Hasta La Creative!

Adweek asked industry creatives to create presidential campaign ads just for fun.

MediaBuys, LLC has launched Greedy People, where, according to the Flash intro, “People will do just about anything for MONEY.”

I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about Cannes after this year’s snafus and blow-ups. There’s a lot of ground to cover when it comes to the Lions. Lets start by looking at the money end of the festival, shall we?

In 2008, over 28,000 entries from 85 countries competed for the coveted Lions at the Cannes 55th International Advertising Festival. That’s an increase of 10.2% versus 2007. Wow-zee, woozers! Without taking into account the new Design Lions category, that increase is 5.8%. A lot of those new entrants also come from the break out of TV to include other screens.

In order to enter your work in Cannes, you’re paying anywhere from $466 US (Radio Lions) to $1120 if you’re entering into the Film Lions. If you’re living in the UK, it’s a little bit more. The average entry fee cost (considering Film, Outdoor, Cyber, Direct, Radio, Integrated, etc.) is $816.84 (roughly). Stay with me, ok? So, that average times the 28,000 entries? $22,871,576. Oh yeah dawg. Read it and weep.

If you want to go for the full 4 days and go to every event the festival has running it’ll cost ya. That’s 2386.02 pounds or 4455.42 US dollars (that includes the French TVA fee). For arguments sake, let’s say that of the 10,000 reported delegates, not everyone got the full package. Lets say they ponied up for three days. That’s still $3126.61. Okay, multiply that by the 10,000 or so delegates. I’ll wait.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media

Only in the Twilight Zone where pig-faced people freak out at what we consider “normalcy” would you expect drama of this nature. Likewise, the advertising world is rife with backwards practices and unique people, and here on AgencySpy their stories play out.

We’ve determined that the “CD” responsible for the faux e-mails was none other than GCD Steve Dean.

Confirmation of Dean’s antics comes from a multitude of sources, most of whom are Austin based. We hear that, about a month ago, Dean and partner Tim Sabo were made aware that they weren’t long for the GSD&M world.

The choice to give the fellas a month heads-up may have been respectful, but illustrates why most companies fire folks at 9 a.m., and have them immediately escorted out of the building.

More after the jump.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media

(TrendHunter.com) I love the “Get a Mac” commercials, mainly because ‘Mac’ is a hottie, but also because they are brilliantly directed.

At last Microsoft has decided they are not going to take them lying down, and have…

In other Wieden news, Nike has dropped a billboard advertisement for their new Hyperdunks in response to critics who are complaining that the ads were insensitive to gay men and African-Americans. The ad is pictured above in all its tea-bagging glory.

Oddly, W+K posted an entry to their website titled, Hypersensitive, y’all? that garnered backlash galore.

Here’s a sampling of the comments from that post on the W+K Studio blog:

1. “Whether your gay or not, tea bagging is just unsavory.”

2. “Maybe its kinda hypersensitive, still, not a right campaign at all. Its focus its bigoted.”

3. “[sic] your firm is clueless if you think this is not offensive. and next time write better copy when you have your frat boy friends post on here…. oh, and yes, you are all twats…”

4. “I don’t think that an image of two guys playing basketball and accidentally meeting face-crotch has anything to do with gays. it’s just gross, thus “that ain’t right”. it saddens me that there are people that assume that THAT has to do anything with sexual orientation, sexuality for that matter or an opinion of it. really, it’s a sport, that’s the context. nothing to do with sex or gays. really sad anyone might think that. it’s not hypersensitivity, it’s degradation.”

And here’s a rebuttal from one of the staffers:

“Yes, our firm is homophobic and clueless. That’s why we hired an openly gay spokesperson (Neil Patrick Harris) for a huge mass-market Old Spice deodorant campaign. And of course since we are headquartered in Portland, Oregon (one of the most liberal and progressive cities in the U.S.), we must be a bunch of inbred red-staters instead of a diverse workforce that hails from nearly every corner of the globe. It’s OK to air your grievances about a particular ad that was the result of a particular group’s creative process; but it’s weak to use close-minded and reductive rhetoric to try and make your point. Furthermore, as a basketball fan with many gay friends (I know, I know…), I would have to throw my hat in with the camp that believes this ad is about the unpleasant act of getting dunked on.”

