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?

Cool guerrilla stunt launches TNT in Belgium

Vincent sent me this:



It's an awesome guerrilla stunt to launch the TNT network in Belgium. Awesome work by Duval Guillaume. Let's just hope it's not as staged as that Red Light District dance number.

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

The saddest GIS image theft ever #FdAdFriday

In the age of Google, it's not uncommon to find personal or news photos stolen and used for ads in other countries. But what those unethical adpeople don't realize is that the same internet that gives them access to "free" visuals can also make their thefts very public.

Copyranter shared this billboard from India, for overseas study and job placement firm Jubeerich Consultancy.

"The trusted name since 1999"

Whoever designed the ad was obviously looking for a pretty, smiling, fair-complexioned face to represent the West. But they didn't check the story behind the image.

Eve Carson, the woman pictured, was a student at the University of North Carolina who was brutally murdered by Demario James Atwater (and possibly his teen accomplice) on March 5, 2008. In what was apparently a random act of violence, she was killed by repeated shotgun blasts and her car and ATM card stolen.

This act of image theft was not only unforgivably cruel to Ms. Carson's family and friends. There is also a painful irony in using the picture of a murdered American student in an ad for study abroad.

Shame on them.

And the most ignorant Facebook comment of the week goes to...

Those poor children.

In response to this image, shared by The Why Movement.

For those unfamiliar with the case, Trayvon Martin was a 17-year-old who was pursued and shot dead this week by a self-appointed neighbourhood watch vigilante named George Zimmerman, for the crime of "just walking around, looking about." Zimmerman has yet to be charged with a crime, because in Florida it is totally legal to carry a concealed weapon and murder people who frighten you by their very appearance.

"Occupy" violence fetishized by Tyler Shields

Okay, so this is weird.

Fashion photog Tyler Shields made an artistic statement against police abuse of Occupy protestors in the United States and Great Britain by having models abuse guys dressed like cops while the media watches. Francesca Eastwood and her friend even got out the pepper spray.

Shields says, "It’s easy to be the bully but it’s not so fun when you’re the one being bullied. Stand up and fight for what you believe in a dream can only die if you let it…"

More pics here.