DDB's new autoTRADER ad is awesomesauce

Okay, here's a pretty good one.

autoTRADER Canada's new ad takes a really great insight — that anyone can suddenly find they no longer love their car — and turns it into some good storytelling about some self-defined badass guys, a nuclear family, and wannabe badasses in the suburbs.

The stereotypes are played straight, without too much comedic embellishment. Nobody (except the dudes at the end) is treated with disrespect. Even the car is seen as being right for somebody.



Awesome work, DDB Canada!

Via Illegal Advertising.

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?

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 Chevy ad Ford didn't want you to see

According to Adrants, Ford tried to have this cheeky ad pulled from yesterday's Super Bowl lineup for obvious reasons.

Chevy, having spent some serious coing on production, refused. And we all had a good chuckle.




The only question the ad left me with was this:

When will they realize there are no women?

Oh, wait...



That will end well...

Obligatory Honda CR-V Matthew/Ferris Post

Like many of you, I have already seen this on AdFreak and elsewhere. I'm just posting it so people stop sending it to me.



It's a really great piece of '80s homage, and is really kind to the source material as well as the actor's dignity. Well done, RPA.

More background info here and here.

It's not that I'm not also fascinated by the Super Bowl advertising orgy of conspicuous budget consumption. I just hate to be overly "me too" on this blog.

F'd Ad Fridays: Insane Gary Busey used car ads

Extra effed. Via Buzzfeed.

"Pregnant" Passat ad delivers absurdity and controversy

Noah shared with me a post from Art Threat titled "Why is CBC running sexist Volkswagen ads?", because he knows I can't walk away from a good ad outrage.

Here it is:




And here is the rage:

"The story’s focus quickly turns from the pregnant woman to silly interactions between the husband and the paramedic on different features included in the new Passat. While the viewer is naturally curious about the pending child delivery that launched the ad narrative, the camera cuts to extended interior car shots, completely erasing the pregnant woman from the visuals. 

Cutting back to the unfolding scene, the woman cries out for help as the guys incessantly confer on the car. “Starts with a button?” asks the paramedic. “Sure does” responds the husband, continuing on in blatant disrespect to a woman in need of support. 

The ad finishes with the husband swinging the driver seat door closed on the pregnant partner calling for support. “Guys? Having a baby here!” cries the pregnant women as the men stupidly admire the car. 

This Volkswagen ad, rooted in a overtly sexist storyline, clearly crosses a red line in celebrating an automobile over human life."

The author, Stefan Christoff, then proceeds to talk about the toxicity of (North) American car culture, referring to the Passat vid as a "disturbing ad celebrating a new car over childbirth".

But me, I'm just not feeling it. For all my ranting about sexism in advertising, cultural cancers like car obsession, and threats to the sacredness of motherhood, I just can't conjure up any outrage over this ad. None.

The ad, by Toronto agency Red Urban and director Jean-Michel Ravon, certainly does cross a line. But it's not a line of sexism, for me, it's the line of absurdity.

Online ads, like this one, need to be entertaining to hold viewer attention. This one is comedy. And I think there are both men and women in the target audience who will find it funny.

The concept could have used someone in another urgent hospital situation, but that would not have been as funny. The very fact that we so cherish motherhood, that for the man this should be the most important day of his life, that the paramedic is supposed to be 100% focussed on the patient... all the kinds of wrong that this scenario is are essential to its entertainment value.

Does it trot out the tired old "clueless husband" trope? Definitely. That's the most sexist thing about this ad, the way it treats the men. The woman, on the other hand, is the "straight man" in all of this. Her awareness of the seriousness of her situation anchors the complete absurdity of the guys' reactions.

It's not a great ad. But I think it is an effective one. And I don't think any women were harmed in the making of it.

Then again, I'm a man. What's your take?

F'd Ad Fridays: Rover, gently run over

Ad by Bates, Singapore for for ACDelco "ultrasoft" shock absorbers.

Isn't that cute! I guess all the car did to him was turn his insides into paté. But at least the driver didn't feel it.

Via Copyranter