Clearly, someone over there took debate at Columbia. Look at how smarty-farty they are, like all the time.You know you wanna work there. You know it!

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(TrendHunter.com) Congratulations China: the numbers are in and it’s official now, the Beijing Olympic 2008 Games are the most-watched event in US TV history, ever.

Nielsen Media Research has verified that 211 million…

The extent to which the Internet served as a supplement to television was unprecedented, and there were two clear winners: NBC’s Web site and Yahoo’s Olympics section.

When your brand shares the same name as a Presidential candidate, why not take advantage of it? That’s what McCain Foods is doing:

McCain Foods, a Canadian package-food company that has languished in American freezer aisles for years, has decided it’s time for a change — at least in frozen potatoes.

McCain and Chicago-based agency Schafer Condon Carter decided on “Why McCain should be in the White House.” The campaign is for the company’s namesake frozen french fries, sweet-potato fries and kid-friendly “smiles.” Since McCain doesn’t use trans-fatty oils, a sample slogan is “McCain goes to war over oil.” Another one: “McCain brings ‘smiles’ to millions,” referencing the company’s disc-shaped potato product with smiley faces cut out.

Don’t know if the McCain the politician will care, but the confusion can sometimes be a problem. I do remember that back in the 80’s, His Purpleness didn’t like this spot:

Established in 1933 in the austere and elegant Palazzo dell’Arte designed by architect Giovanni Muzio, the Milan Triennale regularly hosts some impressive design, art and architecture exhibitions of the 20th century.

Triennale Milano, entrance view. Photo by Gabriele Basilico

Launched in the wake of the Stuttgart Weissenhof –an estate of working class dwelling which was built in Stuttgart in 1927, the opening exhibition at the Palazzo back in 1933 was dedicated to the theme of housing.

One of the Triennale’s Summer exhibitions is revisiting the theme of affordable housing under a more contemporary side. Casa per tutti is pressing architects to give their attention to a theme that was central in the inter-war and post-WW2 reconstruction periods and is once again crucial in the current crisis of the postmodern metropolis.

Studio Elmo Vermijs, Peopleskitchen (image at casa)

The Milan exhibition is one of the many i’ve seen on a topic which is proving quite popular these days (only in Milan i have visited two shows related to the same issue: Alternative Living Strategies and Lucy + Jorge Orta’s Antarctica expedition). The Italian Pavilion of the Architecture Biennale in Venice (September 14th to November 23rd 2008), entitled HOUSING ITALY. 12 Projects for Inhabiting and Re-inhabiting the City, will be concerned with a similar theme. In spite of its weaknesses (it’s a bit confusing, poorly distributed in space, lacking in strong focus), the Milan show makes pertinent points, displays some fascinating projects and draws meaningful parallels between past works and contemporary prototypes.

In CASA PER TUTTI, past examples of the approach are exhibited side by side with a wide range of contemporary dwelling solutions, from emergency housing to self-built houses, houses for specific users (student housing, hostels for girls, nomads’ houses, workers’ housing, the wearable house etc.), including research by artists who have put this issue at the centre of their work.

Acconci Studio, Umbruffla: Renderings & Notes, 2005. Kenny Schachter ROVE Gallery

Anything by Vito Acconci is bound to get all my attention so i’ll kick of the list of projects i most liked with Umbruffla. Conceived by Studio Acconci, this is a new umbrella you could wrap yourself up in. Fix one end to your waist, the other to one wrist, so that both hands are free. Wearing it, you could dodge a passer-by, turn it windward and even welcome a companion under it with you. Umbruffla is made from two way mirrored mylar. From outside the surface is mirrored, so while you can see through from inside, you would be camouflaged by the reflections of the city which shimmers on you as you walk.

The name of the object comes from English – ‘ruffle’. When the object is closed, “the ruffles are gathered into a ruffle”, but, when opened, “the ruffles unfold, fan out, spring out, into an umbruffla.”

Image at casa

Massimiliano Fuksas, MVRDV, Jean Nouvel, Kengo Kuma, Alejandro Aravena, Cino Zucchi and other key architects were commissioned the building of a housing model which the Triennale exhibits in its garden.

