Bowling Alley Uses New York Times Ad Ban For Publicity Grab

Today's tempest in a teacup comes to us courtesy of NYC-based Frames Bowling Lounge which wants to make a big deal out of the fact the New York Times has pulled one of its ad banners because it's too racy.

The ad banner shows a woman lying on a pool table (because, of course, all women do this) along with the copy, "Gentleman, It's Playtime" (because, of course, all men understand hot blonds who lay on pool tables want to have sex).

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Nutella Has Brain Fart, Sends Cease And Desist to Biggest Fan

You would think that after all these years of highly publicized social media screw ups and popular SXSW panels that highlight such screw ups, brands would finally get the message; Don't be a jackass and alienate your biggest fans.

Sadly, it seems there will always be an idiot in the mix. This time it's Italy-based Ferrero SpA, parent company to Nutella, a hazelnut spread loved by many The brand sent a cease and desist to Sara Rosso, founder of World Nutella Day, a 7-year-old event and organization that is all about the love of Nutella.

Rosso launched World Nutella Day in 2007 to "celebrate Italy's edible treasure with online and offline tributes." The event's Facebook page has 40,000 likes.

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The Ugly Truth ABout Poop And Pee

This is hilarious! And so welcome. After years of trashing the anti-smoking Truth campaign for its idiotic use of anachronistic quotes from tobacco company executives and Derek Beckles, this new work from Arnold Worldwide made us laugh. Of course, it's 4th grade bathroom humor but no one ever really grows out of that.

Take a look at how Arnold conveys the fact methane is found in dog poop and cigarette smoke and urea (aka carbamide which is an organic chemical compound and the waste produced by the body after metabolizing protein) is found in cat pee and cigarettes. Good stuff.

How Star Wars Saved the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra

While we're pretty sure John Williams movie soundtracks wouldn't be classified as classical music by most purists, when you're the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra (OSB) trying to boost attendance before your entire audience dies, bending the rules a a little bit isn't an issue.

Combating the fact most of the OSB's orchestra is over the age of 65, Brazilian agency Artplan shot the OSB playing classic (again. a stretch of the word) movie soundtracks, linked to it from YouTube clips and, as a result, claim to have increased the number of young people attending OSB concerts by 40%. As well as achieving a sell out for the entire season.

Not bad for a little rule bending.

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3 Reasons the Red Cross Will Save You From Disastrous Babysitters

As a parent, you no doubt experience pangs of trepidation -- no, horror -- when you leave your children with a babysitter you may not know very well. You wonder if your children will be well cared for, whether they will be fed properly, whether they go to bed on time.

But, if you've ever had any of the three types of babysitters featured in this BBDO Atlanta-created, Tool-produced commercial, your concerns are a bit more serious and you'll want to make sure your next babysitter has take the American Red Cross' Babysitting Basics course before leaving the house.

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MINI Goes After Mexican Women Who Apply Makeup While Driving

In Mexico, we are told 22% of car accidents are caused by women. That little stat forms the basis of Publicis Mexico-created ad campaign for MINI which urges women not to apply make up while driving, seemingly the cause of those 22% of accidents.

Before we get into the actual campaign here, let's do a little math. If 22% of all car accidents are caused by women, can one assume 78% are caused by men? Why, then, do we have a campaign that just wreaks of the age old stereotype that women are bad drivers? And why is it assumed the application of makeup is the cause of these accidents?

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Can Big Data Exist Alongside The Big Idea?

The term "big data" has become quite prevalent in the marketing world lately. In a previous Central Desktop article, I examined the notion of big data and how it pertains to how brands and agencies work today. We started with a simple definition of big data.

In our marketing world, big data describes the plethora of information we have accumulated through the monitoring of consumers as they browse, socialize, search and purchase online. Every time a person visits a website, a cookie is dropped within their browser. Every time a person responds to a call-to-action from a landing page, data from the form they filled out is captured.

That's just a small example of big data's makeup. Dan Zarrella, HubSpot's social media scientist, told me a little bit more about the kinds of data that are important to marketers and agencies - and how marketers and agencies should be using that data.

