Hasta La Creative!

About halfway through this two-and-a-half-minute film from conservative nonprofit the Catholic Vote, its treacly, overlystylized message becomes clear. These Catholics are nervous about revealing their stance on same-sex marriage because they’re (spoiler alert!) against it.

That stance is nothing new. What’s galling is the ad’s appropriation of LGBTQ themes to marginalize LGBTQ people and their rights under the law. The ad, with a straight face, position Catholics as a persecuted group for not having their message of intolerance (here ludicrously recast as its opposite) widely accepted these days.

The video even plays like a coming-out video for Catholics who are afraid to take the “brave” step of voicing their objection to equality. That’s a shockingly audacious tactic—disrespectful and despicable, to say the least.

Beyond that, it is rather illogical. You can’t reposition a group as oppressed when there is no movement to oppress them. And you certainly can’t equate being called a bigot for spouting intolerance with anything near what members of the LGBTQ community have experienced for decades. 

The empowering music is on point, though. 

Oh, and thankfully there’s already a parody…

I have a pile of business cards on a tray in my office, and I'd be hard pressed to remember where I met the people whose names are on those cards if it weren't for some hastily scratched notes in the white space. ("Start-up owner, kept joking about Mad Men, didn't catch my Tupac reference.")

It's generally hard to make an impression on a piece of cardstock that's 3.5 by 2 inches, but German agency Jung von Matt definitely found a winner with its incredible business card for jewelry company Marrying—which, as the name suggests, specializes in engagement rings and wedding bands.

The card rolls up, becoming a handy tool to measure one's ring size. The idea is that men who are shopping for a ring can use the card at home to subtly check the size of a woman's current rings, saving them the rather obvious reveal of saying: "Hey baby, what's your ring size? What? No reason."

The agency effectively married (sorry) utility with good advertising, and I like it.

Via Design Taxi.