Wes Anderson makes an ad from the wonderful mind of a child

Every PD day at school (a school day when teachers do professional development sans students) I bring my son to the agency. As a result, he has grown up helping his dad make ads. Usually they're about environmental issues. And sometimes he comes up with the most marvellous ideas, like saving money on energy bills by having a tank full of electric eels generating electricity in your basement.

Wes Anderson, McCann Worldgroup and Sony took the amazing resource of unfettered childish imagination a step further when they produced a high-budget TV ad written and narrated by an 8-year-old actor from Long Island named Jake Ryan:



According to AdWeek, Wes Anderson discovered Jake and his magical concept after holding interview sessions in New York, Los Angeles and London, and asking more than 75 kids what they thought goes on inside Xperia phones.

As professional adult creatives, we can only dream of recapturing the absolutely wonderful and unexpected ideas kids have every day. (I guess that's why there are so many substance abuse issues in the industry.) After watching this, I'm starting to wonder if we should hire my little guy full-time.

Full credits at AdWeek.

Hillbilly Food Porn

Ohhhhhhh baby....

If you are a foodie who eats meat (and who does not consider pork "unclean") I dare you to watch this ~10 minute documentary without getting ravenously hungry.


CURED from UM Media Documentary Projects on Vimeo.


Allan Benton is a man who loves some good preserved pig. And he brings that love to the family bacon and country ham business he inherited in Madisonville, Tennessee.

My favourite part is when he makes the bacon-fried potatoes and ramps (ail des bois) in the open air. I have to try that when the rare wild delicacy shows up in the farmer's market here. But sadly, his pork products do not ship outside the United States.

Via The Aggregate

Courtney Stodden for PETA

Oh. My. God.

So this happened:



PETA's description: "In this video that Courtney and her dog, Bazaar, shot for PETA, the teen newlywed shares how eating cruelty-free has helped her save animals' lives, protect the environment, and get a figure that the shutterbugs can't get enough of."

I swore I would stop blogging about this teenage trainwreck of a manufactured celebrity. But then she had to go and do a PSA! So this is actually kind of relevant.

I'm not sure why PETA chose her, beside the fact that she claims to be a vegetarian and craves attention. She's not exactly good at the "speaking" part of the whole "spokesperson" thing. But at least she kept more clothes on here than in most of her public photoshoots. Which is kind of ironic for a PETA ad.

How to Handle a Sex Pest

When I saw this video (and the title "How to Handle a Sex Pest") on the Viral Videos Facebook page, I assumed it was a social marketimng message about sexual harassment. I was wrong.



No, this "choose your own adventure" interactive YouTube is actually a promotional video for Elsie, a British pop singer I had not heard of until this morning.

The video is disturbing, but not in the way you would expect. The options to get rid of the "sex pest" are pretty violent (see above) and the viewer gets an opportunity to let the guy "get revenge" at the end.


The explanation:

"Every girl out there knows this guy -- the horny, crotch-thrusting dancer who just won't leave you alone in the club. They see a bit of booty and think they can touch. Watch Elsie go on the attack and show how us girls WISH we could deal with sex pests."

It's as if it's all a game. Not a violation of personal space, not harassment, unwanted sexual touching or even assault. Just a bit of fun.

And this is, of course, just a video. But every message matters. And it can make things better or worse.

Which do you think this is? Harmless fun, or bad idea?

Ziggy Street

It's certainly one of my favourite album covers.  Shot by photographer Brian Ward in January 1972 photographer Brian Ward outside a fur distribution company called "K. West" at 23 Heddon Street, London. According to The Ziggy Stardust Companion, the entire shoot was done in black and white, then colourized in those saturated tones. (You can see some outtakes here.)

"To be played at maximum volume."

The side street has apparently changed quite a bit in 40 years. But just this week, the Crown Estate mounted a "Blue Plaque" at the site to commemorate its historical significance.

Unveiled by the dude from Spandau Ballet. Remember them?

Now that David Bowie is seemingly retired, I hope this kind of thing doesn't make him feel too old.

But then again, he's the one who said we only had five years...

Thanks to Mark B for the tip.

Would a Freddy Mercury, by any other name, have sung as sweetly?

What's in a name? According to India's Albert Dali "Naming Consultants", everything.

Focussing on the naming aspect of branding, they say they do "Name Researching, Name Crafting, Name Auditing, Domain Booking, Trademarking and even Name Numerology[?]" Which are all important things to get right, in this day and age.

But back to Freddy. How much did his success really depend on his Nom de Glam? In his case probably quite a lot.

The other three examples of famous name changes in this campaign (found on Ads of The World) are Marilyn Monroe (Norma Jeane Mortenson/Baker), George Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair), and Le Corbusier (Charles-Édouard Jeanneret). For the first two, the name change was simply to invoke the personal brand they wanted to express, while Le Corbusier just wanted to sound cool. But what about Freddy?

Born in Zanzibar, ફારોખ બલ્સારા‌ (Farrokh Bulsara) was the son of Indian Parsis — descendants of Iranian Zoroastrians who long ago settled in India. He took on the "Mercury" name around the time he named Queen. (I asume he had been going by "Freddie" for some time, as he had been living in England since age 17.)

Today, I find Freddie Mercury's ethnic and religious background fascinating. As a child in the 70s, I had no idea he was anything but ethnically British. Then again, as a prepubescent boy I didn't even know he was bi. (The '70s were like that.) While his sexuality should have been obvious, I think his ethnicity was played fairly low-key.

Which makes me wonder: would British, American, and other "Western" fans have been as entranced by a man named Farrokh Bulsara? By a name that is strange and foreign to their ears? Could he have been all that and kept his original identity? And is it evidence of perceived racism?

We'll never know. The name Mercury was his choice, and the man was going through a pretty serious identity crisis at the time. But I also wonder if he could have made a go at it, with more attention to his "exotic" background, in the 21st century.

Whoa. This dumb little ad made me think way too much. Occupational hazard.

Meet Gregory McCreeperson, McDonald's voice of wisdom

This is Gregory. He is the new face of McDonald's Extra Value Menu.

He is also creepy as hell.



Gregory (who has his own section on the McDonald's web site) looks like he's supposed to represent wisdom and experience, and they expect young guys to appreciate the irony of this frumpy old man giving unsolicited advice on life and love.

But the Burger Business blog sees him differently: "If he looks familiar, it may be because he looks like the weary, burned-out history teacher we all had in high school. If you were especially unlucky he also was your counselor who never really knew your name. "

It's also interesting to note than Spanish-speaking Americans are spared Gregory's advice: