This week's 5 most-read stories on AdFreakBy Tim Nudd on Fri Apr 1 2011 1. MTV ads remind you that sex is no accident See the top stories from previous weeks here. |
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Filed under Most read, Nudd
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Jeans maker gets you in good shape for sexBy Tim Nudd on Thu Mar 31 2011Jack & Jones, the oh-so-edgy jeans company that previously turned guys literally into boy toys, is back with this new video, in which men pass out from too much sexytime—with the remedy being, oddly enough, even more sexytime. (That is, until YouTube notices the simulated oral sex at 0:14 and pulls the spot down.) The point is, the jeans will get you all this hot foursome "action," for which you'll need to be in good shape physically. But the whole fitness theme—there's also a Web component, where the same aerobics instructor wiggles her body embarrassingly for you—is just confusing. Those unfamiliar with Jack & Jones will probably just think it's a gym. Via Adland.
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Filed under Apparel, Jack & Jones, Nudd
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Online retail 'speed sale' is stressful as hellBy Tim Nudd on Thu Mar 31 2011Here's a peculiar sales tactic—stress out your customers by giving them just seconds to decide on discounted items, or they lose the price forever. DDB Stockholm designed just such a "speed sale" for Swedish online retailer Papercut (the same agency-client tandem that brought you the bus-stop ad with the penis). Click through to SpeedSale.se to see it in action. Items fly onto the screen, one after the other. For each one, you have four seconds to decide whether you want to buy it—as insane music pumps up your blood pressure further. If you fail to act, the item is swept away, and the price is gone forever. DDB is under no illusions that anyone will actually enjoy this experience. "Forget about time-limited offers of the golden days. Welcome to the Papercut Speed Shopping STRESS Hell," the creative director says in an email to us. Enjoyable or not, the gaming aspect is pretty cool and will surely be a hit among a certain segment. Imagine if Amazon.com did this. It would be a runaway success, if only for the novelty factor. |
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Filed under DDB, Europe, Nudd
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French Tropicana ad is powered by orangesBy Tim Nudd on Wed Mar 30 2011If you've ever been to a high-school science fair, you probably know that citrus fruit can produce electricity. DDB Paris put that knowledge to clever use recently with an electric Tropicana billboard that was completely powered by oranges. Working with London production house Unit9, DDB attached 2,500 oranges to two big slabs of wood fitted with spikes of zinc and copper. The acidic juice of the oranges dissolved the metals, causing their electrons to react with each other and create an electrical current. That current powered a light panel that read, "Energie naturelle," making the point that oranges have natural energy that can spark your own personal human circuits as well. So as not to appear wasteful, the agency said it would recycle the oranges "either by composting or by anaerobic digestion," the latter surely being a curious science-fair project all its own. Check out a video below, and a few more images after the jump. Via Stratégies.
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Filed under DDB, Europe, Food and drink, Nudd, Tropicana
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Foursquare-enabled ad dishes out dog foodBy Tim Nudd on Tue Mar 29 2011Foursquare has finally made itself useful—to non-humans, anyway. As seen in the video below, a pet-food company in Germany has put up a billboard urging you to check in at the location on Foursquare—and in return, it spits out some dog food for your best friend to nosh on. This is a step forward for Foursquare, which is not known for providing much nourishment to really any living thing. In terms of ads that appeal to dogs, there's actually somewhat of a proud history there. Last year, we wrote about dog-food-scented ads on U.K. sidewalks, designed to lure pooches (and their owners) over for a sniff. But our favorite is still the 2001 campaign for Animal Planet, also in the U.K., which featured lamppost ads that smelled like urine. They brought over the dogs, and then the owners were presented with companion ads at human-eye height promoting Animal Planet programming. Via Mashable.
