Hasta La Creative!

Ahh, the good old days, when men were men, women were women, the Internet didn't exist and one had to troll at a much slower pace.

According to this personals ad from 1973, found by a Redditor, there was still plenty of shenanigans happening in the hot social media of the day—aka, the newspaper.

These days, of course, men still troll their partners via newspaper personals. They just do it to their current ones, not their exes.

Via HuffPo.

America might be the global king of excessive consumption, but Canada's Boston Pizza is putting up a good fight with its Pizza Game Changers.

Basically, it's a crowdsourced voting campaign that pledges, "if you like it, we'll make it,” which is dangerous phrasing among pizza enthusiasts. So far, the chain has made pizza tacos, pizza mints (which sound disgusting) and a gas-powered pizza cutter (which sounds awesome).

They've also gotten some press for their six-layer pizza cake, though that's arguably little more than a doubly thick Chicago-style deep dish. Still, we should encourage Boston Pizza's overall flair for inventiveness, unless these game changers start combining pizza with poutine or Marmite. Some international boundaries are best left uncrossed.

Via Laughing Squid.

The gas-powered pizza cutter:

Pizzaburger sliders:

Pizza cheese clippers:

Pizza beardkin:

Pizza mints:

Pizza taco:

As if the Photoshop-perfect faces on outdoor ads weren't nightmarish enough, German street artist Vermibus ratchets up the horror by using chemicals to transform such posters into grotesque visions for an art project called "Dissolving Europe."

This guy's acid wash has nothing to do with jeans. He targets noses, lips, cheeks, chins, ears and eyes. By the time he's done, his subjects resemble nuclear-blast victims, their features twisted into misshapen parodies of the human form.

Of course, "ugly" is in the eye of the beholder. Some will find his creations possessed of a certain warped beauty that exposes the truth underlying our pervasive consumer culture.

That's a valid interpretation, and it's clearly in line with the artist's view as he traversed Europe, removing promotional posters from their displays and replacing them with his freakish creations. (You can view more of his projects on his website.) A 10-minute film chronicles his journey, and it's fairly hypnotic. The best scene shows Vermibus wearing a gas mask to protect himself from toxins, like some hybrid artist/terrorist, as he defaces/transforms an advertisement.

Of late, there have been many examples of public advertising being replaced or subverted to make broader social statements. There's Banksy, of course, railing against capitalism. And those fake ads about NYPD drones. Outdoor ads were swapped out for classic paintings in recent French and English installations. And Richard Sargent's photographs of decaying billboards in California were especially evocative.

Ultimately and unfortunately, these efforts become footnotes on the overloaded media landscape. They're fodder for thoughtful articles and blog posts, but all too quickly forgotten. Billboards brake for no one. Ad campaigns keep coming. There's always another pretty face.

Via Fast Company.

Photos and artwork via Vermibus.com.

Have you noticed a man named Donald Buscando looking at your LinkedIn profile?

You'd remember him. He's wearing a beige turtleneck that somehow accentuates his eerily white teeth and his hair, which is reminiscent of Robert Cornelius (you know, the guy that took the alleged first selfie ever).

Well, it seems Buscando is a faux executive—part of a tongue-in-cheek effort by Mother New York to recruit interns for its summer program. Mother is identifying potential interns and having "Donald" stalk them on LinkedIn, which is easier than ever thanks to the site's newly souped-up "Who's viewed your profile?" section.

Mother explains Donald's approach this way: "Using the advanced search feature of LinkedIn, he sources the profiles of the best students in the world by filtering by school, specialty and using power keywords like 'Alpha' and 'Pintegrated.' Based on these criteria, Donald identifies the best students and clicks on their profiles over and over again."

Donald's own LinkedIn page is treasure trove of odd, too. He writes:

I spent a few hours on your profile looking deep into the soul of your business-related online identity. From what I saw, you should apply.

Are you a copywriter or art director? I've closely examined your portfolios and you should apply.

Are you a designer? You have beautiful bezier curves. You should apply.

Are you a strategist looking deep into what makes people tick? Yes. You should apply, too.

Do you want to work in the shop? Don't know what that is? Sounds like you should apply.

Are you a producer who makes things happen? I've seen your profile and yes you are. Yes, apply.

There also the video below. You can go to mothernewyork.com/opportunity to apply.

"Tonally this is nothing unusual for us," Mother founding partner Paul Malmstrom tells AdFreak. "We thought it'd be a fun way of learning about the program and give a sense of what it's like to work here."

Even the discount airlines need a rockin' safety video now.

Get down with the latest in-flight jam, titled "Up," created for a new budget airline also called UP, owned by Israel's El Al. The jaunty boogie takes a five-minute scenic tour through some great moments in rock history, including Devo, Robert Palmer and Ziggy Stardust.

Yes, they're jumping on the flight-video bandwagon without a unique take like Air New Zealand's bikini models or Delta's attack of the killer scrunchies. In fact, it's rather similar to Virgin's "Safety Dance." But that doesn't make it less charming.

In general, informational videos forced on a captive audience should be applauded for any attempt at edutaining us. And the afros and cottonball cloud costumes are certainly working here. Plus, you gotta love a good keytar.

Amy Poehler is back to grilling strangers about their Old Navy outfits.

Last month, she played a high-powered lawyer questioning a job applicant about her checkered pants. Here, she plays a server at a fast-food burrito joint, pressing a customer about a red dress.

It's not easy to dissociate Old Navy's Poehler from her intense part as Leslie Knope on Parks and Recreation, but still fun to see the rapid-fire style translated to roles outside of a small-town middle-America bureaucracy. Like the law firm ad, the outtakes for the fast-food commercial include some added gems—including the evergreen gift of watching a usually deadpan comic lose it and crack up midtake.

