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Latest '1984' spoof casts Apple as the villain
Perhaps the most iconic ad of all time, Apple's "1984" has been repurposed a hundred times over. But this is the first time I've seen it turned against its creator. The international crew behind DoubleTwist, a media software that promises to put "your iTunes library on any device," created this animated parody to promote its Oct. 6 launch. (The beta version is available now for free, but lacks features available with the update.) So, how do you feel about Steve Jobs being cast as Big Brother? The open-source community has long felt this way about Apple's "walled garden" approach to its devices. And with more than 220 million iPods sold worldwide, not to mention the 50 million iPhones and iPod Touches, there might be a valid claim that Jobs is indeed the Kaiser of Conformity. But will a cross-device iTunes knockoff really end that? Or will it just tide you over a few more months until you can afford the Apple device you really want? Via TechCrunch. —Posted by David Griner Previously on AdFreak: |
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Published on September 30, 2009 | Permalink
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Strip-club ad refers to Caster Semenya saga
Strip clubs should know better than to be topical. This has been made clear yet again by Teazers, a South African club that recently put up the billboard shown here, featuring a naked woman and the headline "No need for gender testing!" That's a reference to South African sprinter Caster Semenya, who underwent gender tests after winning the women's 800 meters at track's world championships in August. (The tests determined that Semenya has both male and female sexual characteristics.) Not surprisingly, the billboard drew complaints, at which Teazers owner Lolly Jackson scoffed at length. He first said the Semenya situation was "the furthest thing from my mind" when he made the ad. Then he added: "I do not want anyone coming here [to Teazers] with the idea that we do not have women. We have women, 100 percent women here. I did a test on them, I am a professional, and they are 100 percent women." If that didn't turn people off enough, he then insulted both the advertising watchdog ("a bunch of idiots doing a worthless job") and the original complainant ("maybe she is fat and ugly"). The watchdog hasn't acted yet, but I hope they rule against him just to hear his response. —Posted by David Kiefaber Previously on AdFreak: |
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Published on September 30, 2009 | Permalink
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'Cleveland Show' ads are man-child's dream
Seth MacFarlane has made a career out of capturing the divided attention of the coveted man-child demographic. His latest offering, The Cleveland Show, is a spin-off of Family Guy that stars the Griffins' neighbor Cleveland Brown and his family. The show starts when the Clevelands move from Quahog, R.I., to Stoolbend, Va., so Fox started its advertising campaign by wrapping three 16-foot moving vans with the Cleveland Show logo and slogan ("Honk if you enjoy having relations") and deploying them to those veritable hotbeds of man-child activity: college campuses. Street teams dressed in mover jumpsuits also passed out sweet Cleveland Brown mustaches in an effort Fox insists was "an equal-opportunity giveaway." Hey, I know I would line up for a free porn-star mustache. Fox must have done something right, because Sunday's Cleveland premiere drew the highest ratings for any new show this season among adults 18-49, and an impressive 22 percent of all men 18-34 watching TV at the time. That'll have Seth MacFarlane giggity-gooing all the way to the bank. —Posted by Rebecca Cullers Previously on AdFreak: |
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Published on September 30, 2009 | Permalink
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LG's 'gorgeous slab' helps humanity evolve
It's a little strange to see a 40-year-old movie reference in an ad for a swank new phone, but LG makes it work in this British spot for the Chocolate BL40. The monolith is an appropriate image for a phone billed by its manufacturer as "the world's first wide-screen mobile" and by Engadget as "LG's gorgeous mile-long slab." There's no doubt it's a sexy phone, what with its 21:9 aspect ratio. But the thing's more than five inches long, practically the size of a candy bar. That could make for some awkward conversations: "Is that a monolith in your pocket, or are you just happy to have achieved sentience?" —Posted by David Griner Previously on AdFreak: |
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Published on September 30, 2009 | Permalink
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Greenpeace ad tells Kevin Rudd to Rudd off
