An ode to Mad Men's "Fat Betty"

As the current season of Mad Men was being filmed, January Jones (who plays Betty) was having a baby. Instead of ignoring the pregnancy or writing it into the plot, the writers put Ms. Jones into a fat suit and had Betty's weight gain become a rather dramatic plot element.

In the meantime some guys at SOUTH Music & Sound Design decided to commemorate the development with a song:



Yes, it is rather mean. But I choose to see it as a send-up on the show's dramatic excesses rather than a put-down of overweight people in the real world.

What do you think?

At least they didn't make fun of her placentophagy...

Kazakhstan gold medal athlete saluted with Borat anthem

Oh God Oh God Oh God.

If it wasn't in mainstream media, I would never believe it.

According to the Telegraph:

Mariya Dmitriyenko had just won the gold medal in the 75 target event at the 10th Arab Shooting Championship in Kuwait and as she stood on the podium with the other medal winners she was expecting to hear the sound of the Kazakhstan national anthem. 

Instead the obscene lyrics of the spoof Kazakhstan anthem from the film Borat began to play...

Uh-oh.

From the Kuwait Times:

The organizing committee of the International Shooting Grand Prix issued a statement yesterday regarding the accidental use of Borat’s parody national anthem in place of Kazakhstan’s real national anthem at a medal ceremony in Kuwait on Thursday. The committee accepted responsibility and offered further apologies for the incident. “The committee gave an official apology to the Kazakh delegation to the tournament, and the national anthem was replayed correctly. The Organizing Committee of the International Grand Prix expresses its utter regret for this unintentional mistake and reaffirms its great respect to its brothers and friends from the Republic of Kazakhstan, and affirms the deep sports relations between the Kazakh and Kuwait shooting federations.”

...Kazakh Foreign Ministry spokesman Ilyas Omarov told the ITAR-Tass news agency the incident “is, of course, a scandal and demands a thorough investigation, which we intend to conduct”. ITAR-Tass quoted shooting team member Oksana Stavitskaya as saying that Asian Shooting Federation President Sheikh Salman Al-Sabah had apologized to the team. “Sheikh Salman personally apologized to us. 

He recognized that the use of the music from the scandalous film in place of the anthem of Kazakhstan was completely a mistake of the organizers. He explained that the awards ceremony was conducted by a firm under contract,” Stavitskaya said. The Kazakh news agency Tengri quoted team Coach Anvar Yunusmetov as saying tournament organizers had downloaded various countries’ national anthems from the Internet, and had also got the Serbian national anthem wrong.

This incident must have added insult to injury in Kazakhstan, where the government threatened to sue Sacha Baron Cohen for his Borat act in "Da Ali G Show" days.

Baron Cohen used the threat as an opportunity to provoke them further:


Borat Response to Kazakhstan Government by BoratSon

When the movie came out, it was not released by the central Asian 20th Century Fox distributor following a request by the Kazakh government, although some Kazakhs apparently find it funny. Gold medalist Maria Dmitrienko seemed to take it well. But her team demanded the medal ceremony be corrected and restaged.

The movie was also banned in most Arab countries, which may explain the blunder.

Liquid-Plumr porn #FdAdFriday

A hunky plumber comes to a lonely woman's door, telling her "I'm here to snake your drain". A second arrives shortly after, saying "I'm here to flush your pipe".

You can imagine what happens next... 

Don't be fatuous!

Via AdFreak

The stupid Skittles spoof ad sequel you don't need to see #FdAdFridays

Wait.. didn't he pull out?

Last year's hideously pornographic Skittles Ad Spoof was outrageous enough to get Cousins noticed as a production team. But was this boring sequel really needed?


Reese's Pieces "Love Child" Extended Cut - Dir. Cousins from Cousins on Vimeo.


Meh.

Via AdFreak

HJ Gloves, by IsoBoner

Casey just sent me this spoof ad from Funny or Die. (It's a little gross, so watch at own risk.)

HJ Gloves from Adam Scott      

Pretty funny, although the Obsession ad parodies are pretty done at this point. And the gloves? Iggy rocked those more than 40 years ago.

HJ Gloves, by Ig, circa 1970

@StoddenDrawn visualizes @CourtneyStodden's Tweets

No sooner did I lower my blogging standards with a post about Courtney Stodden than I got a Tweet from a guy who told introduced himself thusly:

This is what I love about our modern communication culture. Not only can a teenager, who marries a man in his fifties for publicity, become internet famous — but some anonymous wag with coloured pencils and a scanner can also make her bizarre alliterative Tweets into art.

