Hal Riney retires to great agency in the sky at 75

Yes, 75 is fairly young, but ad legend Hal Riney was battling cancer. He began his career at BBDO, before moving on to Ogilvy and then founding Hal Riney & Partners in 1985. He has left us memorable campaigns such as Saturns strategy “a different kind of company, a different kind of car” the two old men who were Bartles and Jaymes, and even Reagan’s 1984 campaign.

Trvia: In this bear ad you can hear Hal Riney’s own raspy voice.

read more

This is a Big Comeback for the Big ad beer.

Carlton Draught – Big ad – (2005) 0:60 (Australia)
Oh yes, we all remember the Carlton Draughts Big Ad fondly. It went on to rake in the awards and even had a fierce fight with Guinness Noitulove / Evolution for the Grand Prix spot in Cannes 2006. The later Carlton Draught flashdancer advert was kind either super funny or “meh” depending on who you asked. Carlton has thus done a big time gamble and brought back the thousand Carlton men who sort themselves into shapes.
Only this time… they’re skydiving.
Super adgrunts, enjoy the
Carlton Draught – Skytroopers / Halftime show – (2008) 1:20 (Australia)

read more

Channel 4 fined – again – for interrupting movies with commercials.

I told you guys back in 2004 about Vilgot Sjöman & Claes Eriksson’s case against Channel 4 (sweden) that lead to Channel 4 being fined for interrupting these directors movies with commercials. Well, Channel 4 wasn’t going to let that slide so they’ve been dancing around in the courts ever since – and today Swedens Högsta Domstol (highest court) slapped the channel once more. In the judgment the courts say that TV4 (channel four) have “by abruptly breaking up the movies for commercials, violated both directors distinctive character in the movies ”Hajen som visste för mycket” and ”Alfred” according to swedish copyright law.”

Result: Channel four not only pays the old fine but now also the court costs for themselves and both directors for these past years. Also, Claes Eriksson says to Resume that the new judgement is “even more precise and more to our advantage” as well as “the judgement isn’t just about mine and Vilgot’s films, but movies in general.”
Uh-oh. Yes indeed, the judgement cements that an advertising break actually ruins the viewers entire impression of the movie. Even if the commercial break is placed in between scenes, they’ll break the rythm that the director has envisioned, and to add to that the movie becomes longer which according to the court isn’t an unimportant detail.
They also state that the commercial interests behind the film do not have more rights than the director in how the work should be shown. Channel four will have to pay both directors court fees and a fine of 300 000 SEK. Since the last fine was only 50 000 SEK, and the judgement only applied to these two directors films instead of movies in general, it seems channel 4 should have left well enough alone aye? I wonder how this will affect all the commercial channels in Sweden, and possibly the rest of Europe… Stay tuned.

read more

Bye bye Mac guy!

So, according to Radar Online the “Mac guy”, aka Justin Long, is not returning for the next batch of Mac ads. Why? Well if you ask Slate, it’s because he’s a smug little twit.

Perhaps for striking people as a “smug little twit,” in the words of Seth Stevenson, ad critic for Slate. Long, he adds, is “just the sort of unshaven, hoodie-wearing, hands-in-pockets hipster we’ve always imagined when picturing a Mac enthusiast…. It’s like Apple is parodying its own image while also cementing it.” Of the polymathic Hodgman, who has drawn acclaim for his work on The Daily Show and NPR’s This American Life as well as his book, The Areas of My Expertise, Stevenson writes, “Even as he plays the chump in these Apple spots, his humor and likability are evident.”

As much as I like to laugh at the PC guy played by John Hodgman – that Mac guys still wins. I never found him smug or annoying in the least. But then again, the only hardware I run is either a mac or something I put together which has a nice fast Athlon in it. Full disclosure, our server now has xeons which is Intel, but this still doesn’t mean I’m using anything from Microsoft, ever. How’s that for a smug mac user?

Here’s a little trip down memory lane of Mac vs PC commercials for you in the commercial archive, inside are links to the ads so far in reverse chronological order. Which one is your favorite?

read more

You can’t use AP’s photos without permission, but they can use yours?

