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NOM airing first anti-gay-marriage ad in NY
This new ad from the National Organization for Marriage—its first TV spot opposing attempts to legalize same-sex marriage in New York—is a fairly typical cut-and-paste negative ad. Inveighing against same-sex marriage, it uses smiling-bride-and-groom wedding photos, images of kids piling out of yellow school buses and a somber message about the Death Star blowing up our planet should same-sex marriages occur (not really the last one, but it does use some classic scare tactics). One of the most skewered phrases in the spot (the quote is blown up for maximum horror and derision) is "a teachable moment." That's what the administrator of the Creative Arts charter school in San Francisco called it when some first graders were allowed to attend a same-sex wedding. Turns out the wedding was for their teacher, the trip was suggested by one of the parents in the class (the rest were free to opt out), and the kids were not at the ceremony but lined up outside the doors to throw flower petals on their teacher. Seems to me that's all kids that age want to do—throw flower petals at weddings—any and all weddings. All the kids seemed very excited about it. One of the students, 6-year-old Nolan Alexander, told a reporter that marriage is "two people falling in love. It means that you stay with someone for the rest of your life." Um, clearly that kid needs more education. —Posted by Barbara Lippert |
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Published on May 29, 2009 | Permalink
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The King gets less gentle with dudes in bed
So, Burger King, possibly as a response to people calling their mascot creepy, now have him ambushing strangers in their beds in the middle of the night, as ominous horror-movie music plays. Look, we understand BK is open late now, but air-horning us back into consciousness is a dick move. What if we'd gotten a Whopper earlier that afternoon or something? The King has certainly turned into a real tosser since those days when he lovingly served us breakfast in bed. BK ads have established a pattern lately wherein the consumer is inconvenienced or assaulted by something representing the product, and aside from a cheap laugh or two, we're not sure what they've gotten from it. Perhaps it will all eventually culminate in Ashton Kutcher getting kicked in the balls by a giant BK Stacker. That would redeem all of their efforts up to now. |
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Published on May 29, 2009 | Permalink
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10 fearful, histrionic anti-pornography PSAs
America has always been pretty melodramatic when it comes to pornography, so this collection of 10 Ridiculous Anti-Pornography Commercials shouldn't surprise anyone. What's interesting is how little many of these concerns have to do with pornography. A lot of them are just warnings not to post explicit personal information online where random people can see it, and the other stuff is either paternalistic Freudian crap about your daughter or your sister having a distinct sex life, or just poorly researched. The bit about the cheetah was particularly far-fetched, to say nothing of that bomb comparison. It's funny that these people put so much energy into denouncing smut, because all of them need to get laid. —Posted by David Kiefaber |
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Published on May 29, 2009 | Permalink
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DDB Poland child-welfare ads pack a punch
"You can lose more than your patience," is the theme of a new print and poster campaign by DDB Poland that makes shattering impression, literally, for the "Good Parent" appeal of the Nobody's Children Foundation. See two full ads here. Broken dolls have been used before in similar contexts, but that doesn't dilute the visual impact. The key elements aren't the shattered "children," though their ruined limbs and cracked faces tend to linger, uncomfortably, in one's mind. It's their juxtaposition with the unsettlingly sterile household surroundings, and the flawless photographic compositions, that deliver the emotional knockout punch. Child-welfare groups worldwide should get permission to use the ads. They convey a message that translates in any language. Via Ads of the World. |
