural part of my Midwestern routine. My brother even recorded a song about Denny’s once for his band Sour Milk. These days, I’m not even sure there’s a Denny’s with 10 miles of where I live. (Maybe there’s one in Fort Lee.) Thus, I have to monitor Denny’s from afar—including its current attempt to add more dinner options, with ads in that vein (yuck) due next month from Publicis in Dallas. A story in South Carolina’s Spartanburg Herald Journal explains: “The spots feature an elderly couple going to Denny’s for dinner, a middle-aged man who likes the price and size of the chain’s breakfasts, a mother who likes Denny’s so much she is considering selling her stove, and a young man who likes to visit Denny’s after a night on the town.” One word of advice: Do not sell your stove out of loyalty to Denny’s. The new tagline is, “Denny’s always works,” which seems perfect, as it says nothing about taste or health. Once again, though, the chain has passed over the perfect documentary-style testimonial ad campaign—one based on Project:Denny’s, the effort by one brave man to “visit as many Denny’s as possible before I die.” Project:Denny’s has been going strong for 10 years, much longer than anyone could have hoped or expected. “Sure, all the food tastes the same, and it always leave a thick layer of grease on your plate, but where else can you get a Moons Over My Hammy?” the guy reasons. “During my first year of college, I was fortunate enough to actually work as a graveyard-shift waiter at Denny’s. Now I just eat there.” With more dinners on the way, that’s unlikely to change.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on May 25, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

‘Bild’ moves on from peeing to kidnapping

Kidnapping may be an odd theme for an advertisement these days, but German newspaper Bild doesn’t give a ratte’s ass what you think. This is the same newspaper that installed tilted mirrors above urinals in men’s rooms and etched the line “Nothing is harder than the truth” next to them. The tagline on this kidnapping ad is: “Read the world’s fastest newspaper.” Will someone please explain what a fast newspaper is? Via Ads of the World.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on May 25, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (1)

Nature looks a lot like Benjamin Moore

Are these actual outdoor ads for Benjamin Moore? (Click to see larger versions.) More likely, they’re Photoshop jobs done for print. Either way, they’re pretty cool. Via Advertka.ru.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on May 25, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (4)

Canadian brewer invents monkey generator

Thanks to a friend of mine, I’m just now catching up on the great Ricky Gervais podcast show and have been enjoying many installments of Monkey News. Perhaps I’m predisposed, right now, to enjoy just about any ad campaign featuring monkeys—including the new work for James Ready 5.5., which apparently is some sort of beer in Canada. (Its motto seems to be, “24 for $24. It should cost more!” Which is either really silly or genius). Anyway, there’s a “monkey generator” up on the brewer’s Web site. You can upload a photo of yourself or a friend and graft it onto a monkey’s body. It’s somewhat amusing, although they should really have the monkey dance or something as well.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on May 25, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)