Spexism: Men want boobs, women want diamonds

Umm...

The first of these spec ads for Baygon bug dope appeared yesterday on Illegal Advertising. Aimed at young guys, and featuring the inevitable boobies, it's actually a pretty interesting reading of the popular proverb, -"If you think something small can't make a difference, try going to sleep with a mosquito in the room."


The Dream from Jerome Genevray on Vimeo.


The Vimeo link leads to a "female" version as well. And while I can have a good laugh at the poor guy in the former getting his dream cock-blocked by a parasite, it seems that women fantasize about something entirely different:


The Bride from Jerome Genevray on Vimeo.


...marriage? Okay, the creative team of Jerome Genevray & Eric Esculier lost me there by playing a trope as old as the hills. Too uncomfortable to show a woman's sexual fantasies, guys? Think they're really turned on by diamonds, and not hot sex as well? At least be equal opportunity in your sex-crazed advertising.

Graceful sexploitation?

It's a very cool ad, actually, even though its anonymous sexuality evokes the James Bond era of the original series. But hey — the ad's made in Montreal (by BBR). And it's actually a lot classier that the usual exploitation of the series' Canadian female lead, Grace Park.

There's another ad in the campaign, but it's not that notable.

Via Ads of The World

Columbus as Creative?

I'm not sure the payoff is worth it on this short film promoting the Iberoamerican Advertising Festival, but it still rings true as a message about creative frustration.



Unfortunately, Chris's "brilliant" idea was actually terrible. Although the fact that the Earth is round was well-known in his time, he was convinced that the globe was much smaller than the ancient Greeks had calculated. Since nobody knew the Americas were there, the experts at the time assumed that the explorers would starve to death in a vast sea between Europe and Asia. Finding land in the Caribbean was pure, dumb luck. (Although he may have been tipped off about the existence of Newfoundland by Portuguese fishing fleets.)

In other words, comparing Columbus to a brave Creative is like saying we are deluded egomaniacs who occasionally, blindly, land on something we can exploit.

Hmmm...

via Ads of The World

F'd Ad Fridays: Scratch and Sniff jeans

From Selfridges & Co:

"Give your weekend wardrobe a playful twist with Naked & Famous Denim's raspberry–scented scratch and sniff jeans. In the label's tapered Weird Guy fit, these indigo jeans can be scratched to give off a sweet raspberry scent. "

Raspberry scent? I guess it's better than Doritos.

via BuzzFeed

F'd Ad Fridays: Save the Allosaurus

The Daily What posted this secretly awesome wedding invitation. See the close-ups below:

"mmmmm..."

F'd Ad Fridays: Young Lions — unleash your... creativity?

Oh, that is some really unfortunate art direction right there. Especially for "Canada’s official representative for the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity."

Via Black Bag Career Central

F'd Ad Fridays: Smooth Groove helps women say 'no' to the... you know...

This is a real product. Think about it: people designed, manufactured and marketed this.

They even made a promo video:



It's not the only such product. Camelflage makes toe-proof underpants. (Complete with "before and after" photos O_O)

It's interetsing the times we live in. "Cameltoe" is the new "panty lines" — except that it describes a much more intimate wardrobe malfunction. In just a few years, the term has gone from porny internet reference to mainstream conversation.

Even Lulu Lemon got in on the action:

via

Is this the end of "decency," an example of pornification of everyday life, or just the natural result of third-wave feminism?


Tip via Racked

F'd Ad Fridays: Not an ad for boots (or cats) but it should be

Kerry sent me this cool short video:



Admit it, you danced a little while watching that, didn't you? Maybe just twitched your shoulders while sitting at your desk?

F'd Ad Fridays: Johnny Worker Red Labial

The perfect nightcap to a night of drinking crotch wine.

Via Buzzfeed

F'd Ad Fridays: Those Doritos smell like ass!

I'm not sure the smell of powdered cheese and spices so much covers the smell of flatulence as disguises it.



Via Adrants

F'd Ad Fridays: Lobster vending machine

This really exists, and it's actually sort of awesome.