Kengo Kuma, Umbrella House

One of these prototypes is Kengo Kuma‘s Umbrella House. Like Studio Acconci, the Japanese architect modified umbrellas but this time in order to build a fast, modular and cheap shelter. Zippers along the umbrellas outer edges are zipped together to create a shelter.

Oskar Leo Kaufmann, Carton House, 2002.

Oskar Leo Kaufmann’s Carton House was an artistic proposal for an Art Biennale held in Turin a few years ago. The minimal house wasn’t meant as an actual prototype for living on the cheap but as a way of giving visibility to the people who actually have to sleep in cardboard on the street.

The Carton House is foldable, weights 12kg and measures 1.00×0.66×0.20m. Once unfold, the living space measures 2×1×1.75m.

The Austrian architect also develops affordable and easy to mount prefab houses such as the System 3 House, that he designed together with Albert Rüf for MoMA’s Home Delivery exhibition.

Installation of the SYSTEM3 project, as part of the exhibition Home Delivery

The project evokes earlier examples of ready-to-assemble dwellings such as Sears Roebuck’s mail order houses.

The Arlington (Model No. 145); $1,294 to $2,906 (via Sears archives)

The Casa Per Tutti exhibition was divided in a series of sections. The Micro/Macro one reflected on two apparently opposite but in reality complementary ways of envisioning the habitat: the tiny one-person living unit and the large-scale complex of urban building.

The best example of Micro Macro is Le Corbuiser’s prototype of the Maison Domino micro-house, which develops and becomes the repetitive element of the famous Macro-house Unité d’Habitation in Marseille.

Contemporary examples of Micro-Houses include Atelier Van Lieshut, Andrea Zittel, the wearable houses of Kosuke Tsumura and Lucy Orta but also altro_studio‘s Inflatable House.

Anna Rita Emili (altro_studio), Casa gonfiabile (Inflatable House), Roma 2001.

Like many post-Archigram inflatable projects, this clearly evokes the Cushicle. The structure clearly refers to a traditional house style. It is composed of three inflatable elements anchored on the ground by steel platforms, zipped together, and set in such a way as to prevent that water soaks into the walls. Once the length of the house has been determined, each module is concluded in non-inflatable plugging panels, that can contain a door or window as needed. These elements, which allow for the ventilation of the internal space, are characterized by a side zip closing system.

Baumraum, Tree House

Some of the works, far from being designed as simple make-do for people whose lifestyle is on the margin of society, can actually confer them some dignity. See for example Baumraum‘s Tree Houses.

At the other end of the spectrum are the macro buildings made of micro housing units which, unlike many of their predecessors, rise with so much grace and appeal on the urban landscape that they make us dream of a new sense of collective habitat. Examples are the ‘Whale‘ installed by Cie on Amsterdam canals or the colourful blocks of MVRDV‘s Mirador in Madrid.

MVRDV, Mirador, Madrid 2006

To those new paradigms of urban dwelling in massive structures can be added the more theoretical research of architectural studios like Dogma.

Dogma, Stop-City

The Italian architects were showing an utopian concept called Stop-City, a city that develops vertically in an archipelago of dense urban island.

Archizoom, No Stop City, 1968

The project holds an ironic mirror to Archizoom‘s No Stop City , a 1969 concept that critiques the ideology of architectural modernism by pushing it to absurd limits. The city they envisioned had no boundaries either, but it grows horizontally, is artificially lit and air-conditioned.

That was just a partial, subjective, quick and dirty overview of the show, there’s tons more to learn and see over there. My images.

Casa per Tutti is on view at the Triennale di Milano until September 14, 2008. And i just learned that if you visit the Triennale in August you’ll be granted a free entry to all their exhibitions.

Previous exhibitions seen at the Triennale: Fabrica – Gli Occhi Aperti, Beautiful Losers: : Contemporary Art and Street Culture.

Related entries: Alternative Living Strategies, Lucy + Jorge Orta’s Antarctica expedition, the Shellhouse, Several ways to wear a mosque, Urban Nomad Shelter, paraSITE shelters, the Homeless Vehicle, Design for “urban nomads”, etc.