A year after Donald Trump’s googly eyes stared out madly from the wheels of a bus in Copenhagen, the Danish city has welcomed another innovative politically themed bus ad, this time from Amnesty International. The wrap makes a city bus look like a tank prowling the streets. “This is everyday life in Aleppo,” says the…
Pornhub, the adult entertainment site, continues its mainstream SFW advertising efforts with “Old School,” a sexual education video and campaign geared toward people in retirement communities and nursing homes. The elderly are becoming more sexually active than ever, but are lacking information particularly about sexually transmitted infections (STIs), Pornhub says. To rectify this, Nina Hartley–the…
If you put ketchup on your hot dog, you’re not really a Chicagoan. That truism is at the heart of a new Heinz campaign in which the brand leans into the Windy City’s no-ketchup-on-hot-dogs establishment by trying to develop a new tomato-based “Chicago Dog Sauce.” The hope is that people there actually would put this…
Warning to flatulence-themed Twitter trolls out there: Square social media lead Nick Dimichino still has plenty of ammunition after his viral takedown of a critic named “Fart Sandwich.” AdFreak reached out to Dimichino to solicit some tips for other brands who might need to stand up to a toxic troll, and, given the fact he…
David Droga was recently lionized, almost literally, at the Cannes festival for his body of work over the course of a brilliant career. A lot of that success has come, of course, at his eponymous agency Droga5–which swung for the fences with its very first piece of work in 2006, and connected in a big…
As traditional revenues from television advertising are beginning to erode, a new trillion-dollar industry is emerging that mandates brands be omnipresent. Within this decade, augmented reality is going to change the way the always-connected consumer works, shops and plays. Once contextual marketing seamlessly transitions to commerce, it will be trusted brandsand the savvy marketers who manage themthat help consumers augment their world with tailored experiences to enhance their daily lives.
Last year, American adults set new records of media consumption by ingesting 10 hours and 39 minutes of media per day. As pervasive as media is today, new technologies are seeking ways to connect and empower consumers continuously throughout their 17.2 waking hours per day. According to Citi GPS, digital reality is quickly growing into a new trillion-dollar market with annual revenues of $692 billion expected by 2025.
Most people believe augmented reality means adding something to the real world that isn’t there. (Think of the millions of players who spent over $1 billion collecting Pokmon Go eggs on their phones). But just as much opportunity can be found in using AR to subtract items from view and help consumers focus on specific retail products lost in the panoply of visual clutter.
Every year since 1998, Discovery Channel marks midsummer with the spectacle of “Shark Week.” Broadcast in over 70 countries, the tonality of the of programming has recently titled towards the tabloid. This year includes segments like “Great White Shark Serial Killer Lives,” “Great Hammerhead Invasion” and Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps (somehow) racing a great white shark.
This is dangerous for both the planet and the brand health of Discovery’s advertisers. We need to educate the public about shark conservation. And, yes, it’s a smart move for brands to get involved.
A dangerous decline
In an Audi commercial from China, a mother-in-law interrupts a wedding ceremony to inspect the bride, checking whether she’s up to standard. The older woman grabs the bride’s nose and ears, pinches her lower lip and peers at her teeth and tongue. The bride gets an OK — along with an extra warning to cover up her cleavage.
It’s an ad from Ogilvy & Mather Beijing promoting used Audis that have been checked out and officially certified for resale. “An important decision must be made carefully,” the tagline says.
But the ad is getting pushback on social media for comparing women to merchandise — specifically, to used cars that need to be checked from every angle. The ad was surprising given that Audi has made campaigns tackling gender stereotypes a centerpiece in markets from Spain to the U.S. One social commenter contrasted the Chinese spot to Audi’s messaging during the Super Bowl, about equal pay for women.
In a futuristic world, “Big Bang Theory” star Mayim Bialik lectures young campers on the peculiar “Homoschlepiens,” an isolated group that drank water only out of plastic bottles. Then, Bialik says, “mankind evolved,” thanks in part to SodaStream, which takes tap water and sparkles it without polluting bottles.
“Who Are The Homoschlepiens?”, running a little over two minutes and following Bialik’s case study into the species, is one of this week’s top viral videos coming in third, with over 13 million views. (The video also stars “Game of Thrones” actor Kristian Nairn, who was featured in last week’s viral list.)
Samsung, again, had three top-ten videos. Volvo Trucks placed sixth, with “The World’s Largest Unboxing.” That spot showed a truck-obsessed 3-year-old who gets to “unbox” and ride in the Volvo’s VNL semi. It’s objectively adorable.
Ad Age “Media Guy” columnist Simon Dumenco’s media roundup for the morning of Monday, July 17:
If you were hoping for a low-on-Trump media scan today, well, I’m afraid I can’t help you. The weekend news cycle was not kind to the White House and the drip-drip of further revelations about Trump Jr.’s Russia meeting sure hasn’t been helping. But hey, there is one Trump-free item herewith — see No. 6, below — though I should warn you that’s Ed Sheeran-related. Anyway, let’s get started …
1. Nice try! In a Reuters story this mornng titled “U.S. Secret Service rejects suggestion it vetted Trump son’s meeting,” Arshad Mohammed and Howard Schneider write,
Every weekday, we bring you the Ad Age/iSpot Hot Spots, new and trending TV commercials tracked by iSpot.tv, the real-time TV ad measurement company with attention and conversion analytics from 10 million smart TVs. The New Releases here ran on TV for the first time over the weekend. The Most Engaging ads are ranked by digital activity (including online views and social shares) over the past week.
