James Lipton's beard protecting teens' junk

LG and Young & Rubicam have enlisted James Lipton, and his great and powerful beard, for some amusing PSAs urging young texters to "give it a ponder" before spreading hurtful gossip and/or pics of their junk across the interwebs. The Inside the Actors Studio host literally lends his beard to each troubled youngster to get them to do the right thing. One spot is posted below. See all four here, along with four print ads. They're all hair-larious. It's just really fun to hear Lipton say things like, "The last thing he needs is tweets about his beets." Over at the Web site, JL's talking beard will guide you through the standard social-media components. Will these ads break through to jaded teens? My husband happens to have a whole class of 9th graders who saw the ads during homeroom. What did they say? "Why does she have a beard? I don't get it. That's retarded." But you have to know how to read a 9th grader. Apparently, they hate everything. The important thing is: They didn't say it was gay.

—Posted by Rebecca Cullers

Published on December 2, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (9)
Filed under Cullers, LG, PSAs, Telecom, Y&R

Talking food is well done in U.K. TV promos

Talking food is everywhere in advertising, but it doesn't get much more strange or awesome than this. These short, comical clips from RKCR/Y&R in London show healthy food items chatting with their unhealthier alter egos (e.g., a grilled sausage and a fried sausage, veggie pizza and pepperoni pizza, etc.) to promote Family Supercooks, a new U.K. show about eating familiar foods in healthier ways. It's hard to pick a favorite from among the motley cast of characters, though the sadistic ketchup is well up there. Adland has more, including the fun fact that some of the characters are loosely based on people at RKCR.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on October 29, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (2)
Filed under Europe, Food and drink, Nudd, Y&R

Tiny cars cut to the chase for LG cell phone

This charming ad from Y&R New York might be one of the better car commercials of the year. But it's not a car commercial. The tiny vehicles race around in service of the LG enVTouch smartphone. The best detail: when the white foam packaging puffs go flying in the alley. If some of the sequences seem familiar, like you'd screened them somewhere before, that's part of the build-up to the cinematic punch line. The phone becomes a drive-in movie in the final scene, OK? Sorry to spoil the surprise (which is pretty minimal), but given the themes here, it made sense to cut to the chase. Via Ads of the World.

—Posted by David Gianatasio

See also:
Indulge your inner stalker with LG's Secret
Everybody run from LG's washing machine!

Published on September 18, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Filed under Gianatasio, LG, Telecom, Y&R

Are these guys in a beer commercial or not?

This Quilmes beer spot from Young & Rubicam in Argentina is a pretty funny bit of meta marketing. The two guys have an impressive eye for detail, particularly in noticing that all the beer glasses have the same amount in them. But clearly it's a commercial, because these two dweebs would never get into a club full of hot chicks any other way. In fact, Big Nose's buddy should thank his lucky stars he's in an ad, because otherwise he'd be stuck playing the pervert neighbor in a Lifetime Original Movie.

—Posted by David Kiefaber

Published on August 21, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (1)
Filed under Alcohol, Kiefaber, South America, Y&R

You'll be roasted alive, but still earn interest

At last, some bank advertising that tells it like it is! No vanilla platitudes here! In ads from Y&R Lima, Banco Financiero faces the truth about the world today: that we are (or might as well be) under assault from rampant meteor strikes and roaming dinosaurs, terrible storms and rising sea levels, and/or even vicious alien attacks. We're all basically screwed, though even if the world ends, that 8.5 percent rate from Banco is rock solid. This is exactly the tactic more banks should try, though naturally, no U.S. bank would have the guts or absurd sense of humor. The details of the illustrations are awesome. In the dinosaur ad, in one of the exposed apartments of the ruined building on the right, I think I can see a saurian chomping down on some guy's head. And in the space-attack ad, that's either a chortling alien one of the balconies, lovin' it all, or a pitiful human bemoaning the fate of mankind. Hey, it works both ways! Note to our new Martian overlords: When the attack begins, please zap Bank of America first! Via Ads of the World.

—Posted by David Gianatasio

Published on March 11, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (1)
Filed under Banco Financiero, Finance, Gianatasio, South America, Y&R

Risking life and limb for the Boursin cheese

This ad from London's RKCR/Y&R for Boursin cheese takes the brand's classic, long-dormant "Du pain, du vin, du Boursin" campaign into potentially grisly territory. The lovers' cornfield picnic is nauseating enough to make one almost anticipate the "rather unexpected interruption" at the end of the spot. Boursin shows good sense in letting the ad go black before that pivotal moment, though. No sense associating its product with too much blood and guts.

