"Depressed Copywriter" is actually hilarious

It's a new advertising Tumblr. And some of the posts are depressingly funny:

It's like he or she is posting from inside every burnt out Copywriter's poundingly hung over mind.

Check out the whole psychological mess here.

Via Copyranter

Smarter people than me are also fascinated by it

Sex in advertising, that is.

Lisa Wade, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Occidental College and a blogger at Sociological Images. As she often takes on the issue of sex and sexism in advertising and other media, we often end up sharing links.

The most recent one she shared (via Facebook) is a Pinterest board of ads that use subliminal, and not so subliminal, sexual symbolism.

And by "not subliminal", she means stuff like this:

And this:

And...

Some are subversive:

Others are rather creative:

As an educator, Lisa provides links to analyses of the images. As an adman (and ad critic), I find this both useful and entertaining. Here's hoping the Sexual Symbolism board will continue to expand, and that people will actually learn to make and/or identify better ads because of it.

Time cover features preschooler breastfeeding

Via BuzzFeed

So that was unexpected.

As the United States continues to struggle with the social and health issues around breastfeeding, Time Magazine decides to run a cover photo of a nursing three-year-old.

It's for a piece on attachment parenting, which we practice to some extent at our house (even though the boy weaned himself at about 20 months). I'm sure the picture is meant to shock some people who think breastfeeding a kid old enough to talk is weird or even perverse.

"Supermom" Jamie Lynne Grumet (the woman in the picture) told Huffington Post:

“When you think of breast-feeding, you think of mothers holding their children, which was impossible with some of these older kids. I liked the idea of having the kids standing up to underline the point that this was an uncommon situation.”

But hey — in the struggle to normalize natural baby feeding, such a prominent portrayal can only help.

My only question is, now that breastfeeding is considered "SFW" enough for the cover of Time, can Facebook stop calling it "obscene"?

See more photos from the shoot here.

Playboy's late-life identity crisis

Poor old Playboy doesn't know what to be in the 21st Century.

Founded as somewhat of a countercultural icon for affluent and educated men almost 60 years ago, it played an important (if one-sided) part in the Sexual Revolution and spoke out against McCarthyism. In the '60s, it matured into a brand for the wannabe martini set. But by the '70s, hardcore pornography took away its more horny audiences as it maintained its relevance through top-notch interviews and celebrity pictorials. In the '80s, it was all about video.

Now, here we are in the digital age. Pictures of naked women are abundant and free. So is interesting and subversive content. So what's left for Playboy?

I think their biggest problem is that sex, culture and politics are no longer a man's exclusive domain. Playboy will never be able to shake its basically sexist brand character, and who wants to be associated with that?

The douchebag market, that's who. Young men who read Maxim and wear Axe.

To compete with Maxim, Playboy launched The Smoking Jacket, an online ladmag that covers culture, entertainment and boobies with a less overtly-pornographic, teasing style. Fellow adblogger Steve Hall, from Adrants, is one of the contributors. (He pens a "sexy ads of the week" column.)

And Axe?

Check out this Playboy shower gel ad by DDB Paris:



Yeah, it's a shitty ad. It's also extremely creepy. Can you imagine how a young woman would feel if a strange man, alone with her in the elevator, hit the emergency button? She'd be expecting the worst.

I don't really know if Playboy has a future as a serious brand. It could be that, in a few years, it will only survive as a logo worn ironically (or desperately) by attention-seeking young women.

What do you think?

Canadian focus groups shocked by topless statues on WW I memorial shown on $20 bill

Journalists really have to stop basing their coverage of political issues on Access to Information requests for focus group results.

Here's a scoop: sometimes, focus group participants say stupid things.

Case in freaking point: CTV reports that focus groups shown Canada's new $20 bill design complained about "pornographic" images of partially nude women and "the twin towers" from 9/11.

They were looking at an engraving of the Canadian National Vimy Memorial in France, a world famous monument to First World War Canadian soldiers killed or presumed dead in France who have no known grave.

And, being a neoclassical kind of monument, it includes naked boobies:

Oh! The humanity.

I would like to ask the journalistic community to please stop making Canadians look so ignorant.

Also, nudity in currency notes is classy.

Subway talks trash about fast food

If real, this is pretty weird. According to a post on Ads Of The World, it's a Subway campaign for DDB Puerto Rico.

