Hasta La Creative!

Today in tips that are almost certainly not true, someone tells us that Kit Kat has begun a UK agency review that will “probably” go global.

Three reasons we don’t put much faith in this tip:

1) JWT has been Kit Kat’s AOR for some time (except in the US, where the candy is produced by Hershey rather than Nestle). In fact, just a week ago JWT Amsterdam released the “Give Holland a Break” campaign.

2) The agency’s spot “Break From Gravity,” which hit two years ago, got more attention than any other recent Kit Kat ad.

3) This is now officially the most popular “brand tweet” ever with more than twice as many favorites and nearly twice as many retweets as the 360i Oreo one that you still hear about all the time. And JWT London did it.

That work alone made us devote more of our attention to Kit Kat than we have in years, so there wouldn’t be much reason for the brand to review its creative agency at this point, would there? Sounds like someone might be jealous.

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Pity the poor woman who doesn’t live up to Victoria Secret’s definition of perfection which probably hovers somewhere around 5’8″, 34C-22-34. If you don’t come close to those measurements, it appears you should should shop elsewhere.

A new campaign for the brand is touting a line of bras they call Body by Victoria. The ads carry the headline, “The Perfect Body,” along with images of, well, women with “perfect” bodies.

Certainly there’s an aspect of every advertising campaign which aims to be aspirational, motivational, uplifting in a way that, ideally, cause a person to respond, “I want to be like that. I want to be better. I’ll have what she’s having. I want to be better. Etc.” And a nice motivational kick in the ass is a good thing every once in a while.

But when woman are subjected to this onslaught of “this is how you should look” messaging from advertisers that, let’s be honest, isn’t attainable in every case, it’s a recipe for depression.

Yes, Victoria’s Secret, and many other advertisers have long sent this message. But they usually dance around things. This campaign doesn’t. The words “the perfect body” over a line up of women with perfect bodies is hardly dancing around the message.

Over in the UK, a petition posted on Change.org by 22-year-old Frances Black against the campaign has amassed over 775 signatures.

Of the campaign, Black says, “A brand like Victoria’s Secret is hugely popular in America and in the UK, and they mainly market to young women. It’s really hurtful to women’s self-esteem. I’d like them to apologize and take accountability for choosing the wrong words for the campaign. I’d like them to amend the wording and pledge not to use such harmful language in the future.”

Note that she isn’t asking Victoria’s Secret to stop selling bras that help women look more perfect. Because most people do want to do whatever they can to look/be better. But they don’t want to have soul-crushing messaging and imagery thrust in their face on a daily basis.

Black petition reads, in part, “Every day women are bombarded with advertisements aimed at making them feel insecure about their bodies, in the hope that they will spend money on products that will supposedly make them happier and more beautiful. Victoria’s Secret’s new advertisements for their range of bras Body use this tactic, and send out a damaging message by positioning the words ‘The Perfect ‘Body” across models of exactly the same, very slim body type.”

And yes, we get that the way the headline is written, The Perfect “Body,” implies they are saying Victoria’s Secret has the perfectly sized bra for your body, it’s word smithing like this that just hides the fact there is too much focus on perfection.

McCann New York teamed up with production company Private School Entertainment to create a gun safety PSA for the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence entitled “Conversations.”

The 30-second spot, directed by David Kerr, was first introduced in Pittsburgh as part of a pilot project but is just now being aired nationally. It examines the kinds of awkward conversations parents have with other parents. “My son…playing…you know…” one mother awkwardly fumbles to another at the opening of the spot. Rather than finish the sentence, the ad skips to the same women engaging in other unfinished awkward conversations such as “The boys got into some of Frank’s old…magazines.” At the end of the spot a voiceover delivers the message, “Awkward conversations come with being a parent, but one might save your child’s life. Ask if there’s an unlocked gun in the house before sending your child over to play.”

The ad functions as a sort of follow up to another gun safety PSA from McCann: the sex-toy battle of “Playthings.” Not only is the style of awkward humor reminiscent of that spot, the actresses used (Iris Almario and Anna Vocino) are also the same. Interestingly, that ad was initially created for the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, and filmed at the same time as “Conversations,” but the group turned it down, fearing it was too provocative. Dan Gross, president of the Brady Center, told The New York Times that the Brady Center then offered it up to another gun-safety organization, Evolve. Evolve had great success with the video, which eventually racked up over 6 million views on YouTube.  (more…)

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