In 2018, consumers have largely accepted that marketers use an online log of their behaviors and spending habits to target digital audiences with relevant ads. A Pew Research Center study found last year that most Americans determine their online privacy rights case by case, with 47 percent saying they’re comfortable with retailers tracking their purchases…
Whether it was his brief meeting with Tupac at age 16, his experience Iowa’s only hip-hop radio DJ in the early ’90s or his time working on the first televised Brown and Black Presidential Forum for Democratic candidates to address young minority voters’ concerns in 2000, Ryan Ford realized at a young age that he…
After years of working in various roles in the advertising industry, Sarah Hooper and Matthew Goldman noticed a glaring issue with the traditional agency model. As it goes, senior executives win pitches, assure clients they’ll see their projects through, and then dump the work on junior staff. “It just seemed like a farce to me,”…
Dick Clark’s American Bandstand had more than its share of cheesy guests over the years–bands that lip-synced their tunes in front of a TV audience under orders to cheer. But few acts quite equaled Buckner & Garcia, two friends who’d met at Perkins High School in Akron, Ohio, and managed to write a song that,…
As brands increasingly seek to understand the Internet of Things, marketers are keying in on how Amazon and Google will dominate connected devices in 2018. That’s why Amazon’s Alexa and the Google Home–with their rapidly expanding sets of AI skills and services–will be completely unavoidable for the 180,000 expected attendees at this week’s annual Consumer…
While autonomous cars won’t be in every garage anytime soon, today’s vehicles have never been more connected. That’s leading marketers, agencies and automakers to transform cars into the next media and marketing platform. Radio once held drivers hostage as the only form of in-car entertainment, said Scott Symonds, managing director of AKQA Media, adding it…
At a time when diversity remains a front-burner issue within the tech industry, this year’s Consumer Electronics Show–the tech world’s largest conference–is surprisingly lacking in, well, diversity. While, in the past, the agenda-setting conference has showcased powerhouse solo women keynoters such as IBM CEO Ginni Rometty, General Motors CEO Mary Barra and former Yahoo CEO…
Most brand experiences will be delivered through AI by 2025. The only question is whether your brand will still exist. Some perspective: When Ray Kroc walked into the McDonald brothers’ restaurant in 1954, he was taken aback with the efficiency and replicability of the facility. That evening, “visions of McDonald’s restaurants dotting crossroads all over…
Each January, tech experts at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas peer into their crystal balls and declare that “this is the year of something.” For about 10 years, it was the “year of mobile.” After that it was the “year of connected cars,” which was then eclipsed by “the year of smart devices.”…
In a world of tech innovations, new platforms and constant competition, it’s easy for words to lose their meaning, even when the concepts they represent are changing the industry. Pushing any concept too hard, too fast and with too few tools can rapidly morph the buzzy into a buzzword–and “artificial intelligence” isn’t immune, according to…
Women everywhere, rejoice! There is now a car just for us!
Women’s magazine and marketing menace Cosmopolitan announced at London Fashion Week that it’s teamed up with car maker Seat to release a vehicle designed for “fun and fearless Cosmo girls.”
The news is like the ocean. On the surface, everything might seem pretty, but the further down you go, the worse things look.
That, at least, is the metaphor behind a new ad from Veja, a popular right-leaning (if not right-wing) Brazilian magazine that featured President Obama as Che Guevara on its cover in 2014.
OculusVR founder Palmer Luckey is one of the tech industry’s brightest rising stars—a fact Time tried but ridiculously failed to capture on its newest cover.
As you can see above, Luckey is shown in mid … uh, jump? Stumble? Rapturous epiphany? The only things viewers can tell for sure is that he’s been Photoshopped in front of a beach and that he looks ridiculous.
And it’s not just the image drawing heckles from tech enthusiasts. The story’s intro is cringe-inducingly awful at a time when most people have stopped seeing nerds as socially worthless outcasts:
“Palmer Luckey isn’t like other Silicon Valley nerds,” the article begins. “He’s a nerd all right, but not the kind who went to a top-ranked university, wrote brilliant code or studied business plans. He’s cheery and talks in normal sentences that are easy to understand.”
