New York finally gets its pro-atheist bus ads

Oh Lord, not the atheists again. Inspired by similar marketing efforts in London, Washington, D.C., and South Carolina, atheists in New York City are taking it to the streets with ads on MTA buses that say things like, "You don't have to believe in God to be a moral or ethical person." Which is true, and it also proves that being preachy doesn't require belief in God, either. Not sure how effective this will be in New York, anyway, since you probably need a city permit to own a flat surface that doesn't have something written, glued or stapled to it.

—Posted by David Kiefaber

Published on July 2, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (2)
Filed under Atheism, Kiefaber

Robots: Switch them on, and they just do it

Big Lazy Robot Visual Effects created this "spec commercial inspired by Nike." Whatever that means. I guess nobody's got paying clients these days. Now, I'm no fan of robots, but this is one impressive vignette. It subverts expectations by using a mechanical subject and lifeless cement-and-steel cityscape to vividly communicate pursuits of the human spirit, or at least the robot spirit, like pushing oneself to new heights, smashing limitations and being in total sync with the environment. Or running on all circuits. There's no need for this sprinter to chug Gatorade at the end of his gravity-defying run. That would just burn out his transistors, anyway.

—Posted by David Gianatasio

Published on July 2, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (2)
Filed under Big Lazy Robot, Gianatasio, Nike, Spec

Evil children can't wait to get to McDonald's

DDB Stockholm remains king of the weird McDonald's commercials with new spot above, in which the prototypical childhood car-trip question takes on a sinister aspect. "Not there yet? Stop at McDonald's!" a bird screams at the car at the end. In terms of weirdness, it's up there with some of the agency's other creations, including the cliffhanging french-fries eater and, below, the two dudes with the same nose.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on July 1, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (3)
Filed under DDB, Europe, Food and drink, Freaky, McDonald's, Nudd, Restaurants

Drive safely in spite of the bloody billboards

What were we saying last week about New Zealand safe-driving campaigns? Oh yes, that they're insane. Here, the Papakura District Council resorts to "bloodvertising" to slow motorists down during the rainy season. Three big roadside billboards with children's faces on them are equipped with sensors that "bleed" red liquid when it rains. The effect is startling. Problem is, the kids look like they've been ravaged by syphilis rather than speeding cars. And if safety is the goal, shouldn't roadside ads be a little less distracting? Via Copyranter at Animal New York.

—Posted by David Kiefaber

Published on July 1, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (2)
Filed under BBDO, Kiefaber, New Zealand, PSAs, Road safety

Isn't it just wonderful to wake up Canadian?

Happy Canada Day to our northerly inclined readers. To celebrate, here's an ad that the Canadian government put together this spring to alert non-Canadians that one day (April 17, actually), they might wake up Canadian, too. It's a stirring commercial. Just ignore the excessively long URL at the end, and the confusion over what a forward-slash looks like.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on July 1, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (3)
Filed under Canada, Nudd

HowStuffWorks not too concerned with why

Who: HowStuffWorks.com and ad agency Preston Kelly. What: A new ad in which a convertible falls from an airplane and four foolhardy skydivers then parachute out of the car. Where: Hopefully above a sparsely populated area. It looks flat, so it might be Kansas. How: Quite compellingly, though I could do without the "quirky" soundtrack. Why: Who cares?! That's the takeaway from the skydiving ad above, and the spot below, starring Aaron "Wheelz" Fotheringham, the first person to complete a backflip in a wheelchair. The campaign urges you to "Keep asking." But focus on the how, not the why. And for God's sake don't take your eyes off the sky!

—Posted by David Gianatasio

Published on July 1, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Filed under Gianatasio, HowStuffWorks.com, Preston Kelly

Westwood College jazzes up career training

These ads from Cactus for Westwood College aren't your typical continuing-education spots. The backgrounds constantly change while the protagonists remain in the middle of the screen—a technique the agency calls a "visual metaphor" that supposedly emphasizes that to get the best jobs, applicants need the best backgrounds. It kind of made me dizzy. According to the ads, the school offers degrees in design, healthcare, technology, business and construction management. I don't really trust career-training ads that don't tout programs in refrigeration or driving the big rigs. Even in a recession, folks like their milk frosty-cold and delivered to supermarkets in trucks with happy cows prancing on the side. Also, I'm not sure I'd hire Westwood grads. It seems like every time they land a job, they're immediately dissatisfied and seek employment elsewhere.

