Brazilian design shop defends Rio 2016 logoBy Tim Nudd on Mon Jan 3 2011Here's the official logo for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. It was unveiled on New Year's Eve at a giant, drunken party on the Copacabana beach—and it has that joyous Brazilian thing going on, with the three interlocking figures making merry in a sweeping dance. Brazil's Tatíl Design created the logo, and did a nice job with it. Unfortunately, the shop has had to deal with charges of plagiarism, after someone pointed out similarities to the Telluride Foundation's logo (see below). That's a shame, as humans dancing together is hardly a novel idea. (Tatíl's creative director says he never saw the Telluride logo until now.) The new logo is inarguably better than the travesty that is the London 2012 logo, that's for sure. What do you think of it? |
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Filed under Brazil, Logos, Nudd, Olympics
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Ads tout British Columbia's great whitenessPosted on Tue Feb 16 2010Michael J. Fox, Sarah McLachlan, Ryan Reynolds, Kim Cattrall, Steve Nash and Eric McCormack might seem like a random grouping, but they have a few things in common. They're celebrities, they're Canadian, and—on behalf of Tourism British Columbia—they want you to spend every last cent you have exploring their awesome country. Oh, and none of them is black or Asian. This last fact is a controversial one, as some people are up in arms about TBC's new tourism ads (timed to the Winter Olympics in Vancouver) largely ignoring the province's rich multicultural heritage, aside from a few flashes of Pacific Asian and Aboriginal culture. The assumption is that the ads' overbearing whiteness was deliberate, which seems a bit hasty of a conclusion. Some people aren't mean and racist so much as they're unobservant. All the same, the next ad could have Keshia Chanté in it or something. She needs SAG credits, too. |
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Filed under Canada, Celebrity endorsements, Kiefaber, Olympics, Tourism
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Can we get the horrible Olympics canceled?Posted on Fri Feb 5 2010This is one very angry anti-Olympics clip. It begins: "In 1936, the Nazis introduced the Olympic torch relay to the world. Since then, the Olympics have acted as a fascist Trojan horse, masquerading as an international sporting event, but benefiting the military-industrial complex." It's punctuated by a distorted "Wake up!" cry (sounds like Satan), and accompanied by newsreel footage of Hitler in Berlin along with assorted protest imagery. Whatever the merits of their cause, they're undermined here. The Hitler card feels like an insensitive stretch, sorely out of place. And references to "the military-industrial complex" have made eyes roll since before Mark Spitz won all those medals in the early '70s. It's impossible to turn up the volume and rally support for a message that can be so easily tuned out. Via Osocio. —Posted by David Gianatasio |
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Filed under Gianatasio, Olympics
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Shawn Johnson risks life to sell a candy barPosted on Tue Dec 22 2009
Check out Shawn Johnson doing a backflip over a hurtling bobsled in the Nestlé Crunch video above. The press materials suggest that "gymnastics sites have been abuzz with close fans of hers debating whether the move is real"—which, if true, means her fans are morons. This second video, with Apolo Ohno skating on a bobsled track, is a bit more believable—except for the fact that he's wearing long skates at the beginning and the end of the run, and short skates in the middle. —Posted by Tim Nudd |
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Filed under Candy, Celebrity endorsements, Nestlé, Nudd, Olympics
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Sochi 2014 picks fancy-looking URL as logoPosted on Tue Dec 1 2009The logo for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, was unveiled today, and it's notable both for what it doesn't include—the traditional abstract cultural image relating to the host city or country—and for what it does: a Web address. In other words, in a desperate appeal to the world's youth, even the Olympics are retreating from the real world into the virtual one. Developed by Interbrand and Sochi's own brand council, it's the first Olympic logo to feature a URL, and Sochi 2014 chief Dmitry Chernyshenko couldn't be more proud. "To prove our commitment to innovation, Sochi 2014 will have a clearly digital Games emblem," he says. "Today, we welcome tomorrow. ... Our emblem challenges people to look beyond what they expect from our country. We believe sochi2014.ru can become an international symbol of a sporting, social, economic and environmental legacy that lasts for generations." What do you think of it? Via idsgn. UPDATE: OK, yes, several of the letters in "Sochi" have been designed to mirror those in "2014," which could bring to mind a reflection in water, and thus Sochi's location on the Black Sea. I mean, obviously. Previously on AdFreak: |
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Filed under Design, Logos, Nudd, Olympics
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Alaska Air chases the gold with Apolo OhnoPosted on Wed Nov 18 2009"Stewardess, there's something outside the plane! It could be a gremlin, but it sort of looks like Dancing With the Stars winner and champion speed skater Apolo Ohno!" WongDoody's "Follow Apolo" campaign for Alaska Airlines features a plane wrapped in Ohno's image, billboards, banner ads and a Web site, as the carrier sponsors the skater's quest for Olympic gold this winter. They should work Bill Shatner into this. His histrionic yet credible Twilight Zone freakout over a destructive creature on an airplane wing is legendary. It'd be sweet to watch the big ham chew the scenery and hyper-annunciate lines like, "Good Lord! It's ... Apolo ... Oh-NO!" —Posted by David Gianatasio Previously on AdFreak: |
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Filed under Airlines, Alaska Airlines, Celebrity endorsements, Gianatasio, Olympics