Kevin Rudd, the prime minister of Australia, is warned in this entertaining Greenpeace spot (created by Republic of Everyone) not to do a "dirty deal" at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, or his very name will become a dirty word. "Rudd" is a guttural-sounding four-letter word that works well as an expletive, particularly when uttered by the woman miserably reading the pregnancy test ("Oh, Rudd") and the unseen hotel patron happily frolicking in bed ("Rudd me hard!"). I think it'd be pretty cool if my name were tantamount to profanity, but "Gianatasio me hard!" might take too long to say. Oh, Rudd it all. |
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Published on September 30, 2009 | Permalink
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Omnicom is greener than IPG (by a shade)
Omnicom takes top honors in Newsweek's Green Rankings 2009 report—among ad holding companies, that is. It is quite a bit back in the pack, at No. 472, out of 500 companies ranked. And the list is composed only of U.S-based companies. (Thus, WPP and Publicis were not eligible.) Omnicom managed to land a full two spots ahead of No. 474 Interpublic Group, due largely to a stronger corporate reputation (see the Reputation Survey criterion). Omnicom clients, on the other hand, turned up among environmental leaders: with the greenest of the green including Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Wells Fargo and Sprint Nextel, among others. Chrysler was absent. Presumably even the efforts of Omnicom's environmentally focused media shop PHD failed to impress. —Posted by Jim English |
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Published on September 30, 2009 | Permalink
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Write your own Kiehl's skin-care comic strip
Kiehl's Acai damage-repairing skin-care products will make you feel like you have special powers. To celebrate this, Colle+McVoy built a brand site where you can create and share your own pop-art-style comic strip. "The Acai berry is considered a super powered antioxidant," says ecd Mike Caguin. "We wanted to tie in the benefits and restorative powers of the Kiehl’s Acai line in a fun way that lets people express their own POW or super power story as inspired by the new products." You can choose from various characters—that muscular superhero is a dead-on double for me, right down to the skin-tight costumes and masks I've been wearing at the office lately. HR says I should work from home from now on. They're just jealous! Pow! |
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Published on September 30, 2009 | Permalink
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Ad asks what kind of horrible drunk you are
The Swedish Web site IQ.se has an online test where you can determine which type of drunk you are, ostensibly as some kind of anti-drunkenness campaign. (If you can't understand the site, it's not necessarily because you're plastered. It's because it's written in Swedish.) Ad agency Forsman & Bodenfors made this spot to promote the site. Hopefully the test itself is more varied than this ad, which divides drinkers into three basic categories: violent asshole, amateur stripper and pathetic old binger nodding off in his food. If the test has any merit, it'll include vomiters, awkward huggers and ill-advised phone callers, too. —Posted by David Kiefaber Previously on AdFreak: |
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Published on September 29, 2009 | Permalink
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Robot designer gets screwed over yet again
A foul-mouthed graphic-designer robot objects to being treated like a talentless, underpaid slave by a brochure-seeking client in this humorous video. But of course, in the end he takes the work, because he's a wanker with no self-respect. The clip was apparently created on a site called Xtranormal, a "text-to-movie" service where you can type in dialogue and watch scenes of cartoon characters (including the robots) reciting it back to you. The Xtranormal logo and tag appear at the end, making it a pretty good ad for the site itself. Via The Denver Egotist. |
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Published on September 29, 2009 | Permalink
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St. Jude spot poignant, but won't haunt you
Ads for children's hospitals are often soul-crushingly sad, except in Finland, where they're horror-movie creepy. This Hill, Holliday spot is neither. It promotes Chili's support of St. Jude's Children's Research Hospitals, and is based on a nice simple idea: Actual parents of St. Jude's cancer patients talk about how they're looking forward to moments in their kids' lives—their first speeding ticket, their first date—that parents typically dread. "They'd like nothing more than to be able to witness their children live a normal childhood," says Hill, Holliday's Steve Grskovic. "Even if that means borrowing the car and leaving it on empty." The spot directs viewers to Chili's Create a Pepper site, where they can donate. Via Osocio. —Posted by Tim Nudd Previously on AdFreak: |
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Published on September 29, 2009 | Permalink
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Adidas giving soccer the 'Heroes' treatment