—Posted by David Kiefaber

Published on March 6, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (2)
Filed under Boursin, Kiefaber, RKCR, Y&R

Slithery little man angry you had unsafe sex

The slippery, shrimpy, inconsiderate imp in this safe-sex PSA from the Israel AIDS Task Force is meant to personify the doubt you won't be able to shake after having unprotected sex. "With any unsafe sex, a new doubt is born," says the on-screen copy, meaning there's an Orc-like army of these guys around somewhere. The actual birth at the beginning of the spot could be less squishy sounding, but I guess that's meant to set the unsettling vibe. The creature looks a bit like the second evil head from the old Mike's Hard Iced Tea commercial, another ad character who's a drag to be around. "Avoid the doubt," says the line at the end. "Use a condom." The agency is Shalmor Avnon Amichay/Y&R Interactive in Tel Aviv. Via Osocio.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on February 12, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (2)
Filed under Freaky, Israel, Nudd, PSAs, Safe sex, Y&R

Listen to your slug-like friend: drink juice

Australian juice company Spring Valley's latest campaign from George Patterson Y&R takes an educational turn, as they aim to help people recapture their "Sensibles." The full history of Sensibles is explained at their Web site, but they're basically little symbiotic Hutt broodlings that kept primitive man from doing anything too stupid. Unfortunately, humans have been neglecting their Sensibles lately by doing things like listening to German trance music. (I must say, it's nice to have a consumer product agree with me on that.) Thankfully, drinking Spring Valley can nurse your Sensible back to health. And not a moment too soon. If you think your own personal Sensible is in bad shape, you should also consider seeing Captain Sensible.

—Posted by David Kiefaber

Published on September 2, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Filed under Freaky, Kiefaber, Spring Valley, TV, Y&R

Read a book, or risk a nasty shrunken head

This "Read more" ad from Young & Rubicam for Israeli bookstore Steimatzky (see a larger image here) may appear to champion literacy. But the image, which could have been pulled directly from a Tom Piccirilli novel, simply shows non-readers that they have lucrative careers ahead in carnivals, freak shows and Rob Zombie movies. Dabitch at Adland points out another problem with this ad: "Most men I know always want a little head." Still, AdFreak is officially in favor of reading, at least until we get that vlog started.

—Posted by David Kiefaber

Published on August 18, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (2)
Filed under Freaky, Kiefaber, Print, Y&R

Ghost pig horrified by all your BBQ eating

Now see, this Barbecues Galore spot from Young & Rubicam makes a lot more sense than the last one we saw. Things that know you’re planning to cook and eat them should get mad at you for it. BBQ Galore doesn’t explain how they’re going to help you exorcise a ghost pig from your house (unless it’s a real pig, in which case that guy is blind and deaf for not noticing it way sooner), but they didn’t say where a plucked, headless chicken kept its vocal cords, either.

—Posted by David Kiefaber

Published on June 13, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (1)
Filed under Barbecues Galore, Kiefaber, TV, Y&R

A little small talk with your barbecue dinner

We can't imagine a situation where the grillside friendship between a man and a soon-to-be-cooked chicken wouldn’t be a bit awkward. This Barbecues Galore spot from Young & Rubicam is no exception. What can you say to your dinner when he asks you to hook him up with a girl just as you’re marinating him? The chicken is conflicted, though, drawn to the marinade and the sizzling grill like a moth to the flame. Another case of Suicide Food, it seems. Via Advertolog.

—Posted by David Kiefaber

Published on June 10, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Filed under Barbecues Galore, Freaky, Kiefaber, TV, Y&R

Gay people are just as annoying as you are

Young & Rubicam in Chicago and HSI director Max Vitali have shot three new commercials for EqualMarriage.org, a group that lobbies for support of civil marriage rights for same-sex couples. The message: Gay couple irritate each other just as much as straight couples do. Thus, they’re normal. The tagline is, “Gay marriage is just like yours. Only gayer.”

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on February 27, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBack (0)
Filed under Y&R

Love means not having to share your soda

In honor of Valentine’s Day, here’s this amusing old Dr Pepper ad from Young & Rubicam in which the guy will buy tampons for his lady, he’ll wash her underwear, he’ll practice yoga with her, but he has to draw the line somewhere. The ad is also noteworthy for its use of Meat Loaf’s “I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That),” a song that confuses and frustrates some people, who believe (wrongly, it seems) that Loaf never reveals in the song exactly what it is he won’t do. Here, at least, the lyrics make obvious sense.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on February 14, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBack (0)
Filed under Dr Pepper, Y&R

PSAs gone wild on World AIDS Day

As you may know, today is World AIDS Day, and if you don’t know by now it will definitely come home to you if you watch a little MTV today. The network is running 24 PSAs, aimed at HIV and AIDS awareness; from what I saw this morning on the site where the spots are housed, they have an overwhelming emphasis on safe sex as opposed to the myriad other issues surrounding the disease. Seven agencies contributed to the campaign, according to this story: Cake, (the newly Omnicom-owned) 180 Amsterdam, Wieden + Kennedy 12, Lowe Worldwide, Young & Rubicam and Ogilvy. There are certainly some, um, interesting executions and you can check them all out at staying-alive.org. The shot above is from the WK 12 work, where fingers do the, uh, sexual dirty work. On the site, the agency claims that their "spots" are merely safe sex instructional videos from an unknown foreign nation that the plucky youngsters in the WK 12 program somehow found.