PDN online reports that the “Press Taps MySpace For Photos Of Spitzer Call Girl “

When a prostitute hired by former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer was identified Wednesday, news outlets eagerly published photos grabbed from her MySpace profile.

Can they get away with that?

Three attorneys who specialize in copyright law say media organizations are sailing in dangerous waters if they publish a personal snapshot without permission.

“Whoever took that picture owns that picture,” says New York attorney Nancy Wolff. “It’s either an infringement or they [the news outlets] have to make a fair use argument

…The AP noted that the images were “obtained from a MySpace webpage” and specified that they were to be used, “only to illustrate news reporting or commentary on the facts or events surrounding the Eliot Spitzer prostitution scandal.” Reuters identified the images similarly, and flagged them as available only for editorial use.
Associated Press director of photography Santiago Lyon says AP consulted with its legal department before deciding to use the photos.

“Given the news value of the photographs, we decided that these were images that the public needed to see,” Lyon says.

Related is a story here on PDNPulse about Snapped Shot – a blog that has the habit of digging up wire photographs and writing commentary about said photographs – who went into into text-only mode after getting a letter from the Associated Press threatening legal action.

Hmmm.. There’s a bit of double-standard somewhere here….

read more

Saatchi and Saatchi Stockholm enjoys the silence with Sony Ericsson

Saatchi and Saatchi, Stockholm has done an almost global commercial for Sony Ericsson which will be aired in “twenty to thirty” different countries. In the ad, several people sing Depeche Mode’s song “enjoy the silence”, and it’s the first time this song has been used in an advertisment.
The most interesting feature of this mood-ad is that there’s a transvestite in it. At least I think this lass is born a lad. Sony Ericsson – Enjoy the silence – (2008) :60 (Sweden)

Saatchi is also aiming for a world record in the amount of people who sing the same song and with the site Jointhesong.com created by B-Reel, Sony fans can upload themselves singing along to the same song. If the campaign works, a Guiness book of records place might be in order.

“I think that the current record is 275 000 [people singing the same song], so it won’t be easy to beat. Be we’re officially aiming for it.”

said Stefan Bergström Sony Ericsson’s Nordic communication manager to Resumé

read more

BBDO & AT&T Team with Pete Barrett to Create More Bars in More Places


BBDO and AT&T teamed with photographer Pete Barrett to create seven ads
for the new, “More Bars in More Places” campaign which is currently running nation wide. Sadly they’re not creating the kind of bars that I like. Yeah that’s right, deep fried chocolate mars bars. ;P Still the photography is nice.

read more

Peta cages naked pregnant lady for Mothers day

PETA is at it again, but instead of undressing celebrities they’ve stripped one of their “very pregnant” members named Noemie down to her skivvies and placed her on all fours and kneeling in a replica farrowing crate with the banner ‘Unhappy Mother’s Day for Pigs’, all in the middle of in Covent Garden. Do you know how cold it is in London these days? BrrRRRrrr! I hope Noemie didn’t catch one in her state.
PETA’s own blog Fish and Chimps explains the stunt:

Mother’s Day is a time to show love, respect and gratitude for mothers so it is only fitting that we extend that kindness to mothers that have a really tough time all year round – sows, who are squeezed into narrow metal stalls barely bigger than their own bodies. Unable to turn around, nuzzle their piglets or do anything that comes naturally to them, they live in misery. When weaned, the piglets are taken away to be fattened for slaughter, and the mothers are put through the process all over again.

PETA seems to prefer the nude approach when doing their ad stunts, you can see photos of the stunt here and PETA’s own channel on Friction.tv has video of the event.
PETA’s tactic of using the nude female body to attract attention has been grating people for a while, The F word responds:

Now I get that naked women attract attention, but I really don’t think that it’s because passersby give a shit about mistreated pregnant sows.