—Posted by David Gianatasio

Published on July 1, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (4)
Filed under Cactus, Education, Gianatasio, Westwood College

Taxi PSA captures nightmare of Parkinson's

The problem with most PSAs about medical conditions is that they rarely convey what it would actually be like for the viewer to struggle with the afflictions they portray. No such problem here, as Taxi vividly illustrates that fighting Parkinson's disease is like fighting against oneself. In this spot for Parkinson Society Canada, crossing a room to answer the phone becomes a surreal and chilling nightmare. The quiet-violent-quiet rhythm of the spot puts the audience all too jarringly in the picture. A companion to the Toronto agency's fine print work for the client, this clip uses sound, motion and editing to memorably drive its point home. And it suggests the current sad logic of Parkinson's: Until there's a cure, when you fight against yourself, you lose. Via Ads of the World.

—Posted by David Gianatasio

Published on July 1, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (2)
Filed under Canada, Gianatasio, PSAs, Taxi

CP+B site becomes 'giant digital fishing net'

Crispin Porter + Bogusky is the latest agency to revamp its Web site with an eye toward aggregating content and letting others around the Web tell its story. The site, now in beta, collects videos, Tweets, news headlines and blog entries that mention the agency or its work—"the good, the bad, the mildly unnerving," as a large-afro-ed Alex Bogusky says in the video above (which, given all his gesturing about the navigation, makes more sense to view over on the site itself). The effort is less experimental in form than either the Modernista! site or BooneOakley's YouTube channel, but does cede control of the message largely to outside parties, which connotes authenticity these days—particularly with all the Crispin haters out there. It's nice to see @BogusBogusky make an appearance, too.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on June 30, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (10)
Filed under Agency web sites, Crispin Porter, Nudd

Air New Zealand also does long-form nudity

Last month, we posted the 45-second Air New Zealand spot that shows the carrier's employees naked, with painted-on uniforms, to emphasize that they have "Nothing to hide" (at least in terms of hidden fares). Today, The New York Times points out that the campaign also includes the three-and-a-half-minute on-board safety video above, which likely gets more attention than most presentations of its kind. It's still not clear that being nude improves the flying experience, but Air New Zealand is at least filling the void left by Naked-Air, whose first flight in 2003 was also its last.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on June 30, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (3)
Filed under Air New Zealand, Airlines, New Zealand, Nudd

Hardee's commercials dig even deeper hole

We already wrote about Hardee's new Biscuit Holes ads, where the words "hole" and "balls" get repeated a lot, but missed this particular spot, where people just come out and say "A-hole" over and over. In a taste test, regular donut holes are marked A, and Biscuit Holes are marked B. People side with the B-holes because "the A-hole seems kind of small," "the A-hole is nasty" and "the A-hole tastes funny." The campaign is by Mendelsohn Zien, which also did the Paris, Padma and Audrina burger spots.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on June 30, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (7)
Filed under Food and drink, Hardee's, Mendelsohn Zien, Nudd, Restaurants

Don't gut fish, or women, while they're alive

Dutch non-profit Animals Awake takes a page from PETA's playbook in this disturbing spot by getting festish model/Playboy Playmate/sexy vegetarian Ancilla Tilia to strip naked. But then the ad gets, well, Dutch, and the poor girl is gutted like a trout by some dowdy fisherman. The point is to discourage stripping fish while they're still alive. Similar consideration, we're sure, should be given to Ms. Tilia. But as PETA so often does, Animals Awake muddles the message here in the delivery. Gutting a fish, even while it's alive, and killing a human being in a room full of people just aren't the same thing. Animals Awake has a worthy message to relay, but it could do so without all the gimmickry. Via Osocio.

—Posted by David Kiefaber

Published on June 30, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (3)
Filed under Animals, Europe, Kiefaber, PSAs, Revolver Media

Dopey mammoths stump for San Diego Zoo

Two not-so-smart mammoths hit just the right notes in these humorous ads by M&C Saatchi for the San Diego Zoo's "Elephant Odyssey" exhibit, a production "12,000 years in the making." In the spot above, they make the mistake of taking a mud bath in a tar pit, and only one prehistoric pachyderm is left bobbing in the ooze at the end. In the spot below, the wooly wonders get more than they bargained for when they stop to play with a "sabertooth kitty." Tusk tusk tusk, what a shame.

—Posted by David Gianatasio

Published on June 30, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (2)
Filed under Animals, Gianatasio, San Diego Zoo, Zoos

Illinois lawyers using Lincoln, Obama in ads

The Illinois State Bar Association is trying to boost the perception of lawyers by carting around a big picture of Abraham Lincoln's face. Mobile ad trucks are arguably the least classy mass medium, better suited for local sandwich shops and the like, so this method essentially equates the bar's membership to baloney on rye. The Honest Abe mosaic, created by ad shop &Wojdyla, is made from images of more than 500 other lawyers from the Prairie State, including Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. See a larger version of the mosiac here. Reminding people that Obama and Clinton are lawyers probably won't do their images much good. And if the truck gets stuck in traffic behind an ambulance, well, that would be regrettable.