To illustrate its hunt for the best soccer players on earth, Adidas has assembled some of the best comic artists on earth. Above is the newest installment in "The Ultimate Search," a Heroes-esque series narrated by French football legend Zinedine Zidane. Ad agency 180 in Amsterdam and its offspring agencies Riot and Detail commissioned three graphic novels for the ad series, featuring artwork by Jae Lee, Ryan Benjamin and J.G. Jones (whose comic was repurposed into the Web video about Liverpool's Steven Gerrard). Zidane's dream team also features Argentina's Lionel Messi, who didn't get his own comic book but still merited ads like the one below. This series has been running since May, and with seven more spots for Zidane to fill, you can bet Adidas will be dragging it out for many more months to come. By that point, it will probably have outlived its own inspiration. —Posted by David Griner
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Published on September 29, 2009 | Permalink
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RSPCA chicken gets all up in people's grills
Who's really irritating and has no concept of other people's personal space? Kanye West? Joe Wilson? Roman Polanski? Those are all correct answers, of course, but imagine how much more annoying each of them would be in a chicken suit! That brings us to this U.K. video by The Good Agency for the RSPCA, which is working to defeat European Union legislation that would allow more chickens to be crammed into tight quarters prior to processing. The chicken-suit guy just goes around harassing people, which annoys some people more than others. (The woman he bumps into on the bus seems very aggravated, though of course it's possible they have sex later on.) The RSPCA could ask Dokken for help; the '80s metal band dislikes chicken, and could clear some space in those cages, no problem. They'd need to watch out for Moby's homicidal pimp-chicken, however. That beast would peck their eyes out, and make a nest out of their big hair. |
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Published on September 29, 2009 | Permalink
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Geico's gecko is still seeking YouTube glory
Geico's gecko breaks out the moves next to Judson Laipply in this remix of Laipply's incomprehensibly popular "Evolution of Dance" video (famous for being YouTube's most-watched clip ever, with 127 million views). The little green freak—the gecko, not Laipply—has crashed a number of these popular YouTube videos, though this is the first new one in several months. He did score more than 2.2 million views for his earlier appearance with the Numa Numa guy singing "Somebody's Watching Me." That made more sense, as the song is featured in Geico's Kash spots. In "Evolution," the gecko is more distracting than anything else. Still, his comedy stylings beat those of Saturday Night Live's newest recruit, Jenny Slate. The classy gecko, as always, works green, not blue. —Posted by David Gianatasio See also: |
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Published on September 28, 2009 | Permalink
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Swiss don't waste time in fight against AIDS
Libidinous strangers bump into each other randomly, then romantically, in these (mildly NSFW) five-second AIDS-awareness spots from Euro RSCG Zurich. The couples apparently don't have time to protect themselves (never mind their cell phones) with condoms before hopping in the sack. The spots then point viewers to Check-Your-Lovelife.ch, where they can assess the risk level of such precarious behavior. Oddly, I've found myself in these kinds of situations—at the beach, playing tennis, riding a bus. And casual sex is not generally the result. Maybe I should move to Switzerland. They seem awfully uninhibited, and if five seconds is the accepted coital interval over there, I'll fit right in! Via AdPunch. —Posted by David Gianatasio See also: |
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Published on September 28, 2009 | Permalink
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Grey breast-cancer ads have nothing to hide
In America, breast-cancer PSAs skirt the issue a bit—they're even liable to focus on butts rather than boobs. Not so in Europe, where they get straight to the point. For example: this new, very-NSFW campaign from Grey Amsterdam for Pink Ribbon magazine. This 30-second spot just shows a bunch of naked breasts, along with a voiceover's rhyme about each pair's journey through life together. The print ads also show naked women's torsos, along with handwritten text giving the breasts individual names and telling their story. (The print ads were shot by British photographer Rankin, who also worked on that bloody new U.K. anti-smoking spot.) This is par for the course at Grey Amsterdam, whose reel includes a commercial shot from the point of view of a vagina. None of this stuff would fly in the U.S., of course, where Rethink's not-very-shocking "Save the Boobs" campaign is branded "astonishing" for its use of "male lechery." Via Adland. —Posted by Tim Nudd See also: |
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Published on September 28, 2009 | Permalink
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DDB fights breast cancer with musical butts
