Readers of the new Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue will be saddened to encounter one model who is significantly hairier than the others: Burt Reynolds, as seen in this new ad for high-definition DirecTV. The copy on the ad reads, “Everything should be seen in DirecTV HD. Well, maybe not everything.” The photo comes from the April 1972 centerfold in Cosmopolitan magazine. The idea to subject modern audiences to it comes from Deutsch/LA. Click the image for an even hairier version.
Time again to check in on the consumer-generated ad revolution. The latest assault is coming on Sunday, Feb. 25, from Dove, which will debut a user-created ad for its Cream Oil Wash during the Oscars broadcast. The finalists are up on the campaign’s Web site. Like many of the consumer creations that have come before it, the Dove finalists are well-versed in what goes into making a commercial. That’s what’s always struck me with these consumer ads: Regular people have watched so many commercials over the years that when asked to create their own spots, they tend to simply imitate what agencies do, even making sure to shoe-horn in all the product attributes. The end results are pretty typical 30-second spots, albeit with lower production values and worse-looking actors.
As Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York, moves from sort-of-running to full-on presidential candidate, his opponents will be delving into his past for any embarrassing or unusual things that can be turned into political advertisements. In the interest of making everyone’s job a little bit easier, may we present Rudy in drag. It comes from the Inner Circle dinner in 2000, an annual event where the mayor and the journalists who cover him gather to make fun of each other. We can’t wait for the spots talking about Rudy’s marriage to his second cousin.
If you’re an animal, there are two ways to become an ad star: learn to speak Spanish, or pack on so many pounds by stealing another pet’s food that you get stuck in a doggie door. A cat in Oregon named Goliath (since renamed Hercules) accomplished the latter, and may soon appear in ads for an unnamed low-cal cat food. (Martha Stewart also wants to do a segment on him—fat cats who steal apparently being a topic close to her heart.) Famous fat cats, meanwhile, seem to have a better shot at ad deals than famous ugly dogs. —Posted by Tim Nudd
Now that I live in Baltimore, it doesn’t surprise me that, according to local ad agency Exit10, “there has been a problem at universities and colleges with students getting drunk, trespassing on railroad tracks, and being killed.” But I am thrown for a loop by the proposed solution: passing out bottle openers that, when used, appear to decapitate the humanoid silhouettes printed on them. To me, this says, “Hey, you do some stupid things when you’re drunk. So here, enjoy this freebie, which will help you open more beers.“ They’ll be handing out advisory syringes to junkies next.
If you want to kill some time today (and we know you do), then drive the streets of Paris by going to this site for Nokia’s Multimedia Car Kit CK-20W, The Passenger. It
puts you in the driver’s seat as you take a beautiful woman around Paris
to carry out some nefarious plot or other. Instead of re-creating the city using computer animation, they shot actual footage on the Ile St. Louis. While you’re driving, you can fool
around with Nokia’s car kit by using its GPS features and changing the music. The site is fairly cool, and I spent a ridiculous amount of time on it this morning,
though, alas, my attempts to actually crash the car—even though I was making
90-degree turns without using the brakes—failed. Well, at least the Geico gecko
is smiling about that somewhere. Via Net.
Sadly, it looks like the Michelin Man has fallen prey to body-image issues and will soon reveal his slimmed-down body to audiences throughout the world. A story in Scotland’s Daily Recordquotes Michelin’s U.K. marketing director on the topic of the new, thinner Michelin Man: “We've slimmed him down because it shows the evolution of people and is a way of keeping up with changes in society.” In addition to the usual marketing-director bombast, doesn’t that quote contain a bit of wishful thinking? Is mankind really getting thinner? Well, let’s move on. Allegedly, the new Michelin Man has already launched in the Far East, though minutes of in-depth research on Michelin’s Asian Web sites revealed no such slimmer icon. On the other hand, the image above, pulled from Michelin.com, suggests that maybe he really should consider holding back on the Doritos.
Does Red Sox pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka have a drinking problem? Apparently, the U.S. Alcohol Tobacco Tax and Trade bureau (what no firearms?) is looking at an ad that shows the gyroballer actually drinking the beer he’s advertising. Dice-K’s possible binging tendencies are one thing. (In one shot, he’s taking a sip. Then, a second later, the entire pint is gone. I couldn’t even do that in my best days in college.) More pressing, it seems, is the U.S. ban on showing sports stars imbibing on TV while either playing or getting ready to play a game, or implying that alcohol can enhance one’s athletic ability (unless the sport is Rock, Paper, Scissors). Now, this ad aired in Japan, but thanks to YouTube and the Internet, everyone can see it. People are up in arms about the U.S. government’s overreaching. But I think it’s good to nip things in the bud (so to speak) before we see Rafael Palmiero popping a Viagra and showing us the results. Via Reason magazine. —Posted by Aaron Baar
The Rubik’s cube’s comeback continues, as the result of its drunken tryst with a Simon console has made landfall with the Rubik’s Revolution. I agree with the sentiments on Engadget that this is a rather pointless makeover, and wonder what else will be employed to spice up ol’ Rubi’s image. 1. It could be attached to a cup with string, in honor of a timeless children’s toy and a stupid Family Guy joke. 2. It could attach to the ankle and be spun around in a circle while skipped. 3. It could come with a DVD where some doofus in a cheap Halloween costume stands in front of thunderstorm stock footage and tells them how to solve it. 4. Skulls and thunderbolts could be painted on alternate sides to appeal to all the young hipsters with their extreme sports and tubed yogurt. 5. Same as No. 4, but with American flags and eagles to scare kids into thinking they’re terrorists if they don’t own one. And those are just a few ideas. Either way, we need to make the Rubik’s cube louder and more annoying if we want kids to buy it. Let’s hope it doesn’t reach the point where a Pokemon jumps out of it when all the sides are the same color.
