|
Subscribe to RSS
|
||||
 |
|||||
Chuck Encourages Chucking. What? We never cease to be perplexed by this running Converse campaign for Chuck Taylors. "Get Chucked." Isn't chucking slang for spewing the vom? Is this some sort of lame attempt at reappropriating the term? Maybe Converse should talk to the clever societal puppeteers who managed to alter the meanings of "nigga" and "queer." Holiday Inn Continues Stupid Man Trend With Cal Ripken Spots Adding even more to the dumb dad/idiot man trend, these two (1, 2) new commercials for Holiday Inn and its position as Official Hotel of Major League Baseball pit four idiots against Cal Ripken so they can make asses of themselves. Is it really a good thing to portray your potential customer as an idiot and then expect them to hand over their hard-earned dollars to you? We think not. Oh sure, we're not the dumb one. It's that one idiot from left field we can all laugh at so that we can feel better our ourselves. Still, does every man in every commercial have to come off like an idiot? Oh wait, don't answer that. If we make all men smart in commercials, we'll have to stop treating women like eye candy in commercials and that would be a very bad thing. Bring on the dumb dads. Maybe we'll get more ads like this. Lack Talent? Have Hair While it doesn't answer the question of how American Idol survived beyond its first season, our current theory, that lots of hair can keep you buoyant despite any other merits you may lack, is the reason we think the unlikely Sanjaya Malakar remains in the musical running. See his audition here. His singing ain't fantastic but the whole seven ponytails ("For good luck!") shtick he recently pulled off is endearing to somebody. Many somebodies. Even Simon is at a loss for words, noting if America likes him then it doesn't matter what he says. The defeated attitude wears badly on our judge of choice. Karl Rove Enthusiastically Molests Hip-Hop We don't know what Mr. Rove was thinking at the Radio Television Correspondents' Association Dinner, but if hip-hop wasn't dead before he just shot it in the face. We'll never again be able to purge the memory of him jerking his hands from side to side and whipping out his cell-phone with knees bouncing. Well, if we were part of the Administration we too would run with the strange, liberating sensation that comes with having nothing left to lose. Yes, It's True. House Advertising Is Here Three years ago, we said it might not be so surprising for an advertiser to place their logo on the side of a house. Now, a company called Riley, with help from new Durham-based agency The Republik, plans to "turn upscale homes into a media vehicle" by allowing manufacturers to purchase space for product placement within newly built homes. Eesh. And we thought E's 'The Simple Life' pink house promotion was bad. Old KFC Ad is Gross in Current Context This 2005 ad, in which some call center members sing to one another with their mouths full of KFC, would probably have been more appetizing were it not for this. Oh, ick. By Bartle Bogle Hegarty in 2005 for Kentucky Fried Chicken, the British made a record number of complaints about the spot, according to AdFreak. It would be hard to molest our own sense of propriety but the recent rat scandal pushed the envelope just enough for us to understand how they must have felt. Apple TV - H8xOred! Apparently the Apple TV nervous system isn't as resilient as their computers. Post first day of shipping, ZDNet spills the beans: Non-Apple TV owners can enjoy the out of box experience by viewing the opening video which one crafty person ripped from the hard drive and posted in all of it's 720p glory. You can also download the Quartz Composer Screen Saver and the Now Playing Screen. And if you're truly hard-core you can download the entire Apple TV OS, and (conceivably) install it on another Mac. And apparently that was just the easy stuff. First generation Apple TV = FTL. Here's to hoping the almighty iPhone fares better. Somehow Buffalo and Beaver Sells Rental Cars We are at a loss at coming up with an explanation as to what a beaver and a buffalo have to do with highlighting Alamo rental's new kiosks other than for pure "odd factor." In two Fallon-created, Moo-produced commercials, the two animals get all buddy-buddy-like with the beaver taking on the smart guy role and the buffalo the doofus role all to explain why Alamo's kiosks aren't being used as much as they should. See the spots here and here and tell us if we're right or full of...excrement. Fuel Recycles for Mazda's Queue of Lame Duck Campaigns Commendably persistent in its quest to spark the libido of speed-freak co-eds (previous attempts one and two), Mazda throws the weight of some slightly-below-indy Canadian bands behind a new virtual driving game. Created by Fuel Industries, the courses were shot on college campuses and university students can choose between three. We played the game and it seemed promising until we realized the speed couldn't be adjusted (from what we could tell, anyway) and we didn't even have to mess with the right or left functions. Just keep pushing the forward button and the car turns for you. If only real-life cars were that smart. Oh wait, Lexus might be. Learn something from Candystand, the branded-game pros, or even Nokia, who really struck gold with almost the same idea. In fact, it was made by the same people. Ew, a sloppy seconds campaign. Not cute. Fifth (Or Later) Assvertising Campaign Dubbed 'World's First' We just love when big companies usurp the ideas of others and claim to be the first at something when, in fact, very clearly, they are not. Why? Because we get to trash them for it. Had anyone behind the Gene Simmons Family Jewels show done even the tiniest bit of home work, they'd realize they were not, in fact, the first to launch an assvertising campaign. Far from it. They're not even the second. Or the third. Or the fourth. Do your homework, people. Damn, a simple Google search turns up 17,500 results! While slapping panties that read "Gene Simmons Family Jewels"on 25 models and having them prance about tomorrow at the Hard Rock Cafe's Times Square location to promote the second season of Simmons' show, those involved seem to have forgotten this very thing has already occurred in the same city. NightAgency, which created the concept, did it for New York Health and Racquet Club. Kodak did it at a trade show in Boston. A Russian tire shop did it. MTN did it in Italy. And those are just the ones we've covered. If you really must see this ill-name "first," hurry over to the Hard Rock Cafe in Times Square tomorrow, Thursday, March 22 at 12PM. UPDATE: Our explanation seems to have caught someone's attention. The words "world's first" have been removed from the press release. 
|
Source: Viral Video Chart
|
