Hold on to your hairpiece with Stimorol gum
This spot by Ogilvy in Cape Town, South Africa, for Stimorol "Air Rush" gum manages to transcend its hackneyed office-humor setup through sheer unabashed silliness. The new employee's finger-pistol bit as he quips, "I'll see you cats later" and walks away, is almost a misstep. But then he does it again! Once = bad idea. Twice = brilliantly stupid! And a bit creepy, as the move vaguely suggests he might return later with mayhem in mind. Still, it channels just enough Monty Python-meets-David Lynch to work. I'm not sure what the big deal is about his hairdo. My hair usually looks like that even when I'm not chewing the gum. Via AdPunch. —Posted by David Gianatasio |
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Published on October 29, 2009 | Permalink
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Vanilla Ice reprises 'Ice Ice Baby' for beer ad
Yes, it's 2009, and ad agencies are still asking Vanilla Ice to perform "Ice Ice Baby" for TV ads. This one's from Ogilvy South Africa, and it promotes Castle Lite beer's new thermocromatic-ink labels, which appear blue when the brew is extra cold. Ice himself could use a freshness-dating label. —Posted by Tim Nudd Previously on AdFreak: |
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Published on October 20, 2009 | Permalink
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PSA reminder: you're an ass when you drink
Lowe Bull wisely avoids the clichés of the genre in these alcohol-awareness ads for South Africa's Association for Responsible Alcohol Use. I expected a bloody fistfight in the "Rugby" spot (above), tears of humiliation in "21st Birthday" (below) and lots of mangled bodies in "Road Block." We get none of these, although the threat of each provides an undercurrent of unease that propels the message. In some ways, that makes the spots tougher to watch than the more graphic stuff. The work might make some parents think twice about whether one more drink is one too many. But the campaign could resonate most strongly with teens. They're immensely self-conscious, and for them, public humiliation can seem like a fate worse than death. Via Ads of the World. |
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Published on October 19, 2009 | Permalink
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Retailer's ad stars Hitler-James Dean hybrid
Adolf Hitler and James Dean were both resurrected for ads recently—Hitler for that racy AIDS-awareness campaign from Germany, Dean for a South African insurance spot. But now, thanks to facial-morphing technology, they've combined their talents and become a single evil, rebellious pitchman in this ad (also from South Africa) for entertainment retailer CNA Stores. The idea is that CNA stocks a wide selection of products—you can get a book about Hitler and a movie with Dean in one trip. Check out four other ads from the series here, featuring fused versions of John Lennon and Albert Einstein; Prince Charles and Buddy Holly; Queen Elizabeth II and Mother Teresa; and Bill Gates and Elvis Presley. Advertolog credits the work to ad agency Jupiter Drawing Room (Jhb), which should be getting outraged calls any minute, if past reaction to Hitler-themed ads is any indication. —Posted by Tim Nudd Previously on AdFreak: |
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Published on October 1, 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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Cadbury and Ghana celebrate Fairtrade pact
If you think the drumming gorilla or dancing-eyebrows kids got big heads from starring in Cadbury ads, check out the oversized star of "Zingolo," this new Cadbury video, shot in Ghana. The song is the first single off an album from the firm's Glass and a Half Full Productions celebrating African music and culture, while touting the U.K. confectioner's switch to Fairtrade cocoa. (Cadbury will pay a guaranteed minimum price for Ghanaian cocoa under a £45 million initiative over 10 years.) The song is infectious, and we'll assume Cadbury doesn't really use exploding, psychedelic cocoa beans in its chocolate bars (though it would explain why I feel high after a few bites). Best of all, there's no Phil Collins on the soundtrack. —Posted by David Gianatasio See also: |
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Published on September 21, 2009 | Permalink
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James Dean grows old in new financial spot
South African agency King James resurrects James Dean (with the help of an actor who trained for months and wore heaps of prosthetics and was always filmed in soft focus without close-ups) in this spot for financial-services company Allan Gray. The ad considers what Dean would have done if he'd been "given more time," a worthy question that unfortunately ties back only tenuously to the services Allan Gray provides. The agency pulled out all the stops, even using a replica 550 RSK Porsche Spyder, one of only two available, to shoot the accident scene. Still, any speculation on Dean's life that doesn't see him in rehab for something is idle fantasy. |