Drawn Stodden Tweets is a Tumblr that documents the "best" of Ms. Stodden's ramblings with crudely-drawn literal visualizations.

Here is his explanation:

"I draw some of the weirdness that Courtney Stodden tweets.  Follow on the Titillating Twitter: @StoddenDrawn You can ask me anything. I'll try and answer it like Courtney (i.e. I'll be hopped up on tanning lotion, meth and glitter)"

He even documents her occasional lapses into being a "good Christian":

Cheap shots on an easy target? Sure. But at least it's creative.

Honest Cosmo Cover

Via BurnRed

"Epic prow" — now that made me titter.

F'd Ad Fridays: This Muppet is getting way more sex than you

"I looove trash(y women)"

Spotted on Buzzfeed: This off-the-hook promo video by Spanish filmmakers Alberto Corral, Pablo Fernandez, Marcos Gonzalez and Carolina Lorén.



Complete with drinking, drugs, dancing, swimming, stripping and lots of group sex (as well as some literal Elmo-bashing) the video plays out all the sexual fantasy stereotypes of young men — but puts them in the lap of a puppet who looks like the lovechild of Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch.

Weird, wild stuff.

You can also follow "Party Puppet" on Facebook and Twitter.

F'd Ad Fridays: Dead, Taiwanese Steve Jobs pitches the Android tablet

Cue the Apple fanboy outrage (he typed on his MacBook Pro).



Via Mashable

Siri hates the Scots

"The best laid schemes o' mice and men gang aft agley!!!"

Voice recognition is an awkward thing. After reading that the new iPhone's digital assistant can't understand Scottish accents, YouTube comic thegavin2000 made this wee parody:



Via BoingBoing

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

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

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

F'd Ad Fridays: Star Wars porn parody more into FX than sex

According to the You Tube post:

"With the highest budget ever for an X-rated spoof, an all-star cast, and award-winning director Axel Braun's legendary attention to detail, STAR WARS XXX: A PORN PARODY, a joint venture between Axel Braun Productions and Vivid Entertainment, is poised to become the most successful Adult movie of all times. The long-anticipated official trailer offers a sneak peek at the extensive special effects, spectacular production value, and totally metrosexual C3PO. May the farce be with you!"

Now, call me old fashioned, but I thought pornography was supposed to be about people having sex in every conceivable position while muddling through a contrived storyline about a cable guy or something.

Allie Haze, who plays the princess, says that this parody is "staying really true to the original."



Indeed. As George Lucas once said, "there's no underwear in space".

"Fotoshop by Adobé" merges the world of cosmetics and retouching

Jesse Rosten says, "I was watching TV one sleepless night and stumbled upon an infomercial for some beauty product. The commercial showed before and after portraits, that to my eye, looked like the same photo just photoshopped. I laughed to myself. Then I made this video."


Fotoshop by Adobé from Jesse Rosten on Vimeo.


And there it is. A little long, maybe, but pretty bang on.

Via Viral Videos

Move over Axe, women prefer the smell of liquor

Poland's Zubrowka Vodka would like you to know that the scent women really go crazy for is liquor:



In this pretty hamfisted Axe parody, they somehow smell the vodka over the dude's bad body spray chemical warfare. Which is amazing, because I thought the whole point of drinking vodka was that it was the "no-tell liquor".

Must be the grass.

Moral of the story: liquor is quicker?

Via Illegal Advertising

F'd Ad Fridays: David Lynch PBR ad

Somebody took this messed-up Dennis Hopper scene from Blue Velvet and mashed it up with PBR branding. Awesome

PETA prescribes meatlessness in mock pharma ad

It's pretty funny ay first, but goes on for way too long. And for the record, I'm against factory farming too. I prefer to eat animals that were loved to death.

Paranoël Activity

I'm pretty damn pleased with our agency Christmas card this year. Written and Directed by Acart Copywriter/Videographer Christopher Redmond, it takes a different perspective on that supernatural old guy who breaks into your house once a year while you and your children are asleep:



Thanks to DOP Karl Roeder for helping out.

And some of you may recognize the scary little boy. He has certainly kept me up on many a night.