xBox is using sex with the sexy babe Tahiti Cora to promote their video games in this viral video.
Do you think it’s a good promotion for xBox? What is sure is that it will go viral.
Advertiser: xBox
The sexy Paris Hilton is back in a hot video for a Brazilian beer ad that has been banned in Brazil.
Advertiser: Devassa
In this video from inside the H&M store, these girls are waiting for the H&M doors to open for the launch of Sonia Rykiel clothing collection.
They are totally hysterical and the staff looks scary about the crowd.
Advertiser: H&M Sonia Rykiel
via Vincent
In this video, bikers are displaying personnal information about their lives with neon lights…
Think Biker
Advertiser: The Department for Transport
Agency: Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO
In this video, Lionel Messi, Thierry Henry, Ricardo Kaká, Frank Lampard, Andrei Arshavin and Didier Drogba are playing football in Africa for Pepsi in a pitch with human delimitations.
Advertiser: Pepsi
In this video the Asics shoes are in layers…
Advertiser: Asics Running Expansion
In this video campaign for the clothing brand FCUK, a man looking like the rugbyman Sebastien Chabal thanks to his beard is representing the Man! The voice over with a strong French accent is commenting how a man should look like.
Advertiser: FCUK French Connection United Kingdom
Mc Donald is promoting in this video the new burger Dutch Deluxe using the expression To go Dutch (when you split the bill with your girl friend). Romantic, isn’t it?
Advertiser: Mc Donald
This guy’s foot has an obsession with his other foot in this video. New kind of fetichism?
It remembers me this good video for Orgasm fetichism.
Advertiser: Skoda
Agency: Leagas Delanay
After the great viral video for How to become romantic millionaire jet fighter pilot , Old Spice is back with Smell like man viral video.
Smell like a man, man
Advertiser: Old Spice Body Wash
It must be slow in the Capital these days; it seems that although our world is going crazy, the president and his staff have taken time out to wage a media attack on Fox News, making the rounds on all the Sunday morning talk shows, with one glaring exception: Fox. The gloves were certainly off as Obama’s team struck back at Fox News accusing the network of opinionated reporting. Some of the quotes from the barrage include:
Fox is “not really a news station,” said David Axelrod.
Fox, said Rahm Emmanuel, “is is not a news organization so much as it has a perspective.”
They also urged the other networks not to treat Fox News as a news station because the White House certainly did not think of Fox as news-oriented. A week ago, communications director Anita Dunn opened the White House offensive on Fox on a Sunday show: “Let’s not pretend they’re a news organization like CNN is.” She then stated that Fox was the communications arm for the Republican Party.
The cable news networks are highly competitive, and Fox is not only the second highest- watched cable TV network, but it carries 9 of the top 10 cable news shows as of Q1 of 2009. Despite the heavy competition, the White House’s attack has actually begun to backfire.
Helen Thomas, the senior White House reporter in Washington (serving from JFK to
present) warned the Obama administration: “Stay out of these fights,” and Washington Post’s blog stated: Where the White House has gone way overboard is in its decision to treat Fox as an outright enemy and to go public with the assault.
Some have even called the attack “Nixonian” in nature. However, the White House has an out. If the strategy fails, Anita Dunn can be tucked away easily, as she is expected to leave the administration by the end of the year.
While Fox has not attacked Obama directly, they’ve unloaded on his aides, especially Dunn. Her statement naming Mao Tse Tung as one of her favorite politicians did not help nor did her speech explaining the censorship-like control exercised during the election. If team Obama felt they couldn’t control the message, or the press, they would use YouTube, Twitter, or Facebook to communicate.
While America thought that the Obama Campaign was tech-savvy, it was really just an exercise in message management.
Jeff Louis has over ten years of brand-building, media strategy, and new business experience. His passion is writing and his strong suit is sarcasm. You can follow Jeff on Twitter or become a fan on Examiner.com.
