Claes Nilsson, the president of Volvo Trucks, talks up the Volvo FMX while standing—it is soon revealed—on a truck being suspended over the water by a crane in this crazy YouTube video, which calls out its own craziness. (There's "no trick filming," the automaker assures us.) I'm not a fan of ads calling attention to their own composition—that "needs a hook" line grates on me like sandpaper—but there's something undeniably endearing about a man in a suit wearing a hard hat. Plus, you have to admire the bluntness of the stunt, and its effectiveness (almost 700,000 views in two days). As the top YouTube comment saliently wonders of the FMX: "How? can it possibly carry the weight of his balls?"
Whether they're nourishing babies or enriching the biodiversity of islands in the Indian Ocean, boobies just don't sit well with Facebook.
The social network has long been criticized for its inconsistent approach to breastfeeding photos. And now, a small Australian island's tourism board says a Facebook ad inviting eco-tourists to its Bird 'n' Nature Week has been unfairly banned—for a pun about the seabirds known as boobies.
"Some gorgeous shots here of some juvenile boobies," the ad read, next to images of the Red-footed Booby, Brown Booby and endangered Abbott's Booby. That copy is certainly suggestive, and you may even consider the innuendo mildly pedophilic. But Christmas Island tourism marketing manager Linda Cash figured at first that the ban was a mistake. She tells Travel Daily News: "We presumed our original advert was blocked automatically so we appealed to Facebook directly who re-affirmed the campaign was banned due to the sexual language—particularly the use of the word 'boobies.' "
Sam Collins, founder of Ethos Travel, which offers trips from the U.K. to Christmas Island, adds: "One of the world's great eco-tourism destinations is being deprived of its lifeline because someone at Facebook cannot comprehend that a booby is a bird."
Christmas Island has used the same "juvenile boobies" joke before, as seen in this photo series from January.
Attention brands in social media: Just because you can now use animated GIFs on Facebook doesn’t mean you actually should use animated GIFs on Facebook. Or, to be more specific, you probably shouldn’t post any GIFs featuring scenes from movies, TV shows or celebrity appearances—which negates about 99 percent of the good options out there. For a professional opinion on the issue, we turned to attorney Michael McSunas, one of the legal field’s top social media experts and senior counsel for marketing at Chrysler (though he notes that the following are his opinions, not those of Chrysler).
McSunas says the only way to post an animated GIF of a celebrity on your business page without risking legal trouble would be to get the permission of everyone featured in the clip, the copyright holder of the original recording and (just to be safe) the person who actually made the GIF. This applies to GIFs featuring noncelebrities as well.
“It would be a case-by-case basis,” McSunas says, “but if we were going to actually use a GIF, I'd say we'd need consent from the TV show. Or if it's a GIF of someone falling down, we'd want permission from the person falling down. I would treat it like any video. We'd need releases.” Without releases from liability, businesses risk legal action for using a celebrity’s likeness without permission or violating the copyright of a film studio, animator or other content creator. Here are McSunas’ tips for businesses that want to use animated GIFs on their social media channels:
1. Make your own GIFs featuring your own copyrighted materials.
2. If a GIF’s not yours, get written releases from the people featured in it and the copyright holder.
3. Don’t have releases? Consider linking off to the GIF or retweeting someone else’s post rather than embedding it in your own social channels.
4. If you’re making a GIF from a program your business sponsors, be sure you still have permission from the copyright holder.
5. Just because other brands get away with using a GIF, that doesn’t mean you will. And the larger your business, the more likely you are to become a target of legal action.
Here's a brilliant spot starring two god-fearing guinea pigs arguing over whether their house is possessed by an angel or a demon. The ad is just one execution in a tiny, Web-only BBDO campaign starring talking animals for AT&T Digital Life, a technology and security solution that lets you control electronics in your home while you're away. The insight that advanced technology probably seems like magic to our pets is delightfully simple, and the voice acting and writing for these adorable guineas is spot on—particularly when Kim threatens to get on Carl "like a bum on a pork chop" if he doesn't stop his "rantin' and ravin'" about devils. The other two spots, about a skeptical cat and a turd-eating dog, are OK, but somehow lack the timing and charm of Kim and Carl. In fact, I could see the guineas in a series of their own. But next time, double-check the set design. That's totally a hamster wheel, and you don't want to kill your stars.