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Special Olympics are not really that specialPosted on Fri Jan 16 2009TDA Advertising & Design takes a different approach than might be expected in its first work for the Special Olympics. See two more ads here. All three are designed to suggest the Special Olympics are really no different than any other serious sporting event. Thus, the tagline, "Support great athletes," stresses the universality of competition. The visuals compare slalom courses, ice rinks and finish lines, and the images are identical. Whether the Olympics in question are Special or otherwise, true competitors play to win. The Special Olympics Winter Games are set for Feb. 7-13 in Boise, Idaho. |
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Filed under Gianatasio, Olympics, Sports, TDA
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The copywriter should probably be arrestedPosted on Mon Sep 29 2008
—Posted by David Griner |
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Filed under Food and Drink, Griner, Olympics, Ortega
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Nastia Liukin, all-around fabulous endorserPosted on Wed Sep 3 2008Vanilla Star Jeans has scored Nastia Liukin as the star of its back-to-school campaign for tweens. (Getting a little late for back-to-school ads, doncha think?) With their slogan "Smart girls rock," you might think they'd choose someone known for ... oh, I dunno, being smart? But apparently the Vanilla Star definition of intelligence means having the "ambition" to "live the dream." It's one of the most delightfully vague girl-power statements I've heard in ages, and I have no doubt that tweens adore it. Vanilla Star's president, Mark Levy, claims that in these ads, VSJ "is proud to embrace an 'anti-jean' company philosophy by opposing the trend of exploiting young teens' bodies in its ads." You get that? They're against jeans, and Liukin's body is not being exploited. (Just ignore the impressive splits in those second-skin jeans.) You can check out the posters on the Liukin-filled Web site, but be warned, there's about five different nasty, scripty fonts on there, and you can't stop the music from looping. You can also watch a short video (under "Scholarship") that proves Liukin doesn't have a future in acting. —Posted by Rebecca Cullers |
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Filed under Cullers, Fashion, Olympics, Vanilla Star
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Debbie Phelps has become an ad star, tooPosted on Tue Aug 26 2008
—Posted by Rebecca Cullers |
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Filed under Cullers, J&J, Michael Phelps, Olympics, TV
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London prepared to grab Olympic spotlightPosted on Wed Aug 20 2008The 2008 Olympic Games continue through Sunday in Beijing, but London's tourism officials are already elbowing in and reminding the world where the 2012 Games will be held. Visit London, the official tourism body, is launching a £4m global ad campaign this week from WPP agency RKCR to promote the city as a tourist destination in the lead-up to the 2012 Games. The main image from the campaign is a picture of London taking up the entire globe—an image perhaps inspired by British maps from the glory days of the empire. The tagline is, "See the world. Visit London." James Bidwell, CEO of Visit London, is quoted as saying: "In the words of one of the finest English authors, Samuel Johnson, 'There is in London all that life can afford,' and as we prepare to host the greatest sporting event on earth our campaign shows there is no other place to be than here." The London 2012 committee itself is remaining quiet this week, either out of respect for the Beijing Games or lingering embarrassment over its logo. —Posted by Tim Nudd |
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Filed under Nudd, Olympics, RKCR
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Which Olympics ads have the best music?Posted on Tue Aug 19 2008
Media saturation for the Olympics is complete now that we have Paste magazine's picks for the 10 Best Songs in Commercials During the Olympics. The list is mostly a who's-who of fading indie credibility. I've always preferred Gabriel Ananda over Enur, who makes the cut for a Target spot set in the kind of giant dorm room only seen on TV. As for the Killers, that “I've got soul but I'm not a soldier” line isn't as clever as they (or Nike) think it is. (The same could be said for their entire discography, pretty much.) Brandi Carlile get props for donating a song to General Motors for green causes, but her sound got old when everyone else in her genre was doing it. I agree with this list's No. 1 choice, though—featured in the ad posted above. It's impossible to knock Marvin Gaye, and Nike's talents for exploitation are well documented. —Posted by David Kiefaber |
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Filed under Kiefaber, Music, Olympics, TV
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Visa vanquishes rivals with 'Go Phelps' adsPosted on Mon Aug 18 2008If you've been watching the Olympics, you've seen Visa's "Go World" commercials from TBWA\Chiat\Day, in which the impressive feats of Olympic athletes are recounted in gold-tinted slow motion. They made an impressive number of spots (all viewable at the Go World site), but what really struck me were the three executions specifically created for Michael Phelps that aired right after each of his wins. There was the generic, Michael-isn't-a-dolphin spot, which came after the first few, then the specific congratulations on winning more gold medals than anybody ever, and of course, another one for surpassing Mark Spitz's record with eight golds in one Olympics. In the bevy of ads that followed Phelps's wins, Visa stood out as the only advertiser with a relevant message. The spots were given extra gravitas by narrator Morgan Freeman, who was injured in a car crash recently. So, of course, they were recorded far in advance, even though the footage was turned around in less than a day from Phelps's previous victory. What I wonder is what the ad would have said if Phelps hadn't pulled it off. Did they have a special "You're still crazy-awesome, Michael, and we still love you" commercial ready? —Posted by Rebecca Cullers |
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Filed under Cullers, Michael Phelps, Olympics, TBWA, TV, Visa
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