Talk about shrinkage. New York City picked one of the coldest days of the year—Valentine’s Day—to kick off a new public-service campaign that included handing out 26 million free condoms to promote safe sex. But they’re not just any condoms. They’re branded as official New York City condoms (actually made by Ansell Health Care’s Lifestyles condom unit), and the wrappers feature logos of the various subway lines that traverse the Big Apple (they got the colors wrong, though). The campaign also features radio spots and posters with slogans like “New York’s hottest wrapper. NYC condoms. Get some.” And get a room. But not St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
First, the movie poster appeared to rip off Stefan Sagmeister’s work for Lou Reed. Now, New Line Cinema’s marketing for The Number 23 is getting even more annoying. They’re sending out e-mails linking to any and all news stories that mention the number 23. It’s meant to be cryptic and creepy and fun. But real life can derail these kinds of marketing gambits—as when one of the cryptic, creepy, fun e-mails links to an AP story with the headline, “Father charged in freezing death of 23-month-old girl.” So much for the clever marketing idea. Via Movie Marketing Madness and Defamer.
Some students at my alma mater, Boston University, are producing a sitcom, Res.Life, for MTV’s college channel, MTVU. The show will follow the trials and tribulations of resident assistants struggling to maintain order at one of the school’s party-hearty urban dorms. Beyond the 30-minute pilot, some one- or two-minute mobile-phone episodes are also on tap. Note to filmmakers: Celebrity cameos can boost ratings, so try to work in the Beanpot Tournament-winning BU Terriers hockey team. (It’s basic cable, so I’d avoid a shower scene. Maybe they can just spill out of an elevator, wearing their jerseys and hoisting the championship cup.) And I think it goes without saying: Back when I was in school, we walked miles to class, phones had cords, we watched TV on 12-inch screens ... and we liked it! Also, that was when MTV still played music. [Photo: Lisa Hornak/Boston Herald]
According to New York magazine, sex tapes have gone from “a shocker” a few years ago to “no big deal” today. But perhaps they’re still not quite acceptable in advertising during so-called family entertainment. For instance, check out this commercial for Bud Light featuring the Apology-Bot 3000, a robot that will apologize to a woman on a guy’s behalf. (“It’s takes courage to apologize. The courage of a robot.”) A comical enough premise, and a funny ad—but not one that was appropriate for the Super Bowl, at least according to the rumors floating around. In any case, you can play around with the Apology-Bot on Bud Light’s Web site—and send your apologies to a friend’s cell phone.
[Note: This is the first of several dispatches that Adweek senior writer Wendy Melillo will be filing from virtual worlds including Second Life, where she is the avatar Wendy Maslow.] Launching marketing schemes in virtual worlds now seems passé. Just six months ago, brands garnered instant publicity for such efforts through a press release. No more. But Starwood Hotels & Resorts may have found a new way to stand out: not by joining Second Life but by leaving it. You may recall that in September, Starwood, with its digital New York agency Electric Artists, opened a virtual version of a new hotel brand Aloft in SL. (The lobby is shown here.) It did so by buying an island there. Right now, virtual Aloft is temporarily closed while design changes are made based on feedback from visitors. The hotel will then reopen in March for 60 days to get more responses from consumers before closing forever. (Starwood never intended the hotel to be a permanent functioning facility because avatars don’t really need to sleep.) “We are talking about removing the hotel, packing it up and donating the land to charity,” says Electric Artists CEO and founder Marc Schiller. “We want to give the island back to the community and to someone who can build something amazing.” Schiller thinks brands need to develop exit plans as part of their overall marketing strategy before they even jump into a virtual world. “Budgets don’t last forever,” Schiller said. “Will brands leave their islands or stores as ghost towns to collect virtual dust?” Avatar Wendy Maslow will miss Aloft. It’s the brand that launched her adventures in SL. She will remember it fondly. —Posted by Wendy Melillo
This guy’s e-rage against the adult diaper machine isn’t that random. Though if I were him, seeing people with bladder-control issues taking up the hula hoop would have me more worried than angry. Then suddenly his otherwise typical rant turns introspective when he admits that “maybe I hate [the ad] simply because it speaks to my own mortality, the unavoidable failure of my own body as I age.” Now this is the kind of problem that only a reassuring celebrity spokesperson can assuage. I’d recommend Wilford Brimley, who can give death an irascible kick in the pants. It might do wonders for Brimley, too. Look at what Viagra did for Bob Dole. [Photo: Clampants/Flickr]
In honor of Valentine’s Day, here’s this amusing old Dr Pepper ad from Young & Rubicam in which the guy will buy tampons for his lady, he’ll wash her underwear, he’ll practice yoga with her, but he has to draw the line somewhere. The ad is also noteworthy for its use of Meat Loaf’s “I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That),” a song that confuses and frustrates some people, who believe (wrongly, it seems) that Loaf never reveals in the song exactly what it is he won’t do. Here, at least, the lyrics make obvious sense.
