Late-night talk-show hosts already commandeer your living room in the wee hours. Now they're expanding their purview.
Following Jimmy Kimmel's bit before Sunday's Oscars in which he pretended to climb through the camera into a couple's living room to berate them, today we have this new Time Warner Cable ad starring Jimmy Fallon—in which the Tonight Show host shows up (with his whole band) in a guy's home just as he's eating breakfast. The point: Now you can watch NBC shows anytime as part of TWC's on-demand services.
Fallon is already everywhere these days; it only makes sense that he should be there anytime as well. He even popped up briefly in Ogilvy New York's previous ad for TWC—the minute-long extravaganza, also posted below, hosted by Diddy.
After meeting widespread ridicule for a lofty first attempt at brand advertising in 2012 (and subsequent stumbles pitching its Facebook Home product), the social network has quietly been rolling out ads online this year that are quite a bit more grounded. And they focus more on promoting the core utility of the social network—in particular, its role as a motivator for non-virtual self-improvement.
Don't worry, the campaign, created by Wieden + Kennedy, doesn't wholly commit to the mundane. One spot insists on emphasizing the calculated quirkiness of a group of young adults acting like teens. They have decided to drill skis and snowboards to the bottom of couches and ride the makeshift toboggans down a slope. This is apparently a real thing that someone, somewhere has done before. That lends a little credibility to Facebook's point that it will help organize even the most oddball of gatherings.
Another spot focuses on using the network to crowdsource recommendations for a tango teacher, who turns out to be a charming, colorful personality. Other ads highlight an aspiring marathon runner, whose many friends encourage him through the network, and a girl who's going through a breakup, who only needs one friends to make things better.
The spots do a solid job of using specific examples to illustrate Facebook's real value—its efficiency as a way to communicate with more than one person at once. That won't answer any grand existential questions, but it does get out of its own way and shows, concretely, how the product can help make life off-screen better—a concept Facebook has struggled to articulate in the past.
That is, if making life better is defined as making it easier to sucker people you met once into watching you go sledding, or get shopping advice, or go fishing for affirmation.
Dove's billboard attempting to redefine New Jersey's reputation as the "Armpit of America" seems to be getting the state in quite a lather. The backlash, while not unexpected, is especially notable considering the billboard won't even go up until July.
"Dear New Jersey," the Unilever billboard says, "when people call you 'The Armpit of America,' take it as a compliment. Sincerely, Dove."
With its North American headquarters based in New Jersey, Unilever swears the outdoor board is positive.
"The message that we want to get out there is that the armpit is not a bad thing," senior marketing director Matthew McCarthy tells The New York Times, "and that we stand for caring for the armpit."
Not everyone seems to share that assessment of the message.
Several commenters on NJ.com say they'll be boycotting Dove products over the billboard. Others are encouraging readers to write to Unilever about their anger toward the ad. My favorite commenter, though, handles it like a true New Jerseyan: "I guess it's OK to be the armpit. Kansas is the butthole."
BBDO's execution of the ad is more or less genius, complete with cheesy theme music and zippy montage. Godzilla himself is styled as an oversize action figure, more like Bobcat Goldthwait's tiny-town-wrecking incarnation in One Crazy Summer than Hollywood's city-stomping terror lizard.
I suppose we should be glad the "real" Godzilla isn't such a good guy with a sweet tooth for nougat. If he were really that easy to calm down, it wouldn't make for much of a movie.
Credits below.
CREDITS Client: Snickers, Mars Spot: "Godzilla"
Agency: BBDO, New York Chief Creative Officer, Worldwide: David Lubars Chief Creative Officer, New York: Greg Hahn Executive Creative Directors: Gianfranco Arena, Peter Kain Creative Director, Copywriter: Alex Taylor Creative Directyor, Art Director: Jason Stefanik Group Executive Producer: Amy Wertheimer Executive Music Producer: Loren Parkins
Production Company: Smith and Jones Director: Ulf Johansson Director of Photography: Andrejz Sekula
Music House: South/AKM
Editing House: Mackenzie Cutler Editor: Ian Mackenzie
Visual Effects House: MPC Visual Effects Producer: Camila De Biaggi Visual Effects Supervisor: Alex Lovejoy
"The idea of 'Sport Doesn't Care' is that sport is the great leveler," says Carlo Cavallone, ecd at 72andSunny in Amsterdam, of his agency's hard-hitting 90-second spot for Paralympics sponsor Samsung.