Weirdness aside, there are two things about this campaign that bug me:

First, what fast food brand in its right mind would want their logo associated with disgusting, smelly, garbage trucks and bins? Even with the "feed them better" tagline, it's bound to cause some visceral negativity around the brand.

Second, Subway is hardly health food. According to their site, even a 6" version of their tuna, Italian, and pizza subs have almost 500 calories. (Specialty six-inchers like Big Philly Cheesesteak, Buffalo Chicken, and Chicken & Bacon Ranch Melt have 500 or more.)

At McDonald's, a Big Mac is more calorie-iffic, sure, at 550, but the Quarter Pounder w/Cheese is 520, and a regular hamburger (does anyone eat those?) is just 250 cal.

Sure, you can go all Jared and get a low-fat turkey sub with no cheese and mayo. But McDonald's also sells salads. The point is that you can get an Angus Bacon & Cheese (790) with fries and a Coke (note that all numbers on the McSite are "small only") or you can get a footlong Big Philly Cheesesteak (1000) with chips and a Coke. Both meals are arterially terrifying crap.

So where does Subway get off being all less-junkier-than-thou?

"A Stretchy Hand" — new sticky viral from Coca-Cola

Go ahead. Do it! Go to astretchyhand.com and tell me you didn't waste a good five minutes (or more) on that sticky little thing.

(That's what she said.)

Needlessly creepy parental control ads

Why so creepy? My guess is that the Art Director watches a lot of vintage porn.

Unfortunately, the "parent" in these ads ends up looking like a predator. Which is pretty much the opposite of what was intended. (Also, why is the supposed protagonist made of porn? Hmmm...)

Ads by Sancho BBDO, Bogota, Colombia.

Via Ads Of The World

Reframing the solar power pitch (sort-of)

"You just heard 'solar" and assumed I'm some weird pickler guy"

A new Fast Company post features this fun campaign by Heat for  SunRun, a San Francisco-based provider of domestic solar power systems.

This one's the best:



By making gentle fun of environmentalists, the approach does two things well:

1) It appeals to people who are more thrifty than "crunchy", and
2) It appeals to people who are a little crunchy, but have a healthy sense of irony

In other words, the ads appeal to smart people who want to live more sustainably — one way or another — and lower the barriers to trial.

It's a refreshing attempt to normalize solar.

McDonald's wants you to buy your kids' love with McNuggets

It's always been known that McDonald's real brand promise is "buy your children's love". They create this opportunity by marketing so effectively to kids that they think anything tastes better in a McWrapper. Then they sappily remind third- and fourth-generation McParents how great they felt when they went to the Golden Arches.

Knowing all of this, and as cynical as I am, I was still shocked when I saw this print campaign on Copyranter's Buzzfeed blog.

DDB New York has produced what may be the most blatant execution of McDonald's brand strategy by telling parents that even if they suck at making their kids happy, the anodyne is a quick trip to the Mc, where a few bucks worth of sugar, salt, fat and designer flavours will make it all okay.

Yeah, it's supposed to be clever and funny. No, I am not laughing. Especially in regards to the one where a little boy is abandoned in a dark soccer field because mom or dad simply forgot to pick him up:

Show some responsibility already, McDonalds and DDB. Or at least be a little more subtle in your evil manipulation of parental love. OK?

Another Indo-American reaction to Ashton's "brownface"

I posted earlier today about Puja Mohindra's reaction video to the tasteless Indian stereotype Ashton Kutcher portrayed in a viral ad for Pop Chips.

It turns out Ms. Mohindra wasn't the only one. American comedian Hasan Minhaj really lays into the advertiser:



And so he should.

I find Mr. Minhaj's term "clownable minority" a really useful one when discussing the "just a joke" racism of ethnic stereotypes. We really need to take a step back and think about what these jokes really mean to a billion of our friends and neighbours.

Chewbacca celebrated Star Wars Day by having a bubble bath with two women

The last remnants of the Empire have been defeated, and it is a period of peace in the galaxy. The Jedi Order, no longer needed in their role as defenders, have scattered across the stars and started new lives...while the Sith wait quietly hidden in their midst. Such a Jedi and her Sith counterpart have found common ground and established a new business together on a remote planet. United by a love of animals and a belief in the force, they have rededicated their lives to the art of grooming. Their latest mission leads them to the base of a former Rebel. Though the war is over, they have not forgotten where their true allegiances lie...