It’s doubtful that all this is just artful baiting of the Reddit crowd, but had it been, the results would likely have been the same. Photoshop has been working overtime today as many took up the challenge to make Luckey (and Time) look even more silly:
Time irresponsibly created a terrible story and cover for VR, but the response has been totally internet. pic.twitter.com/vzHLUzJwfn
— Mike Mika (@MikeJMika) August 6, 2015
Hey guys I’m pretty sure I found Palmer Luckey’s new book that @time magazine #VR cover is based on: pic.twitter.com/IJ8V438jr1
— StephenMauriceGraham (@400facts) August 6, 2015
Nerd: VR’s just a fad. Nobody’s gonna— Palmer Luckey: pic.twitter.com/zEnyoZtj2B
— Andrew Vestal (@avestal) August 6, 2015
We are just getting started…. CC @hmltn @oculus @PalmerLuckey @TIME pic.twitter.com/JV5QRRYSrZ
— Robert McGregor (@ID_R_McGregor) August 6, 2015
You’re welcome internet. I’m sorry Palmer. @TIME pic.twitter.com/eYIjopOWqP
— Vanessa Marie @ RTX (@VRex7) August 6, 2015
But perhaps this un-Photoshopped take was the cruelest cut of all:
When Palmer Luckey was a kid, he said “Someday I’ll be on the cover of Time Magazine, and everyone will respect me.” pic.twitter.com/5svbQHX8kX
— Joel Bernstein (@CastIrony) August 6, 2015
Glamour is getting good at video content tied to its cover models and other interviewees. A couple of months ago, we got Anna Kendrick’s take on Reddit’s Shower Thoughts. And in the weeks since then, the magazine has rolled out amusing clips featuring everyone from Kim Kardashian to Kendall and Kylie Jenner to Bella Thorne.
Now, it’s Amy Schumer’s turn.Glamour’s August cover star has narrated her inner thoughts as she was subjected to a humiliating cover shoot at Chelsea Piers. And it’s vintage Amy. As she puts it: “I love strangers touching me and taking pictures of me.”
Check out an excerpt from her magazine interview here. At one point she addresses her quip from the Glamour U.K. Women of the Year Awards, when she said, “I’m probably like 160 pounds right now, and I can catch a dick whenever I want.”
“If a guy was like, ‘I can get pussy whenever I want,’ that guy would be a dickhead,” she says. “But to deny that there’s a major difference is ridiculous. For women, we’re taught to eat less until we disappear. And trained to believe that if you don’t look like everyone else, then you’re unlovable. And men are not trained that way. Men can look like whatever and still date a supermodel. I’m proud of what I said. I think it’s good to see somebody saying: I have a belly. And I have cellulite. And I still deserve love. And to catch the old D. And to not apologize.”
Check out the photos from the shoot below:
In this amusing 90-second spot for Rolling Stone, men and women of all sorts dress up like Apple’s late co-founder Steve Jobs. They don wire-rim specs, black turtlenecks and blue jeans as they question aspects of their lives, large and small, ranging from health regimens and toupees to technology’s impact on the future.
The patently absurd sight of a geeky Steve army marching down the street is like an image plucked from Bill Gates’ darkest dreams. (Heck, it’s enough to give anyone nightmares!)
Produced in English and Spanish by The Community, the ad targets young adults in Argentina, encouraging them to “Question Everything” and find ways of improving their situations. It closes by showing a 2011 Rolling Stone cover: “The Steve Jobs Nobody Knew.”
The visuals here are pretty memorable, but the concept feels like a stretch, and doesn’t tie back to the magazine as well as it should. (The Community’s recent Corona spot, with winter narrating mournful letters to summer, is equally offbeat but more on brand.)
Mostly, “The Steves” reinforces Jobs’ standing as an icon of the highest magnitude. Ironically, that’s a distinction Rolling Stone itself once enjoyed, and the magazine’s effort to piggyback on the tech pioneer’s lasting relevance speaks volumes about our changing cultural landscape.
CREDITS
Client: Rolling Stone
Agency: The Community
Chief Creative Officer: Joaquin Molla / Jose Molla
Executive Creative Officer: Ramiro Raposo, Fernando Sosa
Art Director: Fernando Zagales
Copywriter: Juan Mesz
Group Account Director: Sebastian Diaz
Executive Account: Lucas Saez
Audiovisual Producer: Matias Castro
Responsible for the Client: Branowski Bárbara, Paula Rottenbücher
Production Company: Barry Company
Director: Mariana Youssef
Director of Photography: Adolpho Veloso
Director 1st Assistant: Elton Takii
Art Director: Guilherme Marini
Production Director: Tadeu Piantino
Wardrobe: Heloisa Cobra
Account Manager: Juliana Martellotta
Executive Producer: Krysse Mello
Editor: Alexandre Boechat / Rodolpho Ponzio
Postproduction: Fulano Filmes
Postproduction Coordinator: Karina Vallesi
Postproduction Supervisor: Ale Cois
Postproduction Supervisor Assistant: Sabrina Comar
Sound: Animal
Music Production: André Caccia Bava
What better way to sell foot-care products than with an entire magazine for and about feet?
Hansaplast, a Beiersdorf-owned band-aid brand, is launching a line of creams, deodorant and antiperspirant called FootExpert. To promote the products, agency Being created Feet Mag, a luxury publication designed with heavy paper that can be easily turned by one’s feet, and large print that you can enjoy from an eye-to-foot distance (for those unable to lift the book close to their faces using only their toes).
The magazine is packed with foot-themed stories about art (by the likes of Renoir, Gauguin, Delacroix and Manet) and fashion, with sassy pictures of women playing cards and blowing kisses with their own feet. There are even foot horoscopes (with advice like putting on rubber boots to prepare for the coming storm).
