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Silver Jeans Spec Spot Keeps Restless Creatives Busy

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I like his ad. I really do. The music. The mood. The coloration. The pacing. The simplicity. There's one problem though. It's spec. It will never air. Never see the light of day beyond YouTube. Why? Because it was craftily created by the folks over at StunMedia during an actual photoshoot for Silver Jeans, the real reason those three guys, three girls and that old lady are at the laundromat.

Mostly, it was just done for fun to fill time during set ups for the campaign's still shots. Sounds good to me. Who really wants to sit around and watch OCD perfectionist photographers and anal AD's tinker endless with details no one will ever notice? Besides, it gives you something to do other than stand around gawking at the hot models like a 16 year old kid in heat.

by Steve Hall    Nov-28-07    
Topic: Commercials, Good



PMS 224 Might Not Be The Best Eye Color But FreshLook Has Choices

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Sick of being seen as a blond-haired, blue-eyed bimbo? Tired of guys making fun of your oddly red eyes? Worry no more as FreshLook colored contact lenses comes to the rescue. With the company's FreshLook Color Studio, you can upload a picture of yourself and apply any of their contact colors to your eyes to see what the new you could look like. Yet another crutch for our vanity-addled culture.

by Steve Hall    Nov-28-07    




Celestial Seasonings Takes (Sweet-Faced!) Bite Out of Starbucks' Hide

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Generally speaking, Celestial Seasonings reminds us of girls with frizzled hair sitting by a fireplace while reading books full of pressed rhododendrons.

Couple that with an unmoving loyalty to our cheery friend Starbucks (our fulfilling relationship has lasted longer than relationships with most human beings), and a college education that taught us the media makes us count calories at the same rate we pop pills, and you've got yourself a kamikaze campaign.

See Fat and Stretchy Pants.

The creative was put together by TDA Advertising & Design.

Something about the design of the fatty coffee drinks does bring those negative words to life. It really looks like fat floating in the Fat drink. And that whipped-cream double-chin? Pure art.

CS' press hombre called this a "sweet-faced competitive campaign." Would it talk you out of a soothing pumpkin-spiced concoction and into some chamomile a la glass mug?

by Angela Natividad    Nov-27-07    
Topic: Brands, Magazine



All Together Now: 'A Very Big Yes to Industry Growth!'

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Only in Singapore might you find a senior management video this square. Meet the heavy-hitters of Singapore's Media Development Authority.

With opening scratches that would make DJ Hi-Tek blush like a prude, the personal embarrassment generated by watching it is probably experienced tenfold by its participants -- in particular, the one dressed like Superman.

Steve's terrifically bewildered response: "Is it funny? Is it sad? Is this the new way to promote a country? Is it just the accents? Is it that Asians look just as out of place as white guys that rap?"

Speaking of Smirnoff's Tea Partay, where my WASPs at?

by Angela Natividad    Nov-27-07    
Topic: Strange, Video



Bra Maker Enlists Holocaust Survivor Look-A-Likes For Campaign

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Japanese bra maker Maruko is getting witty in a new Asatsu-DK-created campaign that fixates on the bronski, the act of getting one's face smooshed between a pair of breasts. While certainly a pleasurable experience, the two guys in these two ads look more like they've endured a Holocaust camp than the pleasures of a big pair of soft, fleshy breasts.

This is certainly a new addition to the long list of quirky approached bra makers have taken to get their product noticed. Wonderbra has proven its ability to confine breasts in motion with a spoof of the Cadbury Gorilla commercial and the fact their push up bras make women's breasts so big they cause problems. Playtex has asked women to submit funny stories about their experiences with their bras. Vanity Fair has playfully used lighting tricks to cover the female nipple. Chantelle Push-Up bras push up more than just beasts.