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Filed under Animals, Europe, Foursquare, Nudd, Social media
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MTV ads remind you that sex is no accidentBy Tim Nudd on Mon Mar 28 2011You should always use a condom, unless you've got a really good excuse not to—like you were roller-skating down the street, tripped on the curb, fell into the back of a woman who was bent over packing her car, and accidentally had intercourse with her! That's the message of some amusing new pro-condom cartoons from Grey in Germany for MTV in Switzerland. See three full ads here. Such scenarios, of course, are unlikely—thus, the tagline: "Sex is not an accident. Always use a condom." The campaign is pretty airtight, logically speaking. However, in researching the topic, it becomes clear that many people have asked, in public Internet forums, whether a person can, in fact, have sex accidentally. Usually these questions come from a) young couples who have pledged to be celibate before marriage; and b) male friends who regret that their wrestling in the bathroom went a little too far. In both cases, condoms wouldn't be the worst idea. Via Ads of the World. |
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Filed under Condoms, Europe, Grey, MTV, Nudd
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Firefighter in 9/11 law-firm ad wasn't at 9/11By Tim Nudd on Mon Mar 28 2011A law firm specializing in 9/11 lawsuits is feeling the heat today after the New York Post revealed that the firefighter in its latest "I was there" ad wasn't, actually, there at all. Firefighter Robert Keiley joined the FDNY in 2004, and was working as a model when he posed (above left) for what he thought would be an ordinary fire-prevention ad, the Post reports. His image was then Photoshopped to show him holding a photograph of one of the collapsed towers. The law firm, Worby Groner, blames the ad agency, Barker/DZP. Bizarrely, an account director there seems to have no regrets—saying the agency was within its rights to use the image because Keiley had signed a release. "It allows for use in ads, promotional usage, really anything you want," says Kim Tracey. Legal or not, it's ridiculous to use someone who wasn't at 9/11 in an ad that looks like a testimonial from someone who was—particularly given the sensitive nature of the topic. Keiley himself is furious. "I had friends who died on 9/11," he says. "How can I look their families in the eye if they see this picture, thinking I'm trying to make money on their [loved ones'] deaths? They'd probably think I'm a scumbag." UPDATE: John Barker, president of Barker/DZP, released the following statement on Monday: |
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Filed under 9/11, Barker/DZP, Controversy, Legal, Nudd
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This week's 5 most-read stories on AdFreakBy Tim Nudd on Fri Mar 25 2011 1. Crispin's 15 best campaigns for Burger King See the top stories from previous weeks here. |
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Filed under Most read, Nudd
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'Pedobear' storms sex offender's coupon adBy Tim Nudd on Fri Mar 25 2011Here's a bizarre little story. A Florida computer-repair business called CP Distributor is furious after a coupon-book publisher designed and printed an ad for the company featuring none other than Pedobear—the infamous cartoon bear known around the Internet as shorthand for pedophiles, perverts, child molesters, child-porn aficionados and the like. The Smoking Gun, which covers the case here, figures the designer must have been playing a joke on the company because of its name— "CP" being itself an oft-used acronym for child porn. The publisher, America's Favorite Coupon Book, isn't revealing the identity of the designer, but says it's a woman in her mid-40s who found the Pedobear art online and didn't realize the meaning attached to it. Her use of the image was "as innocent as it can be," the publisher asserts. If it was a joke, the designer picked an unfortunate company to mess with. One of CP's principals is said to be a convicted sex offender who spent seven years in jail for sexually assaulting a child under the age of 12. Speaking to TSG, that principal said he plans to have an ad in the coupon book's April edition, "but there will be no bear in it." |
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Filed under Controversy, Nudd, Pedobear
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Anti-insomnia ads may give you nightmaresBy Tim Nudd on Fri Mar 25 2011Pharma boutique Help Remedies is pitching its pain-med-free sleep aid (called "Help I Can't Sleep") with a series of extremely peculiar videos that address the problem of insomnia in a unique way. Instead of focusing on the efficacy of the product, the campaign goes in a more ethereal, hallucinatory direction—presenting odd little skits that act out different dreams you could be having that would ease the psychological burdens that might be keeping you awake. It's hard to explain—watch the nine videos below to see it in action. The ads are just bizarre. They include a person dressed as a dog; a woman having depressing sex on a girder with a guy who makes weird sounds with his mouth; lots of suggestive milking of cows; and a chef whose scabby face is constantly falling into his sausage mix. (The old Rozerem spots with Abe Lincoln and the beaver, which went down a similar path, seem downright staid by comparison.) Agencytwofifteen did the videos, and also created a Dream Recorder app, which purports to "suck dream liquid out of your brain," convert it to sentences and post it on Facebook or Twitter while you sleep. (Presumably it's not FDA-approved!) The ads will run in "sleep-adjacent venues," like hotel on-demand channels, airplane flights, late-night TV and on the Union Square screens of drug store Duane Reade. It's certainly an unusual approach, but you have to wonder about side effects. If the videos, plus the pills, do knock you out, aren't you liable to wake up screaming an hour later? Via PSFK. A dream recommendation specially formulated for persons having trouble with authority figures.