Chocolate is both the medium and message in this Milka campaign from Paris agency Buzzman. Some 10 million of the chocolatier's flagship Alpine milk bars destined for sale in France and Germany, the brand's biggest markets, were cast in new molds for a September promotion. Each bar is missing a single chocolate square, though the overall 100-gram weight has been maintained, as the remaining squares are a tad larger. Using a code on each package, consumers can either request the missing squares for themselves … or send them to someone else, along with a "tender note" explaining the gift. (The offer is actually subject to local weather conditions, to avoid melting.) Milka says the effort is designed to let people truly experience its "Dare to be tender" tagline. It's a clever idea, but you know … even with a note, I'm not so sure I'd really get the point from a single, tiny chocolate square. If your feelings are so tender, just send me the whole bar! I'm partial to almonds. Also, caramel. A carton would be nice. Via Adverve.
Rich Silverstein is apparently not an easy boss to have. The notoriously demanding co-founder of Goodby, Silverstein & Partners in San Francisco is looking for a new executive assistant, as his current assistant is leaving. And judging by the Craiglist help-wanted ad, and the crazy-fun accompanying website, you should almost certainly NOT apply for this job. Here's how the Craigslist ad starts out:
Have you ever looked greatness in the eyes—and cried because it was so damn beautiful it hurt your feelings? If not, you should really get to know Rich Silverstein. Rich has been inducted into halls of fame—yes, plural. His achievements read like a novel, albeit one written by Stephen King. You've probably heard stories. And they're every bit as true as they are misleading. He is tough and expects greatness. But he holds himself to the same impossible standards. The success he's had is the stuff of Mad Men. And the stuff of madmen. Rich Silverstein answers to nobody. And that nobody could be you.
Then there's a list of prerequisites for the job (one of them is that you must not be "an agency spy. Or ever have written for AgencySpy"), along with a link to work4rich.com.
That's where things get truly cray cray, as the application process turns out to be a series of ludicrous Web challenges, including transcribing a fast talker's gibberish and memorizing a set of names in just two seconds.
You have until Sept. 6 to get past that step in the process, and then "Rich will handpick his favorites and invite them to the Google Hangout of the century." That should be a doozy.
Yes, that's right, you enjoy your current job just fine, thank you.
Credits below.
CREDITS Creatives: Zach Canfield Pablo Rochat Adaye Worku
Monistat used "granny panties" in a recent ad as a metaphor for how women feel when they have a yeast infection. Now, though, after supposed complaints from the granny-panty-wearing community, Monistat is backtracking. On a new grannypanties.org website, the pharma brand—perhaps inspired by maxipad maker Bodyform's faux contrition—has issued the following heartfelt apology that's anything but heartfelt:
To the makers and wearers of granny panties everywhere, we here at Monistat offer our sincerest apologies. By helping millions of women feel like their sexy selves faster, we've seen some unintended repercussions. We have painted your treasured unmentionables in an unflattering light, and as a result, the market for bloomers is dwindling by the day, and the international granny panty industry has fallen on tough times. And though there will always be some who choose to allow their undergarments to ride up to their lower back for all to see, this does not mean they should be judged. Their choice of comfort over conformity is a bold one. Those very hip-huggers helped pave the way for the g-strings, thongs, and boyshorts of today. But the days of 10-gallon skivvies and support that stretches for yards are coming to an end. And honestly, we're not all that sad to see them go.
Monistat, of course, manufactured both the controversy and the apology. But it's nicely executed by ad agency Allen & Gerritsen. Particularly amusing is the accompanying video on the website depicting a faux talk show, Box Talk with Kitty Montgomery, in which women square off from both sides of the granny-panty debate. Check out the video below.