Sloggi just bares as much ass as it can. Bravissimo gets people past the over D cup stigma with properly fitted F, G and GG bras. Hanes signed Ghost Whisperer star Jennifer Love Hewit, the only woman who is as equally obsessed about breasts as men are. Victoria's Secret has gone the route of glamorizing the bra to the point it deserves its own television spectacle. And U.K. bra company Shock Absorber created a website where people can go watch breasts bounce.

more »

by Steve Hall    Nov-27-07    
Topic: Campaigns, Opinion, Racy, Strange



Consumers Still Bombarded With Advertising, Ad Model Still Broken

Please, We've Seen It All

The average consumer can't go through a day without seeing 3,500 commercial messages. That's a hell of a lot of clutter for one individual to sift through but that's the reality of today's advertising marketplace. From guerrilla marketing to all forms of "street furniture" advertising to human sandwich boards, advertising is inescapable unless one were to move to the Moon. Even there, one could probably see the screaming lights of Times Square when Jenna Jameson yelled, "Visit my website! Buy my videos!"

With media fragmentation comes advertiser's use of that fragmentation in the increasingly difficult war waged to win the valuable consumer eyeball. This fragmentation has given way to more unique forms of advertising that fall into the guerrilla marketing space but even these efforts are getting tired. Once novel, tactics such as forehead advertising, invertising, advergaming, dogvertising, adverblogging, blogvertising, bloodvertising and bravertising are now old hat. Other methods such as school bus, in-school and police car advertising are considered only out of financial desperation. Layer on top of that more recent whacked social media efforts like PayPerPost and clearly, the model is hurting.

more »

by Steve Hall    Nov-27-07    
Topic: Opinion, Trends and Culture



That Burning Sensation May Actually Be Sunbeams, Not Hemorrhoids

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We used to have a friend who, when trumped by life, would look up at the sky and say, "Sun, stop shining out of my ass; it burns." We thought this expression originated with him, but apparently Greenpeace has heard it too.

The spot promotes energy efficient light bulbs (do they stink like we now imagine them to?) and was put together by Park Village London for Escape Partners. Directed by Sven Harding.

by Angela Natividad    Nov-27-07    
Topic: Cause, Strange, Video



'Toma Leche' Rewards Gregarious Gigglers With Milk and Money

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Toma Leche? -- the Hispanic Got Milk? campaign -- conducted its own UGC campaign to celebrate the relaunch of that one ad with the giggling islanders. Entrants had to videotape themselves laughing. Or something.

The winner, Steve Josefson from Sherman Oaks, won $1,000 and 100 gallons of milk. He also gets a starring role in some future ad.

by Angela Natividad    Nov-27-07    
Topic: Campaigns, Online



Starbucks to Pass Cheer with Big Reach, Drink Generosity

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Banking on last year's success, Starbucks is recycling its Pass the Cheer campaign and last year's microsite, It's Red Again.

A Wieden+Kennedy-orchestrated print campaign, which by now should look pretty familiar, will be running in the December issues of Bon Appetit, CN Traveler, Esquire, InStyle, Lucky, O, and The New York Times Magazine. See more cavity-sweet creative: Mint Messenger and What is Cheer?

If we didn't know better, we'd say the copywriters consisted of elves. Or, at the very least, Paul McCartney. (Come on. He wrote Silly Love Songs, didn't he?)

by Angela Natividad    Nov-27-07    
Topic: Campaigns, Magazine, Online



Maglite Reaps Benefit of Street Art Trend

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Adland has a nice recap of the emerging street art or "light graffiti" trend which involves the use of various light sources to create imagery. Equipped with a light source and a camera, artists can create three dimensional renderings without the downside of permanent defacement of property.

Earlier this year, we reported on a technology that would allow a laser to be pointed at an object at night for the application of temporary graffiti. There's also been the use of light technology to create moving billboards projected on buildings from a passing vehicle.

Maglite seems to have successfully associated itself with this form of graffiti/art either on purpose of by accident. In any event, you know what they say about pblicity. We're sure Maglite ain't complaining.

by Steve Hall    Nov-27-07    




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