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."

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...

Vulva jewellery? So that happened. #FdAdFriday

The Onion's AV Club has this to say about Grimes' (Claire Boucher's) new line of rings cast in realistic vulva shapes:

"Boucher's latest side project is a new line of jewelry produced with sculptor Morgan Black, the first product of which are the below "pussy rings." They are rings that look like vulvas. You wear them to declare your feminism, or your post-feminism, or your belief that feminism is a weak, old-fashioned construct embraced by those who don't have the vulvas to wear them right out on their fingers, which is fun or something. Or whatever."

Indeed.

Kraft's "mixed race" snack ad is all kinds of wrong #FdAdFriday

I'll let Bradley Koch from Sociological Images take it from here:

"The problem with a marketing campaign like this is that it trivializes the experience of people with multiple racial/ethnic identities who are still often met with derision and confusion. The first ad above perpetuates the self-fulfilling prophecy about “confused” identities. As a child, I remember family members telling me that they didn’t have a problem with interracial couples but worried about how others might react to their children."

Yeah, what he said.

And Kraft just keeps going and going with the awkward and inappropriately racialized gags.









WTF?

The only Chip Shop ad I like... #FdAdFriday

...is totally ruined by bad punctuation.

The Chip Shop Awards allow British creatives to show off how "edgy" they could be if it weren't for pesky things like client approvals, focus groups and basic human decency.

Many of them pander to the lowest instincts of cynical ad guys, with a good dose of racism thrown in:

And some good old toilet humour:

See more ads at Copyranter's Buzzfeed post, or go straight to the source

.

Your Grandma won't rest until you get a job #FdAdFriday

Sissy Spacek has seen better days...

That's the joke in this bizarre ad by Draftfcb Argentina. AdFreak covered it this week, and it made some people really upset. (A commenter on their Facebook page wrote, "I hate this ad and I hope all the people who made it die violently.")



 I thought it was kind of funny.

1980s War on Drugs PSAs do not age well #FdAdFriday

He is pitying the living fuck out of that fool.

Especially when they feature Mr. T and New Edition. (Although I'm not sure Bobby Brown should be giving any lectures about drugs.)



Via Buzzfeed

Crabs used to sell tampons #FdAdFriday

As Copyranter pointed out, "I'm pretty sure crabs and tampons shouldn't be in the same ad".



I guess it's pretty clever, if gross, to have the crab build beachfront crab condos out of plastic trash that has been there and done that. It's not as if sea creatures would complain about the...

...never mind.

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 

Louisville's bizarre breastfeeding ad is not helping the cause #FdAdFriday

Great. Many Americans are already weirded out by breastfeeding because they see breasts as single-function male titillators. But with this completely effed take on the unfortunate and played out "animated talking baby" format, they're just creeping people out even more.



Worst of all is the sped-up baby voice. It reminds me of "that high squeaky voice" of evil Toon in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Not a good association.

The campaign means well, at least. In the United States, women of African ancestry have some of the lowest breastfeeding rates. It's an issue that needs addressing. But is the the best the mayor's Healthy Hometown initiative could come up with?

If you read this blog, you know how I feel about the issue. Breastfeeding is a marvellous and deeply human thing. This ad... is not.

Via Adfreak

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

Russian bank's weird bimbophobic ad #FdAdFriday

"Bimbophobia" is something I just made up. It's the fear and loathing many people feel for the Hiltons, Kardashians and Stoddens of the world.

It is essentially sexist in its nature, seeing rich and vain women as monumentally stupid (which a few may well be) but it also smells a bit like class conflict.

That said, the ad is mildly funny and surprisingly restrained by Russian ad standards.



Via Adrants

Radio station insults men by calling them women #FdAdFriday

I wonder if this kind of shit will ever end.

This "joke" was posted on the Facebook wall of Chez 106, an Ottawa radio station that plays classic rock.

You see, Ottawa has a hockey rivalry with Toronto, which leads to this kind of trash talk. Which can be fun, as long as you don't go trashing half the human species while you're at it.

Calling men "women" as an insult is probably as old as the hills. Kids still use it in the playground, I'm sure. But that doesn't make it OK. And the menstrual reference, often perceived as a women's "weakness" by assholes, is also a dick move.

Okay, my rant is done. I'll let Iggy Pop have the last word:

Via Slutwalk Toronto

Even Weight Watchers is boobvertising now #FdAdFriday

Just the other day I was minding my own business on the internet, as usual, when this banner ad caught my attention:

I thought it must be innocent. Just a woman who happens to have a Hendricksian bosom and who lost weight with WW's online programme. But since I was wondering anyway, I clicked.

Am I reading too much into this, or is their an awful lot of attention on this woman's breasts?

Strangely, I forgot to bookmark the site for later reference. Now, when I google Weight Watchers Online Canada, I get this instead:

Did they change their tactics? Was it a phishing scam? I guess we'll never know.

Why is this Playboy Bunny's lettuce bikini so horribly photoshopped? #FdAdFriday

I suppose the combination of model Sheridyn Fisher's body heat and the studio lights would wilt lettuce pretty quickly, but come on, PETA.

Of course, it's not as if the Playboy Bunny has never been photoshopped before. But it's probably the most awkward and least fun photo editing job anyone's ever had with one of her photos.

You can see the "real" lettuce swimwear in the video version here:



Via Adrants.

Vodka: Liquid underwear remover #FdAdFriday

Sociological Images' Lisa Wade found this old Smirnoff ad on Retronaut. She writes, "The message, of course, is not that a woman who drinks the vodka will become politicized; instead, it is that Smirnoff will 'loosen her up' and facilitate seduction."

Ah, how times have changed...

The Daily Femme's Cherie wrote, "At first, I thought it was tied to some article critiquing the offensive and sexist advertisements of the 1950s and 60s but quickly realized this was nothing more than an advertisement in 2010."

Hmmm...