Do you wish your wife were more like Flo, the ever-peppy, white-aproned saleswoman for Progressive Insurance? Do you wish your home were more like the Superstore, the white-walled setting of dozens of Progressive commercials, and regular habitat of Flo? Probably not. Still, this new spot from ad agency Arnold shows you what it would feel like anyway. It starts off with the sort of fairly routine "Have you heard about [Product X]?" discussion about which only marketers fantasize, and ends with a husband's whole world—including his spouse—being transformed into a scene from a light-filled insurance salesroom. According to Progressive, it's the first Superstore ad sans Flo—or at least, with Stephanie Courtney as Flo. She is approaching her 100th commercial for the brand, but also finds herself joined by a growing cast of characters and guest stars. Naysayers, don't get your hopes up, though—she's survived much worse than a little vacation.
Barton F. Graf 9000 says it wasn't involved in a stunt early Thursday when a guy in a horse suit appeared to be trying to poach staff for the agency outside Wieden + Kennedy in New York. W+K's Kevin Wang snapped this photo outside his agency's offices this morning, writing on Twitter: "Dude. BFG just took poaching to a whole new level." The message is pretty blunt, too. "I have no idea who it is or why they'd be doing it," Barton F. Graf's Eric Kallman tells AdFreak.
Barton F. Graf 9000 has been in major growth mode recently. As Gerry Graf told me in April: "We're bringing in creative technologists, people who know the social space. It's a chicken-and-egg thing. If we bring in the talent before we get certain assignments, then we end up getting those assignments. It's always a little bit of a risk, but it's worked out for us."
If you love live-chatting with babies and put tremendous stock in the opinion of bakers, then you probably love most tech advertising. In its new parody, "Every Tech Commercial," CollegeHumor skewers some of the most frequent clichés from ads for apps, smartphones, tablets and assorted other gadgets. It's an admirable collection, though it omits my personal favorite trope: the early adopter who smugly solves someone else's problem using the device, instantly becoming a hero to some poor Luddite loser.
Dallas Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki, clad in his uniform and flip-flops, horses around in this parody of Geico's "Hump Day" commercial, strutting through the team's administrative offices and asking various cube-jockeys, including the team's equine mascot Champ, to "Guess what day it is?" Dirk is stoked because it's game day, unlike the original ad's talking camel, who was more of a Wednesday fan. The spoof's punch line, also playing off the Geico ads: How happy are folks who buy Mavs' season-ticket packages? Happier than Dirk on a game day! It's a cute spot, and Dirk finds the perfect mix of goofy charm and self-deprecation. And while we're on the subject of music—sorry, my transition game is off today—Dirk's also amusing in this beat-boxer clip co-starring wacky German D.J. Flula and a couple of Mavericks dancers. Oh, he can't match Kobe Bryant's mad classical piano skills, but still, check it out. "Satisfaction" guaranteed!
Nothing complements flame-grilled perfection better than golden fries, right? The problem is, it's too much work to eat a burger, then put it down, and then pick up, dip and eat a french fry. It's madness really. (Lightbulb!) Thankfully, Burger King has answered our prayers with the "French Fry Burger." It's a burger topped with, you guessed it, delicious french fries. The chain will be offering the flame-grilled masterpiece starting Sept. 1 through the fall for $1 in an effort to push back against McDonald's Dollar Menu. Now, if only Burger King could manage to work out a burger, fry and drink sandwich. Now, that would be impressive.
Be careful what you say about Taco Bell in Canada. The chain is liable to etch your angry rants on taco shells and force them down your throat. That's what happened in this stunt from ad agency Grip Limited in Toronto, which marked the long-awaited arrival of the celebrated Doritos Locos Tacos in the country by using a special laser to burn exasperated tweets from impatient customers right on the first batch of shells—and then invited those same customers to a "special fan event" where they literally ate their words.
Back in the U.S., meanwhile, Taco Bell has rolled out the new Fiery Doritos Locos Tacos, and is promoting them with two new spots from Deutsch LA. The first, titled "The World's Most Hottest Idea," shows various people discussing the spicy taco's flavor, oblivious to actual fires erupting around them. (Note the movie marquee in the last frame, "Gordy and Brian Take on Delaware," which refers to the creative team who created the spot.)
The other new spot, "No Pican," is the first commercial from the Deutsch LAtino multicultural marketing practice, and will target Latino audiences.
See those two spots, and credits for all three, below.
