Captain D’s seafood may taste OK, but it has some anger management issues. In a pair of new ads, an office drone who’s eating a burger and a couple who’ve ordered pizza get “tailsmacked” by a giant orange fish, who would prefer it if you’d eat his fried brethren instead. (Also, do not laugh around the fish, as it only sets him off more.) There’s a Web site, too, where you can upload photos of yourself and receive the same abuse. Proceed to Captain D’s at your own risk. The campaign is by Goodness Mfg, led by former Crispin execs.
Belgium seems to be ahead of the game when it comes to optician advertising. Here’s a clever print ad for a Belgian optician, by LG&F in Brussels. (See three more executions after the jump, via Spare Room.) And here’s another interesting ad in the category, by Belgium’s BBDO Proximity, featuring a sales letter designed in the form of an eye-test chart. (Via Coolz0r.)
Is it a good thing when the TV commercial for your soccer shoe looks like a Discovery Channel special on self-surgery? The idea behind this Nike ad is that the boot is so lightweight, it’s like it’s not even there. Thus, the guy is seen lacing up his feet rather than his shoes. Also, as he click-clacks down the tunnel toward the field, it becomes evident that he’s also developed great cleat-like callusus on the soles of his feet. Which will also need medical attention at some point. Via Advertolog, which credits London’s Nice Shirt Films as the agency.
Dear Wal-Mart: I like your stores, where I can always find low prices on Cheetos, firearms and Tom Clancy DVDs. But I’m confused about something. You’re putting “Hannah Montana Shops” in 750 Wal-Marts, offering apparel, handbags, footwear, cosmetics and music. Your vp of marketing, Janet Bareis, told Brandweek: “The new line will appeal to tweens.” My questions: Who is Hannah Montana? And what the hell is a “tween”? When I called your customer service department, they said I should “Google,” then hung up. I’m not sure what “Google” is, but I always liked your “Always” ads and wish you’d bring them back. P.S. Keep me in mind if you should need a new vp of marketing. I’ve been reading Brandweek, so I’m qualified. P.P.S. Why’d you kill Smiley Face? He never hurt anyone!
We’re not sure who in this British ad scuffle is more ridiculous: the people who made Ryanair’s “schoolgirl” ad, or the people who banned it. The U.K.’s Advertising Standards Authority (which banned it) disapproved of the model’s plaid skirt/ white blouse combo and classroom backdrop, which “strongly suggested she was a schoolgirl.” Analysis like that is why they’re the experts. The airline, meanwhile, doesn’t come off much better. They counterargued that the model’s attire was “fashionable among young women,” not just students. Plus, they “disagreed that the ad had sexual connotations, stating that it was ‘obvious’ the image was of a woman.” Uh fellas, I think that’s what the ASA was objecting to. —Posted by David Kiefaber
So, let’s say you’re Michel Gondry, and you’ve directed a surreal movie about two guys re-creating movies on the cheap after a video store’s tapes are mysteriously erased. Why not crank the absurdist dial up to 11 and promote the film by re-creating its trailer on the cheap? In what has to be one of the strangest previews of all time, Gondry does just that with a shot-for-shot remake of this trailer for Be Kind Rewind. With his nearly indecipherable French accent, Gondry is so endearingly geeky, you just want to give him a big hug. Via Cinematical.
It’s 2 a.m. You walk out of a bar. You’re wasted. Wanna take a minute and answer some trivia questions for Metacafe’s upcoming interactive game show, Buzzed? Sure you do! Host: Our first category is sports. Question: Who is baseball’s all-time home run king? Contestant No. 1: Brrroouggrrhh... Host: Barry Bonds! That’s correct! And disgusting, I might add! OK, contestant No. 2, your category is politics. Name the current president of the United States. Contestant No. 2: She left me. I gave her the best years of my life. Then one day ... hic ... she’s just gone. Host: Heartbreaking story, No. 2. The correct answer, however, is George W. Bush. Contestant No. 3, you’ve drawn potpourri. Here’s a tough one: What is your own name? Contestant No. 3: W-wait, I know this. Host: I need an answer. Contestant No. 3: Kei...f... Keif... Host: Close enough! Keifer Sutherland, troubled tough-guy star of motion pictures and television, is the correct answer! Thanks for being our special surprise guest! Contestant No. 3: You can’t film this. Drinking violates my probation! Host: Well, maybe you’ll think twice next time before you get ... Buzzed!