Via oddee.com

F'd Ad Fridays: This wine tastes like crotch!

Literally: "taste it!"

I can just imagine the tasting notes for this Abruzzo white: "a musky nose, with hints of camembert"

At least it's not the red...

Via nonconvenzionalenoparty (in Italian)

F'd Ad Fridays: Return of the merkin

Fanny Hill probably rocked one. Why wouldn't you?

If you've never heard the word "merkin" before, make it your word of the day. Dating back to the 1600s or earlier, the term describes a pubic wig worn by prostitutes who had denuded their pudenda as a precaution against catching and spreading crabs.

Well, in a time when women are messing with pubic perfection like never before, Real Housewife of New York Cindy Barshop is offering fantasy merkin installation at her spa:



Made of dyed fox fur and feathers, these things are the next logical step in the whole "vajazzling" trend. Whatever.

Via Spa Week

F'd Ad Fridays: Boner spray spoofs Charles Atlas

Adrants posted this rather unimaginative parody of classic Charles Atlas fitness ads starring reality TV model Adrianne Curry.

From the product site:

"Meet Erox, a new approach to functional fragrance design that combines patented compounds, including two human pheromones and Muricin Aglycone, a non-pheromone organic molecule that has been proven to increase excitement and arousal in men and women in a double-blind placebo controlled study. Prior to Erox, this compound has never before been available in a consumer product."

Sounds totally legit to me...

F'd Ad Fridays: Thanks to these posters, my expectations are very low

I already don't like the "what to expect" series of maternal micromanagement books. These dumb posters for the upcoming movie that look and read like hackneyed internet memes aren't exactly helping me want to see the damn thing.

Via BuzzSugar

F'd Ad Fridays: What what? In the dog's butt...

Now that's an unpleasant campaign. Ogilvy & Mather, Japan, would like you to know that Sneaker Freaker Magazine is doing something about the urban dog shit issue.

Really:



Tip via Ads of The World

F'd Ad Fridays: The grossest film poster you'll come across today

According to the Anomalous Material blog (via Buzzfeed) this is a "banned" poster created for the Hungarian release of the well-received dirty Steve McQueen movie, Shame.

Eww.

A perfect Harley-Davidson ad

"Hand-picked by the establishment"

And that's all I have to say about it.

Via Ads of The World

Alex Bogusky came up with a better slogan than me

This blog is based on a brand statement I developed several years ago for Acart, which is "We're here to do work that really matters." It's been shortened, since, to "work that matters".

Today, I saw that I've been one-upped with a four-letter-word.

Why didn't I think of that? Oh yeah, because I'm not Alex Bogusky.

This saying isn’t just important because it captures the reason COMMON exists (to creatively accelerate social change, if you’re curious) – it also keeps us focused, motivated and calm in the midst of our most massive creative suck holes. 

It’s ‘Do Shit That Matters.’ 

But doing shit that matters is hardly just something that we care about. As we’ve so thoroughly discovered in our community’s first year, doing shit that matters is important to almost everyone. Those four words are the reason we like getting up in the morning. They’re the reason we make the decisions we make. They’re the reason working doesn’t really feel like work. Most of the time.

Zahia Dehar sells her body for fashion

Zahia Dehar made world headlines when it was discovered she was working as a call-girl to several well-known French soccer players when she was only 17.

Now 19, she has found a way to sell her body legitimately (with help from a Hong Kong investor and Karl Lagerfeld) as the "face" of a new couture lingerie line.



As you can see from the video, however, her face is not the focus of the brand.

WWD described this scene at her launch:

"Puzzled guests opened the black boxes left on their seats to discover a miniature pink chocolate rendition of Dehar’s assets, nestled in black tissue paper. Life-sized versions, rendered in metallic pink, were dotted through a pitch-dark space where waiters served Champagne after the show."

Actual product design is apparently not integral to the brand, either:

"...the money poured into the show could not disguise her lack of experience. Models stood on revolving podiums in designs ranging from a black hourglass corset festooned with pink petals to a bodysuit consisting of little more than a giant pink satin bow and matching pasties. With its Manga esthetic, the collection navigated an uncomfortable line between infantile and erotic. A scantily clad Dehar emerged for the finale, flashing come-hither looks as pink petals showered down from above. "

So what exactly is she selling?

