Fake Vick ad raises hackles of local SPCA

Today’s valuable lesson: Just because 865 people Digged it, that doesn’t make it true. Specifically, we’re talking about an ad purported to be from the Virginia Beach Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, thanking NFL quarterback Michael Vick for adopting 14 pit bulls after Hurricane Katrina. (One or two of you might have heard that Vick is accused of bankrolling dogfights.) Apparently this attempt at dark comedy has gotten heavy circulation on the Internet, especially via the aforementioned Digg.com posting. The urban myth debunkers at Snopes.com have weighed in, letting everyone know that what looks like a crudely Photoshopped fake is actually, well, a crudely Photoshopped fake. Meanwhile, the Virginia Beach SPCA isn’t exactly laughing about being falsely linked to a guy who reportedly OK’d the electrocution of underperforming dogs.

—Posted by David Griner

Published on July 31, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0)
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Bill Walsh gave Coors Light a touch of class

Bill Walsh, the legendary San Francisco 49ers coach, who died this week at 75, was a class act. He even managed to seem dignified in those Coors Light press-conference ads, which endeavored to make NFL coaches look foolish by having them appear to answer questions from beer-swilling doofuses. See two more Walsh ads from the series after the jump.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

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Published on July 31, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0)

An old advertising friend finds a new love

I’ll admit that this commercial from McCann Erickson made me chuckle. Revealing the advertiser would ruin what’s a pretty humorous payoff. Let’s just say this ad character is clearly getting a bit stale if they have to start telling faux French love stories to breathe some life back into him. Who knows, perhaps this could be the beginning of the end for the guy. They could do a bunch of farewell commercials in the style of various movie genres—and end it with him jumping out a window and down a bunch of stairs, à la The Exorcist. Or a re-enactment of some other classic movie death.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on July 31, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (1)

Bare bidet butts covered up in Times Square

Following up on a story we wrote about earlier, the New York Post reports this morning that the notorious bare-butts ad for the Washlet bidet finally went up in Times Square over the weekend—but it’s a censored version that should appease the New York pastor whose church is housed in the building. Most depressing for New Yorkers is word that the uncensored version of the ad will still go up in L.A.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on July 31, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (1)

Aquafina is not spring water. Nor is it beer.

Aquafina was quite optimistic when it aired this TV commercial last year. It shows people in a bar and a Bavarian-style beer garden getting positively drunk on the bottled water, as though it were beer. Now, it’s official: Aquafina is not beer. Also, it’s not even spring water. It’s regular old tap water—a fact that PepsiCo will have to make somewhat clearer on Aquafina’s packaging in future. According to the brand’s Web site, the process of purifying Aquafina has seven steps: prefiltration, polishing filter, high-intensity light, reverse osmosis, charcoal filtration, polishing filter (again) and ozonation. So that should set everyone’s mind at ease.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on July 31, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (9)

Ingmar Bergman is still calling the shots

“No art passes our conscience in the way film does and goes directly to our feelings, deep down into the dark rooms of our souls.” —Ingmar Bergman
  There are lots of “what if Ingmar Bergman did a commercial” clips on the Web. The formula is simple: As long as a personification of death appears, it’s a parody of Bergman. Such is the lasting power of the imagery crafted by the Swedish auteur in his heyday. Bergman actually did direct a series of ads in 1951 for Bris Soap. Here’s one. The spots are quite charming, and feature dialogue like, “Bris kills the bacteria. No bacteria, no smell.” Not so different, perhaps, than the script for Persona. One can almost see the faces of Bibi Anderson and Liv Ullman fusing together as they speak that overly literal, yet oddly Bergmanesque slogan. The Seventh Seal’s famous closing sequence shows a “dance with death.” The reaper leads the procession, but Bergman, behind the camera, called the tune. I like to think that hasn’t changed. The director died on Monday at age 89.