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Filed under Agencytwofifteen, Help Remedies, Nudd, Pharma
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Manhattan Mini Storage insults half of NYCBy Tim Nudd on Thu Mar 24 2011Manhattan Mini Storage ads are always good for a chuckle. For years now, the NYC storage company has taken pride in its cheeky, often topical billboards and mass-transit ads. (You can see a collection of them on its Facebook page.) Now, the spring 2011 ads are out—and what's this? An execution making fun of the Mets? Those same Mets whose fans comprise a huge portion of MMS's potential target market? MMS must be counting on Mets fans to have a sense of humor—something that's not, in my experience, necessarily guaranteed. Mets fans, please sound off in the comments—do you think this ad is actually funny? (There's also the question of which six other teams they're referring to—certainly the Yankees, Knicks and Rangers, who play in the city, plus probably the Giants, Jets and Islanders, who have "New York" in their name.) A bunch more new ads are posted after the jump. One makes fun of Des Moines, which is more like what you'd expect. Another has the headline, "Remember, if you leave the city, you'll have to live in America"—one of most quintessential New York headlines you'll ever see. Then there's this humorous quip: "If you watch Hoarders and wonder what the big deal is ..." Well played, Manhattan Mini Storage. Now, go buy an apology board at Citi Field.
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Filed under Manhattan Mini Storage, Nudd
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Miss Turkey pitches Carl's Jr. turkey burgerBy Tim Nudd on Wed Mar 23 2011In a bit of inspired stupidity, Carl's Jr. (aka Hardee's in some markets) has hired Miss Turkey to promote its new turkey burgers. Yes, the actual Miss Turkey—Gizem Memiç. In the spot below, Memiç is seen strutting poolside while incongruously munching on one of the giant sandwiches. Her humiliation is complete when she drops her robe to reveal a bikini patterned with hundreds of tiny turkey burgers—a garment that will not impress the Miss Universe judges in the least. The ad was done by Carl's Jr.'s new agency, David&Goliath, but it perpetuates the formula that prior shop Mendelsohn Zien had perfected (in the Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian and Padma Lakshmi spots, in particular)—lots of boobs, precious little brains. Behind-the-scenes video after the jump.
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Filed under Carl's Jr., David&Goliath, Nudd, Restaurants
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DC Lottery spot practically rolls in dog poopBy Tim Nudd on Wed Mar 23 2011This week's award for most gratuitous use of animal feces in a TV spot goes to the DC Lottery. Gird yourself for the ad below, airing in heavy rotation during March Madness, in which a woman in open-toed heels steps in a giant pile of dog doodoo—which we get to see in all its glory in a truly horrid close-up. She's disgusted, as is the viewer—but the advertiser is not, because soon we get a second, even more unpleasant close-up, in which the woman tries to extricate her foot, causing even more of a mess in the process. Lovely. The point is, it's fun to buy a lottery ticket when you're having a bad day. But overall, it's just gross and weird. To the DC Lottery's credit, this is not the worst poop-based ad we've seen. That honor goes to Volkswagen for the spot where the guy licks the bird poop off the hood of the car.