This is one strange fake ad. Last Friday, "May the Fourth (be with you)", was Star Wars Day, and it inspired this Seth Green-directed commercial spoof: According to Nerdist:

"The Fourth is in Force at the Nerdist Channel, where nothing says celebrating Star Wars fandom like two lovely ladies with lightsabers. "Saber 2: Return of the Body Wash" sees Rileah Vanderbilt and Clare Grant returning to their popular fake-but-we-wish-it-were real cologne commercial world with a curvaceous clone-war twist. Watch as things get wetter than the planet Kamino in the newest Duel of the Femme Fatales."

Ummm... okay. Clare Grant, by the way, is Seth Green's wife.

Advice for Ashton on how to make fun of Indian people

Indo-American actress Puja Mohindra has some advice for Ashton Kutcher on how to properly make fun of Indian people:



Kutcher's steretypical portrayal of "Raj" on a since-yoinked online campaign for Pop Chips has been roundly criticized on social media. But this oddball (and somewhat meandering) video is at least the most... ummm...  interesting reaction I've seen.

UPDATE: Ms. Mohindra has listened to critics of her video's pacing, and has edited a new version:

This is why the world needs FEMEN

With their headline-grabbing tactic of demonstrating topless, the women of Ukraine's FEMEN movement can seem like a novelty act. But believe me, they are deadly serious.

And one of the main reasons they came into existence, a few years ago, was to fight against the way Ukrainian women are perceived and treated — not just in their own country, but around the world.

This year, the focus of their anger has been the 2012 UEFA European Football Championship (Euro 2012), which will be co-hosted by Ukraine and Poland. Like many other major sporting events, Euro 2012 is expected to arouse a boom in prostitution as local women offer to "service" foreign soccer fans.

The potential for widespread exploitation and abuse of women is even worse in Ukraine, which is a well-known European destination for sex tourism.

How well-known? Check out these two ads:





In both cases, the idea that Ukrainian women are Europe's sex toys is simply taken for granted.

FEMEN's founder, Anna Hutsol, told New Europe:

“I don't know what type of people will come or how they see our country, but if they think it is a 'brothel country', how will they behave with young women on the streets? You know, our girls dress quite liberally, which is usually not accepted in a European country, and to some could seem as a sexual call . This will also influence the behaviour of the sport fans. Thus, we need drive home the message: 'Yes, Ukrainian girls usually dress like this, but they are not prostitutes.'”

Women re-appropriating their own sexuality. It's a thing now, with worldwide movements like Slutwalk and Rock The Slut Vote. But before them were these half-dressed Ukrainian women, shivering and screeching against a system that tries to keep them down. Let's all hope in never does.

And the most Effed ad of #FdAdFriday goes to...

...this barfworthy spot for French radio station Le Mouv':



Copyranter translates the kicker:

"Not everything was better before."
"My time. My radio."

You see, condoms were once made of sheep guts. (Some still are.) And listening to classic rock is kind of like putting an intestine on your johnson.

Okay.

I guess I want America to fail #FdAdFriday

I have no other comment.

(Thanks to Kerry and Casey for sharing)

What the Falklands, Argentina? #FdAdFriday

Oh, my. Argentina really is poking the bear. (Or rather, the bulldog.)

In this new spot for Argentina's Olympic team, field hockey captain Fernando Zylberberg run through the Falklands, and (according to Yahoo! News) ends his workout "on the island's Great War Memorial, which honours British sailors who died in World War I".

The tagline then claims the islands as "Argentine soil"...

For those of you not born yet 30 years ago, at the time Great Britain and Argentina went to war over the desolate British territorial islands off the southern coast of South America. 649 Argentine military personnel, 255 British military personnel and three Falkland Islanders died during the conflict, which the Brits won.

Argentina has never given up its claim to the islands, however, and has been making increasingly threatening statements about having another go at them.

UK Foreign Secretary William Hague was unimpressed by this attempt to politicize the Olympics:

"Of course in Britain we remain absolutely steadfast in our support for the self determination of the Falkland Islanders and we will always support that," he added.

"It is a rather sad stunt, it won't impress anybody in the world. We are not do going to take any actual action in response to it."