Ever slide on a pair of jeans and feel an unmistakable eruption of divine glory from your buttocks? You know the feeling—like riding a giant seahorse through the denim countryside? Well, that sensation has finally been captured in an ad—specifically, in this spot for Lee National Denim Day, an annual fund-raiser for breast-cancer research. The Oct. 2 event encourages supporters to create teams and gather donations. Two DDB Chicago animators created the spot above as a promo for the agency's team, "DDB Cheers for a Cure." So, if you're a DDB fan (or a job applicant looking to score brownie points), you can donate a few bucks to help them reach their $10,000 goal. Or you can make your own team, especially if you're at an agency that also wants to get in line for the Lee creative account. (Has Lee made a memorable ad since Fallon's Buddy Lee spots?) Oh, and in case you were confused like me, this isn't the Denim Day that advocates against sexism and rape. (That's April 23.) Lee National Denim Day supports a variety of breast-cancer initiatives and predates the other Denim Day by about three years. —Posted by David Griner |
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Published on September 28, 2009 | Permalink
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For safe text, wrap your phone in a condom
This phone is wearing a condom to encourage teens to practice "safe text," which involves resisting the urge to send nude cell-phone pics of oneself all over creation. The work is by Serve Marketing and the United Way of Milwaukee, who previously teamed up on the memorable (non-)scratch-and-sniff diaper bus-shelter ad, warning teens about the olfactory downsides of parenthood. Milwaukee used to be famous for producing second-rate beer. Now, it's known for rampant teen pregnancy. Maybe there's a connection. Verizon and the Ad Council also have a campaign that warns against "sexting" and other forms of risky digital dating behavior. Obviously, sharing nude pictures of yourself is a bad idea, especially if you don't exercise regularly. Still, what else do you do for fun if you're stranded in Milwaukee on a Saturday night? —Posted by David Gianatasio |
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Published on September 28, 2009 | Permalink
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Church ad banned for touting miracle cures
An ad for the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God in England has been reported to (who else?) the Advertising Standards Authority for claiming that the church's holy anointing oil managed to pull a child out of a coma. The British Humanist Association, a fun bunch if ever there was one, specifically frowned upon the ad's testimonial and ratted the church out to the ASA, who ended up banning the ad because they felt it would "discourage seriously ill people from getting medical treatment." I wonder if they could retroactively levy the same ban on Lorenzo's Oil. God, that movie sucked. |
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Published on September 25, 2009 | Permalink
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Bruins bear, Cam Neely face off in new spot
The guy in the bear suit returns in Mullen's latest video for the Boston Bruins, this time staring down legendary B's tough guy Cam Neely. I think Cam's the one wearing pants. The spot promotes a jersey commemorating the upcoming New Year's Day Winter Classic game against the Flyers at Fenway Park. A hockey game at Fenway, home of baseball's Boston Red Sox? The goons from Southie won't care—they just come for the beer and the bleacher fights, anyway. As for the bear, he can join my all-animal fantasy team anytime. Now, if I just had some lions and tigers ... oh my! —Posted by David Gianatasio |
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Published on September 25, 2009 | Permalink
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Disembodied head shows off Diesel helmets
This brilliant and hilarious Diesel video, created by Shackleton and seeded by The Viral Factory, tells the poignant tale of Quique the Head, an Argentinean man born without a body but with plenty of hope and attitude. Quique faces all sorts of physical and emotional challenges, but he's determined to live a full and exciting life. The video's presented as a clip from a tabloid-style show called Oustanding Lives, whose over-the-top announcer outdoes himself with lines like: "Quique's head is not only full of strangely arranged organs, it's also full of dreams." There are loads of great little details, and the product—a new line of Diesel helmets—is seamlessly woven into the narrative as well. Quique is constantly rolling off tables and down stairs, and can use all the protection he can get. |
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Published on September 24, 2009 | Permalink
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Hot Pockets only yearning to be eaten freely