 

You tell me.

Samsung Galaxy Tab ad parody is f*cking awesome

Seen this Samsung Galaxy Tab ad?



Even if you have, you've probably forgotten about it. Until now. Because someone has gone and redone the audio on it.



Result? Awesome.

Via Illegal Advertising

Real-life ad blockers strike Stockholm subway

A Swedish activist group posted this video of their shenanigans in the Stockholm subway, removing all ads from a train car and a station.



While I can appreciate a good civil disobedience, and I agree it's nice to have a little break from ad overload, the stunt is pretty obnoxious to anyone involved in public transit.

The group is quoted in Animal NY:

“Public transport is nothing you can compromise about. It is a vital part of the urban nervous system and is a public matter, a premise for the city’s economical and social life to function. The fact that public transport is too expensive is both a structural issue as well as a reality for individual people. It is not fair that a millionaire and an unemployed person has to pay as much for public transport. With tax-paid, fare-free, public transport everyone pays according to how much they can pay.”

I would love for buses, trains, etc. to be able to be fare- and ad-free too. That would be awesome. Seriously. But if even a country like Sweden has to supplement taxpayer funding by collecting fare and selling ad space, you can be pretty sure that is not happening in any capitalist country anytime soon.

I get it. They're anarchists. Me, I just want to be able to take the bus to work. And as a rider, I have a feeling any social action that costs the transit system revenue is going to end up coming out of my pocket.

But hey, have fun sticking it to all the wrong people.

And is this not also an ad?

Steel Panther poster banned in UK for sexy/sexist imagery

Spinal Tap would be so proud.



Indeed. Steel Panther are yet another parody band who do the material so well that people take it seriously. At least that's what happened when this outrageously over-the-top poster appeared in the UK last fall.

The Guardian reports that the ASA, the UK's notoriously ninny ad standards enforcer, did not accept the argument that that the ads were meant to "poke fun at the ridiculousness of the attitude to women, outfits and music in that [1980s] era".

Here's the ruling in full:

"The ASA noted Universal Island Records' argument that the poster was not meant to cause offence or be seen as demeaning to women.  However, we considered that the main image on the poster was overtly sexual.  We noted that the pose of the woman showed her with her legs apart, her hand between her legs and her breasts partially exposed and considered that her facial expression was suggestive of an orgasm and sexual activity.  In addition to this, we considered that the album title "Balls Out" was sexually suggestive particularly when viewed in the context of the poster, where the woman was seen dangling two silver balls between her legs in a way that we considered was suggestive of male genitalia. 

We noted Universal Island Records' argument that the poster was meant to be viewed humorously and not to be taken seriously as it was meant to represent the over-the-top image of the band featured in the poster.  However, we considered that most people would not view the poster in this way and even if they had viewed it in that context, the poster was overtly sexual when taken as a whole.  Given its placement in a range of public locations, we concluded that it was likely to cause serious and widespread offence, was unsuitable to be seen by children and therefore was not appropriate for outdoor advertising."

Universal had stated that their media plan favoured locations that are "popular with adults for nights out" but since the campaign is over now anyway, it hardly matters.

What is interesting about all of this is the struggle between artistic licence in the pursuit of laughs and real-life standards against sexism, racism, and other social ills. It's such a fine line...




Tip via Adland

Just what America needs: An Xbox controller that feeds you Hot Pockets

It's long, it's nerdy, and it's kind of terrifying. Technology nerd Ben Heck painstakingly designs a device that amechanically extrudes a Hot Pocket from the top of your Xbox 360 controller so that you can take bites of dough-wrapped greasy goop without having to pause your favourite game.



It's oddly compelling, in a "this is the end of civilization as we know it" kind of way.

Via G4

Sainsbury's has the best customer service person in the world

Kerry shared this awesome find from Facebook. (It also appears on Huffington Post UK.)