Recently, I watched “ 100 greatest hits of YouTube in 4 minutes,” and afterward, I immediately had three thoughts: 1) Hmm, I hadn’t seen all of those, so maybe I’m not as interweb-urbane as I thought I was; 2) How is it possible that people have watched drivel like a baby biting a toddler’s finger 60 million times? and 3) what can I infer from this swab from pop culture’s cheek as I continue perpetrating advertising? After a few viewings, I came up with seven ideas:
1. Slapstick never gets old. The Three Stooges were doing it since the beginning of Hollywood, but bike crashes, faceplants, jumps, and asking if things will blend, it’s still a great way to get attention. But once you have those eyeballs, you better be selling something relevant, like health care, stunt bike instruction, or table-dancing classes so Scarlet doesn’t take another tumble. We’ve all felt ripped off by the ad that ensnared us with shtick, then slapped us with the shill.
2. Sometimes cheezy is the right ingredient. How many years has Rick Astley been sneaking up on us unawares? Not to mention Snuggies, the late Billy Mays, and other so-wrong-it’s right singers and pitchmen? I’m not saying you have to like it. I’m just saying millions of us can’t help watching it.
3. Pet tricks rule. Sleepwalking dogs, curious cats, loving lions, dramatic chipmunks–whether we’re pet people or not, we love watching furry, fanged, and feathered escapades. eTrade’s chimps Super Bowl spot from a few years back, and the more recent Cadbury Gorilla show how effective a well-placed primate can be.
4. Kids are funny. Novocained out, biting fingers, delivering oddly self-aware monologues to the camera, or, of course, saying bad words. It’s an old device in the persuasion business, but tens of millions of views don’t lie: out of the mouths of babes can come the meme that sweeps the nation.
5. We may not like dancing, but we sure like watching others do it. Suave or stupid, sexy or stumbling, krumpers to presidents, we can’t take our eyes off of folks busting a move. A lot of great ads, like Levi’s “crazy legs” and the Nike soccer and basketball “freestyle” spots, brought this same basic idea to life with impeccable production values.
6. We want to get bowled over by greatness. Paul Potts and Susan Boyle from Britain’s “Got Talent” stand out as recent titans of YouTube, but in a world where many of us don’t do anything more unusual than maxing out on the bench press or keeping kids from killing each other in the back of the car, encounters with the exceptional still stop us in our tracks.
7. Even if you hate pop music, you better keep up with it. If checked YouTube’s most popular yourself, you’ll know that this isn’t really them, it’s “YouTube’s top 100, not including music videos.” If this clip were re-cut to reflect reality, it would sound more like a mish-mash of pop and hip-hop from the last five years; 36 out of the top 50 are professional music videos (I wouldn’t count OK GO), and Michael Jackson is the exception in a crowd of flavor-of-the-month entertainers.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to get back to the Miley Cyrus/Avril/Jonas Brothers playlist I’ve got on repeat for inspiration.
This post covers two of my favorite topics: Breasts and advertising. When they’re grouped together, it usually means a 30-minute Girls Gone Wild infomercial. However, this post actually covers a couple advertising efforts behind breast cancer awareness, which is nothing to joke about. While humor is used in writing, and can be seen in the TV spots, no disrespect, implied or otherwise, is intended. My prayers go out to all those who have been affected by breast cancer.
All men love breasts. Some love them secretly. Others wear t-shirts that shout out that they are “breast men.” Even men that don’t dig women are drawn to a woman’s chest…not sexually, but out of curiosity. (It’s a cruel society that labels a straight man as a stalker for staring at a woman’s assets for too long while a gay man has free reign to reach right out and grab a woman’s chest in public…)
Listaholic alphabetizes 138 different slang names for breasts, among them; whimwhams, muffins, kawangas, and dinglebobbers. Which proves that when men don’t understand something, they either rename it or make fun of it.
The truth of the matter is that we probably love breasts more than their owners;
We just don’t know why…
Which leads to an obvious question: Why haven’t men been involved in the fight against breast cancer from the beginning? Like a favorite bra, it’s a natural fit; breast-lovers attacking breast cancer. As you’ll read in a couple of seconds, a couple of organizations figured it out.
According to the World Health Organization, approximately 500,000 people die every year as a result of breast cancer. It ranks as the second most common form of cancer, and it’s the 5th highest cause of cancer deaths.