See, what PETA don’t seem to get is that society as a whole couldn’t really care less about women’s welfare, so showing women in exploitative or abusive situations to try and encourage us to care about animal welfare really isn’t a very effective strategy. In fact, their imagery is often very similar to that found in some genres of porn, hardly well known for encouraging the viewer to empathise with the women involved.
—-
Naked women, even dead ones, are stock images in our media; what shocks is not the alluded to mistreatment of animals, but PETA’s complete disregard for women.

read more

Peter and the wolf wins an Oscar.

We warned you that Peter & the Wolf – co-produced at Semafor Studios, represented worldwide by HANraHAN – was been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Short Animated Film. Guess what, THEY WON! Congrats!

read more

The running man dance made ultra-cool by Eran Creevy


Director Eran Creevy – repped by Sleeper USA and between the eyes in London – has done the impossible, he’s made me nostalgic for the late eighties and made the “running man” dance look cool. Yes, in the video a lad down in Cardiff pub busts all the moves that became MC Hammer’s trademark, and he doesn’t look like a complete dork doing it. He does the running man/Vanilla ice and the the Hammer Dance with a pub full of people joining him. Check out the Utah Saints “Something Good ‘08” (Ministry of Sound) (2008) music video 2:45 (UK) in the commercial archive. The eighties were never that cool, kids.

In the late eighties, I despised MC Hammer and that dance, but then again I looked like this in 1989. Amy Winehouse eat your beehive out, mine was all my own hair. Useless trivia: my friends amused themselves for hours bouncing lighters and coins off my hair and when I removed my helmet the beehive would “pop” back up into shape. This beehive feature made for a particularly good arrival at a club once as I pulled up on a shiny red scooter removing my helmet, and the line of people waiting to get in broke out in spontaneous applauding.

read more

Network Solutions Sued For Defrauding Millions

Ever gotten the idea for a great domain name, checked if it’s available only to find moments later that it has magically and suddenly been bought by the registrar you were using to check the availability with?

The practice is called “domain tasting”. While you’re mucking about and for whatever reason decide to not click “buy it” just yet – perhaps to check if other spellings are available – the registrar buys the domain. This forces you, if you still want the domain to register with that registrar which is most likely more expensive. This practice has been pissing people off for years. So it’s no wonder that a class action suit has been filed today, naming both Network Solutions and ICANN as the bad guys.

read more

Q: What is Obay? A: a teaser ad campaign for College.

Last week when the mysterious ads for Obay cropped up around Ontario many a blogger speculated what it might really be selling. The Accordion Guy Joey Devilla posted the 15th about the Mysterious Ads for “Obay”

It’s obvious that the product doesn’t actually exist and that it’s some sort of viral marketing campaign. As for what the campaign is meant to promote, most people with whom I’ve spoken to about the ads think that it’s some kind of jab at parents who are following the disturbing trend of medicating their teenage kids out of normal teenage behaviour and into Stepford adolescence.

The comments are full of speculation on who the sender might be, from drug companies to anti-drug companies to churches before someone working for a College in Ontario reveals that they are the ones behind the campaign. So, now that the buzz it built, will people care?

Image from *J-Bl*’s photostream

Today in Canada.com the story Mystery ad gains momentum: whodunit? looks at the risks with a campaign like this. Just because people were curious when the campaign first went up doesn’t mean they’ll care when the sender is revealed.

In early 2007, an unbranded video of a bridezilla lopping off her hair in a pre-wedding fit drew 12 million views on YouTube but garnered next to nothing in the way of publicity for Sunsilk when, two weeks after the Canadian clip was uploaded, the hair-product company revealed its involvement.

Though Scientology and anti-pharmaceutical lobbyists have been widely named as suspects in the Obay whodunit, detective work by Canadian blogs Accordion Guy and Torontoist have pegged Ontario Colleges as the likeliest source of the ads – which despite being clustered in eastern Canada, have gained national attention online.
Questioned about their involvement with the campaign, Ontario Colleges spokesman Rob Savage was cautiously vague (“at this point, we don’t have any information we can give you”), but told Canwest News Service he would follow up before the end of the month about the “long-term marketing stuff” being undertaken by the organization.

read more

Virgin mobile promotes promiscuous text.