"Abled and other-abled athletes are exactly the same when it comes to competing," he tells AdFreak. "Paralympic athletes don't go to the games because they want to make a statement about their disability; they go because they want to win a medal. This is often missed in the communication about this event."
The spot pulls no punches, showing athletes faced with fatigue, pain, stress, the elements and burnout as they struggle through the rigors of practice and preparation that they hope will carry them to glory at the 2014 Paralympic Winter Games, starting March 7 in Sochi, Russia.
"We wanted to make this point to invite more viewers to follow the event, present it as a true, intense, awesome sporting competition," says Cavallone. The agency worked with Smuggler director Henry-Alex Rubin (who lensed 72andSunny's previous Paralympics work and co-directed the documentary film Murderball) to achieve an edgy mood that Cavallone calls "real, raw and pitiless. The last thing we wanted to be was tear-jerking. There's nothing to cry about here."
The tone is similar to Procter & Gamble's "Tough Love" spot from Wieden + Kennedy, which unflinchingly focuses on youngsters participating in sports with the loving support of their moms. The Samsung ad is more low key and gritty, showing the adult athletes balancing grueling training regimens with child-rearing and other workaday responsibilities.
"It is incredible that in 2014 we still see campaigns where other-abled athletes are presented as objects of pity, on one end—or supermen, on the other," says Cavallone. "Isn't that incredibly patronizing? We think so. They are just athletes and they really don't care about their disability."
That point is driven home by the spot's conclusion as a voiceover says, "You know what my real problem is? I hate losing," and the end theme flashes on screen: "What's your problem? Sport doesn't care."
Bottom line: "They've got a lot of problems, the problems every athlete has," Cavallone says, "but their disability doesn't count as one."
How calming is Lipton tea? You'll be at peace even amid the animals (actually, make that the Animals) of New York City.
In this new spot from London agency adam&eveDDB, our reluctant hero Kermit T. Frog sips a cup of Lipton tea (which may or may not be laced with opium) and is suddenly able to cope with a city full of Animal clones reminiscent of a John Malkovich daymare.
The grouchy street-meat vendors, insane cab drivers and slack-jawed tourists who riddle Mayor Bill de Blasio's New York would rattle the average frog, but Kermit stays cool and collected. All he has to do is "Be more tea."
A 60-second version of the spot, which also promotes the upcoming Muppets Most Wanted movie, out March 21, breaks Sunday on the Oscars.
"The Google Maps team mounted the Street View Trekker onto a specially designed 'Tundra Buggy,' allowing us to travel across this fragile landscape without interfering with the polar bears or other native species. Through October and November we collected Street View imagery from the shores of Hudson's Bay as the polar bears waited for the sea ice to freeze over."
Lowe's first work for Volkswagen's Seat, from its new Lola office in Barcelona, Spain, takes acceleration to absurdist lengths.
A two-minute teaser ad that landed on YouTube this week features a guy in a high-back seat in front of a black acceleration pedal, albeit one detached from a car. It's connected to an engine, though, and as he depresses the pedal, a cluster of 280 toy monkeys also plugged in to the engine bizarrely start clanging the tiny cymbals in their hands. But as the guy presses down harder—creating a loud engine roar—the monkeys, sadly, burst into flames and explode into the air. "Only a Cupra can handle the engine of a Cupra," explains screen copy.
The ad then cuts to a thumbnail image of the Seat Leon Cupra and the fun tagline, “Enjoyneering.” It's just a teaser ad—the first of three—for a big campaign that rolls out next month. Let's hope the next one is kinder to kids' toys.
CREDITS Client: Seat Client Contact: Gabriele Palma, Jochen Dries Creative Agency: Lola, Barcelona, Spain Executive Creative Director: Chacho Puebla Creative Directors: Néstor García, Nacho Oñate Creative Team: Cristina Fité, Esther Matas, Miki Ocampo, Saray González Agency Producer: Cristina Español Global Business Director: Clark Steel Account Supervisor: Alejandro Belloti Production House: Blur Director: Maxi Sterle Producer: Pablo Acón Postproduction House: Metropolitana Sound Studio: Cannonball Edits: Monkey, Washing Machine and Mechanical Bull
"My Beautiful Woman" is a series of three short ad films totaling 20 minutes of running time. And while that might sound like an eternity on YouTube, in this case it's definitely worth it.