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Filed under Gross, Lotteries, Nudd
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This ad will leave you wretchedly depressedBy Tim Nudd on Tue Mar 22 2011We haven't seen a truly appalling road-safety PSA in a while. Oh wait, here's one now from those reliable shockvertisers at the Transport Accident Commission in Victoria, Australia. It may or may not improve your safety on the road, but it is guaranteed to ruin your day! It stars a woman who didn't know anything about curtain airbags when she could have used them most—before an accident that left her brain damaged. There's no more information about the woman in the ad, on the YouTube channel, or anywhere online—which really ratchets up the exploitative vibe. She's reduced to being the Brain Damaged Person Who Terrifies You. TAC has been down this road before. They've tried humor (notably with last year's "Don't be a dickhead" campaign) but they always come back to high-school driver's-ed style scare tactics. Looks like the success of England's "Embrace Life" spot (13.5 million YouTube views and counting) hasn't changed the category much at all. |
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Filed under Australia, Nudd, Road safety
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JWT is now in the goat-babysitting businessBy Tim Nudd on Tue Mar 22 2011Yesterday, we tweeted about a minor goat infestation at JWT New York—a pair of goats were seen being oohed and aahed over in a special padded room (as seen in this streaming online video). It turns out the goats were from the Planet Green reality show The Fabulous Beekman Boys—which stars none other than JWT creative director Josh Kilmer-Purcell (right) and his partner, Brent Ridge, who are learning to become farmers in upstate New York. (Kilmer-Purcell, who works at the funny farm during the week, commutes to the actual farm on weekends.) Tonight is the show's second-season premiere, so Kilmer-Purcell and Ridge brought the goats down on Monday as part of a promotional tour—and JWT offered to babysit them for a few hours. The staffers fawned over them, but as yet, the goats have not been offered advertising work. For that, they'd have to head over to BBDO. |
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Filed under Animals, JWT, Nudd
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Swedish retailer drawing penises on its adsBy Tim Nudd on Tue Mar 22 2011When putting up outdoor ads, it's customary to install clean versions— and cede to the masses the furtive enjoyment of doodling penises all over them. DDB Stockholm alters the process somewhat in its latest long-copy work for pop-culture retailer Papercut. The ads feature tiny graffiti penises even before the unwashed citizenry can sharpen their Sharpies. The whole reason for the penis's appearance is explained in the copy—which you can read in full here. (Basically, the angsty-existential piece suggests shopping at Papercut is more exciting than standing around wondering why someone drew a penis on an ad.) The ad is part of a series from DDB copywriter Magnus Jakobsson. The previous installment, titled "This is not your life," you can read here. |
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Filed under DDB, Europe, Magazines, Nudd
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Probably the best ad ever for a used wetsuitBy Tim Nudd on Mon Mar 21 2011A used wetsuit doesn't sound like a great thing to buy. But Dan Morgan does his best to flog his pre-owned Xcel suit in this hilarious eBay listing from the U.K. You have to read the whole thing, but here are some choice excerpts:
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Filed under Consumer stunts, eBay, Nudd
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Terminix joins fight against enormous pestsBy Tim Nudd on Mon Mar 21 2011Pest-control advertising sure is getting larger than life. A few weeks back, we saw the latest grossly great installment of Orkin's big-bugs campaign (now with guitar-playing rats!). Not to be squashed like a bug itself, Terminix is pushing out its own campaign from Publicis in Dallas. We posted last week about its billboard with the 5,000 live cockroaches. Now, we get this ferocious "Flying Monsters" TV spot from Blacklist director Dvein. The idea is, you'd expect a creature that devours one in 30 homes to look more like a giant horrid flying monster, traveling in packs with its buddies, than a little harmless-looking termite. By super-sizing the enemy, Terminix slyly casts itself as your savior from horror-movie-like death and destruction—whether or not its "ultimate protection guarantee" actually covers attacks by airborne hell-fiends from outer space. |
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Filed under Nudd, Pest control, Publicis, Terminix
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Charlie Sheen's girlfriend does condom PSABy Tim Nudd on Mon Mar 14 2011Charlie Sheen isn't the only one benefiting, marketing wise, from his searing glimpse into the smoldering core of truth. One of his live-in girlfriends (aka goddesses), Bree Olson—porn actress and AVN Award winner for Best New Starlet of 2008—is raising her own advertising profile. She's beginning, appropriately enough, with a PSA for pro-condom campaign Get Rubber!, as seen in this video published by TMZ.com. It's not the most high-class affair, and it's sponsored by Brazzers, which is a porn site. But hey, she has to start somewhere. Though with only 168,016 followers on Twitter (compared to Sheen's 2.7 million), she's not likely to rake in a fortune off Ad.ly sponsored-tweet deals any time soon. (Video is moderately NSFW, but no nudity.)