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Published on May 29, 2009 | Permalink
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Ad for self-help CD is inadvertently uplifting
Today is quickly devolving into silly infomercial humor, but that's OK, because this "Cheers to You" spot from The Good Cheer Company, hawking affirmational CDs filled with eight tracks of "encouragement" and "cheering applause," is undeniably great. The acting is refreshingly wretched, and whoever shouts the "Hooray for you!" line at the end is a certified genius—you really can't tell if the guy's being just totally sincere and happy and positive or if he's secretly filled with disgust and loathing. The affirmative jewelry is pretty sweet, too. Via @woodlandalyssa. |
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Published on May 28, 2009 | Permalink
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Paper towels just as awesome as ShamWow
Pretty decent ShamWow parody here from the guy at Magic Hugs, who show you just how awesome the old-fashioned paper towel can be. Stick it in the water, and it soaks up all the water. Fold it up and and rip it, and you get a crapload of squares. Amazing. |
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Published on May 28, 2009 | Permalink
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Forst beer happy to be your drinking buddy
We've got a new trend in beer ads: inanimate objects suddenly becoming ambulatory. First, we had Heineken's walking fridge, which amused some Dutch dudes who, let's face it, probably need the brews to chill after partying on the stronger stuff. Now, Forst gets into the act via ad agency Cayenne with a print campaign featuring cute (but kind of disturbing) humanoid bottles. Unlike the scruffy, socialist Dutch commercials, these Italian ads get positively romantic, depicting sun-drenched lakeside vistas and dreamy late-night jaunts. The quasi-suggestive copy ("We only let it go out if you bring it back to us," advertising the returnable bottles) and hand-holding ad above suggest a kind of unwholesome amore probably aroused by a quickly downed six-pack. Or 12-pack. Instead of escorting an empty bottle down starlit streets, that hipster should find a designative driver and sleep it off at home. Via Ads of the World. —Posted by David Gianatasio |
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Published on May 28, 2009 | Permalink
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There's 'a little gay in everyone,' says TBWA
So, TBWA Zurich's flamboyant new commercial for the EuroPride 2009 festival, taking place next month in Switzerland, insists there's "a little gay in everyone," which it illustrates by having a drag queen burst out of some poor guy's chest like a club remix of Totall Recall. Not to slight the LGBT community—they mean well—but we don't buy this claim. Take Powers Boothe, for example. Nothing gay about that man. They might have a case for Sean Connery, though. —Posted by David Kiefaber |
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Published on May 28, 2009 | Permalink
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Real brands target vampires for 'True Blood'
True Blood, the HBO vampire series that kicks off its second season next month, has embarked on a marketing blitz. And while its ill-fated Bloodcopy adver-blog deal with Gawker Media has gotten most of the headlines, its banner ads, in which real brands (Mini, Ekco, Geico, Harley-Davidson, Monster.com) reach out to vampires, are pretty amusing. Note I said "vampires" and not "the living dead," to make a distinction between the fang gang and the rest of the generally mindless media-consuming population (myself included, naturally). One ad shows a blood-red Mini and the headline "Type GO," with the "Type" and "O" rendered in crimson. It's hemoglobin humor! Harley offers a TrueBlood motorcycle that helps vampires "Outrun the sun." And yes, the humor continues in that same—you know what's coming—vein in the other ads. (Geico's Kash also appears, but even with the vampire motif, he doesn't "Count" for much.) It's all in fun, which is good, because the demographically insignificant vampire population wouldn't do much to boost sales overall. Though vampire brand loyalty is legendary, often stretching for a thousand years. If nothing else, this may mark the first time blood-suckers have been both the targets and creators of an ad campaign.