Three-and-a-half-year-old consumer Lily Robinson had a question about one of UK chain store Sainsbury's store-brand food products:

Cute. But what Customer Manager Chris King wrote back should be enshrined in customer service history.

Full text:

Thanks so much for your letter. I think renaming tiger bread giraffe bread is a brilliant idea — it looks much more like the blotches on a giraffe than the stripes on a tiger, doesn't it? 

It is called tiger bread because the first baker who made it a looong time ago thought it looked sripey like a tiger. Maybe they were a bit silly. 

I really liked reading your letter so I thought I would send you a little present. I've put a £3 gift card in with this letter. If you ask your mum or dad to take you to Sainsbury's you could use it to buy some of your own tiger bread (and maybe if mum and dad say it's OK you can get some sweeties too!) Please tell an adult to wait 48 hours before using this card. 

I'm glad you wrote in to us and hope you like spending your gift card. See you in store soon. 

Yours sincerely 

Chris King (age 27 & 1/3)

And that, my friends, is how you attract customers for life. And it didn't even involve social media. (Until now.)

Is fashion advertising less facile if it lets you know it knows you know it's facile?

Long headline. But the question remains: is this "short film" for fashion magazine Jalouse, starring model Ashley Smith brilliant in its cynical self-referencing commentary by director Matthew Frost?



Or is this just another level of arrogance?

Personally, I found it entertaining. But as a Canadian, I like anyone who can laugh at themselves.

Via Illegal Advertising

Australia's "Barbie Girl" is not sheepish about shilling for meat

Sam Kekovich is an Australian sports commentator, media personality and "lambassador" for Meat & Livestock Australia.

To promote heavy lamb consumption for Australia Day cookouts, Sydney agency BMF teamed him up with surgically-enhanced pop singer Melissa Tkautz to perform a carnivorous cover of Aqua's 1997 dance hit, “Barbie Girl”.



Did I mention that he's autotuned? He also raps.

Happy Australia Day down there.

Tip via The Inspiration Room

Cottage cheese thighs?

"Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine," who are basically a vegan advocacy group, are hating on cheese again.

These billboards were recently erected outside Albany, New York, in dairy country.

Strangely, this is part of a campaign to have cheese removed from (or reduced in) school lunches.

"PCRM president Neal Barnard, M.D., has written a letter to members of the Albany city school board, asking the city to cut down on dairy products served in schools to help students reduce the risk of childhood obesity.
...
School lunches in Albany include an abundance of cheesy foods. The city’s high school menu, for example, includes dairy- and fat-loaded offerings such as chicken parmesan and lasagna with three different types of cheese. Cheese pizzas are available daily."

I won't defend the nutritional value of crappy school lunches. But as an ad guy, I find PCRM's ads as useless as ever. Eating too much fat makes you fat? Gee... thanks. Quite the medical breakthrough there. Targeting one food as the enemy, however, oversimplifies the issue.

Tip via Sociological Images

History repeats itself. History repeats itself. History...

Mexico City's Museo Memoria y Tolerancia is an interesting idea. In a place founded on genocide and the clash of ancient empires, the museum stands "to warn about the dangers of indifference, discrimination and violence for generating, instead, responsibility, respect and awareness in each individual."

These ads, by Mexico's Made agency, paraphrase the George Santayana  quote "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" and matches it with iconic images of war and violence to amplify the message.

The effect is not subtle, and you could accuse the campaign of relying too much on borrowing interest from some of the world's great tragedies. But the message is, at least, clear. and as important now as it was over 100 years ago.

Via I Believe in Advertising 

McDonald's serves up hashtags, gets burned. #McDStories

Big corporations and social media is a volatile mix. McDonald's learned this the hard way this month when they introduced a special hashtag (#McDStories) on Twitter in an attempt to generate some free customer-generated social PR to go with its new campaign.

The results, for anyone who spends time on Twitter, were predictable. It was a freaking dogpile.

And of course PETA got involved.

While there are ways to deal with this kind of backlash, McDonald's is just too big to give a community manager the power and training to fix it, and to hated to avoid messing it up anyway.

They should have stuck with hashbrowns.