Virgin Mobile USA – Lets have Text, Secretary (2008) :30 (USA)

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Virgin Mobile USA and McKinney have launched www.letshavetxt.com where you can have all the promiscuous txt you want. It’s safe and free and takes consumer engagement to a whole new level.

At www.letshavetxt.com, trained professionals will help you polish your sexy texting skills. Visitors can interact with such experts as the Nurse, the Plumber, the Cowboy, the Fireman, the Secretary and even a Sexbot, all ready to engage in “protected txt”. You can practice via live IM sessions and share with friends, too.

read more

Total Beverage gets a Total Rehaul created by Suckle


Total Beverage is a super-huge, enourmous, gigantic, really really big liquor store in Westminister Colorado. Denver based Sukle Advertising & Design has created a fresh new identity for Total Beverage that is the total opposite of cluttered booze-shops. Inspired by the simplicity of European road signs and informational graphics Sukle brought simplicity to a store large enough to contain all sorts of chaos. (Did I mention that the store is, like, big?)

read more

Kit Kat promotes “the ultimate break” with a three minute animation.

JWT France are doing another web spreading animation, perhaps encouraged by the success of last years epic animation Wilkinson Quattro Titanium which played off the Oedipus complex with that baby who fought daddy for moms kisses. This time it tells the story of a poor cubicle worker who needs a break from back stabbing co-workers and that alpha male in the cubicle next door.
The end of the film says that “the quest for the ultimate break begins” and directs you to Breakultime-kitkat.fr (Flash 9 req.)
Kit Kat – Break Ultime / the Ultimate Break

read more

Steve Novick’s political ads, injecting funny instead of mud slinging

Something is going on with political advertising in the states, first we have Chuck Norris cameos, now we have ads so funny that I want to move to Oregon just to vote for Steve Novick. Check out these two.

Would you have a beer with Steve Novick?

read more

Louis Vuitton does a TV commercial – about “journeys” switching tactic from glitzy fashion to travel heritage

In non superbowl ad news, Louis Vuitton temporarily stops duping Yale students into drawing Louis Vuitton ads on the university yard or featuring pictures of Mikhail Gorbachev and other celebs using their luggage in traditional fashion spreads and instead now launch a TV commercial for the first time. The 90-second spot was shot in France, Spain, India and Japan and focuses on travel rather than fashion.
Louis Vuitton, a unit of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, described the advertisement as “the first ever on-screen corporate campaign by a luxury house.” Well, that’s not counting Chanel I guess, since they’ve been at it for some time.

read more

Pepsi to debut “deaf ad” during Super Bowl XLII

I’m only putting “deaf” in quotation marks as a super bowl commercial can’t really be deaf, it’s an ad for crying out loud. Coolness though, that PepsiCo who is sponsoring the closed captioning for the game and had the idea to do a silent ad.

“Bob’s House” which will air during the superbowl is an ad which illustrates a popular joke in the hearing impaired community, and was created and performed by EnAble, a network in PepsiCo which supports diversity and the inclusion of persons with different abilities. Super adgrunts click the image above to take a sneak peak at the superbowl ad, all others see the making of “Bob’s House inside (quicktime)

read more

There’s Just One Week Left To Enter The 2008 One Show Interactive

The One Show Interactive 2008 Call For Entries

If you don’t deserve an award, who does?

Enter now at www.enteroneshow.org

You work with new media because you understand how to build a connection to your audience. You champion interactivity not because it’s trendy, but because it is the fastest way to make this connection. You and your team are pushing the limits of technology and you haven’t found the boundaries yet. Your work needs to be seen and it merits recognition.

read more

Match.com says “Don’t wait for Cupid and Fate”

Hey adgrunts, did you know that on Match.com started 2008 with a major UK advertising campaign, introducing two new characters, Cupid and Fate? Well they did, and since I have a major deadline looming (wish me luck! it’s a pitch!), I’ll just post and show you the release and all the pretty posters and the five films inside.

read more