The push towards early detection and education of breast cancer began in earnest in 1982, following the death of Susan G. Komen. Susan was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1977 and died three years later. Susan’s younger sister, Nancy, was the impetus behind the push; keeping a promise to her sister, she founded The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation with the belief that education, early detection, and research would have saved Susan.
Now known as Susan G. Komen for the Cure, or simply Komen, the foundation has raised over $1.3 billion dollars for cancer research since inception and is the largest cancer charity in the world. On the global level, Komen has but one mission: To end breast cancer forever.
Spurred by National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (October), two separate advertisers have launched PSAs that have expanded their target audience to include men, which is ingenious: Who thinks about breasts more than men?
Yoplait has just released, “Yoplait Pledge.” It makes fun of the fact that nicknames were given to breasts at some point (hmm).
The second awareness spot comes from ReThink Breast Cancer, a Toronto-based organization that addresses the breast cancer concerns of young people affected by the disease. Rethink is a volunteer organization that is “thinking differently” on methods to defeat breast cancer (like getting men involved). The spot (below) is airing in Canada on MTV, and the woman featured is an MTV Host.
It’s obvious that breasts get plenty of attention. It’s breast cancer that we need to focus on.
Jeff Louis: Media Planner, Brand Project Manager, blogger, and aspiring writer. Please leave a comment or follow him on Twitter. As always, thanks for reading.
A recent video making the rounds detailed a young woman who, after having a one-night stand and becoming pregnant, decides to find the father. It spawned some rather funny follow-ups (the ex-boyfriend, below, etc.) but outraged many, and it was removed from YouTube.
After many comments on the video, it was finally announced the video was a gimmick to entice people to visit Denmark. While the company might have had the best initial intentions, it fails to spark my interest to visit. In fact, it actually makes me want to stay far, far away.
However, the advertising agency Grey said it was a hit, and it did create quite a bit of buzz, although, not the best kind.
“It is the most successful viral advertising ever,” said Peter Helstrup, Director of Grey Copenhagen. “We have cut through the media clutter. It has cost us the same as a 30-second commercial, aired a few times on TV2.”
Viral videos are always a great marketing campaign, but why did they think this situation would make someone want to visit Denmark?
“Karen’s story shows that Denmark is a free place with space for you to be who you want,” VisitDenmark CEO Dorte Kiilerich said in a news release. “The film is good exposure for Danish self-sufficient and dignified women. We’re telling a nice and sweet story about a modern responsible woman that lives in a free society and takes responsibility for her choices, and she uses a modern and social media.”
Really? This is actually hilarious, but can you really label it a sweet story? If she was responsible, then having a child without a father wouldn’t have happened, correct?
VisitDenmark went a new route with their marketing, and although it may have had the best of intentions, they missed the mark. Do I want to visit a place where it’s advertised I can become impregnated? It doesn’t give me the best of impressions of the country.
Megan Green is a freelance propagation planner who has had her work published on PR News Wire, as well as many other outlets. Contact her on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, or at megankategreen@gmail.com.
Just how many advertising messages are we exposed to on a daily basis? In Data Smog, author David Skenk writes that the average American’s exposure to advertising has grown from “560 daily advertising messages in 1971. By 1997, that number had increased to over 3,000 per day.”
While the figures are controversial due to the definition of the word “advertising,” even 200 hundred messages a day is more than we’ll remember. Be thankful for that, because most of them are crap that shouldn’t have made it past the concept stage.
While the number of victims stricken by “Crapvertising” is unknown, there is a place where those who have fallen prey can expose the offender(s): The Tracy Awards. Based on the premise that advertisers produce a lot of ”bad ads,” the First Annual Tracy Awards are accepting submissions for the Worst in Advertising 2009. Its call to action:
“There’s a lot of bad advertising out there. Let’s make fun of it.”
Noted as the first competition of its kind, The Tracy’s provide those exposed to terrible advertising an opportunity “strike back” at advertisers who produce crap. The press release goes on to explain:
Every ad we receive will be judged. Harshly. And if it’s bad enough, it will win a Tracy, which will be sent to the people responsible for creating the abomination in the first place. Plus, all ads that win Tracy’s will be nationally publicized as the Worst Advertising of 2009.