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Published on September 17, 2009 | Permalink
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South African dairy births animal super race
The "Rediscover Dairy" project from South Africa's milk producers is aimed at teaching the public about the natural health benefits of milk, cheese and yogurt. But there's nothing natural about the ads. The only thing I take away from the spot above is that I should never give milk to chickens. Ever. I've had nightmares about this sort of thing. (I'll file that away in the same part of my brain as "Don't feed mogwai after midnight.") The bionic, cheese-eating seagull below is also disconcerting, and a danger to fisheries. And what can you say about this withered, yogurt-obsessed tortoise? Sad. |
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Published on August 27, 2009 | Permalink
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South Africa has best dressed sea rescuersAs we learned from a recent campaign out of New Zealand, yetis will not come to your rescue if you get lost in the wilds of that country. However, if you fall from a boat off the South African coast, you can expect some odd creatures to mobilize on your behalf—specifically, guys dressed in chicken costumes; brides on their wedding day; and foam-finger-wearing sports fans. So say Ogilvy's print ads for the country's National Sea Rescue Institute. The group's volunteers are so dedicated, they're ready to drop whatever they're doing—getting married, watching a game, doing unmentionable things in poultry outfits—when duty calls. You'll notice the groom didn't dive in—typical. See larger images at Adpunch. —Posted by David Gianatasio |
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Published on August 5, 2009 | Permalink
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Do good now, don't come back as a maggot
Matthew Bull was recently named global chief creative officer of Lowe. I wonder if he got the job based on this (intentionally) disgusting campaign his office, Lowe Bull, did for nonprofit employment site CharitySA.co.za? The theme is reincarnation—we're warned in no uncertain terms what could happen in our next lives if we don't do good deeds in our current ones. Divorce attorney Bob comes back as a tick ("Still bleeding 'em dry, 'ey, Bob?"); tobacco exec Duncan returns as a dung-heap fly ("Take a deep breath, Duncan"); and paparazzo Sandra is reborn as a maggot squirming in stomach-churning filth and is really "in on the filthy scoop now." This is visceral stuff, compelling in its way. Still, who's the audience—those who believe in reincarnation? Are the rest of us free to hawk hard-packs or chase after Brangelina, Nikons blazing? Also, the professions are such easy targets. Hey, they left out the one where you get paid obscene amounts of money to promote overpriced client goods to people who can't afford the stuff and don't need it anyway. Via Ads of the World. |
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Published on May 11, 2009 | Permalink
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Zimbabwe ads printed on trillion-dollar bills
The Zimbabwean, a newspaper written by Zimbabwean journalists in exile, is running an ad campaign in South Africa courtesy of TBWA Hunt Lascaris that uses the most pointed substrate in history: thousands of worthless Zimbabwean bank notes. With inflation so out of control that a trillion-dollar banknote can't even buy a loaf of bread, TBWA came up with the genius idea of plastering them across billboards and posters, offering free tear-away trillions with information on The Zimbabwean. Headlines like, "It's cheaper to print this on money than paper," "Thanks to Mugabe, this money is now wallpaper" and "Fight the regime that has crippled a country" are screened onto the bills, which were also sent via direct mail to South Africa's top corporate executives. It's a bold statement to the Zimbabwean government, which has already put a 55 percent "luxury" tax on the newspaper, and was most likely behind last year's torching of a Zimbabwean delivery truck. Check out paper's Flickr stream for full coverage of the Trillion Dollar Campaign. Via Boing Boing. —Posted by Rebecca Cullers |
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Published on April 14, 2009 | Permalink
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Food that sings for you isn't that appetizing
This "Singing Burger" spot from the Chicken Licken joint in South Africa reminds us of something Wendy's did a while back. At least the Chicken Licken people have better taste in music. We're still wondering why anyone would eat something that was in the middle of serenading them (for some reason, Michigan J. Frog dancing onto a French guy's plate springs to mind), or why a chicken place sells burgers at all, really. |
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Published on April 7, 2009 | Permalink
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