—Posted by David Gianatasio

Published on July 31, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Baltimore’s citizens help out city’s tourism

When most people think of Baltimore, they picture a poorly run, decaying industrial landscape stricken with poverty and crime. And while that’s understandable, it’s not the complete picture. In that spirit, a new tourism campaign, Visit My Baltimore, invites locals to personalize their city’s portrayal by uploading videos of themselves in their favorite places. Yes, there’s a lot of Inner Harbor stuff (mostly because of the on-the-spot video booth there), but you see bits of Mt. Vernon, Canton and Locust Point in some of the video tours. I like this campaign. As a resident Baltimoron, it makes me sad when people disparage my city. I mean, sure, it’s six times more dangerous than New York City. And yeah, Dundalk is where you’d stick the hose if you were giving Maryland an enema. But there really is a lot going on in Charm City, and most of it is pretty fun. It’s worth living here for the community theater alone. And you can’t go wrong with a city that appreciates the dark humor provided by its baseball team’s win-loss record.

—Posted by David Kiefaber

Published on July 31, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0)
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Eat Cup-O-Noodle, not prehistoric beasts

Here are seven humorous stop-motion animated ads for Cup-O-Noodle, in which packs of ravenous early humans fruitlessly chase giant prehistoric animals across the plains, hoping to make a meal out of them. None of the ads ends well for the homo sapiens—which sets up the message that preparing a Cup-O-Noodle would be so much easier. The commercials were apparently made in the early ’90s for the Japanese market by a guy named Kim Blanchette, who is something of a legend in animator circles, having worked on The Nightmare Before Christmas and Toy Story and on animatics for Jurassic Park. Via Neatorama.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on July 30, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (2)

GOP hoping that the FredExpress delivers

Fred Thompson is still not officially running for president, but his supporters have already appropriated the logo of a well-known shipping company to promote the “FredExpress.” Not a bad choice—the FedEx logo is, of course, one of the most lauded of all time, mostly thanks to that nifty negative-space arrow. Unless FedEx rips into Thompson like they did the FedEx Furniture guy, we can probably expect some hokey messaging about how Thompson “always delivers” (even on Saturdays). Maybe they could put a tracking number on his Web site, so we can see where he is at all times. Thompson is not the first FredEx in history. A now-retired, bottom-feeding NFL wide-out named Freddie Mitchell once gave himself the nickname. Mitchell was a legend in his own mind, so perhaps it’s fitting that Thompson is carrying on the tradition.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on July 30, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (3)

Denis Leary does not have great posture

Having not seen a single episode of Rescue Me through its first three seasons, I can’t vouch for how many scenes include Denis Leary screaming and glowing like a demon. It’s probably quite a few. In any case, FX ditches the more traditional poster art and is promoting season four with this memorable photo. The media buy includes NYC commuter trains, some of whose passengers may move to the next car after a half hour or so.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on July 30, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (1)

Ad legend Arnold Rosoff back in the game

Arnold is back. Not the Havas-owned ad agency in Boston, but Arnold Rosoff, the guy the shop is named after. Rosoff, 90, founded one of Arnold’s precursors 60 years ago. He’s been out of the limelight for nearly two decades, though the local ad club’s diversity award bears his name. Now, he’s resurfaced as chairman of the board of Hub independent Holland Mark—which itself was reborn this year after closing its doors as the decade began. Rosoff sat on the board of the original Holland Mark and helped broker its 1999 merger with Ingalls, creating New England’s largest independent agency at the time. Holland Mark CEO Chris Colbert tells the Boston Herald: “[Rosoff] may not know e-mail marketing or the intricacies of search engine marketing, but he knows what clients want.” Given the frequently frenzied state of the techno-media landscape today, kicking it old school might be just the ticket for shops looking to move their business into a higher gear.

—Posted by David Gianatasio

Published on July 30, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (1)

Lesbians with clueless dads choose Toyota

If Toyota has taught us anything, it’s that nothing sells cars quite like photogenic lesbians. Or inattentive fathers. Seriously, the guy just up and leaves as his daughter hops into the car of someone he’s never met? Lame. I blame the background music—it sounds a lot like the opening cutscene music from the video game Bully, which was hardly a model for good parenting. And neither, by all available evidence, is Toyota.