The stories—narrated in Thai, subtitled in slightly broken English—are beautiful, emotional and likely to move sentimental types to tears. (They did for me, anyway.) The real surprise is that they're for lingerie brand Wacoal, though you'd never know it from the completely unsexual storytelling.
Each movie tells a story about a "beautiful woman," and then quietly closes with the copy "Wacoal believes all women were created to be beautiful." Then comes a request: "Who is your beautiful woman? Post a photo and hashtag #MyBeautifulWoman."
I don't want to give away the storylines, because they're lovely and surprising in their subtle twists. Some may argue they're sappy or cloying, and there are certainly some cultural differences to take into account. But feel free to block this off as your sniffly-faced, feel-good moment of the day.
It might seem strange that PepsiMAX based its second "Test Drive" prank video with Jeff Gordon around doubts some people had about the first one. But it turned out to be a creatively fruitful approach.
First, it was a way to draft off the success of the earlier megahit. It also gave the second video a strong narrative. (Gordon, again in disguise, takes one of the big doubters—Travis Okulski of auto blog Jalopnik—on a very real, hair-raising ride of his own.) And finally, in many ways it used Gordon's pride as an accelerator. This isn't a guy, after all, who would want you to think he couldn't do these stunts himself.
Following the release of "Test Drive 2" on Thursday morning, we spoke with Marc Gilbar, creative director at Omnicom's Davie Brown Entertainment/The Marketing Arm in Los Angeles, which concepted and handled creative execution on the new video. (Like the first one, this one was directed by Peter Atencio of Gifted Youth.)
Below, Gilbar tells us all about the production, from the genesis of the idea to the safety issues to the moment when Okulski almost kicks out the camera inside the taxi.
AdFreak: The first "Test Drive" video did so well. I suppose a sequel is a no-brainer. Marc Gilbar: The first one was a huge hit. But as with any sequel, the difficulty is to do something fresh and original.
For every Godfather II, there's a Godfather III. Exactly. It's tough. We did [PepsiMAX's] Uncle Drew, and that's one where we just tried to expand the narrative and create a story people would like. But that's harder to do with "Test Drive," because of the character.
Pepsi, to their credit, wanted to address the haters. Haters is a general term, because I don't think that characterizes Travis, the guy we actually used. But the Internet audience is a conspiracy-driven audience that will literally break down every moment of your video. We always got a lot of amusement out of that, but we thought a lot of people could relate to it, too—and if we could incorporate or reference it in some way, it would be fun for people.
There happened to be this incredible article following the release of the first video. I had noticed it at the time. And when we got the brief and started thinking about it, we went back and looked at it, and realized how great Travis was and his whole breakdown of the first video—everything from the sound of a V8 engine versus a V6 to the cup holders on this model of Camaro. It was pretty funny. We thought he would make a great mark for the second one.
You weren't involved in the first video, though. No, [TBWA\Chiat\Day] did the first one. Pepsi will give a jump ball on a lot of these projects. The "Zero-Calorie Cola in Disguise" came out of Uncle Drew and sort of expanded into the world of racing. Chiat did that first one, which was great and a huge success. The second one was more of a jump ball, and we had this particular idea.
It's interesting to focus on claims that last year's ad was faked. Is that just a hook to get people in—to draw off the success of the last one? Yeah, I think it was a way to take a new angle. Anything else would have felt like you were doing the same thing over again. I think the honesty of it is what makes it great. With a lot of these pranks, if the setup is earned and done right, it makes the prank that much more enjoyable. If you just saw Jeff take a random person on a crazy cab ride, it may be funny, I guess, but the fact that this one had a specific purpose makes the drive that much more fun for the audience.
Shortly after the first one, I spoke to the director, Peter Atencio. He could only say so much. But it's not the point of the second video to really address whether the first one was real or not, correct? I think that's right. What drove it, to a large degree, is that Jeff really wanted to show his stuff. He's a competitor. In the second one, there's no doubt that he's the guy behind the wheel. And obviously he's very capable of taking Travis on a crazy ride. Jeff was very involved early on. To get a Nascar driver to pull something like this off, there would be a lot of hurdles, I think. But the fact that he was so excited about it made it possible.
How do you get a guy like Travis to do this unwittingly without signing a disclaimer? Part of the thing about Travis in particular is that he's such a big auto enthusiast. There was a lot of talking with his friends and his editors and the people around him just to feel out what kind of a guy he was. He's such a great sport. There's always risks involved. But he loves cars, he loves racing, he races cars. And his friends and editors also said he's excitable. He's a guy who gets excited.