In its February issue, Playboy offers its ranking of the 21 sexiest American TV commercials of all time. (The rankings have been omitted from the online version, and you’re encouraged to vote.) In the print edition, Paris Hilton’s sudsy washing of a Bentley, performed while also munching on a Carl’s Jr. burger, comes in at No. 21 (probably so they could lead the feature with a big pic of Paris). The list reaches all the way back to 1967 and Gunilla Knutson’s Noxzema Girl spot (No. 15), and up to a present-day Axe commercial (No. 19). Suzanne Somers makes the list with her much-admired Thighmaster work (No. 14), and faux-sexy is represented via the Herbal Essences campaign (No. 9). The rest of the top 10 is dominated by fragrances, lingerie and Calvin Klein. We won’t give away No. 1, except to say it features Tanya Ballinger and Kitana Baker doing a little passionate mud-wrestling. Somehow, this spot for Mac’s stores didn’t make the cut. What else did they leave off?
How many times have I muscled my way to the hole and, hanging off the rim as the backboard gloriously shattered around my head, wished that my sneakers smelled like grape Kool-Aid? The answer is zero, since I’m barely 5-foot-5 and don’t play basketball. Even if I were 6-foot-5 and did play basketball, however, the answer would be the same. Even though Reebok and Kool-Aid (there’s an obvious match!) have joined together to create scented footwear, I’m afraid I’m still not interested. Consider: In a pickup game among 11-year-olds, who’s going to get beaten up? The kid whose shoes emit the sweet scents of lemon-lime Kool-Aid, that’s who. Oh, according to Brandweek: “The soles of the shoe depict Kool-Aid’s iconic Kool-Aid Man.” Thus ensuring that you’ll get pounded in the locker room, too.
It’s always fun to visit a corporation’s Web site when the company has just lost billions due to massive fraud. The site of Societe General is no exception. Go to the “Careers” section in the English-language edition of the site and you’ll see pages headed by the motto, “Growth, if it works for us, it works for you.” Hmm. Guided by such a delphic statement, no wonder Jerome Kerviel (now known in the French press as “the mad trader,” according to a piece in The New York Times) took it upon himself to circumvent Societe Generale’s financial safeguards and make illicit trades that have cost the company some $7 billion. The behavior that should have been a red flag to his colleagues? As the Times article notes, Kerviel “reported to work early, stayed late, and took only four days off in 2007, in a nation where six weeks of vacation is de rigueur.” It can’t be long before he turns up in some company’s advertising as a rogue-madman-trader celebrity endorser. In so doing, he’d be following somewhat more grandly in the footsteps of Nick Leeson, the rogue trader whose dealings bankrupted the venerable Barings Bank in 1995. Leeson’s own Web site says he “continues to speak regularly at conferences and dinners” in his post-prison career.
This year marks the 60th anniversary of Wham-O, the plucky little toy company that’s been making the same three things since World War II ended. This clearly isn’t the legacy they want, because they’re celebrating with a contest in which kids can design a new toy for the company. Provided they and their parents can parse through the dense legalese, that is. It’s a cool idea, as Wham-O basically gets some child labor for free. And while none of us at AdFreak is young enough to apply, my idea would have been a bouncy rubber version of this.
There’s five days left until Super Bowl XLII, and we’re celebrating by firing up SuperAdFreak, our football-obsessed sister blog. Last year, we got 22 unlucky souls to live-blog the game. This year, we’re trying something different. We’re currently harvesting nutritious batches of daily Super Bowl ad links. And come Sunday, we’ll be attempting a live chat of sorts, with various industry experts who’ll forgo having actual fun at a Super Bowl party in order to inform and entertain you, our readers. Also check out Adweek’s special section dedicated to the Super Bowl. Between the two sites, you should get a well-balanced Super Bowl advertising meal.
When you start a non-profit charity called the Fuck Death Foundation, you’d better have an unusal ad campaign to match. And these guys do, delivering their melancholy commercial message with scrubby animation and a computer voiceover. According to its mission statement, Toronto-based Fuck Death is “dedicated to the elimination of death through the generation and distribution of funds to strategically selected causes and initiatives worldwide.” Among the afflictions they are fighting: cancer, AIDS and “oldness.” See an interview with the founders here.