—Posted by David Gianatasio

Published on June 30, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (1)
Filed under &Wojdyla, Abraham Lincoln, Gianatasio

Davidoff cigars orgasmic or just plain stinky

"Every man has a D-spot," claim these three print ads for Davidoff cigars. I dunno, this guy here looks more catatonic than orgasmic. It's probably the emphysema. In another ad, Mustache Man seems to have sniffed a scent most foul. The sooty bouquet of a smoldering Davidoff, perhaps? Now, the young guy with the cleft-chin who looks a bit like John Travolta ... OK, yeah, he's feelin' it. I guess sometimes a cigar isn't just a cigar after all. Davidoff cigars probably go well with a Three Olives martini. Via Ads of the World.

—Posted by David Gianatasio

Published on June 30, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (2)
Filed under Davidoff, Gianatasio, Tobacco

Murro and Barrett, always on the same page

Director Noam Murro of Biscuit Filmworks and creative director Jamie Barrett of Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, who have worked together a lot, held a seminar in Cannes titled "The Creative Relationship Between Agency And Director." According to the seminar overview, "Noam and Jamie do not profess to know all the secrets of a director/agency relationship. But they can certainly speak of their own experience." Which, judging by the video above, involves a common vision, a healthy creative give-and-take, some awkward and tender moments, and lots of sex.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on June 29, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (5)
Filed under Goodby, Silverstein, Nudd

Pringles banner ad worth a few dozen clicks

I've long been of the opinion that creating banner ads should be punishable by stoning. But this Pringles ad from Bridge Worldwide in Cincinnati doesn't suck. If nothing else, I appreciate that it isn't flashing horrible circus colors and promising me a free Xbox or a spyware-laden "virus scan." It's also kind of neat that clicking on it repeatedly reveals a little story within the ad, an innovation that earned it a gold Cyber Lion at Cannes last week. According to its Cannes entry materials, the ad "shows a young, online audience how fun, eccentric—and even downright weird—life with Pringles can be." The best part? It doesn't even take you to the Pringles Web site. That's a quality I can appreciate in a banner ad. It does expose, however, that Pringles needs to make a wider can already.

—Posted by David Kiefaber

Published on June 29, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (18)
Filed under Bridge Worldwide, Food and drink, Kiefaber, Pringles

Fiat makes green pitch via crash-test panda

I'm kind of surprised this (literally) panda-bashing Fiat ad from Marcel Paris hasn't sparked any significant outrage yet. Quite the opposite: It won a gold Lion at Cannes. If they wanted to demonstrate a truly low impact on the environment, couldn't they have given the panda a helmet or football pads or something? As it is, this is just cruel. And kind of adorable.

—Posted by David Kiefaber

Published on June 29, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Filed under Automotive, Europe, Fiat, Kiefaber, Marcel Paris

What are colives, and should you eat them?

The bar for wacky cow ads has been raised foolishly high of late. From Wieden + Kennedy's purified Cravendale cow (certified not racist!) to Draftfcb's talking-teat Oreo temptation, we've feasted on some bloody breakthroughs in bovine. Enter Campbell Mithun's "Colive" commercial above, touting Land O'Lakes Butter with Olive Oil. The setup, showing what happens when you cross a cow with an olive, would seem to present possibilities. A giant green heifer spurting pimento-flavored milk sprang to mind. (Though with me, that often does. Rough childhood, etc.) What we actually get is a cow-colored olive that rolls around a tabletop. It looks like a marble or a rodent dropping, not that appealing. At least they had the good sense to make it moo.

—Posted by David Gianatasio

Published on June 29, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Filed under Animals, Campbell Mithun, Food and drink, Gianatasio, Land O'Lakes

Audi does not want your stinking foreign oil

Oh, how I remember those slick Oil Parades of my childhood, when I'd barrel home to gasoline alley. ... OK, that's enough. Let's slam the brakes on the silly wordplay (had to slip in one more) to consider this "Oil Parade" spot from Venables Bell & Partners touting Audi's TDI diesel-powered cars. There are oil barrels, lots of them, shown rolling down the country roads and city streets of our great land, onto a tanker that will apparently transport them back across the sea to where they came from. Yes, we'd be free from the tyranny of foreign oil. Still, I'll be sad to see them go. Drums are the best part of any parade.