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Axe-Coiffed Hair Turns Women Into Puddles of Submission

Really, guys. All it take is well-coiffed hair to zombify any woman into submission, make her forget whatever it was she was doing and stare longingly into your eyes and await your command. No, seriously. Axe says so so it must be true! Advertising never lies, right?

Of course, what these four BBH London-created commercials really wants to get across is that guys can't keep their hands out of their hair when in the presence of a hot woman. While that may be true, it would be ever so awesome if women actually did turn into submissive zombies when us guys coiffed our hair with Axe. Because if it was true, guys might actually use the product!

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Newsflash! Hot Guys Sells Soda

While it's certainly not the end of rampant objectification of women to move product, recently there's been a spate of male hunk-focused ads and Deutsch is the latest to join the trend with "Josh Button," part of Dr. Pepper's "One of a Kind" campaign.

In the ad, we see male model Josh Button discuss just how hot he is compared to all the other men on the planet. If it's to somehow make up for all those years Mad Men portrayed women as sex objects in advertising, it's really not accomplishing anything. Button, and most men, openly love being ogled. Though being occasionally ogled is quite a bit different than being culturally transformed after hundreds of years of objectification.

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Personal Assistent Offers to Save Your Ass During Cannes

As Cannes Lions approaches, you may begin feeling a bit of stress over how you're going to drink all that rose and juggle all your oficial responsibilities with aplomb. What you need is a personal assistent to make sure you covered when you're too drunk to explain how you lost your hotel room key or that things are handled with discretion when you roll over in the morning and have no idea who is laying next to you in bed.

In return for a Cannes Young Lions pass and accommodation, this eager creative student promises to keep you out of trouble and focused. Watch the video below and head over to the Assistant De Cannes Lion Facebook page to find out more.

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HubSpot Lambastes P&G For Blaming Layoffs on Facebook

Last Friday, the brilliantly insightful Corey Eridon of HubSpot castigated P&G for calling their "Facebook experiment" a failure and for the brand's complete misunderstanding of digital strategy.

In response to the assumption it's somehow Facebook's fault P&G fell on its face and had to lay off 6,250 employees, Eridon wrote, "Yes, it's Facebook's fault. It's not P&G's fault for failing to stay on top of digital trends like learning what EdgeRank is and how it works. It's not P&G's fault for relying on third-party assets to build their brand, instead of investing in assets they can control, like their own website and blog. It's not P&G's fault for failing to create remarkable content that -- and if you know how EdgeRank works you'd know this -- gets you more visibility on Facebook due to reader engagement. It's not P&G's fault for failing to realize no audience is guaranteed, paid or otherwise, and that audiences are actually earned on a daily basis. And it's certainly not P&G's fault for expecting a "new" platform like Facebook to work by slapping on the same old-school ad tactics they've been using (and, based on their rampant layoffs, not using well) for decades."

Whoo! It's like you can visualize Eridon in a cage match schooling an army of P&G mascots on how shit gets done in today's world of digital marketing.

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Production Company Does Agency.com Fist Bump

Oh how this Rooster Worldwide self-promo video harkens the days of old when Agency.com made fools of themselves with their Subway Pitch Video. First off, it's all well and good for people to have interests outside of their daily jobs but would you really hire an agency that answered the question, "Are you a production company or an ad agency?" with "Oh, you mean that shit we do to pay the bills when we're not skating?"

Or a creative director that describes himself "I'm a creative director, a writer, an actor, a dad. But mostly, I'm just another fucking skater"?

The video is categorized as comedy on YouTube. We hope that's actually what Rooster intended.

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Women's Clothing Mysteriously Ripped From Their Bodies Revealing...

Rob from Wakefield Creative sent us this ad he helped Man+Hatchett create for UK-based clothing retailer Warehouse Fashion. The ad begins quite drearily with women clothed in winter garb under grey skies. Then the sun come out and something special happens.

The drab, dull winter clothing literally explodes off the women's bodies and...no, they don't end up racing through the streets in tiny thongs with their boobs bouncing up and down in cleavage-revealing bras. No. Not even close. The drab, dull winter clothing gives way to light, bright, airy summer fashions. Which,. when you think about it, is the exact feeling most people experience when the first warm day arrives in Spring. Well done.

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