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Published on May 28, 2009 | Permalink
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Crispin interns get lunch money via auction
The Crispin Porter + Bogusky Intern Auction has concluded after drawing 44 bids over 10 days. The winning bid: $17,655, from an undisclosed bidder. The winner gets the labor of Crispin's class of summer interns. The agency is passing on the proceeds to the low-paid help, which nets out to $465 for each of the 38 interns, or about $39 a week. That should get them lunch in Boulder. It must be noted that the auction proceeds are on top of what Crispin is paying the interns already and represents a nice bonus, all things considered. It's pretty impressive that the Crispin mystique was able to get this high of a a bid for work that doesn't include any production costs. Could any other shop net as much for its intern labor? If so, why don't they do it? UPDATE: The winner is Brammo, a maker of electric-power motorcycles, according to @bogusky. |
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Published on May 27, 2009 | Permalink
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Gillette video teaches art of genital shaving
To help out its male customers, Gillette has posted a series of instructional shaving videos on YouTube, the most ridiculous of which is the "How to Shave Your Groin" video above. Whatever the merits of doing so ("When there's no underbrush, the tree looks taller," the Gillette guy posits), I'm not sure I like the word "groin" in this context. For one thing, "groin" refers to where the torso meets the legs on either side of the pubic area, so there's some anatomical confusion going on here. And their advice for that area isn't much different than their suggestions for other parts of the body. Honestly, you'll get better shaving advice from aging punk rocker Ben Weasel, who's been blogging about it a lot for some reason. UPDATE: The videos are also posted to Gillette.com, along with some live-action footage that thankfully does not include ball-shaving. |
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Published on May 27, 2009 | Permalink
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Danica signs man boobs in Boost Mobile ad
Danica Patrick has joined 180LA's "Unwrong'd" campaign for Boost Mobile, following in the proud hoofsteps of those cannibalistic pigs from a few months ago. The setup is the same as the earlier spots: The viewer is subjected to some unpleasant visuals—in this case, Patrick signing man boobs and being tended to by a pit team in drag—and is then told that's not as "wrong" as getting screwed over by your mobile carrier. Go Daddy's Bob Parsons is going to be livid when he finds out that Danica signed any kind of boobs in someone else's ad. UPDATE: Also check out the third video below for a peek behind the scenes of the spots. It includes some choice quotes from 180LA's William Gelner, who says that channeling the insanity of his creative team into a Boost ad is like herding cats. |
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Published on May 27, 2009 | Permalink
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Aussie ad shames guys for problems in bed
It takes a lot to offend Australians, but targeting the premature ejaculators among them has done the trick. The country's Advertising Standards Bureau received several complaints about the Advanced Medical Institute's "bedroom police" ad, above, which shows cops breaking into a couple's bedroom and threatening to issue a speeding ticket to the guy, who is told he will be let off with a warning if he calls AMI for help with his problem. (This is the same advertiser that did those "Bonk longer" billboards.) One viewer complained about the bedroom ad: "Essentially [the ad is saying] you are not a real man unless you can last hours and hours and hours having sexual intercourse, and your relationship is not a real relationship unless you are having hours and hours and hours of sexual intercourse. Do we have to hear about this?" The ad has been ruled offensive to men and roundly denounced for attempting to shame sufferers of a legitimate medical condition. And rightfully so. The Australian medical community should respect social boundaries and return to the quiet dignity of using graphic surgical footage to keep people from smoking. —Posted by David Kiefaber |
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Published on May 27, 2009 | Permalink
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Cactus taking fresh look at Colorado's ballsLet's look at this ballsy campaign by Cactus for the Colorado Powerball lottery. The agency was told to refresh the existing digital-signage campaign while maintaining the motif of six big red balls signifying the six zeroes of a multimillion-dollar jackpot. The solution was to rearrange the balls and tweak the backgrounds to represent gears, circuitry, chemical formulas and such, illustrating that Powerball has been "re-engineered," "re-wired," "re-programmed," etc., to yield faster-growing jackpots. The resulting boards seem a bit hard to read (is the jackpot just $173?). Also, what happens if the jackpot does indeed "grow faster" and tops $1 billion? Six orbs wouldn't work anymore, and the lottery would have to bag those balls and try a different approach. OK, I just wanted to write "bag those balls." I suppose if the jackpot did reach $1 billion, they'd just add a seventh ball. Which would be easy, since they've clearly got lots of balls in Denver. —Posted by David Gianatasio |