—Posted by David Kiefaber

Published on July 30, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (4)
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Float off to la-la land with Microsoft’s Zune

Microsoft’s Zune is ideal for the discerning, airborne hipster. Or so this latest ad tells us. Of course, the commercial doesn’t go so far as to mention what Zune is or does. It is, of course, a brand of digital music products, chiefly an MP3 player and related online music store. How any of that relates to this indie Peter Pan tribute, I’ll never know. But I like the animation and the overall style. It’s hardly the psychedelic freakout Gizmodo says it is, though.

—Posted by David Kiefaber

Published on July 30, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (4)
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Space cadets desperately need a relaunch

This nation’s space program is in serious need of an image overhaul. First, we had astronaut Lisa Nowak running around in a diaper (go ahead, Google it) as she attempted to kidnap a romantic rival. Now, a report commissioned by NASA has determined that some space-shuttle crew members have flown while drunk. What’s next, Jell-O shots and nude Twister on the International Space Station? Actually, that would make me want to sign up, but it probably wouldn’t enhance the brand for most of the general public. Space exploration used to be a noble pursuit, punctuated by patriotic sips of Tang and weightless rounds of lunar golf. Maybe John Glenn is available for some PSAs. He nearly flamed out on re-entry back in ’62, so at least he’s no stranger to sly non sequiturs. NASA better get its act together soon. If the press keeps poking around, they’re liable to unearth the top-secret soundstage where the moon landings were faked. (You can Google that one, too.)

—Posted by David Gianatasio

Published on July 27, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

‘Baby Back Ribs’ song is a crowd pleaser

When it comes to the best cover versions of Chili’s “Baby Back Ribs” song, it’s a toss-up between Fat Bastard’s and Rhett Miller’s. Bastard delivers his brief rendition while eyeing Mini-Me at the end of this scene from the second Austin Powers movie. Miller, lead singer of the Old 97’s, recorded his own version for this Chili’s ad. In the video above, Miller agrees to play the song live, but only after making sure his fans won’t hate him in the morning. Chili’s should give Wilco a call next.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on July 27, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

When will we see a PSA for the iPhone?

Good grief, another old PSA. This one’s from the 1950s and shows people how to dial a rotary telephone. Now, I know what you’re thinking (post-war America was incredibly dense), but this PSA was screened in movie theatres when operator service was being replaced by the phone system we know and grudgingly tolerate today. Among the differences: The men who delivered phone books back then wore suits, and the ring sounded like an electric razor. Rotary telephones probably don’t exist anymore. Maybe the same people who dug up this gem will unearth helpful guides to operating those newfangled flush toilets and bristled toothbrushes.

—Posted by David Kiefaber

Published on July 27, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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McDonald’s latest play is by the numbers

These McDonald’s “What are you gonna get?” billboards are everywhere, and the focus on the value-meal numbers is a little off-putting. It may leave too much room for interpretation. Still, whichever number you’re into, you’ll soon have more time to pick it up, now that McDonald’s wants all its restaurants to open by 5 a.m. The “Will It Blend?” guy will be pleased.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on July 27, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)

Always SPLINK before you cross the road

Here’s another goofy PSA, dredged up from the bizarroverse that was 1970s England, with a cameo by one of the guys who played Doctor Who. It’s one of those “Look both ways before crossing the street” advisories that for some reason ends up with the acronym “SPLINK,” which is then awkwardly thrown out there as a catchphrase by the narrator, who looks like he should be teaching at Hogwarts. Frankly, SPLINK sounds like something affiliated with Harry Potter. But it doesn’t sound like anything safe.

—Posted by David Kiefaber

Published on July 27, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
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Good fruit gets sliced, diced in Vex trailer

We’ve always enjoyed the Snapple ad where the bad fruit overcome their violent tendencies while in rehab. But sometimes you just want to see some innocent fruit get roughed up, ’80s slasher movie style. Vex, a Canadian booze company, fills the void with this spoof horror-movie trailer for its new Strawberry Orange Banana Hard Lemonade. All that’s missing is a cameo from the “Will It Blend?” guy.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on July 26, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Don’t overdo it on that virtual walkathon

As a runner, I’m a bit of a snob when it comes to walkathons. OK, they’re for a good cause, but I’d like to see a little more dedication when pledging money than someone going out for a few-mile ramble. I’m not saying everyone should trek 135 miles across Death Valley at Badwater, but a little effort couldn’t hurt. Well, charity walkathons are now going lower: The American Cancer Society is holding a “virtual relay” tomorrow and Saturday in which 2,500 brave souls will sit in front of their computers and move their avatars around Second Life. Have people stopped going outside?