Well, that turns out to be very true. Right, it's perfect. There's a lot of unknowns with something like this. We had one shot at it, which was kind of nerve-wracking. But we felt good about the course and the safety of the course. We had designed it and tested it several times the day before, and with Jeff. We made sure it was super safe. And Travis just seemed like the kind of guy who could be taken for a ride, but also kind of enjoy the whole thing. At the end, he even wanted to go and do it again. He wanted to drive. He's a true gearhead.
There's one moment where he kicks the divider. Were you worried he was going to dislodge the camera? There are so many moments in there where we got really lucky, in the way he reacts. That one was totally unexpected. I believe his foot even covers the lens at one point. We tested our cameras. They're pretty durable. And we built that whole divider and reinforced it. At the time we were just sitting back and watching what was happening. We saw the camera was still working, so that was good.
You only have one take to get it right. That's right. And there's really no way to fake this kind of thing. Watching it afterward, we saw that his reactions were pretty big, so we were confident that we got what we needed. And then we had a consumer on set who had won a test drive with Jeff Gordon. So after he had finished the drive with Travis, we put the contest winner in the car, and this teenager got to go around the course once, which was fun.
Was Jalopnik wary of being part of an advertisement? They were very intent on keeping their journalistic integrity. I think they saw the potential for a great story. They were obviously super collaborative and really fun to work with. But they wanted to keep that wall up and make sure Travis wasn't compensated in any way. If you read his article, it doesn't really talk about the product or the campaign—just the experience. And that was the story for them. They got a great story out of it—what it was like for him.
What it was like was terrifying. I read the article this morning, and he really breaks it down, which is his style. Every thought in his head. Afterward we all had the same questions for him: What were you thinking? And he said in those moments, you're not thinking. He's been responding to commenters on Twitter, people saying, "You didn't see the cameras?" And he's like, "No, I was scared for my life!"
I'm sure you're hoping this second video will be just as big as the first. You know, that's a big number. Just the fact that people are sharing it and enjoying it is the goal. It's hard to really predict the numbers, but it seems like that's happening so far. We're excited about it.
You don't have to worry about Jalopnik criticizing it, anyway. Right! We'll leave that to other people. There are plenty of other critics out there, I'm sure. We'll have to go after them some other time.
Check out this promo for Kevin Costner’s new movie, 3 Days to Kill, reimagined in a dream sequence to star Pro Bowl NFL wide receivers Dez Bryant, Michael Crabtree and Alshon Jeffery.
The somewhat silly setup has them imagining themselves as action stars in the movie, but the surprise is that they actually might have been amazing in it. I would watch a movie staring these dudes over 3 Days to Kill anyday.
The stunts were choreographed by Action Factory and led by Eric Linden to mimic actual football plays. In order to capture it all, agency Portal A mounted a Steadicam on a Segway, but even at full speed they couldn't keep up with the athletes, so they had to force them to slow down.
At the end of the spot, you can also glimpse SportsCenter's Stan Verrett, who interrupts their dream with a fatty, fatty pizza and sack of takeout that these guys probably never would allow themselves to eat.
In a charming aside, director Kai Hasson tells us that between takes the players amused themselves by playing Madden 2014 … as themselves.
CREDITS
Client: Relativity Sports Agency: Portal A Director: Kai Hasson Executive Producers: Adam Alcabes, Nate Houghteling, Zach Blume Director of Photography: Alex Jacobs Senior Producer: Finley Wise Producer: David Johnson Stunt Coordinator: Eric Linden First Assistant Director: Jeff Sabin-Matsumoto Second Unit Director: Jonny Zeller Editor: Sari Tracht Assistant Editor: Jake Keller Production Designer: Mike Mestes Visual Effects: Cinesaurus Photographer: Greg Balkin
In its first work for Hotels.com since adding the business last October, Crispin Porter + Bogusky goes the self-consciously wacky route by introducing Captain Obvious. As his name suggests, the new spokesman says lots of self-evident stuff to make the point that Hotels.com is the obvious choice for booking rooms.
A 60-second spot finds the Captain sauntering through a swanky resort, noting, among other things, that, "'All you can eat' is a hotel policy that allows you to eat all that you can," "the hotel pool is usually filled with water" and "gym is short for gymnasium." Ultimately and inevitably, he notes: "The best dot-com for booking hotels is Hotels.com. It's on the Internet."