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Published on May 27, 2009 | Permalink
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Samsung creatures scuffle on N310 laptops
When Samsung last ventured into the realm of Web video, Welsh sheep in LED vests were involved. The result was "an Internet sensation," according to my AdFreak colleague Dave Kiefaber, who knows a bit too much about the Internet and sheep for my liking. Which brings us to Samsung's latest effort for its N310 mini notebook. At a Samsung trade show booth where the units are on display, male and female Gumby-type characters spring to life (I think they're supposed to be holograms) and battle in a bloodless imitation of Itchy and Scratchy. It's gotten nearly 200,000 views on YouTube in less than a week, and it certainly held my attention. But I'm not sure what it's trying to say about the product. And as for it being another "Internet sensation" ... baaaaaaaah! —Posted by David Gianatasio |
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Published on May 27, 2009 | Permalink
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Adobe CS4 film looks nice, makes no sense
New York studio Blacklist and director Cisma were given almost free rein in making this ad for Adobe CS4, commissioned by Goodby, Silverstein & Partners. The only restriction was "to do everything using Adobe Products exclusively." The result is Le Sens Propre, aka nearly four minutes of something I mostly stopped watching after one minute. So did the rest of YouTube, if comments like "wtf this is so pointless and gay" are any indication of how it went over. Cisma's idea was "to hold the attention of the viewer by the way the story is told, rather than centering on the narrative, and keeping the audience guessing how the film will end." He misfired somewhat, though, as the only thing the audience wonders is why the film was made, and when it will end. |
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Published on May 26, 2009 | Permalink
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Potbelly subs cannot contain their own girthPalm+Havas's new campaign for Potbelly Sandwich Works promotes the "Bigs," which is apparently an offer of 30 percent bigger sandwiches for an extra $1. The work takes a straightforward approach, grafting "er" onto words to make their point. Some of the executions invade the space of neighboring (fake) ads, ostensibly because the sandwiches are so big. This visual idea works OK, but tongue-tying headlines like "bigger-er," "hungrier-er," "fulfilling-er" and "satisfying-er" just look wrong. And the "Bigs" itself sounds like a malady of the gastrointestinal variety. (Example: That sandwich gave me the Bigs something awful.) Thanks a lot, Potbelly, but Denny's sounds like a safer bet for lunch. Yes, I could've said "safer-er." But that would've been predictable, and in the case of Denny's food, woefully inaccurate. |
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Published on May 26, 2009 | Permalink
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Would you take a vacation with Kelly Ripa?
Despite their stratospheric approval ratings, the Obamas lagged behind Kelly Ripa, of all people, in one bit of recent voting. An Ipsos Public Affairs poll asked adults to say whom of the following they'd choose to share a vacation rental home with them: Ripa, the Obamas, the Jolie-Pitt family, Oprah Winfrey, Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert. Ripa came in first, with 26 percent of the vote. The Obamas ran second (19 percent), followed by the Jolie-Pitts and Winfrey (16 percent apiece), while Stewart (13 percent) and Colbert (10 percent) were farther behind. And whom would respondents want as their celebrity chef while vacationing? Rachael Ray was the top vote-getter here (32 percent), followed by Paula Deen (27 percent), Wolfgang Puck (15 percent) and Gordon Ramsay (13 percent). Despite his visibility on the Top Chef show, Tom Colicchio finished in a last-place tie with Masaharu Morimoto (6 percent each). Maybe if he brought Padma Lakshmi along as sous chef ... —Posted by Mark Dolliver |
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Published on May 26, 2009 | Permalink
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Killer marketing in terrifying toilets of Japan
In America, public restrooms can be creepy, either because of the condition or the company. But in Japan, going to the bathroom seems to be one step short of sleeping naked in a graveyard. Looking to tap this fear with a cute marketing twist is Ring author Koji Suzuki, whose new bathroom-based horror novella Drop is being printed on rolls of toilet paper. Billed as "a horror experience in the toilet," the story takes up only about three feet of paper. You may need the rest of the roll to write a desperate plea for help, because Japanese bathrooms are apparently scary places to hang out. First, there's Hanako-San, the ghost of a schoolgirl who has scared kids to the point where some would rather pee in class than risk a restroom run-in. Then there's Kashima Reiko, a bisected ghost who wanders school bathrooms saying, "Where are my legs?" But my favorite is this note from the Suzuki article: "Parents would tease children that a hairy hand might pull them down into the dark pool below." That's some scary shit. —Posted by David Griner |
