Dan Wieden and his ad agency are many different things to many different people. As far as I’m concerned, he’s the copywriter’s copywriter. His game-changing tagline for Nike has always summed up the sports brand in three perfect syllables. Just Do It. The brand mantra is now 30 years old and Nike wants to let […]
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The corporate takeover of our federal lands is a flashpoint issue for many in the West. In a region that relies on tourism dollars, favoring oil and gas exploration over the majesty of nature is bad policy precipitating economic disaster and loss of precious habitat for the wild creatures. In response to the Trump administration’s […]
The post Naming Names And Pointing Fingers—The Battle For Public Lands Is Heating Up appeared first on Adpulp.
Cindy Gallop takes names and zero shit. For the sexual harassers in the ad industry, you best run and hide. For everyone else, here’s compelling documentation about just how degrading it is to be objectified at work, and then asked to objectify women in ads. “The biggest issue facing our industry today is not diversity,” […]
The post Dear Bad Men of Advertising, Your Reign Is Over appeared first on Adpulp.
Russian hackers are now meddling in the French election. French newspaper, Libération, is fighting back with a search engine staffed by real-life journalists. Libération with the help of J. Walter Thompson/Paris came up with the anti-hoax service CheckNews.fr, a search engine trading cold algorithms for journalists for three days before the French elections. In related […]
The post Ask And You Shall Receive A Thoughtful Answer appeared first on AdPulp.
Do the coastal elites who work in Manhattan and L.A. ad agencies truly understand what motivates the people in the middle of the nation to buy hamburgers, life insurance policies, and pickup trucks? Clearly, the best of them do. Carl’s Jr., for instance, runs sexist ads made by award-winning creatives from 72andsunny in Southern California. […]
The post Can Agencies In Blue States Relate To Shoppers In Trump’s America? appeared first on AdPulp.
Folkoperan, an opera house in Stockholm, is currently presenting God Disguised (Förklädd gud), a lyrical suite composed in 1940 by Swedish composer Lars-Erik Larsson to lyrics by Hjalmar Gullberg. The production features EU citizens who helped promote the show by holding signs about their performance and offering free tickets to passers-by. This is what happened: […]
The post No One Reads Long Copy appeared first on AdPulp.
We live in a nation divided. Today, no company is safe from a presidential reprimand or widespread outrage and backlash, including damaging boycotts (well deserved, or not). In my estimation, brands must stand for something now more than ever. What’s always been true about differentiating on product attributes is now also true about the community […]
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What could be more American than an immigrant’s story of arriving in America? One immigrant, Adolphus Busch, found his way from Germany to St. Louis in 1857. This is his arrival story in 60 seconds. “When Budweiser told us they wanted to celebrate those who embody the American spirit, we realized the ultimate story lived […]
The post Budweiser Taps the Perfect Theme for This Time appeared first on AdPulp.
European luxury wagons are not just personal transporters to efficiently and safely get you to and from work—they’re $45,000 sleds that you can ride to freedom. Volvo’s agency, Forsman & Bodenfors, went deep into the archive for this Alan Watts speech: There is no use planning for a future which when you get to it […]
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84 Lumber is a company with a heart. The Pennsylvania-based is also a company with their finger on the pulse. The story was initially rejected by Fox for being “too controversial for T.V.,” forcing the company to edit it and cut it down. Let’s see the piece in full frame now: Rob Schapiro, chief creative […]
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Wieden+Kennedy has something to say about the rampant violence in our society, and they’re saying it with a homepage takeover on WK.com. I like it when a company takes a strong stand about things that matter in the world. Things beyond the bottom line. Therefore, I see this as a good thing. Thankfully, timid is […]
The post Urban Violence Epidemic Spreads Fear, Sadness and Rage appeared first on AdPulp.
What role did slavery play in the shaping of modern nations, and how is its legacy impacting contemporary thought and policy? These are important questions for Americans, but also for South Africans, and people from scores of nations who have committed crimes against humanity. They’re the kind of questions that might be answered in a […]
The post Descendants of South African Slaves Honored In Museum’s Slave Calendar appeared first on AdPulp.
The June 16, 1976 Uprising that began in Soweto and spread countrywide profoundly changed the socio-political landscape in South Africa. Forty years later, Soweto’s first craft brewery is paying tribute to the student rebels of ’76 with Soweto Gold ’76, a limited-edition lager that was matured in Jameson Irish Whiskey casks for 76 days, achieving […]
The post New Brew from Soweto Pays Homage To The City’s Brave Freedom Fighters appeared first on AdPulp.
The Syrian Civil War and its aftermath is one of the great humanitarian disasters of our time. Since the beginning of the war, millions of Syrian people have fled their homeland. Their escape route has been as tragic as the war itself. More than 4000 Syrian refugees have died while trying to cross the Mediterranean. […]
The post Syrian Refugees Are Drowning appeared first on AdPulp.