Skinny, bearded and clad in silly military/bellhop garb (plus the occasional swimsuit hiked up to his navel), Captain Obvious is played by little-known actor Brandon Moynihan, who gives a solid performance. The spot is well shot and directed by Stacy Wall, who lensed this year's Super Bowl ads featuring Tim Tebow for T-Mobile and Ellen DeGeneres for Beats Music.
The potential problem is that this is not a one-off commercial, but an entire campaign, complete with print, online and radio. The one-joke approach is deftly handled, but I grew fidgety before the spot finished. And I wasn't phoning room service for more.
For me, Captain Obvious is worth a watch once or twice, but—like any ostentatious and irritating hotel guest—risks overstaying his welcome.
This year, the brand brought back its Valentine's Day edition, further escalating the arms race to develop manipulative beverage dispensers.
Actually a virtual vending machine projected on a wall, this iteration would only appear for couples, helping single people feel even worse about being alone. According to the case study video (which, of course, is the real point of activations like this one), the machine also personalized sodas by putting the couple's names on cans.
But the core concept is pretty much a rehash—back in 2012, another Valentine's Day Coke Machine only dispensed sodas to couples who would prove they were together by necking in front of it. So refusing to even show the new machine to solo passersby is really just an extra twist of the knife. Seriously, just look at the poor chump staring at the blank wall, at the end. No soda for you, lonely boy.
YouTube star Ryan Higa takes some well-aimed shots at the college experience with this Honest College Ad video.
He's a little confused about which college experience he's targeting, though. The name of the fake college (EveRy) and the video's tone and aesthetics are a send-up of diploma mills like ITT Tech and DeVry, where annual costs are closer to $25,000 than $56,000. Higa's description more closely matches the pitfalls of a state university.
And while it takes him a little too much time to parody an ad genre that's typically shorter than a minute, he covers an admirable amount of ground and calls out many of the most frustrating aspects of the debt-accumulating process required to graduate. And it's clearly resonating with young viewers. "It would be funny," notes one YouTube viewer, "if it weren't so true and depressing.?"
This fun digital subway ad in Sweden for hair-care products was rigged up to recognize when trains entered the station—and then showed a woman's hair blowing all around, as though windswept by the train. It's a simple, delightful effect—playful, responsive and seemingly magical in the way it erases the line between ad and environment.
Ad agency Akestam Holst and production company Stopp produced the ad for Apotek Hjärtat's Apolosophy products. Stopp in Stockholm says the ad was scheduled to be just a one-day stunt. But Clear Channel loved it so much that they kept it live for five more days "as a way for them to show the opportunities their screens can offer."
If you're looking for a good deal on a home in England, you might want to consider an address on Crotch Crescent, Turkey Cock Lane or Clitterhouse Road.
Real estate website NeedaProperty.com recently analyzed home values on 15 roads voted to be the most embarrassing to live on, and the results showed you could save 20% (an average of 84,000 pounds or $140,000) by moving onto a road with a risqué name.
The site polled 2,000 Brits to determine the streets they'd be most ashamed to say they lived on, then analyzed property values on those roads compared to similar locations nearby. The results have gotten wide coverage in the British press.
The list of embarrassing street names included some uniquely British slang terms like Minge Lane, Slag Lane and Fanny Hands Lane, along with some internationally chuckle-worthy titles like The Knob, Cumming Street and Cock A-Dobby.
Canadian snack maker Krispy Kernels had a sleeper hit a couple of years ago with its "Couch" commercial, a delightful bit of oddvertising that absconded from Cannes with a bronze Lion.
Now the brand is back with this amusing new ad, "Meditation," which mixes zen meditation with furtive snack eating, with unexpected results.
So much oddball work seems forced these days, but this stuff, from Quebec agency Lg2, is up there with the classic Skittles and Fruit by the Foot ads.
Credits below.
CREDITS Client: Krispy Kernels Spot: "Meditation" Agency: Lg2, Quebec, Canada Creative Director: Luc Du Sault Copywriter: Andrée-Anne Hallé Art Directors: Luc Du Sault, Andrée-Anne Hallé Account: Mireille Côté, Sandie Lafleur Director: François Lallier Production House: Nova Film Producer: Simon Corriveau Sound Design: Boogie Studio
Frank knows Jack. I'm talkin' Sinatra and Daniel's, baby! The legendary crooner, who passed away in 1998, returns in a push by Arnold Worldwide to pitch a high-end version of the whiskey rolling out nationwide in June.