—Posted by Brian Morrissey

Published on July 26, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)
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Ideas for TV pilots that MySpace will love

MySpace is seeking out TV pilots. The prize: a Fox development deal. Since I enter all media-related contests (not officially, just here on AdFreak), I thought I’d toss some ideas into the mix.
  1) No-Bull. A pit bull solves crimes. Talk about ironic social commentary. I see Jason Alexander in the lead roll, wearing a dog suit, or else we CGI the whole thing. Petco and Purina provide seamless placements.
  2) Fad Men. A bunch of 1970s ad guys indulge in free love, hard drugs and develop bogus campaigns for Mood Rings, Pet Rocks and digital wristwatches.
  3) Found. A plane full of sexy but obnoxious, mostly young people crashes on a remote island. I think the cast of The O.C. would probably work for scale. Or Snickers bars. Snickers, naturally, would sponsor.
  4) Seinfeld. Just put the ’90s series back in prime time. It can’t get worse ratings than Judge Maria Lopez.
  5) American Idle. Average Joes and Janes compete at doing absolutely nothing. The first one who shows any initiative loses. Sony PlayStation, Xbox and Wii could support.
  6) Hot Type. Follows the high-tension, back-room, bare-knuckle backstabbing of an Australian media mogul vying for control of the universe. Oddly, Fox—like MySpace, a News Corp. holding—probably wouldn’t object, with a few changes to the source material, like casting Obama Girl in the lead.*

—Posted by David Gianatasio

*This just in: Rupe says he’ll play himself.

Published on July 26, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Skittles guy trapped in cursed, lonely world

You’ve probably seen this commercial by now, where everything the guy touches turns to Skittles—more of a curse than a blessing, particularly since the guy also seems pretty forgetful. Boards calls it a “tragic soliloquy of Skittlesean proportions.” The spot vaguely echoes this ad for Labatt’s Blue, where a guy breaks everything he touches, but the comic timing and the sight gags set the Skittles ad well apart. By TBWA\Chiat\Day.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on July 26, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Ride paddy art is next big thing. Literally.

Everyone knows you get buzz when you go big. Attention comes easy if you put a giant Homer next to a famous fertility landmark, distract pilots with a massive stripper or give space aliens a peek at Eva Longoria's cleavage. But we at AdFreak like to focus on what's next. And we believe the new hotness will be commercial exploitation of rice paddies. Mental Floss recently told us about the small Japanese town of Inakadate, where farmers create exquisite works of art by planting rice strains with different-colored leaves. It's apparently spread across many Japanese communities. So who should be the first to tarnish this beautiful tradition with good old commercial greed? Maybe this is a job for Uncle Ben, corporate juggernaut.

—Posted by David Griner

Published on July 26, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)
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Chocolate condoms wreaking havoc again

Advertising for chocolate-flavored condoms never seems to promise great results for the ladies. If they use White Night’s chocolate condoms, they’re liable to pile on the pounds. And if they choose Durex instead, they may end up with a mouthful of bad teeth. The Durex spot also has one of the more absurd and disturbing kickers we’ve seen in an ad in quite a while. Seems the milkman is interested in more than just human kindness.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on July 26, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

Get hooked on these fishy movie posters

Hard to believe you could find a decent Photoshop diversion outside of Something Awful, but this fisherman’s take on movie posters is pretty cool, if a bit random. Krill Bill, Swim Free or Die Hard and An Inconvenient Trout are my favorites, and the first two would probably be better movies than their source material. The Codfather is a bit much, though. Still, as corny as this is, it’s nice to see a wholesome Internet parody for once. Could dentistry movie posters be next? Is it time for America to face An Inconvenient Tooth? Via Presurfer.

—Posted by David Kiefaber

Published on July 26, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
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