The citizens of Israel are due to vote tomorrow. Will they vote for peacekeepers or hawks? Millions of people around the world are hoping it’s a vote* for peace. In the run up to the election, The Parents Circle Families Forum—an organization of Palestinian and Israeli families who have lost a family member to the […]
The post Much More Than Political Careers at Stake in Israel’s Election appeared first on AdPulp.
Women like NFL football. A lot! Millions will be watching later today when the Seahawks and Patriots battle for the crown. The Washington Post claims that women are the league’s most important demographic. Women make up an estimated 45 percent of the NFL’s more than 150 million American fans and have become perhaps pro football’s […]
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When I grew up, gun violence had yet to rear its ugly head in our schools. Frankly, I can not imagine how scared American kids are to go to school today, to say nothing of the fears of their parents. As the two-year anniversary of the Newtown tragedy on December 14th approaches, Moms Demand Action […]
The post Three Words Kids Should Never Hear: “Lockdown Drill Complete” appeared first on AdPulp.
Unload Your 401(k), a powerful three-minute film from Grey New York, takes aim at a new target in the debate over guns in America: the pocketbooks of firearms companies.
The video supports UnloadYour401K.com, a site where consumers can find out if their retirement portfolios include gun manufacturers. A coalition of 20 organizations, led by Campaign to Unload and States United to Prevent Gun Violence, is behind the initiative.
The film doesn't waste time trying to persuade gun rights advocates. Instead it makes its appeal to those already passionately opposed to gun violence, and perhaps those on the fence, imploring them to take action. The case for divestment, a tactic that played a role in ending South African Apartheid and changing U.S. tobacco policy, is mainly made by the parents, relatives and teachers of young people killed and maimed at by gun violence.
"They're making money off the backs of dead people," says Lori Haas, whose daughter was shot at Virginia Tech. "I just can't tolerate it. And I won't let my money support it."
"This industry is not going to respond to moral sentiments, that's clear," says Eric Milgram, the father of two Sandy Hook survivors. "They will respond to economic pain."
A simple, low-tech wall of remembrance with a timeline, photos and clips (starting at Columbine, 15 years ago) is a visual focal point in a presentation uncluttered by news footage or reenactments.
The most stirring testimony comes from trauma surgeon Dr. Sheldon Teperman: "I'm covered in blood. We've done everything we can do and someone has to go tell the family. So they are sitting in a waiting room, and I know how this works, so I steel myself for this, because I know that when I walk into the room … I'm going to snatch all of the light and all of the hope and all of the air from that parent's life.
"There is a lot of profit to be made for all of this sorrow, all of this death and all of this destruction. Ultimately, it is all about the money."
Most city dwellers tend to avoid eye contact with the homeless, a fact that made one advocacy group wonder: Would you recognize your own relatives if they were living on the street?
New York City Rescue Mission partnered with agency Silver + Partner for a hidden-camera stunt that filmed people as they walked past loved ones dressed to look homeless. Later, the passersby were shown video footage of themselves walking past their relatives without a second glance.
As you'd probably expect, no one recognized their family members. One woman even walked right past her mom, uncle and aunt.
The stunt doesn't lead to any emotional breakdowns or similar histrionics, which is somewhat refreshing at a time when "gotcha" videos focus so hard on over-the-top reactions and immediate life-changing self-reflection. But the unwitting participants clearly feel ashamed of their oversight.
Director Jun Diaz from production house Smuggler tells Fast Company that one person who was filmed asked not to be included in the final video "because they couldn’t handle the fact that they walked by their family."
On a related website, MakeThemVisible.com, the rescue mission further humanizes the needy by sharing photographs of real homeless New Yorkers, smiling while sharing their personal passions and hobbies.
Pleas to help the poor are usually ignored. So what if you turned things around and started advocating against the poor? Would anyone come to their defense?
Publicis London put that question to the test with an experiment for The Pilion Trust. The agency stuck a guy with a "FUCK THE POOR" sandwich board on a busy London street and filmed people telling him off.
After plenty of heated reactions, including a police officer telling him "that's offensive" and a near fight with a homeless man, the organizers flipped the sign around to say "HELP THE POOR" in the same font, same presentation, and filmed everyone ignoring him. The resulting film has already gone viral, with over 1.2 million views in three days.
It's an interesting experiment, but does it really prove that people care about the poor? It seems more like it proves that people enjoy being self-righteous on topics where they know most people agree with them. The truth is, it doesn't cost anything to be offended.
I'd like to see if those people who got upset really did care enough to give. Publicis should design another experiment with two guys, one with a "help the poor" just down the street from the "fuck the poor" guy. Then we'll see how many people who yelled at one actually donated to the other.
CREDITS
Client: The Pilion Trust
Advertising Agency: Publicis, London
Director: Jonathan Pearson
Creative Director: Andy Bird
Art Director: Jolyon Finch
Copywriter: Steve Moss
Producer: Adam Dolman
Director of Photography: Peter Bathurst
Agency Producers: Sam Holmes, Colin Hickson
Editor: Toby Conway Hughes at Marshall Street
Postproduction: Absolute
Sound Design: Wave
Typographer: Andy Breese
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.