Check out a copy of the magazine here. (PDF link)
It’s a fun way to draw attention to a decidedly dull subject, certainly more noteworthy than buying ads in a well-established beauty magazine. But it doesn’t seem right to make your feet do all that extra work—even in the name of leisure.
Via PSFK.
Glamour magazine isn’t known for it’s Internet-savvy marketing. But when you put Anna Kendrick on the cover, you have to do something special to celebrate the occasion.
So, they had the Pitch Perfect 2 star recite some of Reddit’s “Shower Thoughts,” which are pretty much the same as SNL’s old “Deep Thoughts” by Jack Handey—but on the Internet. Anna even throws a few of her own in there. Simple, smart and effective.
If you’re familiar with “Shower Thoughts,” you will have heard most of these before, but somehow the magic of Kendrick, an advertising darling who hasn’t had a miss with a campaign, elevates those old lines into true stoner mind-blowing territory. (Not that it’s exactly groundbreaking—you can, after all, also watch Cookie Monster’s “Shower Thoughts” for The Watercooler or Nick Offerman’s “Shower Thoughts” for Mashable.)
After just one day, it’s already one of the most popular videos on Glamour’s YouTube. Peep at all the other videos on the channel, and you’ll see this is really out of character for them. But it’s perfect for the Internet.
Apple Watch gets a 12-page spread in the March issue of Vogue, part of the run-up to the wearable device’s launch in April. Rate-card value: north of $2.2 million.
All three versions of the watch—the luxe 18-karat gold model, a sports watch and the leather-bound standard edition—are featured in the magazine’s “Spring Fashion Blockbuster,” and the images we’ve seen so far look appropriately stylish. (Scroll down to see for a sample of pages from the ad section.)
The sleek, angular devices are tastefully displayed in classic Apple style against plain white backgrounds. In one shot, the watch’s face appears to rise from a milky mist, the muted hues of its app icons signaling its time has arrived. Another shows a rising segment of the band in stark relief, suggesting a silvery stairway to heaven (by which I mean the nearest Apple Store, naturally).
More than anything, these arty abstractions resemble jewelry advertising, with the Apple Watch cast as the latest shiny bauble for the tech-crazed masses. Tres chic! Tres Apple!
Observers have generally lauded the strategy of positioning the watch as a fashion accessory, though some point out that Google Glass went the Vogue route with a spread two years ago and failed to catch on with the masses.
In my view, that’s an unfair comparison. The failure of Google Glass has been analyzed to death, but ultimately, its lack of “cool”—perched on users’ faces, for everyone to see—was perhaps a fatal, if unavoidable, flaw.
Apple Watch, a far more discreet wearable, won’t provide such a sorry spectacle. Like fine timepieces of old, it’s designed to be admired while remaining unobtrusive. Folks who catch a glimpse of the gadget won’t confer Glasshole-type scorn on wearers. Instead, the device will inspire curiosity and a desire to buy.
It will be in vogue in for years. Just watch.
To date, Rob Lowe has been the only celebrity to suffer physical indignities in Grey’s DirecTV campaign making fun of cable customers. But now he can add three famous supermodels to the mix—Hannah Davis, Chrissy Teigen and Nina Agdal, all of whom are made over to look quite a bit less supermodelish to portray cable users in print ads in the new Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.
Check out the series of seven ads below.
Like the Rob Lowe TV spots, this print work comes uncomfortably close to being mean-spirited—i.e., aren’t ugly misfits just horrible? But they largely sidestep that charge because of the cartoonish execution. Plus, people tend to give props to any celeb who gamely agrees to look “ugly.” (If you actually have shy bladder, though, or if you actually are a lunch lady—Agdal’s ugly character—you might actually get pissed.)
We wrote about Snickers’s great back cover of the new Swimsuit Issue, too. And interestingly, they’re quite similar campaigns. (DirecTV’s message is, basically, “You’re not you when you have cable.”) Perhaps it’s no surprise that the two most famous campaigns that urge you to fight against uglier versions of yourself have found creative ways into this particular magazine all about perfection.
Dolls. An iconic childhood toy. You can dress them, accessorize them, cut off all their hair with a pair of Fiskars until they look just like I Made Bad Life Choices Barbie, then wake up in the middle of the night to find them staring at you ominously by the light of the moon. Great fun, really.
Vogue Paris has married nostalgia with modern fashion in a photo series of models posed as luxury fashion dolls—in their store packaging. Stunning and creepy. Simultaneously beautiful and the stuff of nightmares.
Each brand is represented thoughtfully—the luxury Italian brand Moschino with all pink and poodle hair; Louis Vuitton, which will put an LV logo on anything; the Valentino doll is Zooey Deschanel’s life in a box; Ralph Lauren looks like a gilded flight attendant; Saint Laurent, IDK, there are roller skates and a guitar; and the ultra-feminine Chanel, I can smell the No. 5 from here.
Check them out in the current Vogue Paris edition, but if you’re not a subscriber (quelle horreur!), you can see them here.
Via Laughing Squid.
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