Yea. It's formulaic. You could sell any product this way. Following the tried and true rule that only hot people can do anything right, show "regular" people making the egregious mistake of dropping their iPhone...in slow motion,,, while capturing their every pained grimace as they come to the realization their phone is not a pile of useless metal and plastic parts on the sidewalk. Then show a super hot women who simply smiles when her phone drops because she knows her phone will survive as it's protected by CaseMate.
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- Who needs billboards when you can mess up the nautical landscape with branded sails?
- How do women climb to the top of the creative ladder?
- Have fun with this hunter and a bear in a choose your own adventure video series for Tipp-Ex.
- The deadline extended to September 7, 2010 for the ADC 90 CFE Cube Design Project.
- Yea. Here's that Greenpeace deforestation ad. I you can't guess what it's all about before you view, you need help.
- In Sidewalkgate, Zynga may end up owing San Francisco more than clean up costs for its sidewalk advertising stunt.
- WTF?
Kinda like the idiocy of that car that can break a glass with its engine noise, Orange is out with a commercial during which an opera singer breaks a glass with her voice delivered through a cell phone connection. Yea, that's exactly what we want. Don't you think mobile providers should concentrate of the important stuff first like, oh, calls that don't drop and service that is everywhere?
Of course we love the tagline of the commercial which reads, "Don't believe everything you see" thus, basically, negating the entire point of the ad.
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Jack Link's Beef Jerky is out with another promotion giving film and advertising students a chance to create their own Jack Link's TV commercials. Called "Messin' With...? Student Film Contest" the offering invites students to create and produce a 30-second TV spot using Jack Link's Messin' With Sasquatch advertising campaign, launched four years ago, as their guide.
From September 1 through October 20, students can submit their videos to Jack Links. The winning submission will air on ESPN during the 2010 World Series of Poker Final Table in November. In addition, the winner will receive a Sasquatch-sized prize package worth $2,500 which includes a trip for two to Las Vegas at the Rio® All-Suite Hotel and Casino (um, there's better casinos there, people), two tickets to attend a World Series of Poker viewing party, an expense allowance, product and other prizes.
Sounds like a lot of work just to go to Vegas. It'd probably cost less and take less time to just book a flight and hotel or a weekend and have fun on your own.
Wait a minute. Are you serious, Jack Links? The "Learn More" link off your contest page is a link to a PDF of the press release? Lame. Very lame.
To promote what assuredly will be a piece of crap movie, Sony is out with a billboard campaign which asks, "Still A Virgin?" The movie is called The Viginity Hit and the boards offer an 800 number to call which leads to simple choices such as "press three if you don't know if you're a virgin or not."
While a help line for virgins might be a bit strange, it dovetails perfectly with the premise of the movie. Three guys spend the entire movie trying to get their friend laid...and film it when it happens. Don't we have enough of that crap all over the internet already?
Stranger things have happened though. The film cost $2 million to make so it's a forgone conclusion it will definitely make some money for Sony. And who knows. It would be a sleeper hit like American Pie. Hey, we're just keeping our "we told you so" options open here.
After a six month test in Australia, Google has opened up a new ad platform on its Maps product. Brands can place a logo on their locations within the application. The logos will replace the standard grey logos which already appear in the product.
The program is rolling out initially with four advertisers according to Advertising Age. Bank of America, Target, Public Storage and HSBC have signed on for the beta period. Soon, all. businesses will be able to claim their space on Maps.
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This contributed article is written by Jaffer Ali, CEO of Video Snack Network. He lays out the facts regarding video pre-roll advertising and why it's a bust.
Illusions commend themselves to us because they save us pain and allow us to enjoy pleasure instead. We must therefore accept it without complaint when they sometimes collide with a bit of reality against which they are dashed to pieces. --Sigmund Freud
This article is likely to irritate a lot of people. Of course that is not the goal, but an expected byproduct nonetheless. Let me first begin by stating in absolute terms that I wish I were wrong about what follows, because my life would have been rendered easier.
Here is the conclusion and the rationale will follow:
Pre-roll video is a terrible DR and branding vehicle!
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Perhaps you've heard of Advertising Week's Big Ad Gig? It's a competition that will award five people a 30 day ad gig. The videos have been spilling in and there's one we really like. It's from Julie Bowman and it has some fun with Donny Deutsch and Andrew Keller.
Like Bowman's video? Then go here and Like it.
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ATTIK will break a new commercial for the Scion tC's Take On the Machine campaign September 10. Until then, we have print ads in Inked, Giant Robot, Juxtapoz, XLR8R, Dsport, Modified and a few others. The print ads contain an augmented reality marker which can be used while playing the Take On the Machine game online.
Dr. Cheesebarn, the agency band for Resource Interactive, just sent us their new video called Status. It takes a rapper's view of Facebook and social networking in general. And it's petty good. They've submitted it to the Advertising Week/VideoEgg Battle of the Ad Bands for consideration. Do you think they're worthy? View after the jump.