You always knew it was wrong to eat a Hot Pocket. That massive injection of hot meat and cheese, known to function like a bowl of Colon Blow, just couldn't be right. But the brand's new "Eat freely" campaign shows the real reason Hot Pockets lovers are shunned is because they don't eat at a table. I think it's an excellent angle. If you're the sort of person who's inclined to eat Hot Pockets, you don't want people preaching about chairs, tables or your soaring cholesterol. You just want to be free: free to enjoy that molten processed cheese anytime you like. I envy these free eaters, unconfined by plates, knives or tight clothing. Free eaters even refuse to be confined by laws: EatFreely.org has a list of at least six real food-related laws that Hot Pockets would like to strike from the books. But the real reason to like the campaign is that they dropped the dojo gong and brought back the jingle at the end. Sing it with me now: Hot Pockets! —Posted by Rebecca Cullers
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Published on September 24, 2009 | Permalink
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British man denies affair in newspaper ad
The local newspaper ad is often the last resort for the wrongly accused. That appears to be the case with British man Patrick Byrne (not the Patrick Byrne who runs Overstock.com, a different one), who was recently kicked out of his home by his wife after a young female colleague claimed she'd had an affair with him. Byrne denies any infidelity, and decided to place an ad in the Sutton Coldfield News declaring his innocence and undying devotion to his wife. "I Patrick Byrne love my wife Sue Byrne and have always been faithful and will love you forever," he wrote. Byrne tells the Sunday Mercury: "It was my way of saying I didn't do anything wrong. The Sutton Coldfield News is our local paper, and I thought that would be the best place for it to go. When I get home from work I am dead on my feet, and I just wanted to do something nice." The ROI seems solid, as Sue has allowed Paddy back in the house. She still has "massive trust issues," but puts most of the blame on the younger woman. She tells the Mercury: "As far as I am concerned, she is a little slut." —Posted by Tim Nudd See also: |
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Published on September 24, 2009 | Permalink
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Playing fantasy sports is a beastly business
Anyone who's lost sleep (and money, so much money) playing fantasy sports knows how the beleaguered coach of the all-animal team feels in this cute clip promoting the new soccer fantasy games at my11.com. There's some good-natured beastly butt-sniffing, the kind most human teams save for the locker room. The coach's performance is spot on, especially when he moans, "You are the winger. The winger is supposed to be lightning fast," at a turtle that's nonchalantly nibbling at some grass. Not the best attitude for a player that can be turned into soup. He's better suited to shell games, but shows more spunk than most of the fantasy picks I've made through the years. I always go for the dogs. —Posted by David Gianatasio |
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Published on September 24, 2009 | Permalink
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Karina Smirnoff dancing exotically for PETAPETA has gotten Karina Smirnoff of Dancing With the Stars fame to strip down for its latest naked-celebrity ad. See the full ad here. The 31-year-old Russian beauty, who is a reformed fur wearer, follows in the naked footsteps of another DWTS alum, Steve-O, who struck this exuberant PETA pose back in 2007. (Hopefully Tom DeLay won't get any ideas.) Smirnoff says: "You have a choice as an individual ... whether to make a statement that you do support killing animals or make a statement when you don't. And you can still be as chic as you can possibly want to be." —Posted by Tim Nudd See also: |
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Published on September 23, 2009 | Permalink
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Nothing is more American than a Henry rifle
Beyond your run-of-the-mill commercials for bedside gun racks, we don't write nearly enough about firearms advertising. Above is a new 60-second spot for Henry Repeating Arms, founded in 1860 by Benjamin Tyler Henry just after he invented the repeating rifle. (During the Civil War, it became known as "the gun you could load on Sunday and shoot all week long.") The spot has a real patriotic flavor, as a man empties his house of everything that's not American made—and is left with only his Henry rifle hanging above the fireplace. Even the old woman knitting in the recliner gets carted out. Evidently, she was imported, too. (You assume she's the guy's mother, but the press materials say it's his mother-in-law, even though there's no wife around. Apparently they don't want you questioning the guy's own American heritage.) Below is one of the accompanying print ads, quoting company president Anthony Imperato, who has some fun with Barack Obama's April 2008 remark about bitter Pennsylvanians. —Posted by Tim Nudd
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Published on September 23, 2009 | Permalink
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