CREDITS Client: Taco Bell Canada Campaign: "DLT Eat Your Words" Agency: Grip Limited, Toronto Creative Directors: Ben Weinberg, Pat Andrews Copywriter: Trevor Gourley Art Director: Julia Morra Social Content Strategist: Patrick Tomasso Director of Client Services: John Miller Account Director: Cheryl Gosling Business Manager: Liliana Coimbra Producer: Liz Crofton Production House: Data Armada Editor: Duane Vandermeulen Music, Sound: Imprint Music Postproduction: Grip Limited Chief Marketing Officer: David Vivenes Director of Marketing: Michael Van Horne Marketing Manager: Veronica Castillo
—————
Client: Taco Bell Spot: "The World's Most Hottest Idea"
Client Credits President: Brian Niccol Chief Marketing, Innovation Officer: Chris Brandt Brand Creative Director: Tracee LaRocca Senior Manager, Brand Experience: Aron North Manager, Brand Experience: Ashley Prollamante
Agency: Deutsch, Los Angeles Group Creative Director: Brett Craig Creative Directors: Jason Karley, Josh DiMarcantonio Senior Art Director: Gordy Sang Senior Copywriter: Brian Siedband Director of Integrated Production: Vic Palumbo
Executive Producer: Paul Roy Senior Producer: Mila Davis Music Supervisor: Dave Rocco
Production Company Arts and Sciences, Los Angeles Director: Matt Aselton Director of Photography: Nigel Bluck Executive Producer: Marc Marrie Managing Director: Mal Ward Line Producer: Scott Kaplan First Assistant Director: Craig Pinckes
Editorial Company Cut and Run, Santa Monica, Calif. Editor: Jay Nelson Assistant Editors: Luke McIntosh, Sean Stender Senior Producer: Amburr Faris Executive Producer: Carr Schilling
Post Facility MPC, Santa Monica, Calif. Colorist: Ricky Gausis
Visual Effects Company Method, Santa Monica, Calif. Visual Effects, Online Artist: Jason Frank Visual Effects Assistant Artist: Patrick Vollkommer Creative Director: Claus Hansen Producer: Stephanie Alllis
Music, Composer Massive Music (Music festival scene only) AFM Stock Music (Airbrushing scene only)
Sound Design Company 740 Sound Design, Los Angeles Sound Designer: Rommel Mollina Associate Producer: Jeff Martin Executive Producer: Scott Ganary
Audio Post Company Lime Studios, Santa Monica, Calif. Mixer: Rohan Young Assistant: Patrick Navarre Executive Producer: Jessica Locke
End Tag Mnemonic: Method Studios, Santa Monica, Calif. Executive Producer: Robert Owens
Additional Deutsch Credits: Chief Executive Officer: Mike Sheldon Account Management Credits: Group Account Director: Walter Smith Account Directors: Amanda Rantuccio, Christi Johnson Account Supervisor: Steve Scutellaro Account Executive: McKenna Pickett Account Planners: Chief Strategic Officer: Jeffrey Blish Group Planning Director: Christian Cocker Traffic, Business Affairs: Director of Business Affairs: Abilino Guillermo Senior Business Affairs Manager: Ken Rongey Business Affairs Manager: Nestor Gandia Director or Broadcast Traffic: Carie Bonillo Broadcast Traffic Manager: Sarah Brennan
—————
Client: Taco Bell Spot: "No Pican"
Client Credits: President: Brian Niccol Chief Marketing, Innovation Officer: Chris Brandt Brand Creative Director: Tracee LaRocca Senior Manager, Brand Experience: Aron North Manager, Brand Experience: Ashley Prollamante
Agency: Deutsch, Los Angeles Group Creative Director: Brett Craig Creative Directors: Jason Karley, Josh DiMarcantonio Art Director: Luis Farfan Senior Copywriter: Armando Samuels Senior Copywriter: Natalia Cade Director of Integrated Production: Vic Palumbo Executive Producer: Paul Roy Producer: Ilene Kramer Music Supervisor: Dave Rocco
Production Company Cortez Brothers, Marina Del Rey, Calif. Director: Esteban Sapir Director of Photography: Travis Cline Executive Producer: Ed Rivero Head of Production: Ashlee Cohen Line Producer: Asori Soto First Assistant Director: Mariano Andre
Editorial Company Beast LA, Santa Monica, Calif. Editor: Kevin Garcia Assistant Editor: Gabriel Ordonez Executive Producer: Jerry Sukys Head of Production: Darby Walker Producer: Mary Stasilli