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No sooner do we offer a shockingly un-Adrants-like viewpoint concerning the use of sex in advertising, we are forced (with tooth picks in our eyes!) to endure the tantalizing gyrations of a bevy of bathing suit-clad hotties as they dance (in sow motion, no less) across a beach volleyball court to pimp Club Seat.
Club Seat is a promotional entity of Volkswagen Group UK which hosts special events around the globe. The Beach Volleyball Grand Slam Gstaad 2010 is one such event.
Yea. The whole anti-sex sells rant was a waste of time. Bring on the booty!
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London agency Kitcatt Nohr Alexander Shaw is out with a new television commercial for WaterAid. Directed by Susannah Hayes, the ad features the popular playground song "Diarrhea Diarrhea". During the first half of the ad, shot at a primary school in Hackney, British children smile and giggle as they sing the song which, of course, is totally normal because, well, diarrhea is funny what with all the farting and squirting that accompanies it.
But all that farting and squirting isn't so funny when it's rampant in countries like Zambia ans the commercial touches on that by cutting to a boy who not so happily sings, "When it's just killed your sister and you're really going to miss her, diarrhea, diarrhea."
The campaign advocates the building of sanitary pit toilets which can help stop the spread of diarrhea.
Along with the ad which will air on Sky One, Discovery, Bravo, More 4 and SkySports, PR, email, inserts, videos and online ads are part of the campaign.
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 Photo: @WillMcD Towering above American Eagle's Times Square retail store and taking over the retailer's billboard space, Foursquare has infiltrated Times Square. It's a big move or the leading (yea, Facebook hasn't toppled it yet) location-based check in service and one that was certainly some kind of barter between the two companies.
Foursquare business development Head Tristan WalkerTristan Walker said American Eagle owns the billboard which is said to be the largest digital billboard in Times Square, but wouldn't say how the deal was structured though he did hint a version 2 is in the works.
The board urges people to "Check in. Find your friends. Unlock your city."
In early July, Foursquare competitor Gowalla erected a board atop a 20 story building near Madison Square Garden at 34th and 8th. The board features New Jersey Nets owners Mikhail Prokhorov and Jay-Z.
So Summer's Eve runs an ad in Woman's Day offering women eight steps to take when asking for a raise and all hell breaks loose. Why? Because the first step is to make sure you use Summer's Eve Feminine Wash before you make the request.
Oh yes, people. We can't talk about "down there." On no. That area is strictly taboo. It's OK to tell people to take a shower, use good soap, style your hair properly, wear the right jewelery, be sure your skirt isn't too short, your heels too high, your cleavage overexposed. To be sure your shoes are properly polished, your deodorant appropriately scented, your posture professional, your handshake firm and your breath as fresh as a rose.
But to inform a woman, who may very well need what a feminine wash can provide, she might want to consider making sure THAT area is as fresh as all her others is a travesty. A blight against women. A disgrace. And an objectification of the entire female species as nothing more than a sweet smelling receptacle for the urgency of men.
Hey, did you expect anything other than a contrarian point of view from us?
And now for a completely different point of view. Previously we wrote about a story in the Hendersonville News in which a woman named Susan Hanley Lane shares her feelings regarding a racy Skechers billboard she saw when she was with her father in law as he was getting haircut. Noting the odd juxtaposition of the two figures on the billboard having simulated sex advertising-style, with the presence of her father in law and two small girls playing outside near the board, Susan makes a convincingly cogent argument that, perhaps, we've taken this sex sells thing a bit too far. Wait, what? Did we just write that?
She notes the walled garden that used to be called childhood has collapsed and has been replaced, at least for girls, by girlhood. In other words, kids aren't kids anymore but have, because of the continual presence of adult imagery, become young hotties in training. And can you blame them what with marketers selling bras to pre-teens and hypersexualizing everything else?
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So Lionel Richie. Remember him? The eighties pop star whose claim to fame was giving birth to Nicole Richie? Oh wait, he did have a few hit songs along the way so we guess he accomplished a thing or two. Anyway, he stars in a new AMV BBDO-created UK commercial for Walkers. Richie croons a hyper-annoying version of his Say You, Say Me eighties hit until he gets thrown out of the grocery store by Walkers pitchman Gary Lineker.
Hey, we could crap on Richie for appearing in such an ad but it's actually done quite well. After all, he does get thrown out the window at the end which is what any self-respecting person would do if accosted by an eighties pop star in the middle of a grocery run.
And seriously, can you really fault a guy for having a bit of fun and making some money along the way?
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- Facebook has banned the use of the marijuana leaf in ads dubbing them "illegal content."
- In the WTF category, Six Flags has announced Rayovac will be the official battery of the park. Hopefully, the rides aren't powered by batteries.