Peeing on an electric fence is this week's hot political metaphor #FdAdFriday

It's based on a Will Rogers quote

Roland Sledge, candidate for Texas Railroad Commissioner, says, “Isn't it about time we elected political leaders that have sense enough not to pee on electric fences.”



Indeed it is.

Via Buzzfeed

Ashton Kutcher drags out the tiresome stereotypes #FdAdFriday

Yes, Peter Sellers did it. The Simpsons still does it. But can we agree to stop accepting racist stereotypes of Indian people now?



I know it's a comedy staple. But so was blackface, until shortly before my lifetime. Enough is enough. Let's move on to something funnier and less insulting to a billion of our fellow humans, shall we?

Update: The Vulture reports

"Interestingly, as recently as 6 p.m. today [May 2], Pop Chips had separate ads up on YouTube for each of Kutcher's different characters, including an extended-play audience with Raj. But by shortly after 7 p.m., they had all been marked "Private" and are inaccessible. Perhaps different decisions are being made very quickly. UPDATE: And it looks like all of the other videos with Kutcher's other characters spotlighted individually are back up, but Raj's remains taken down."

Update 2: The video has already been pulled from all official channels.

Parapornal activity #FdAdFriday

Horror hides in a box of porn...

Remember last Christmas, when Acart Communications did that Paranormal Activity spoof? We weren't the first to parody the horror franchise, and we won't be the last.

But I don't think anyone will ever make a weirder one than this:



This trailer was made to attract attention to Christian "Comedian*" Rich Praytor's campaign to make his big idea — of combining borrowed interest from Paranormal Activity, Poltergeist and other pop memes, bad jokes, and a morality play about pornography — into a feature film.

According to the Kickstarter page:

Why are we doing a project like this?     
Because films are not only entertaining but they're also a way to teach people.  Society learns their morals and values through music, film and television.  Pornography is such a huge problem that simply telling someone how dangerous it is usually doesn't work.  You have to tell a compelling story to catch someone's attention and then educate them while they're being entertained.  

Praytor promises to let big donors actually take part in the making of the film: For $250, you can "be apart [sic] of a creative brainstorming session with the cast and crew via Skype or in person (transportation not included)"; for $500, they'll name a character after you; for $3500, they'll fly you  to Colorado Springs to direct one of four scenes created from your ideas; $5000 gets you the Executive Producer credit.

But the best deal is the $7500 option:

"The director and two actors will travel to your location (continental United States only) for the day and shoot a scene you created. You will also direct the scene and spend the day with the team."
The subversive potential of being able to write and direct a scene in a low-budget Christian comedo-horror almost seems worth the money.

*And why did I put "comedian" in quotes?

Here is some of Praytor's earlier Christian comedy gold:




Tip via Buzzfeed

Does "pussy" have the same connotation in Estonian? #FdAdFriday

Without the benefit of Google Translate, my guess is "yes"

Via Copyranter, who notes that Elu24 is the country's largest newspaper.

It's part of a pudenda-obsessed poster campaign which, (this time with the help of Google Translate) is apparently causing quite a bit of controversy.

The martini and the trowel, apparently, do not translate...

Ford's cane toad snuff porn ad: would PETA approve?

I left out "autoerotic bukkake"

So this is a little weird. But give JWT Melbourne the benefit of some context: cane toads are a blight on their land.



But will it sell cars?

Adverblog quoted a YouTube comment, “Entertaining but I know more now about frog secretion then I do about the new falcon.”

Still, I enjoyed it. I guess I'm just perverted that way.

Safer sex billboard versus fretful mother

AdFreak has a story about how a resident of Van Nuys, California, successfully lobbied to have a safer sex billboard in her community taken down from a public thoroughfare. 

The ad in question?

Via KTLA

According to local news outlet KTLA:

"Eve Ragsdale worried about having to explain the billboard to her 6-year-old triplets. 

... 

Ragsdale had contended that her children, who read now and ask questions about everything, were not developmentally ready to have the AIDS-condom relationship explained to them. 

'It's just an inappropriate image for all of the children in the neighborhood,' she said."

I am raising a young child in an urban environment, too. He's also a kid who is curious about everything, but he rarely asks awkward questions about the condoms we see on the sidewalk, or the streetwalkers we drive past. It's not that he doesn't notice. He just doesn't care much about those things at his age.