Post Facility CO3, Santa Monica, Calif.; Method Studios, Santa Monica Colorist: Sean Coleman @ CO3 Online, Visual Effects Artist: Tim Rudgard @ Method Studios Assistant: Louis Schachte @ Method Studios Executive Producer: Robert Owens @ Method Studios Producer: Stephanie Allis @ Method Studios
Visual Effects Company Method Studios, Santa Monica, Calif. (graphics adapted from previous Taco Bell spots) Visual Effects Artist: Tim Rudgard Visual Effects Assistant Artist: Louis Schachte Producer: Stephanie Allis
Music, Composer Elias Arts, Santa Monica, Calif. Executive Producer: Ann Haugen Producer: Katie Overcash Composer: Jack Shenker Creative Director: Brett Nichols
Sound Designer 740 Sound Design & Mix, Los Angeles Sound Designers: Rommel Molina, Nicholas Interlandi, Michael Dillenberger Executive Producer: Scott Ganary Associate Producer: Jeff Martin
Audio Post Company Tono Studios, Santa Monica, Calif. Mixer: Juan Felipe Valencia Executive Producer: Noel Miranda Producer: Monica Sotelo
Additional Deutsch Credits: Chief Executive Officer: Mike Sheldon Account Management Credits: Group Account Director: Walter Smith Integrated Account Supervisor: Steve Scutellaro Account Directors: Amanda Rantuccio, Mildred Grijalva, Christi Johnson Account Executive: McKenna Pickett Account Planners: Chief Strategic Officer: Jeffrey Blish Senior Account Planner: Pearl Owen Traffic, Business Affairs: Director of Integrated Business Affairs: Abilino Guillermo Senior Business Affairs Manager: Ken Rongey Director of Broadcast Traffic: Carie Bonillo Broadcast Traffic Manager: Sarah Brennan
Lenovo has moved on (at least for the moment) from comparing itself to Apple to having Kobe Bryant play Beethoven on the piano with symphonic accompaniment for no reason. Really. There's barely a connection made between Lenovo's product line and Kobe in this Chinese spot, though there are worse things in life than gratuitous piano playing. For those of you who are surprised that Kobe had this talent, check out his six-second video that was the inspiration for the ad. He has said the Moonlight Sonata, in particular "calms me down when I reach my breaking point."
L'Oréal's Dermablend cosmetics brand got 13 million YouTube views for its 2011 "Go Beyond the Cover" video starring the über-tattooed Rick Genest. So, it's no surprise they've reunited, this time for an iOS app that tells the story behind the Canadian artist and model's body illustrations while touting Dermablend products.
3-D technology lets users "Uncover Zombie Boy" by clicking on his tattoos. (You can demo the app on the web here.) For example, Genest informs us that he holds world records for the 178 bugs and 138 bones emblazoned on his skin, and that getting his hands done at age 19 was a "point of no return" because "you can't really get a job at a coffee shop anymore." The app lets you turn Genest's corpse-like image this way and that, and zoom in and out, but I was kind of hoping it would give me complete control of him, so I could make him my zombie slave to do my evil bidding. Maybe next time.
Oh, you can also overlay the deep, dark eyeholes and exposed teeth and gums of his skull tattoo on a photo of your own face to see what you'd look like if you, too, never wanted to get a job at a coffee shop again. When I tried it, I basically looked the same. Too many late nights reviewing ads and apps, I guess.
Now, on one level, "Uncover Zombie Boy" provides a fascinating interactive portrait of Genest's outer and inner self. But of course, this isn't a purely creative endeavor. It exists to sell Dermablend's concealing makeup, which was famously used in the viral hit video two years ago to cover up Genest's tattoos and make it look like his skin had never know the sting of the needle. In the new app, large letter D's that appear beside his image yield information about the Dermablend products that correspond to his various body parts.