In the style of HEMA’s much-loved “wait for it” products page comes the new viral promotion for Jumper, a movie about a guy who can teleport. The result is an interesting example of an ad interacting with content, even if it is fake content plastered over a real Australian sports site. What’s really impressive is that this viral concept actually offers a more succinct explanation of the movie’s plot than does the overly blunt trailer, which you’ll see at the end of the animation. I mean, does every trailer voiceover have to spell out the situation for you? “In a world where some people can teleport, guys are always chasing them with grappling hooks.” Sure, I’m paraphrasing, but with a plot like that, you should really just err on the side of mystique. Hat tip to Twitter’s jg_howard. UPDATE:American Copywriter points out a video execution from the
campaign, this time with Hayden Christensen jumping into an HP spot
featuring Serena Williams. The result is a loooong 90 seconds. Read the
backstory here.
The one sperm that breaks through and fertilizes the egg—he could be considered the ultimate advertising spokesman, committed to outthinking, outhustling and sometimes even outromancing the competition. He’s drafted into service once again in this commercial by Darwin BBDO for Centea, a bank in Belgium. The tagline is, “Doing more is in our nature.” Of course, they might take a commercial like this the wrong way in the U.S. Via Advertolog. In other sperm-related ad news, here are a bunch of sperm who, thanks to all the booze, are definitely not interested in doing more of anything.
As if we needed any more proof that Western Civilization is in decline (or that the writers strike has gone on way too long), it appears that Michael Vick’s dogfighting dogs are getting a reality show. National Geographic Channel’s Dogtown will “spend the next few months documenting the attempted rehabilitation of 22 dogs that belonged to [the] jailed Atlanta Falcons quarterback,” according to The Hollywood Reporter. “The series will focus on four of the toughest cases as the experts at Dogtown try to ‘resocialize’ these seriously aggressive pit bulls.” That makes it sound like the beasts will appear on Dancing With the Stars or visit some makeover show and come out looking like Chihuahuas. They do nip, after all—I’m not sure about the tucks. Don’t get me wrong: It’s sad that these dogs were exploited by Vick and his pals. But in some ways its even sadder (though hopefully less brutal) that the media now gets its shot. —Posted by David Gianatasio
New York Giants fans, in accordance with tradition, are putting up a billboard today expressing support for their team ahead of Sunday’s Super Bowl showdown with the New England Patriots. The ad, which will stand across from Giants Stadium (a little odd, since the team is already in Arizona), is notable for its headline, “Tempt Destiny.” I’m not sure exactly how they expect the Giants to do this. Football uniforms can’t get much more revealing. And shouldn’t their slogan be something a little more confident, like “Screw Destiny,” or “Bathe in the Blood of Your Enemies”? If you’re going to reinforce how surprised everyone is that your team made it this far, don’t be so obvious about it. I mean, you don’t have it this bad. UPDATE: As a creepy aside, it appears the movie I Am Legendpredicted a Patriots victory over the Giants long before the unlikely matchup was even set. Thus, the Giants may be tempting not only destiny but also the wrath of Will Smith.
A Mental Floss reader found this enigmatic flier about a “missing” alien last seen in Ogden, Utah. But instead of being some guerrilla marketing attempt for a movie or TV show, it’s apparently an ad for a phone-sex line. Hey, maybe that’s just a work number for the alien’s concerned roommate. (Not everyone can get a posh job at a record store like Mindy.) Or maybe there’s a niche market for dirty talk with a 10,800-year-old extraterrestrial: “What’s this? My podmate Florm has arrived into my nocturnal restoration chamber, and she’s brought the chromosomal sampling probe!” The third option (and my personal favorite) is that this is the work of a master marketer who knows how to cash in on the recent popularity of steamy alien-on-human action.
Sweden is on a roll lately with the odd commercials. Following last week’s super-sized McDonald’s weirdness, here’s an ad from Saatchi Stockholm and Traktor for Jokk juices. As the unfortunate hero of the spot learns, Jokk berries are hard to pick, but the juice is easy to drink, so it’s apparently a wash. The tagline is sung in a kind of Steeleye Span vocal, which is a nice touch. See a second spot after the jump.