Would you pay $150 and up for Sinatra Select? It's 90 proof—regular Jack is 80—so your ol' blue eyes will get bloodshot faster than ever before. (The variant has been sold in duty-free stores in airports for a couple of years.)
There's digital, print and a 30-second spot mixing archival photos with big-band music stylings and nightclub scenes. In one shot, Frank hangs out with comedian Jackie Gleason, who apparently introduced the singer to Jack Daniel's in the late 1940s.
When it comes to resurrecting dead celebs as endorsers, I prefer this relatively simple approach to some efforts by other brands. It seems less forced than, say, using high-tech hijinks to make dear, departed Audrey Hepburn hawk candy bars.
Plus, Frankie was a true fan, calling the drink "the nectar of the gods" and toasting crowds at his concerts with Jack. So his presence feels genuine. It's also an interesting contrast to the week's other big spirits endorsement deal. It's hard to picture Mila Kunis pounding back Jim Beam, but imagining Sinatra goofy on Jack, slurring the words to "My Way" and cursing Ava Gardner as he stumbles into a limo? Ring a ding ding!
CREDITS TV Spot: "Frank The Man" Executive Creative Directors: Wade Devers, Pete Johnson Group Creative Director: Erik Enberg Creative Director: Greg Almeida Art Director: Daran Brossard Copywriter: Greg Almeida Producers: William Near, Benjamin Ouellette Assistant Producers: Alex Saevitz Business Affairs: Maria Rougvie Marketing Producers: Paul Nelson, Emily Brooks, Shannon Coletti, Nicolle Fagan Production Company, Visual Effects: Elastic Pictures Executive Producer: Jennifer Sofio Line Producer: Rick Brown Director: Jake Banks Cinematographer: Eric Treml Editorial Company: Rock Paper Scissors Editor: Parker Whipple Music Company: Pivot Audio Music Composers: Jan Kos, Guy Amitai Postproduction Producer: Scott Boyajan Music: Pivot Audio
Many older marketing pros may feel millennials have a lot to learn. But this week served up an important reminder for all of us: If you can't think of anything nice to say, don't send that email.
Kelly Blazek, head of the Cleveland Job Bank, has deleted most of her digital presence and issued a lengthy apology after sending at least three scathing rants to applicants who had asked for her help.
"Apparently you have heard that I produce a Job Bank, and decided it would be stunningly helpful for your career prospects if I shared my 960+ LinkedIn connections with you—a total stranger who has nothing to offer me," Blazek wrote to John Carroll University graduate Diana Mekota. "Your invite to connect is inappropriate, beneficial only to you, and tacky.
"Love the sense of entitlement in your generation. And therefore I enjoy denying your invite. … You're welcome for your humility lesson for the year. Don't ever reach out to senior practitioners again and assume their carefully curated list of connections is available to you, just because you want to build your network."
The last line? "Don't ever write me again."
When Mekota decided to post the email publicly, asking people to "please help call this lady out," the once-private message exploded Tuesday across social media, especially in the close-knit Cleveland business community.
Two similar notes from Blazek have surfaced (you can read all three below), featuring such warm wishes as, "You have not earned the right to ask me to connect on LinkedIn" and "Done with this conversation, and you."
As these messages swirled together into the perfect storm of backlash Tuesday, Blazek deleted her Twitter account (which is now back with just four followers and her picture removed), her blog and most of her LinkedIn profile. Blazek also issued an apology to local media outlets, saying in part: "The note I sent to Diana was rude, unwelcoming, unprofessional and wrong. I am reaching out to her to apologize. Diana and her generation are the future of this city. I wish her all the best in landing a job in this great town."
Bacon is everywhere. (No, not Kevin Bacon.) And it seems everyone loves it—even pigs! It's so great, it once helped a man negotiate his way across the nation dealing exclusively in bacon. Thanks, Oscar Mayer. Now, the bacon craze is hitting the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, the Triple-A affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies.
The IronPigs this week unveiled what I can only imagine was a highly anticipated bacon-themed Saturday uniform, which includes a bacon-strip logo on the cap, and a "first-of-its-kind" bacon-style piping down both legs of the pants. Check it out at the team's new site, smellthechange.com. For those of us who like to get a bit more bacon for our buck, we can purchase other innovative merchandise such as scratch-and-sniff bacon-logo T-shirts, now available online.
One has to wonder, though. What will this do to the IronPigs' vegetarian fan base? On second thought, who cares!? If they were vegetarians, they weren't real fans anyway.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