The Tracy Awards were conceived by Salt Lake City ad agency Crowell Advertising and are named for agency founder, Tracy Crowell.
Take a few minutes to view the crap or submit some. If you are like me, making fun of others’ work will make the day so much better.
Jeff Louis: Media Planner, Brand Project Manager, blogger, and aspiring writer. Please leave a comment or follow him on Twitter. As always, thanks for reading.
Imagine telling an extremely intricate story in a few minutes, something like War and Peace (560,000 words, or approximately 1,400 pages in paperback). Better yet, condense the events of your Labor Day weekend into three tweets on Twitter (420 characters including spaces). Neither of these tasks seem plausible. What about telling an interesting, coherent and compelling story on film in exactly one minute?
The odds don’t sound any better, do they?
To the directors that compete in Filminute: The International One-Minute Film Festival, producing a film that is exactly 60-seconds long is an extraordinary challenge and opportunity to put their best creative, editing and storytelling skills to the test against a global talent pool.
Haven’t heard of it? That’s not too surprising considering that the festival is just eclipsing its third birthday. Although the festival is relatively young, the competition and notoriety have increased exponentially.
A jury (consisting of international superstars from film, art, communication, and literary disciplines) is given the responsibility of judging the entries and awarding The Best Filminute and five commendations. The People’s Choice Award is voted on by a global audience of film fans.
The Filminute festival was the inspiration of Canadian film-maker, John Ketchum, and is now considered one of the largest film festivals in the world when considering audience reach and participation. “We accept fiction, animation, documentary and fan films – the focus being on story,” explains Ketchum. “The best one-minute films will resonate beyond one minute. These are films that we expect to affect viewers the same way any great film would.”
Filmminute 2009 is set to run the entire month of September. If the competition evolves as expected, it will reach more than 94 countries and the Top 25 films will accrue at least 3 million minutes of viewing time.
The jury is required to grade each film using the same standards that would be expected for full-length films, which is a difficult task considering the Top 25 films can be viewed in under 15-minutes. Although this year’s competitors have been determined, 2010 is coming fast. Preparation is key, and judging by this year’s entries, there’s no such thing as “too much time”
Unless, of course, it’s 61-seconds.
Jeff Louis: Media Planner, Brand Project Manager, blogger, and aspiring writer. Please leave a comment, follow him on Twitter or check LinkedIn for his profile. As always, thanks for reading.
This week, the ad community was put on display by an ad leaked out of DDB Brazil. The client, the World Wildlife Fund, was none too excited over this release (or was it?), and the pundits were salivating at the opportunity to rip this spot apart with their fake outrage.
The ad features a very moving truth and the media uproar displays a few ‘inconvenient truths’ about Americans. First, we seem to only care about ourselves. Second, we can’t stomach a brutally honest message. If three people die in a shooting in the US, we talk about it nonstop for months, but if 100 people die in a mudslide in Taiwan, we barely bat an eyelash. This spot tells a great truth about the power of mother nature and is effective in portraying it. It has made me think about mother nature more than anything since Hurricane Katrina, in part because I, too, am a silly American who tends to think only about American lives.
We’ve become distanced from reality. When the ad community attempts to make a hard-hitting PSA to curtail drinking/texting while driving, drug use, or to impress upon people the awesome power of mother nature, we’re forced to go soft for the sake of the populace. Why are we such wimps? The events of September 11, 2001 were horrific, and I don’t see how this spot is, in any way, attempting to make our tragedy seem like anything less.
This creative concept is brilliant. It is so simple, so logical, and so impressively gut wrenching. More people should take a moment to get past the fake outrage and digest the information being presented. Still, the point of the campaign was to create awareness of the awesome power this planet has over us, but I think it accomplished that and then some. This might just be the most efficient use of a client’s money this year.
Pete Kahn is a Product Insights Specialist, blogger and aspiring writer. Feel free to leave a comment, follow Pete on Twitter, or view his profile on LinkedIn. As always, thanks for reading.