That's assuming viewers don't run out to buy clothes before the video's done.

Agency: Chandelier Creative.

I've often wondered what the business cards and personal stationery of William Shakespeare, Henry VIII and other historical figures would look like. I mean, who hasn't?

Well, wrack your brains no more! British online printing company MOO has created cards and letterhead for a dozen iconic names known for their strong personalities and penchant for writing and communications.

Some of the results are playful, some powerful. Are they printed on cool pastel retro machines like this? Of course! (Not.) But they're well worth a look. Highlights include:

 
• Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I have a dream" layout, which conveys his message of hope in an appropriately bold and inclusive black-and-white motif.

 
• The irony of Jane Austen's canny quote about friendship and financial reward (sense) rendered in a frilly, romantic typeface (sensibility).

 
• Charles Darwin's card, clearly identifying the naturalist as a "Homo sapien," in case there were any doubt.

 
• King Henry VIII's oversized script and boastful claims—"polymath," "poet," "lover," "Renaissance man"—which crowd the white space, reflecting his girth, ego and penchant for excess. (As I recall, he never needed a business card to get ahead.)

 
• A damned spot (actually, an asterisk) playing off an age-old controversy by calling Shakespeare's authorship into question.

 
• Albert Einstein's cleverly formulaic address, though judging from the ZIP code (20210, which is Washington, D.C.), there seems to be some confusion over the relative position of Mercer County, N.J., in space and time.

See more at MOO's Flickr page. Via Design Taxi.

Is it just me or did hair-loss products evolve a million years since the days of spray-on hair?

Bald dudes everywhere rejoice! Check out this demo for a product that appears to be real (although we've got our eye on you, Kimmel). With more than 5 million views in just a few days for this crazy ad—for a product that seemingly sprouts freaking hair on your scalp in seconds—the folks at Caboki may have a hit on their hands. 

According to the company website, the product is all natural and works like this: "When you sprinkle Caboki into a thinning area of your hair, the fibers automatically cling to your hair like millions of tiny magnets. Each thin wisp of your hair instantly becomes thicker and fuller, eliminating those embarrassing thinning areas."

One reviewer warns, however: "There will be marks on your pillow covers if you don't wash your hair before you go to bed." Thanks, Debbie Downer.

Take a look below at this miracle of follicular wizardry.

UPDATE: This appears to be a reupload of an older video. And according to several commenters, stay away from this stuff!

Belgium's B-Classic music festival, whose mission is to "give classical music the same recognition as pop and rock music," brings us a rather interesting sensory collision in the form of the music video below, promoting its "Classic Comeback" competition.

Korean pop-dance group Waveya interprets the godfather of Slavonik dance music (and Brahm's brosef) Antonín Leopold Dvo?ák in the three-minute synchronized bump-'n'-grind-gyration-twerk-fest set to "Symphony No. 9 Allegro con fuoco."

The video, shot by Raf Reyntjens in South Korea, is cleverly edited and choreographed, albeit shameless in its attempts at drawing in a younger demographic. See, the organizers of the festival believe "the kids" simply need more access to classical music.

Music videos, they believe, are the best way to do this.

In a short documentary also posted below, Frank Peters, a Dutch classical pianist and spokesperson for B-Classic, says he's "not convinced that youth are uninterested in classical music. I think that it's simply more difficult for them to discover."

Chereen Gayadin, a senior music programmer at MTV, adds, "I think that this is the first video in which one listens to classical music without being aware that it is classical music."

Via Ads of the World.

CREDITS
Client: B-Classic
Agency: DDB, Brussels
Creative Director: Peter Ampe
Creatives: Tim Arts, Stefan Van Den Boogaard
Designer: Christophe Liekens
Account Team: Francis Lippens, Kaat De Brandt
Strategic Team: Dominique Poncin, Maarten Van Daele, Michael D’hooge
Digital Strategy: Geert Desager
Digital Project Manager: Stefanie Warreyn
TV Producer: Brigitte Verduyckt
Production Agency: Caviar
Producer: Geert De Wachter
Director: Raf Reyntjens
Music, Sound: Sonicville
Aired: April 2014

Here's a kitchen ad that might leave you a little nauseated, but for once that has nothing to do with food.

In Ikea's new spot from Mother London, promoting the retailer's first new kitchen furnishing line in 25 years, the set spins, spins and spins. It captures the vibe of kitchens as busy places for the whole family, often feeling like a whirligig what with all the pots and pans and plates and groceries flying around while pets and children scurry underfoot.

Luckily, thanks to Ikea's efficient drawers and cabinets and other space-maximizing furnishings, you can have a smooth-running ship, including putting your young offspring to work setting the table. There's even a place for the sullen teenager to sit and play with his smartphone instead of helping—just to show Ikea really thought of everything.

Helmed by director Keith Schofield, the spot continues Mother's 2014 "The Wonderful Everyday" campaign, which was kicked off with a much darker, almost creepy homage to energy-efficient lighting.

The agency describes its newest spot as a "dazzling and dizzying" portrayal of the Metod collection's customizability.

"To bring to life this new flexible kitchen," Mother writes in its video summary, "the advert shows the units smoothly coping with whatever the family throws at it. Even the dog."

The carousel is a fun and clear-enough metaphor, though in spirit the ad sort of feels like a more mundane version of the agency's 2012 Ikea spot "Playing With My Friends," which had a similar all-hands-on-deck theme and upbeat poise amid chaos vibe—though that one upped the ante by recasting the grown-up as giant toys, a clever play on the kids' imaginations.

This time around, the biggest thing you're left imagining is how much Dramamine this family must keep stocked in the medicine cabinet.