It's about time. Most every campaign that calls attention to breast cancer features some colored ribbon or some celebrity lamely attempting to soften you up so you'll make a donation. Why? Why? Why? It's boring. Why not offer women (the ones affected by this disease) what they really want; stunningly hot, six packed guys in near nude poses offering themselves up as fantasy fodder. It might even be enough to make that next chemo session pass a little quicker.
Well, that's what The McGratch Foundation's Naked for a Cause did for its 2008 calendar. It enlisted the help of 26 NRL and AFL Australian footballers to strip down and offer up their chiseled bodies for all to admire. Who can complain with that? We have our Double Standard-equipped saber to debate anyone who does.
So yes it's true, Adrants has sold a percentage of its soul to Watershed Publishing, the company behind MarketingVOX (which, back in the day, I had a hand in founding), MediaBuyerPlanner and Marketing Charts. But, not a majority of it's sole so things will remain as they have always been around here and under my control.
In terms of the deal, Adrants will benefit from having an actual company with actual people behind it who will improve Adrants' infrastructure, sales and growth. Adrants isn't just a little ad blog any more - and hasn't been for quite some time. Now, in partnership with Watershed, all four publications reach an audience twice the size of Advertising Age's online properties and 15 percent larger than the sum of those from Nielsen Business Media's advertising properties which includes AdWeek, BrandWeek and MediaWeek. Hey, we're just saying. We still love all of you.
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Apparently, American Airlines was on to something when it launched its "We Know Why You Fly" campaign a few years ago. We're told the campaign has increased awareness of the airline from 50 percent to 85 percent "in some key markets and among business travelers." Of course, "some key markets" could be Ketchikan, Alaska and Bangor, Maine but let's not rain of their celebratory parade.
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OMG. Just when we thought we'd written this line for the last time, we're gonna write it again: "Just when you thought every last inch of space had been covered with advertising, yet another appears." Most recently, it was the front of washing machines in laundromats. Now, it's the front of plows to promote Audi Canada's Quattro event which aims to get people into dealerships this week to try ot the vehicle.
Accompanied by radio, print and online, five snow plows were outfitted with signage and painted plows which read, "Winter is Coming" along with the dates of the event. As we've said every time before, it's only a matter of time before someone offers to paint our house for free as long as they can paint a giant logo on the front of the house. Lowe Roche created the campaign.
Here's a pair of commercials for the Swedish beer Falcon that pits man against man in a game of typical male oneupmanship. As men argue over who's beard is thicker and who can withstand the coldest of temperatures exclaiming "really thick" and "really cold," Falcon's "really beer" message is really clearly delivered. Again, simplicity wins.
The campaign was created by Saatchi & Saatchi Stockholm and produced by Social Club.
Check out Crescent Heights, an effort by P&G to promote Tide through the lives of twenty-somethings (Quarterlife, anybody?) with painfully bright clothes.
Endless product promotion aside, we admire the series' capacity to remind us so vividly of Saved by the Bell: The New Class -- except without the charm of the previous class' success to leech off of.
And the fake messages on the discussion board (generously mocked by the seven or so watchers of the series)? Nice touch.
Here's a wink-wink nudge-nudge type of spot meant to tell us that while Lexus would never actually approve of making doughnuts, tearing into corners or nailing sweet spots, its '08 GS is certainly equipped to.
We like to compare this subtle new tongue-in-cheek attitude to those gleefully bad-ass -- but still luxury-class -- Audi ads.
The spot, which debuted this evening during Boston Legal, is brought to you by Team One Advertising, LA, and visual effects firm a52. We wish Lexus would try being funny more often. Generally speaking it can be a bit ho-hum.
Tomorrow, Wendy's and its team of red wig wearing goofs will take over the Heavy.com site at 10AM EST for a 12 hour period. The site will be emblazoned with Wendy's and red wig goodies including the magical placement of the red wig atop people's heads in videos featured on the site.
While some may disagree, we think the red wig campaign is one of the best since "Where's the beef?" barring, perhaps, Dave Thomas' long running appearance as spokesman.
We're told by Joy Martinez the guy in this video works (worked?) at MediaVest, reached an "I'm mad as hell and I'm not gonna take it anymore" moment" and decided to run around Times Square naked. This is what our business does to people?
This spot for raising STD awareness made us kind of sick, mainly because the guy in the chlamydia suit actually looks like somebody we dated. (It's amazing how unforgiving memory can be.)
Check out the STD Monster subsite to see more chlamydia behaving badly.
"Can I crash in your fallopian tube tonight?" God damn.
The spots were put together by the cats at SecretSauce.tv. There's also a contest where you can vote for your favourite chlamydia spot to win a free STD combo pack. (That's a series of tests for Chlamydia, Gonorrhea, Syphilis, Hepatitis and HIV.)
The only thing we can think of that's cooler than a jam-pack of STD tests is a gift basket of microbe stuffed animals. Ebola never looked more cuddly, especially under the unattractive highlights of the chlamydia monster.
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