Journalists usually fare even more poorly than realtors in public-opinion polls about the most distrusted and/or unethical professions. Luckily for me, that may not be the case for long if the National Association of Realtors keeps its new “public awareness” campaign on the air for any length of time. In the midst of a nationwide housing crisis (just Google “foreclosure”), NAR breaks spots that position home buying as a means “of building long-term wealth.” Yes, that’s true. In a strictly Finance 101, textbook sort of way. But virtually every news item I could find (Google “housing crisis”) predicts that home values will drop further, with more overextended Americans losing their houses. Am I still pissed at that realtor in Belmont, Mass., who a couple years ago blithely quipped to me, “It’s only half a million.” Sure. But at least that guy was openly, honesty condescending. These NAR ads are smug, misleading and—for some, no doubt—heartbreaking. Had the realtors been shown eating Activia during the walk-throughs, it actually would have increased the veracity (or is it “truthiness”?) of the ads.
Since the New York Giants are in the Super Bowl this year, it’s a good time to look back at their 1983 defensive line’s charmingly misanthropic ad for Pepsi Light. We wonder if their hatred for quarterbacks and halfbacks extended beyond other teams to their own offensive players. We would also question the readiness of all those showering men to break out into a choreographed musical number, but most of those guys could probably still beat the crap out of us. We’ll just attribute their enthusiasm to the twist of lemon and leave it at that. —Posted by David Kiefaber
Pizza chains have gotten mighty inquisitive lately in their ad campaigns. Domino’s wants to know what people do in the 30 minutes it takes for a delivery to arrive. (I sit quietly and review Domino’s commercials, myself.) Now, Imo’s in St. Louis, which makes toppings-to-the-edge pizza, gets up in everybody’s face about their competitors’ leftover crusts. What do we do with them, Imo’s wonders in its latest ads. That pizza-crust ring of Saturn is pretty cool. Even so, what I choose to do with my crusts is my business. If I stick them up my nostrils and bark like a walrus: It’s my business! Here’s an old spot for Pizza Hut’s Edge pie. If I were Pizza Hut, I’d call out the lawyers. Don’t sue Imo’s for ripping off your edge concept—sue yourselves, because your pizza sucks. Now, excuse me, I’ve got to put an ice-pack on my nose. —Posted by David Gianatasio
According to this Slim-Fast ad (which is new to me, if no one else), their diet shakes will give you a lobotomized grin, horrible tribal tattoos around your belly button, and up to four hours of blessed freedom from that disgusting urge we call hunger. Which sounds impressive, until you realize how much time passes between midday and evening meals. Not to rain too hard on Slim-Fast’s parade here, but I think they could muster a better rallying cry than “Hey, world! We’re almost as filling as lunch!”
Could there be a better place for a political smear campaign than the Internet? It’s a fertile wonderland for dubious facts, anonymous accusations and conspiracy theorists. But Google says it will be doing its part to keep things clean this year by banning any ads that include “attacks on an individual's personal life.” Google’s Public Policy Blog gives the example that “‘Crime rates are up under Police Commissioner Gordon’ is okay, but ‘Police Commissioner Gordon had an affair’ is not.” The same section prohibits attacks on a “protected group,” meaning that race, religion and age can’t be targeted. One blogger notes that AdSense had been running an ad titled “Truth About Mitt Romney: The Secret Mormon Plan Revealed,” but it’s unclear if this ad for a conspiracy-themed book was still circulating after the Google rules were announced. Some worry that Google is positioning itself as a gatekeeper by deciding which attacks are personal. But I can think of one candidate who will be happy if this restriction helps stave off a digital version of the racist fear-mongering that plagued him back in 2000.
Goodby, Silverstein & Partners is breaking a big new campaign in Australia for Commonwealth Bank, and they’ve really managed to capture the essence of the country. You’ve got a Crocodile Dundee guy who drives through the desert alongside a bunch of hopped-up giant koalas, then hurls a boomerang into the starry heavens, letting out a great Aussie scream. Uploaded to YouTube, the ad was savaged by Australian viewers—until they realized it was a hoax. In the extended version of the spot, the scene shifts to a conference room at the “American ad agency” that created the cliché-filled piece of tripe—and just presented it to the client. The campaign will continue in a mockumentary style, with ads offering background about the agency, including the copywriter/art director team of Luke and Luke. Goodby will get crap for navel-gazing here, but for some Australians, perhaps an anti-American theme isn’t the worst idea.