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Published on May 26, 2009 | Permalink
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Dwight Howard sick of the Kobe/LeBron ads
Kobe Bryant and LeBron James's new NBA playoff-themed ads for Nike (above) and Vitaminwater (below) have sparked a lot of excitement—particularly from Dwight Howard. But not in a good way. In a post on his blog, the Orlando Magic star says it's "really disrespectful that everybody seems to be pulling for LeBron and Kobe to get to the finals. ... It's like nobody is even giving us a shot at winning this series." He signs off by saying, "Aiiight, ya'll I guess I gotta go watch another one of these LeBron and Kobe commercials on TV. Naw, just kiddin." Dwight's got a point, but he should really pay more attention to where his elbows land than who's in what ad. That's the best way to make sure you're in next year's campaign. |
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Published on May 26, 2009 | Permalink
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Odd beasts abound in Seattle's film-fest ads
I'm pretty bad at finding stuff, so I was initially nervous about WongDoody's ads for the Seattle International Film Festival that challenge you to "Find the unexpected." I figured I would fail miserably. And yet, I did unexpectedly well. I quickly found a hammerhead chicken and a human-heart video-game console. I also found a Saturn pineapple, and a spider growing vegetation out of one arm, and a crazy octopus-squid creature holding a magnifying glass, a lantern and a pickaxe that ripped the Space Needle out of the ground and has little guys climbing all over it. Totally unexpected, and I found it. That wasn't so bad after all. |
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Published on May 26, 2009 | Permalink
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Ketel One targets manly men in first TV ads
Ketel One vodka, best known for its annoying, long-running "Dear Ketel One Drinker" print ads, has moved onto TV. Grey created these two spots, which are indicative of "a distinctive set of values in the vodka category," to hear Ketel One tell it. Really, what we're working with here is a dressier version of Coors' "Guys' Night Out" series. The ad above shows a bunch of guys in suits being all manly, with their vodka and no women, with a voiceover noting that there was a time when men didn't drink vodka from "delicately painted perfume bottles." Pretty sure they don't do that now, either. The ad below is better. The gentlemen in this rainy spot are actually chivalrous and let a couple of women take their cab home. If it's class they want, that's what will get them there, so they should can the "When men were men" shtick and double up on the social graces. Or dueling. Either way. —Posted by David Kiefaber |
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Published on May 22, 2009 | Permalink
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'Weeds' promo looks at history of marijuana
Weeds returns to Showtime for its fifth season on June 8, and as usual, they've got an entertaining hodgepodge of advertising to promote it. After launching the spider-web-themed print campaign back on April 20 (which was, not coincidentally, National Weed Day), the network has now released a pair of new videos: an animated history lesson about marijuana (above) and a "Yes We Cannabis!" faux political spot below. We're still waiting for the more offbeat stuff like the marijuana-scented strips in magazines and the giant bags of pot stapled to billboards. Via @dabitch. |
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Published on May 22, 2009 | Permalink
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McDonald's ad helps you look like a jackass
This interactive McDonald's billboard is certainly entertaining the tourists in Piccadilly Circus, and honestly, I'm a little miffed that Micky D's never does anything like this over here in America. Then again, you don't need fancy advertising when your franchises are roughly 50 feet from each other. And it's nice that England is getting special treatment, giving that McDonald's ranks fairly high on the culinary meter there. —Posted by David Kiefaber |
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Published on May 22, 2009 | Permalink
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Riding big pheasants makes you real thirsty
Never thought I'd see the day when I had to review a pheasant rodeo. But thanks to Drench energy water and ad agency CHI, here I am watching one. Is there any particular reason why they used a giant pheasant in this spot? Are there no bulls or untamed broncos in England? Did they suddenly have an uncontrollable urge to rip off Burger King's Big Bucking Chicken? Not that I mind, but it just feels like a joke that never gets paid off. I wish it had been a big dwarf rodeo instead, because then we could have gotten the Rev. Horton Heat song instead of "Ride On Time," a Black Box song that sounds like it should be playing in a youth disco. |
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Published on May 22, 2009 | Permalink
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