Some have pointed out the incongruity of a fierce nonconformist like Genest, who, needless to say, really stands out in a crowd, shilling for an outfit that brags about being "the No. 1 dermatologist recommended camouflage brand." Still, the guy's gotta make a living. If he's satisfied that he hasn't "sold out," who are we to draw conclusions?
That's the request from one anthropomorphized Beats Pill speaker to another in the commercial below, which aired Sunday on MTV after the pop singer's controversial performance on the Video Music Awards. To which the other speaker opines: "Don't you need ass to twerk?"
Actually, Beats, feeding Miley would be your job.
First off, hat tip to sci-fi writer Tim Maughan for pointing out the Miley-mocking video on the Beats page. The brand is involved with plenty of pop and hip-hop stars at the moment, but the confluence of Miley and Robin Thicke at the VMAs was a branding bonanza for the electronics maker.
Beats Electronics is, of course, the brainchild of rapper and producer Dre, whose Beats by Dre headphones have been a huge success. The company's next big thing is a wireless speaker called the Beats Pill, voiced in commercials by Eminem, Chris Rock and (it sounds like, at least) Tichina Arnold from Fox's late, lamented Everybody Hates Chris. The speakers have been prominently featured in music videos, notably Miley's, and Thicke starred in a full-blown RadioShack ad for them with his accessories—I'm sorry, backup dancers—using the speakers to do more or less everything except speak.
Anyway, on Sunday, Miley and Robin got down and dirty on stage in a way that offended millions of people who were doubtless being forced at gunpoint to endure the spectacle. Beats, meanwhile, was ready—like, really, really ready (thanks to the digital wizards at Framestore)—to whip up a video showing two Pills asking where "all the thick girls" have gone while watching clips from Thicke's video and then suggesting Miley should have more material to twerk with. "Somewhere, Sir Mix-A-Lot is crying his eyes out," says one.
This actually wasn't the only time Beats teed off on a pop star during the show. It also found time to make fun of Katy Perry (who doesn't appear to be sponsored by the company) in a video with Barclays Center seats visible behind the two big-mouthed little speaker dudes. And Dre protege Eminem announced a new album at the VMAs, which Beats immediately promoted with a 30-second clip from the rapper's new single.
Check out all three videos below. It was a well-orchestrated campaign of pop-culture mockery—as well as pop-culture sponsorship, individual-artist sponsorship, cross-platform synergy, album promotion. So, y'know, don't confuse it with satire.
Here's a question: When, during the VMAs, weren't you watching an ad? Yeah, we're going to go with "never," too.
The techies at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners' GSP BETA Group have whipped up a new app, which the agency is now promoting in decidedly offbeat fashion. The app is called Touch Room, and it's designed to help you not just see and hear but touch your loved ones from afar. The concept is simple: You both enter a virtual room, and when your fingers touch the same spot, your phones vibrate. It's a sweetly quirky idea that deserves some sweetly quirky advertising—provided in the video below by Jeff Goodby himself, who sings, in a warbly voice, an original song he wrote about the app while strumming an acoustic guitar. As for the visuals, well, it seems Touch Room will be particularly useful for people with freakishly long, extendable, ET-like fingers. GSP BETA Group is an in-house group of developers, UX specialists, producers, creatives and other makers that use technology to find creative solutions to problems. Download the app here. Credits below.