—Posted Catharine P. Taylor

Published on December 1, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Filed under 180, Ogilvy, PSAs, Wieden + Kennedy, Y&R

Y&R’s ‘Stand Up’ U.N. effort is rolling on

Young & Rubicam and the United Nations already got LonelyGirl15 on board for the Stand Up Against Poverty campaign, but there’s lot more where that came from, including the short Dave Matthews video above and an energetic effort from Mister Raja. The campaign, which has a healthy viral element, is aimed at getting people to organize and attend rallies this Sunday and Monday. According to the Stand Up Web site: “Six years ago, 189 world leaders sat down and agreed to end poverty and achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. On October 15 & 16, people across the world will stand up to remind them of this promise.” You can find Stand Up’s official YouTube home here.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on October 11, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Filed under PSAs, Y&R

Summer reading, courtesy of ex-Y&R ecd

Speaking of books by ex-ad people, Jim Othmer, former executive creative director at Young & Rubicam in New York, has a new novel out called The Futurist. I haven’t read it, but Heidi Julavits says it’s decent! (She also thinks Jim is “eye-poppingly talented.”) Actually, it’s getting good reviews generally (aside from LA Weekly’s opinion that Othmer “just seems like an asshole”). Written by an ex-Y&R guy, the book naturally is a dark comedy. It follows the adventures of a futurist (aka bullshit artist) in a world gone pear-shaped; the Web site says the story is “equal parts subversive satire, genuine physical fear, and heartfelt moral anguish.” The first chapter of the book appeared in the Virginia Quarterly Review and earned Othmer a National Magazine Award finalist nomination. It also allowed him, he says on his blog, to finally quit his day job after spending “the last 20 years seeking the title ‘former adman.’ ”

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on June 8, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (1)
Filed under Y&R

Creepy birds descend on Burger King

The farflung Burger King universe is getting odder by the day, judging by this nice and creepy overseas print ad from Young & Rubicam in Turkey. The copy at the bottom reads, “Burger King fish menu,” and the feathered flock is obviously keen on having it their way. Maybe the King is a Hitchcock fan. Spotted at Advertising for Peanuts.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on April 13, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (1)
Filed under Burger King, Y&R

Trash talking in the soccer world

Watching Argentina play England in a “friendly” soccer match over the weekend, I was reminded of another great soccer rivalry, Argentina and Brazil, and of the two ads shown here. (They’re oldies but goodies.) The story goes that in 2000, Brazil beat Argentina in a qualifier for the 2002 World Cup. Soon after, Young & Rubicam in Buenos Aires rolled out the top ad on behalf of Tulipán condoms, graphically explaining to Brazil what it could expect next time around. (The tagline translates to, “We are already thinking of revenge.”) Brazil’s soccer federation responded with the ad below, making good use of the lowercase “a.” Of the victory, the tagline says, “It wasn’t the first time. Nor will it be the last.” (The following autumn, as Argentina qualified easily for the World Cup while Brazil struggled, Y&R dreamed up another ad, this one for Tulipán’s lubricant gel. “We entered comfortably,” it said.)

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on November 15, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Filed under Y&R

Y&R setting up shop on Catalina Island?

An emergency all-agency meeting of Young & Rubicam this morning in Irvine, Calif., rumored to be about new business or a management shift, turned out be equally dramatic, heralding the relocation of the office to Long Beach and Catalina Island. A swirl of activity led up to the announcement, including confidential meetings, relocation memos, IT studies of Catalina’s wireless and telephone services, and facilities research into the logistics of commuting through Long Beach or San Pedro to the island once owned by William Wrigley Jr. and still populated by a herd of buffalo from an old Western shot there decades ago. Managing director David Murphy told staffers the meeting had been pushed up after Adweek learned of the developments, confirmed them through the Catalina Chamber of Commerce and other sources and was planning an e-mail push and a story for Monday. At the end of the meeting, sources say, Murphy said that despite fake displays of enthusiasm for paradisiac exile and the prospect of a three-hour commute, that this was all just a big old April Fools’ Day prank.

—Posted by Gregory Solman

Photo: Martinez/La Opinion Photos/Newscom

Published on April 1, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (2)
Filed under Y&R