—Posted by David Gianatasio

Published on June 29, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (1)
Filed under Audi, Automotive, Gianatasio, Venables, Bell & Partners

Iconic TV pitchman Billy Mays is dead at 50

He was the man with no inside voice, the man who seemed to be on every late-night cable channel at once, the man who comprehensively convinced us we don't need a cabinet full of cleaners. And now, sadly, infomercial icon Billy Mays is dead. Details were scarce Sunday, though there were apparently no signs of foul play, so that probably rules out the Yakuza gangsters who were stalking Mays in the hilarious self-parody above. It's always been hard to pin down what made Mays so good at selling cleaning products, dubiously necessary inventions and just about anything else. Was it the beard? The wildly gesticulating hands? The tone that straddled the line between evangelism and straight-out screaming? Obviously it was all of the above that catapulted Mays from hawking wares at local garden shows to reality TV stardom on the Discovery Channel's PitchMen. So here's to Billy Mays, a one-man sales juggernaut who, like fellow commercial legend Ed McMahon, was never afraid to laugh at his own public persona.

—Posted by David Griner

Published on June 28, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Filed under Griner, Infomercials, Obituaries

Meat-child ad wows Wrath of Cannes judges

At Cannes, you win awards by surviving round after round of rigorous judging and proving your unparalleled skill in the persuasive arts. At Wrath of Cannes, you win by inserting a giant piece of steak into an elementary school photo. (Click the image to enlarge.) The anti-Cannes festival was held Thursday night in Brooklyn. The winning work, for Lea & Perrins steak sauce ("Every steak has potential"), was done by Alan Kwon, an associate art director at RTC Relationship Marketing in New York. There he is below, holding (and possibly sucking on) the Grand Coney trophy—a statue of a man with his head up his own ass. He also won a bike. UPDATE: We were misled. Kwon won because of this tearaway print ad for Crunch gyms. The steak ad is still groundbreaking.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on June 26, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (1)
Filed under Nudd, Wrath of Cannes

Scientology will repair your awful rotten life

Like any crazy cult bent on extracting money from the punters, Scientology needs good marketing, which is why it's rolling out new commercials. The first two are similar, in that they propose replacing rewarding things like mountain climbing with a fake religion cooked up by a mediocre science-fiction writer. The third is a little different, stating that Scientology doesn't judge people by what they look like or where they live. We're all equal in the eyes of Xenu, which is true in that we're all neurotic little cash registers in his/her/its eyes. But at least they didn't use any celebrities to speak for them. They certainly could have.

—Posted by David Kiefaber

Published on June 26, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (30)
Filed under Kiefaber, Scientology

Portland says you really suck at advertising

Portland, Ore., wants you to know that its excellent advertising is far superior to your stupid advertising. And it's decided to take on all comers with a spinning insult wheel. Ant Hill Marketing's promo for the city's ad-awards show, The Rosey Awards, includes the wheel as a handout and part of the Web site. Assuming you're a creative, but not creative enough to come up with your own smack talk, you can spin to get insults directed at New York, Seattle, Atlanta, Minneapolis, Boulder, Colo., and San Francisco, among others. A sample? For Madison, Wis., they've got, "When it comes to advertising in Wisconsin, they make great cheese." Ant Hill also plans to send taunting letters to other cities' ad groups. I presume they'll include at least one thinly veiled jab at your mom. Want to join the game and add to the animosity in the industry? Tweet them, and maybe you'll win the "Smack of the Week." According to Rosey's ambassador Kim Bratner, Portlanders are "tired of being the best-kept secret in the United States." Whiners. I have a dream—a dream that one day we'll be defined not by our city of residence but by the quality of our creative. Except for the people in Denver. Those people are all freaks.

—Posted by Rebecca Cullers

Published on June 26, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (11)
Filed under Award shows, Cullers

What 'hole dreamed up these Hardee's ads?

Hardee's takes a seat on the innuendo bus with the campaign for its new Biscuit Holes menu item. In the video above, a guy solicits other names for the product, which they might as well call Groaners, a term that applies to the suggestions they got. "Puffy Nuts"? Really? "Yayholes" sounds like New England slang for out-of-towners. The ad below shows a fornlorn Biscuit Hole wandering aimlessly and asking various objects, "Are you my hole?" It eventually reunites with its fellow Holes and feels happy, which is more than can be said for the viewer.

—Posted by David Kiefaber

Published on June 26, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (2)
Filed under Food and drink, Hardee's, Kiefaber, Restaurants