Today’s ads for business-class travel still emphasize pampering. But unlike in 1968, they don’t mention your mother. And if they do, they don’t compare her to a flight attendant who offers “professional treatment” along with a sultry look and a flash of leg. Click the image to read the body copy. Classic stuff from Doyle Dane Bernbach. Via Stanley Lieber/Flickr.
Adland has dug up an odd mockumentary for Auntie Anne’s pretzels called “She So Twisted,” which features, logically enough, a droopy-eyed girl whose passion is contorting herself into pretzel shapes. It’s meant to come off as goofy and fun and a little freaky, but actually it feels sort of sad, particularly when she tries to hit on guys at the mall with her legs wrapped every which way around her head. I guess this is the downside of trying to personify your product when your product is a twisted mess. Click on the pretzel link on the site for all sorts of other Auntie Anne’s mini-sites. —Posted by Tim Nudd
If Barack Obama manages to kick his cigarette habit, it’ll be a coup for Nicorette. Questioned at a weekend press conference about whether he was still smoking, the candidate said he wasn’t. “I’ve been chewing Nicorette all day long,” he said. Of course, if Obama doesn’t succeed in staying off cigarettes, it’ll be an unusually public failure for Nicorette. While wishing Obama well in his effort to quit, AdFreak can’t help liking him all the more for having a vice that used to be common among politicians (think of FDR and his cigarette holder) but has become rare in the age of blow-dried, sanitized, poll-conditioned candidates. Indeed, if Obama does shed the habit, we wouldn’t mind seeing another candidate take it up. Why not Hillary Clinton? Admit it: You’d like her better if she started smoking.
Boston Beer says its new Samuel Adams Boston Lager Pint Glass was designed by “world-renowned sensory experts” to showcase the brew as its makers intended. Let’s take a look. The glass is kinda big on top ... slender at the waist ... well proportioned, you might say. There’s talk about its special “neck and lip design,” meant to heighten beer lovers’ “sensory experience.” Company founder Jim Koch even refers to it as “a personal passion of mine.” O-kay, loverboy, you’ve reached your limit. How about a cold shower and a cuppa Joe (in a plastic mug) before harassment suits start flying? The glasses are available in packs of four for $30 at SamuelAdams.com.
Not only is today Valentine’s Day, but this year marks the 100th birthday of Hershey’s Kisses. To celebrate, Hershey’s has put out an ad that doesn’t really weigh in on their product’s centennial whatsoever. (The Postal Service is issuing a Hershey’s Kisses stamp for the occasion.) The TV spot features a little-known side effect of global warming: chocolate hail. I would have liked, in one of the scenes, to see a cluster of meteorologists gesturing skyward and checking their barometers while yelling at each other, but alas. Maybe for the 200th anniversary. One thing they could change is that godawful Burt Bacharach tune; “Looking for a Kiss” would have been much more appropriate.
Don’t feel bad if you hate Valentine’s Day: You’ve got plenty of company, particularly in the unmarried portion of the population. In a Rasmussen Reports poll, a non-landslide 36 percent of singles said they were looking forward to the holiday, while 22 percent said they were dreading it. Thirty-three percent didn’t particularly care either way. Among all respondents, 45 percent rated Valentine’s Day as “one of the nation’s least important holidays,” while just 9 percent said it’s one of the most important.
Maybe the baby in this picture actually grew up to be a Marlboro man, assuming this ad actually ran once upon a time, that is. From eatliver.com, via Mac Observer.
For all you people who haven't gotten around to doing anything for that special someone for Valentine's Day yet, here's your solution: Dairy Queen has created a site called dqslowjam.com, which will let you create your own Barry White-style (or at least the one I made was) message to send to friends and lovers. I'm not sure why, when I previewed my creation, the site showed this slovenly guy on an exercise bike while that big pair of lips relayed romantic sentiments. That's for greater minds than mine to contemplate.