- Ocean Outdoor has launched a live digital creative competition where creatives can compete for a digital campaign worth £250,000 and flights to San Francisco by submitting a digital outdoor ad, between September 27 and October 1. Details here.
- Ten ways you're addicted to Facebook.
- First it was Alyssa Milano. Now a guy wants Jimmy Fallon to follow him on Twitter.
- This is kinda funny. A Big Ad Gig submission from an "ineligible" entrant.
- Hybrid ad agency/film production company Lucky is out with a couple of promotional videos for a launch party. One. Two.
- The new hotness from Queso Divine featuring Chipz of The Snack Nasty Crew.
Model Dree Hemingway, daughter of Mariel Hemingway and Stephen Crisman, is fronting a new campaign for Spanish fashion label A.Y. Not Dead. Shot by photographer Sebastian Faena, Dree sports a pair of very tiny denim cut offs matched with an equally tiny crop T. The look is strikingly reminiscent of a look her mother, Mariel, donned for a scene in the 1985 movie Creator.
Dree also models some patchwork jeans, leather pants, a denim shirt and a cropped tweed jacket. See it all here.
Playboy has been curating a Miss Social competition which seeks to name the hottest woman using social media. Over 2,000 nominees, who had to use social networking sites (e.g., YouTube, Twitter, Facebook) to promote themselves and urge their friends/followers/family/public to vote for them using a specific keyword and mobile shortcode, have been winnowed down to 16 finalists.
The finalists will face off against one another in a bracket competition with the winner chosen by the public via text. All 16 finalists are beautiful women. All have wonderful attributes. The choice will not be an easy one.
But we're going to offer up some choices of our own.
Best Figure: Dewi
Best Booty: Kristin
Cutest: Sarah
Best Boobs (real): Amy
Best Boobs (Questionable): Chaney
Best (Most) Tattoo: Asia
Cast your vote here.
Intentional or not, this new video from Agent Provocateur entitled Betty Sue pays homage to the early ninties TV oddity Twin Peaks. From the music to the dancing in a strange room to the cinematography, it has David Lynch written all over it.
Alas David Lynch had nothing to do with this production. Perhaps a fan of Lynch, the video was directed by Johan Renck and produced by RSA Films. It's steamy. It's weird. It's right up Agency Provocateur's alley.
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Of all the anti-smoking ads that have made the rounds over the years, this Swedish ad is one of the more stylish. With fiery, slo-mo action, the ad is accompanied by the mysterious yet hysterical lyrics, "I'm naked. I'm numb. I'm stupid. I'm staying. And if Cupid's got a gun, then he's shooting. His bang. You're my drug. We live it. Your drug. You need it. Reload."
The commercial lulls you into its morbid metaphor yet is actually a pleasure to watch. Over and over which, admittedly, is a bit twisted but the message is so perfectly delivered it's hard to turn away.
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Curvaceous bombshell Christina Hendricks, who stars on AMC's Mad Men, will appear in an upcoming London Fog ad campaign. As you may recall, London Fog was a client of Sterling Cooper on the series last year. Apparently, London Fog was more enamored with Hendricks than the office's network of good 'ol boys.
Shot by photographer Nino Munoz in LA, the campaign will break in October issues of fashion magazines such as Elle, Cosmopolitan and InStyle as well as on outdoor boards and online.
Of the campaign, Hendricks, who was recently named Best Looking Woman in America by Esquire, said, "London Fog is a classic brand, which I love. It also ties in to Mad Men, we used London Fog in the show and this was a nice way to tie everything together. The trench is such an iconic shape for men and women. It works for anyone - it worked in the 1960s and it works now."
Maybe we're reading too much into this. Yea...we're sure we are but you have to admit toying around with the number 69 without making even the tiniest sexual innuendo is just a wasted opportunity. So here's Sprint touting their unlimited (and they do mean unlimited) mobile phone plan that does oh so much more than Verizon's or AT&T's. And this right after a study revealed iPhone users (using AT&T or course) have more sex than other mobile phone owners. Something's just not right here.
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- Some dude really, really wants Alyssa Milano to follow him on Twitter.
- The nominees for the 2nd Annual GLAAD Media Awards in Advertising - which honor individuals and projects in advertising and marketing for fair, accurate and inclusive representations of the LGBT community can be seen here.
- Mrs. Tom Cruise and the cast of The Romantics do J Crew.
- OMG! Author paid to tweet!
- And one for the ladies. Gabriel Aubry disrobes for Charisma Ad campaign.
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Britney Spears, whose ad career we've been avidly following here on Adrants, is out with new work for candies. In a new campaign for the brand's Autumn line of clothing for teens, 28-year-old Spears is looking very teen-like herself.
The campaign uses phrases from her hits songs and mirrors past work such as the Me Against The Music video she did with Madonna.
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