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?

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

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.

A really, really depressing bicycle safety campaign

The concept works, I think, in conveying the idea of "distance". But at first I wasn't sure who it was talking to, cyclists (keep your distance from cars) or car drivers (keep your distance from cyclists). I was also unsure whether the 1.5 m was supposed to give me a mental image of a car tailgating a bike, or vice versa, or whether it was how much clearance drivers need to give a bike while driving past one. But at least it got me thinking about the issue, I guess.

What the campaign succeeds at is conveying the emotions of sadness and regret. It is quite honestly the most depressing ad campaign I have seen in quite some time.

And that too can be a problem. Many ad consumers simply can't cope with negative emotions. They protect themselves and their consciences by mentally separating themselves from the ad. ("That's not me!") This is called defensive processing, and it is the sworn enemy of hard-hitting social marketing.

That said, I was still moved by this campaign. When I am behind the wheel, I try to be as respectful and cautious as possible of both cyclists and pedestrians. 

And as a cyclist? Let's just say that this campaign just confirms my fears about riding a bike in traffic.

Campaign by Y&R South Africa
Spotted on Ads of The World

Every day must be 4/20 at JWT Delhi #FdAdFriday

We were looking at these in a creative meeting today, and a designer colleague said "they look like Dali". I thought she said "they look like Delhi" and I was impressed that she was so well-versed in some of the odder movements in international ad markets.

These are supposedly anti-drinking-and-driving ads. To me, they look more like anti-doing-two-bags-of-grass-seventy-five-pellets-of-mescaline-five-sheets-of-high-powered-blotter-acid-a salt-shaker-half-full-of-cocaine-and-a-whole-galaxy-of-multi-coloured-uppers-downers-screamers-laughers-and-also-a-quart-of-tequila-a-quart-of-rum-a-case-of-Ballantine-ale-a-pint-of-raw-ether-and-two-dozen-amyls-and-driving ads.

Via Ads of the World

What does a pedophile look like? #FdAdFriday

I'm trying to imagine the creative session at Herezie in Paris:

Copywriter: ..."and then it's really a pedophile holding his 'thumbs-up' in front of his face"

Art Director: "How do we know he's a pedophile?"

Copywriter: "I don't know... he's a creepy, middle-aged white guy. With a slightly open bathrobe."

Art Director: "Ewww... but is it campaignable?"

Copywriter: "Sure! We'll show that creeps can come from all ages. We'll have a young guy with a beard, a muscle shirt, and... a TEDDY BEAR!"

Art Director: "I guess we could put the same teddy bear in every ad, as a symbol of lost—


"Copywriter: "Yeah, yeah. Whatevs. But we need three."


Art Director: "Why?"


Copywriter: "We just do."

Art Director: "How about a fat, hairy shirtless guy? And he's bald?"


Copywriter: "Does he have a teddy bear?"


Art Director: "No, too many fuzzy things in one ad. He has a tin cup."


Copywriter: "Why a tin cup?"


Art Director: "I don't know. Can we wrap this up? It's almost wine-thirty."


Yes, it's a serious topic. But besides scaremongering, this campaign implies that sexual predators have a "look". They don't. Why is why so many "nice people" get away with it for so long.


Via Ads of The World 

If your carpet smells like this, spray ain't gonna fix it #FdAdFriday

I wonder what the hell the folks at Grey, Dubai, were thinking when they presented this one.

Instead of product benefit, they exaggerate a product "need" that itself is manufactured. Room "fresheners" are already useless, annoying and potentially unhealthy products. If your carpet smells like a barnyard or raw sewage, however, no amount of scent will cover that pong. It's time to get a new rug.

Via Ads of The World

Yeah, it's a spunky campaign. But who does it serve?

I started this blog to explore best practices in social marketing, as well as to critique what I saw as lazy, obnoxious, unethical and "masturbatory" creative in mainstream advertising.

I am trying really, really hard to find great campaigns to feature. But every time I do the rounds of my usual sources for fresh ad news, I'm confronted by crap like this:

The Ads of The World post says "yogurt"; but the filename says "mayo"...

This is the kind of ad that some creative people, especially Art Directors, think is awesome. It has a great illustration style and it tells a dirty joke about how mayonnaise/yogurt kind of looks like semen. (Even if it doesn't, really.)

But will it really sell car cleaning services? It will get attention for the brand, sure. But it says nothing unique about the actual service except to say that they let an ad agency have fun with their business.

There's a good reason why these ads are usually done as "loss leaders" at creative agencies. (That is to say that the agency usually spends more time and money on the ad than the client puts up.)

You see, this is not an ad for Restaura Car Cleaning. It is really an ad for a Brazilian agency called Hermandad, as well as for the creative team of Paulo Lima, Pedro Teixeira, Hélio Maffia and Douglas Reis, which borrows the obscure brand as an excuse to make the dirty joke. And get covered by ad industry blogs around the world. And probably win an award from other creatives who wish they had clients who would let them do such a spunky ad.

Which is all well and good, for the agency and creatives. But it is not good for the ad industry.