Fox Television has taken viral marketing to a new level. Everyone should take notice. Spawning from the new hit series Fringe, Fox has launched an ad campaign unlike any seen before. Rather than relying on the staple marketing ploys of late night talk show rounds, standard TV ads and review/word of mouth popularity, Fox unloads a strategy that is both in-your-face and yet somehow subtle.
Introducing The Observer. This secondary yet mysterious character now conspicuously appears at a variety of Fox televised events ranging from American Idol to most recently the Major League Baseball All-Star game. His striking appearance (bald head, no eyebrows, always clad in a suit) and expressionless gaze render him unmistakeably recognizable amongst hordes of otherwise regular-looking people. The genius of it all? He goes completely unmentioned by hosts/commentators and the like. He’s not followed by a screen-length banner trumpeting the show and its airing day and time. He’s not discussed or called attention to in any manner other than a brief camera shot (as depicted above).
It’s product placement in the most brilliant, subtle manner. Even those who don’t watch the show can’t help but be struck by his sullen demeanor. It’s a face that sticks with you. And for those of us who are annoyed with the banners and obligatory, “Folks, tune into…” spiels interjected into other aspects of our entertainment diet, it serves as the perfect marketing tool.
I, and I imagine many others, now feel compelled to at least sit down for an episode of the show just to see what it’s all about. All because of a four second clip of a supporting character from a brand new TV show. Now that’s effective marketing.
Dan Davis is a Freelance Writer carving out his growing resume, specializing in copy writing, and subjects from sports to the arts. Contact him on LinkedIn.
Did you hear the one about the 15-year-old who decided to run his own study on the media consumption patterns of teenagers? It’s quite the research… er… story… lesson.
Ben Kellogg of Group SJR forwarded me the article after we had spoken about an entirely unrelated subject. To be quite honest, I didn’t jump right on it… my laptop had died, losing files, email contacts, and programs. I just kept resetting the email reminder. Until today.
Matthew Robson, a 15-year-old intern working for Morgan Stanley, conducted a media study called “How Teenagers Consume Media.” The conclusions caused a bit of an uproar, mainly because one teen does not represent all teens. Yet, it could also be said that the overall observations coincide with many teen media habits. The teens I know, for instance, would rather be online than in front of a television. Either that or doing both… watching TV and surfing the Web, interspersed with texting. Although there is absolutely no statistical backing for a survey of one, we can draw some general inferences from Robson’s writing.
General conclusions for the study include:
*According to the graph below from Sysomos, teens comprise 30% of Twitter users:
This is directly in contrast with Robson’s assessment.
But hey, he is 15 years-old, and while he may be intelligent, his judgment is missing the crucial benefit of time. However, Morgan Stanley should not be lacking in the judgment column… or, in retrospect, maybe that’s exactly what they are missing…
Jeff Louis: Strategic Media Planner, Brand Project Manager, Writer & Blogger. Unlike the all the other blog writers for Talent Zoo, Jeff is cute and nice. Tweet him @jlo0312. Just kidding about the nice part.
If you’re anything like me, you love YouTube. Maybe “love” isn’t a strong enough word. Alright, I admit it. I’m obsessed with YouTube – I could watch it all day long. Why? Aside from the astounding variety of content, I’m fascinated with the originality of the material – especially as it pertains to advertising.
My latest obsession is a relatively new spot from Cadbury, which is divinely awesome because of its sheer weirdness. A glass and a half full of joy, indeed. This spot makes absolutely no mention of the product, but I love it anyway and if loving the spot is wrong, I don’t want to be right.
I’m also intrigued by the “Live Young” campaign from Evian. This spot features onesie-clad babies grooving on skates and doing rail slides to “Rapper’s Delight.” Alright, Evian, I get the hint – drinking your product makes you feel young – but I still think those babies are kind of creepy.
So, what’s the deal? Are spots focused on the Internet being made purely for the creative joy of it? Are we trying to capture the imagination (and eventual cash flow) of the beaten-down consumer? Or have “the rules” completely gone out the window?
Sara Barton is a copywriter, social media strategist, and avid blogger who is in search of her next opportunity. Contact her via Twitter, LinkedIn, or her blog.
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.