Among the new releases, Michaela DePrince, a ballerina from West Africa, offers a glimpse of her harrowing personal journey in support of Jockey’s “Show ’em what’s underneath” campaign. Lululemon offers a rather intense take on what yoga means to different people in an ad that closes out with the message “This Is yoga.” And Infiniti serves up an ad that at first seems like a scene from an action thriller, but ends up being about (spoiler!) a supportive family.
The U.K.’s Advertising Standards Authority has vowed to take a tougher line on gender stereotypes in ads, arguing that that they are harmful to society.
The watchdog is pledging to eliminate, for example, ads that show women being left with sole responsibility for cleaning up a family mess, while men fail at simple household tasks.
Currently, the ASA bans ads for inappropriate sexualization (like this American Apparel ad that sexualized schoolgirls) and for promoting unhealthily thin ideals (as Yves Saint Laurent did a couple of years ago), but gender stereotypes have often slipped through the self-regulatory net.
Every year since 1998, Discovery Channel marks midsummer with the spectacle of “Shark Week.” Broadcast in over 70 countries, the tonality of the of programming has recently titled towards the tabloid. This year includes segments like “Great White Shark Serial Killer Lives,” “Great Hammerhead Invasion” and Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps (somehow) racing a great white shark.
This is dangerous for both the planet and the brand health of Discovery’s advertisers. We need to educate the public about shark conservation. And, yes, it’s a smart move for brands to get involved.
A dangerous decline
Ad Age “Media Guy” columnist Simon Dumenco’s media roundup for the morning of Tuesday, July 18:
Have you released an attack video against your least-favorite media outlet yet? (See No. 3, below.) No? What’s taking you? Don’t you know that hyper-specific media-bashing videos are all the rage (and I do mean rage) these days? Anyway, let’s get started …
1. So with last night’s collapse of the GOP’s latest attempt at healthcare reform/Obamacare repeal — a cornerstone of President Trump’s agenda — let’s check in with POTUS to see how he’s spinning this.
Miller Lite has been tweaking Bud Light for months with ads that boast “more taste” and “half the carbs” of its larger rival. Now Anheuser-Busch InBev is finally responding — not with Bud Light, but with its economy brand, Natural Light, and supermodel Marisa Miller.
“My name might be Miller, but I prefer to act natural,” Miller says in a new video, wearing a swimsuit. “Natural Light that is.”
The video, which Miller shared today on social media, marks the beginning of a new endorsement deal that will include a digital content series this summer and fall. Zeno Group is behind the campaign, which uses the hashtag “#Miller4 Natty.”
Heineken has its own take on Chicago’s no-ketchup obsession. The beer brand has been running billborads in the city stating “Made with water, barley and hops. Anything more would be like putting ketchup on a hot dog.”
Sizmek said Tuesday that it has agreed to purchase Rocket Fuel in a $145 million deal. The move comes just one day after Rubicon Project snagged nToggle for $38.5 million and as an expected ad tech consolidation looms.
Randy Wootton, CEO of Rocket Fuel, previously told Ad Age in a April 2016 interview that consolidation in the industry was imminent, going as far as calling it an “ad tech armageddon.”
“There are 4,000 ad tech companies in the Lumascape,” Wootton previously told Ad Age. “Four thousand ad-tech companies all trying to get their little piece. A lot of them are public, but there isn’t a lot of money out there for these ad tech companies to come out and build their next new thing.”
In an Audi commercial from China, a mother-in-law interrupts a wedding ceremony to inspect the bride, checking whether she’s up to standard. The older woman grabs the bride’s nose and ears, pinches her lower lip and peers at her teeth and tongue. The bride gets an OK — along with an extra warning to cover up her cleavage.
It’s an ad from Ogilvy & Mather Beijing promoting used Audis that have been checked out and officially certified for resale. “An important decision must be made carefully,” the tagline says.
But the ad is getting pushback on social media for comparing women to merchandise — specifically, to used cars that need to be checked from every angle. The ad was surprising given that Audi has made campaigns tackling gender stereotypes a centerpiece in markets from Spain to the U.S. One social commenter contrasted the Chinese spot to Audi’s messaging during the Super Bowl, about equal pay for women.
Isis videos may be in the rearview mirror for some advertisers, but what about Peppa Pig?
Brand safety worries have subsided for marketers who’ve moved back to YouTube despite the lack of ironclad guarantees that their ads will never again appear with terrorist or hate videos. But the controversy has exposed a relevance problem that might be even harder to address — with ads showing up on children’s videos, for example, when kids aren’t brands’ target.
A spring of discontent
Facebook’s WhatsApp messaging service has been partially blocked in China, following a censorship crackdown by the government.
Multiple WhatsApp users in China reported experiencing intermittent outages from Monday night Beijing time. By Tuesday morning, users had taken to social networks such as Twitter to report that photos as well as audio clips — a favored format in the country — were not being delivered.
WhatsApp is not responsible for the blockage, according to a person familiar with the matter. The company declined to comment.
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