CREDITS Ad Agency: Goodby, Silverstein & Partners' BETA Group Campaign: Touch Room Live Date: Aug. 27, 2013
Music, Lyrics: Jeff Goodby Chief Digital Officer: Kalle Hellzen Creative Developer: Chris Allick Art Director: Pablo Rochat Copywriter: Caroline Cappelli Director of Interactive Production: Ellie Hardy Group Executive Interactive Producer: Michael Phillips Director of Business Affairs: Bess Cocke Senior Business Affairs Manager: Judy Ybarra Business Affairs Manager: Heidi Killeen Co-Director of eLevel: James Horner Shot By: Marco Svizzero, Alvin Shen, Juli Lopez Postproduction Producer: Ava Rant Editor: Marco Svizzero Audio Engineer: Nic DeMatteo Video Creative Direction: Stevie Laux Director of Art, Print Production: Suzee Barrabee Copyediting Director: Ryan McDermott
Plenty of ad agencies have skeletons in their closet, but Keiler apparently has a ghost haunting the attic of its early 18th century Connecticut farmhouse offices. Naturally, they've put the snarky specter in charge of the Farmington shop's first official Twitter account. (That's scary and difficult to believe—not the ghost part, but the fact that they waited until now to try Twitter!) The ghost could be a sea captain, tavern owner or wheelwright—no one's really sure—but staffers have heard mysterious footsteps and slamming doors around the place for years, especially after hours, so they decided to incorporate the lore into @KeilerGhost. (Besides, social media's largely about transparency, so having an actual ghost writer makes sense. And lots of agency feeds read like they're written by dead people, so this one should fit right in.) Some examples of the phantom's wit: "I've seen a lot of advertising trends come and go in 200 years. But this stock photography thing has got to stop." "Like bad media placements, ghosts generally appear when nobody's looking." "I'm a friendly ghost until I have to sit through an ad just to watch a YouTube video." Hmmm, might be time to give up the ghost. Sorry, that was mean-spirited. Boo! Via MediaPost.
Before my untimely passing, I was not an adman. But I have learned this much from living with one: Your logo is already plenty big.
In the spirit of back to school, let's fatten up our kids and send them into anaphylactic shock! Seems that wasn't much of an issue in the '50s, when fall advertising aimed at lunch-packing moms revolved around peanut butter, dairy and sugar. The kids in the marketing were invariably trim and rosy-cheeked, never lactose intolerant or nut allergic. Yet Mrs. America, the domestic goddess of the time, stuffed those brown bags lovingly (irreconcilably?) with processed food. Hey, Madison Avenue said it was the right thing to do. Cookies and jam were often positioned as "pure enjoyment" food, while milk, cheese and peanut butter were touted as brain food, not projectile-vomit-inducing and constrict-your-throat food. Ah, nostalgia. Check out some more back-to-school print ads from a simpler time, courtesy of Reminisce magazine.
New York ad agency Barton F. Graf 9000 has turned its roguish attention to the issue of climate change, and helped activist group 350 Action with the amusing video below. According to the YouTube description: "Since 1954, the World Meteorological Organization has been naming extreme storms after people. But we propose a new naming system. One that names extreme storms caused by climate change, after the policy makers who deny climate change and obstruct climate policy. If you agree, sign the petition at climatenamechange.org." The snarky tone preaches to the choir, but it's hard to resist lines like, "If you value your life, please seek shelter from Michele Bachmann." Credits below.
CREDITS Client: 350 Action Contact: Daniel Kessler
Agency: Barton F. Graf 9000 Chief Creative Officer, Founder: Gerry Graf Executive Creative Directors: Eric Kallman, Brandon Mugar Creative Director, Copywriter: Dave Canning Creative Director, Art Director: Dan Treichel Senior Designer: Matt Egan Head of Production, Executive Producer: Carey Head Creative Technology Director: Jonathan Vingiano Account Director: Jennifer Richardi Business Affairs Director: Jennifer Pannent Planner: Danielle Travers
Production Company: Furlined Director: Ted Pauly VP, Executive Producer: Eriks Krumins Executive Producer: Dave Thorne Executive Producer of Sales: Meghan Lang Line Producer: Jennifer Gee Director of Photography: Kris Kachikis
Editing: Big Sky Edit Editor, Sound Designer, Mixer: Chris Franklin Co-Editor, Colorist: Dave Madden Senior Assistant Editor: Liz Bilinsky Junior Assistant Assistant Editor: Megan Elledge Graphics, Effects: Ryan Sears, Steve Kutny Executive Producer: Cheryl Panek Assistant Producer: Grace Phillips
Music: APM Music Account Executive: Lauren Bell
Stock Video Footage: T3Media Senior Account Manager: Amy Geisert
Photography: Magnum Photos Corporate Sales Manager: Diane Raimondo Photographer: Paolo Pellegrin
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.