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Filed under Condoms, Nudd, PSAs
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This week's 5 most-read stories on AdFreakBy Tim Nudd on Fri Mar 11 2011 1. Chrysler throws down an F-bomb on Twitter See the top stories from previous weeks here. |
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Filed under Most read, Nudd
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Logitech, now with even more Kevin BaconBy Tim Nudd on Thu Mar 10 2011Logitech's Kevin Bacon commercial, in which the actor plays a Kevin Bacon fanatic called Ivan Cobenk, was one of the great ads of last year. Now, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners has released the hilarious extended version below. And it's not just extended—it's interactive. Scroll your mouse around the video, and you'll be able to click on all sorts of objects—with many of the links taking you to eBay, where you can bid on Cobenk's tchotchkes. (You can also check out the whole collection in a special eBay store called Kevin Wonders of the World.) Great stuff. Prediction: Those "actual rubber wieners that were used on Apollo 13" are going to go for a pretty penny. |
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Filed under Celebrity endorsements, Goodby, Silverstein, Logitech, Nudd
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MIT Media Lab logo is actually 40,000 logosBy Tim Nudd on Thu Mar 10 2011This is pretty wonderful. In creating its own new identity, the MIT Media Lab developed an algorithm that produces a unique logo for every teacher, staff member and student at the school. Three intersecting spotlights can be organized into any of 40,000 shapes with 12 color combinations, and each person can claim and own an individual shape and use it on his or her business card. As Fast Company points out, that's enough variation to give each new student a fresh logo for the next 25 years. The Green Eyl did the design work. "Whatever 'media' means, it has been and will be defined at this place, in the next 5, 10, 20 years," says designer Richard The. "The algorithmic logo is an effort to capture this dynamism."
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Filed under Green Eyl, Logos, MIT Media Lab, Nudd
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JWT pressing the barbecued flesh at SXSWBy Tim Nudd on Thu Mar 10 2011JWT wants to satisfy your cravings for saucy cow and pig flesh at SXSW Interactive this year. To do so, the agency will be hauling tangy, basted animal carcasses (from Texas favorite Salt Lick) all around Austin in two special trucks—and showering free barbecued meat on the masses. You can even requisition the trucks for a special delivery by appealing to @jwtbbq on Twitter. The Web site, JWTbbq.com, has a "Truck Finder" Bing map to locate the trucks and a "Threat Meat-er" that lets you know when they're running low on BBQ. To get your mouth watering, watch the ultraviolent animation below—in which pigs and cows slice and dice each other in inventive ways, all for your gustatory pleasure. |
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Filed under Food and drink, JWT, Nudd, SXSW
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Chrysler throws down an F-bomb on TwitterBy Tim Nudd on Wed Mar 9 2011Whoever was manning Chrysler's official Twitter account on Wednesday morning apparently sucked down too much #TigerBlood before work. "I find it ironic that Detroit is known as the #motorcity and yet no one here knows how to fucking drive," the brand tweeted, much to the surprise of its nearly 8,000 followers. Turns out an employee from New Media Strategies sent out the R-rated tweet (having apparently just suffered through a difficult morning commute), and was promptly fired. Chrysler later apologized, saying: "Chrysler Group and its brands do not tolerate inappropriate language or behavior, and apologize to anyone who may have been offended by this communication." The profanity is one thing—but just as weird is how ludicrously at odds this tweet was with Chrysler's current brand messaging of celebrating Detroit, as seen in its Super Bowl spot with Eminem (who might have approved of the rogue message, actually). What do you think of this? Can any brand use profanity on Twitter—and if so, which brands and when? Via Jalopnik. |
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Filed under Automotive, Chrysler, Controversy, Nudd, Social media, Twitter
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'Mad Men' actors pitching high-speed trainsBy Tim Nudd on Wed Mar 9 2011Mad Men actors Vincent Kartheiser and Rich Sommer get in their 1960s characters to promote, in a roundabout way, development of high-speed rail in America in the 2010s in this amusing video, a joint effort of the U.S. PIRG and Funny or Die. Kartheiser, as Pete Campbell, has read that the Japanese are moving forward with high-speed trains, and he pitches to Sommer's Harry Crane some harebrained ideas for selling the concept to America. No need, Crane replies. "Trains make sense," he says. "They're efficient, they're convenient, they're good for jobs. Hell, I'd rather take a train than fly or drive anywhere. We don't need to sell trains. We are paid to sell cars, floor wax and brassieres." The video directs viewers to MadFastTrains.com, which does, in fact, try to sell the concept of trains to Americans—mostly on environmental grounds. (The site also offers a form letter you can send to your senator in Washington.) For Kartheiser, who's simply one of the best actors working in television today, this is a labor of love. Though he lives in Los Angeles, he famously gave up his car years ago in an effort to simplify his life and live ascetically. |
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Filed under Mad Men, Mass transit, Nudd, Politics
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