You see, my friends, we have created the ultimate circle-jerk here — making ads simply to impress other ad people. Not to help our clients achieve their business objectives. Not to help make people's lives better. Not even to make money. Just to get awards, recognition and envy from our own colleagues. And I think that's kind of lame.

Oh, and there's another ad in this "bodily fluid" series:

Ha ha ha. Now, can we get back to work?

Trivializing sex on Google+

Ivan at Ads of the World shared this interesting project on Google+ by Selina Elizabeth Kyle.

She combines random academic trivia with sexualized pictures of women. The result is... well... memorable?

I just enjoy the juxtaposition. To be all pedantic about it, I think it says something interesting about how our natural interest in sex can be borrowed to deliver information. (My friend Chris mentions that it reminds him of how old flight navigation training documents for pilots used sexy pin-up photos to teach how to navigate by the stars.)

Isn't this exactly what "sexy" ads are doing? Is the product any less randomly connected to sex than these facts?


See the rest here.

"Stupid" new Diesel campaign celebrates tube tops, butt munchers, and crack army squads

Yep, that's stupid.

Via Ads of The World

A much more clever cynical exploitation of breastfeeding to move product

That Oreo ad I posted last night is probably spec anyway, but on Ads of The World's (uncensored) Google+ posting of the campaign, Stefaan Galle shared this much more clever ad:

He describes it as an ad for online data back-up that reads, "Because nature also provides a backup."

Heh.

Today's disturbing lube campaign is brought to you by Draftfcb

Either guys in Venezuela are really hard up, and are now sticking their johnsons in inanimate objects, or someone has a really skewed idea of what sex should feel like.

The small, circular nature of these examples leads me to believe they're talking about "back door" access — either gay or straight —but there is one example that seems a little more missionary:

All I can say, is that these ads make me feel really bad for their target market, and especially for their sexual partners. Ewww.

Okay, okay.  I "get it" and all. But ir's really just a reverse of that classic Manix ad:

Tip (heh, heh) via Ads of The World

Oreos and breastmilk? At least one is good for baby (but not for Facebook)

UPDATE (from HuffPo, via FB! Stop harassing Emma Kwasnica over her breastfeeding pics):

"A representative from Kraft Foods reached out to HuffPost Food to clarify the origins of this ad. The ad was created by Kraft's ad agency, Cheil Worldwide, for a one-time use at an advertising forum and was not intended for public distribution or use with consumers."

Hmmmm...

It's a cute ad, even if it's using something sacred to sell cookies.

But here's the real story: When my friend Ivan, from Ads of The World, posted it on Facebook, he felt compelled to censor the image:

Why? I can't blame him. He was just protecting his social presence, because Facebook is notorious for censoring breastfeeding pictures.

It's like Facebook gets kickback from Enfamil.

And they ban people who don't follow the rules. Even mighty FEMEN have acquiesced and censored their "weapons" of protest.

Now, this example is not so virtuous. But it's interesting that Facebook has made everyone afraid of posting breasts, even in their least sexual context. And how perverted is that?

Guitars as women as sex toys?

There's always been a strong connection between sex and rock 'n' roll (the latter term, itself a euphemism for sex), and the feminine shape of guitars has always been acknowledged.

But this is still weird as hell.

Interestingly, these ads for Hendrix Studios in Russia (a rehearsal studio) was created by two women:  Anna Gladkova and Olga Azukina of Moscow's Twiga agency.

Somehow, that fact changes the way I look at the ads. They're not so much about treating women as sex objects (via guitar lust); they're showing men as kind of pathetic and desperate.

And then there's this:



Via Ads of the World

Babes 'n' Donuts: A new low in viral car advertising?

This is a real ad for the Scion IQ, just shared by Ads of The World:



Ummm... OK. But at least it's equal opportunity sexploitation:







Truly, truly stupid and bizarre. So I'm sure it will get lots of views. But will it sell cars?

Hmmm...

The most beautiful pregnancy video you will see today

Ivan from Ads of The World shared this beautiful video on Google+:



It's been done before, but some things never get old.

Absurdly violent condom ads #FdAdFriday

These have to be some of the most absurdly macho condom ads I have seen. By a sausage party of a creative team at TBWA Buenos Aires, Argentina, they seem to imply that men thing they have a mighty warrior in their pants. But it doesn't seem sexy at all to me, and can't possibly be an attractive image for women.

It's about technique, guys, not brute strength. Mine's a lover, not a fighter.

Via Ads of The World

Ass kebabs #FdAdFriday

What is it with the obsession with asses in Brazil? They have somehow merged it with their love of barbecue in a bizarre pastiche of animal snuff and food porn.

Personally, I would rather not thing about an animal with an arrow up its bum when considering where to get some meat on a stick. But maybe that's just me.

Via Ads of The World

Respibien makes your chest "better" #FdAdFriday

At least, I assume that's the pun at play in these Spanish ads for a decongestant product. Ho ho ho. It is to laugh...

Do you thing these could count as false advertising?

Via Ads of the World