But as a 7-year-old obsessed with nature, he knows what sex is. (He surprised an after school caregiver last year by pointing out two "mating" squirrels.) If he asked me straight out what a condom was for, I'd tell him in an age-appropriate manner. Even though young ones don't yet have those feelings, it won't be long. My belief is that it's better to normalize condom use before the occasion... arises?

But, of course, other parents may have different views. My major concern here is a very important public health massage being stifled by an individual's feeling that it is not appropriate for the public media. And the media company, who decided to take the knee-jerk approach, gave in without so much as a second thought.

According to the LA Daily News:

"Van Wagner Outdoor Vice Chairman Bill Crabtree told the Daily News that the billboard would be changed on Wednesday or Thursday. 

'I told my operations manager to move it,' Crabtree said. 'We listened to (Ragsdale), we don't necessarily agree with her, but if it's offensive to her, the last thing we want to do is offend anyone.' 

'We don't put up (ads for) strip clubs, we don't put up anything that is lewd," Crabtree explained. "But the AIDS thing is educational, quite frankly. I know people might look at some of the designs askew, but they're trying to get their point across.' 

'We don't put up ads for strip clubs, we don't put up anything that is lewd,' Crabtree said."

 Ironically, as AdFreak's David Kiefaber points out, Van Nuys is literally The Porn Capital of The World. And a recent LA law requires all adult performers to wear condoms in their onscreen couplings.

But hey, Ms. Ragsdale. Heaven forbid you should have to explain that billboard to your children.

If I were the AHF, I would not take this lying down.

The mindless tyranny of the "Rule of Three"

School House Rock - Three is a Magic Number - The most popular videos are here

We are all obsessed with threes. Blame School House Rock. (That, and centuries of myth and numerology.)

Ever since I began my career in advertising, the number 3 has been a pain in my creative ass — particularly when it comes to print campaigns. We sit down to brainstorm a campaign, and unless it's a one-off, we always feel compelled to try and make three equally awesome versions of the same "big idea".

The first one is usually great. The second can be also. But the third — that extra push to make it a nice, round numbered campaign — is too often a compromise.

I believe this obsession with three execution print campaigns is universal. I see it all the time in places like Ads of The World, where agencies try to clone one or two good ideas into a "full campaign".

Here is a perfect example:

Some very creative people at  DDB, Sydney, Australia, came up with a clever (if gory) visual idea to communicate the dangers of crossing the road with earbuds on. It's a little shocking for my taste, but it is original (as far as I know) and the execution is solid.

But is it "campaignable?" is always the Creative Director's question. They most likely then looked into other deathly representations of various types of headphones and other peripherals for music players and smartphones.

But what did they come back with?

The same... bloody... ad. But with a man.

What a waste of photography and art direction to duplicate the first idea. (I don't actually know in which order these were conceived, but stay with me here.)

I understand that sometimes clients feel that viewers cannot identify with a person in an ad who is not like them — sexually, ethnically, age-wise or whatever — but I would have argued that the concept was strong enough to overcome that. And the duplication just dilutes the "wow" factor of the original.

But they kept going:

There. Now we've increased the age and ethnic diversity of the campaign. But at this point, I don't even process the concept anymore. I just think that the creative team stubbornly stuck to the one good idea they could come up with.

Damn Rule of Three. It totally ruined an otherwise impressive campaign.

Dove provides yet another new perspective on beauty

Dove Canada would like you to think twice about your perception of beauty. 

According to their Newswire release, the ads "spark a conversation around how extreme re-touching of images can go unnoticed and can distort a woman's perception of beauty." 

It also adds, "ATTENTION PHOTO EDITORS:  Image provided should be run upside down to deliver full impact of campaign."

But since turning non-mobile computers upside down to decode a print ad is rather awkward, here it is:

Her eyes and mouth had been digitally flipped so that they looked normal when you saw them upside down, but when you turned... yikes!

Inversion illusions are not new to advertising, and were once even used to make dirty jokes:

Here's an example of the same trick: (You may recognize the smile)

Dove's campaign leads to  their Canadian Facebook page, where they hope to engage girls in a more positive discussion about beauty. "The Real Truth About Beauty Research",  conducted by Dove, found that only 9% of Canadian girls (10-17) and 3% of women are comfortable calling themselves beautiful.

And to add a little cross-mojination to my blog, here's that ad run through the Ugly Meter I blogged about earlier:

Oh, my!

Tip via Because I Am A Girl Canada