- The City Desk examines the 60 year history of the Richman Spectacles rich Man iconic neon sign that sits atop the Deputy Tyrone Campbell Building on Pearl Street. The area was once called Squint Alley due to the overwhelming brilliance and quantity of neon signs that once graced the area.
- Virgin Atlantic Airways has put its account in review. Crispin Porter + Bogusky has had the account since 2003 and will not defend.
Catch Seinfeld promoting Bee Movie by jumping off an eight story building in Cannes.
- Oddcast is having fun with its Baby Mail.
- Cynopsis reports, "The CW is planning on not selling traditional commercials in the new trend-watching series CW Now on Sunday nights. Instead, the network will integrate marketers into the show as sponsors for specific segments such as fashion, beauty or music. This fall, The CW will also sell five-second spots called "cwickies" to advertisers, in particular movie studios, three times throughout a show or during the course of a night, followed by a longer-form commercial, like a trailer. "
- Apparently, new research suggest young adults read more magazines, not less.
- Check out the Creativity Award winners.
Vlan! points us to some ads for the Smart car, a vehicle that, however practical, looks just as awkward as the expressions crystallized in these winning moments for icons like Saddam and Bush.
Awkward.
Smart's slogan: "Open your mind."
We wonder who they're talking to. We're pretty sure none of these foiblers suffered from lack of imagination - they all did some zany things that ended up upsetting most everybody in the world.
Could it be that we're supposed to identify with them? If that's so, the tags on the ads aren't deeply encouraging. For example, the line just above Clinton's frowny face reads, "Interns and cigars. Not smart." No shit, Sherlock.
It's a back. It's a knee. It's a head. It's a butt. It's a distended stomach. It's a gigantic breasts. It's a...wait...should we have to work that hard to figure out what a visual is in an ad? Of course not but in this case it really doesn't matter because this is an ad for a skin care product. And back, knees, heads, butt's, stomach and gigantic breasts all have skin. In this ad for Vaseline Intensive Care Cocoa Butter, the marketer keeps us guessing which, when you think about it, is one great way to get people to pay attention to your ad.
When a hot rock star dies young, idolatry takes an immortal leap. Hoping to piggy-back this star-crossed love is Doc Martens, who tapped Saatchi & Saatchi, London for this U.K.-based poster campaign.
Fallen stars Kurt Cobain, Sid Vicious, Joey Ramone and Joe Strummer compose the centerpiece of this print and poster collabo.
Writer Andrew Petch tells AdCritic, "We wanted to communicate that Dr. Martens boots are 'made to last,' and we discovered that these idolized musicians wore them. Showing them still wearing their Docs in heaven dramatized the boots' durability perfectly."
Well, let's hope customers think "durability" and not "premature death."
Thank you, 7 Eleven! Finally, we can feature an ad campaign that objectifies men. Rather than scantily clad women, we have scantily clad men vamping for 7 Eleven in Australia to promote the chain's frozen Slurpee. With gleeful abandon, the men in the ads are given the full beefcake treatment and portrayed as poolboy, pole dancer and maid. Contrary to what one might assume, this reverse double standard-ish campaign was not created by a bunch of giggling female creatives sitting around the conference room table but by five guys at Leo Burnett Melbourne...who probably also giggled madly while sitting around the conference room table. This ought to keep us editorially balance for at least another year, don'tcha think?
Most of us have done that (transparent) thing where we text a friend and beg them to call with a life-altering emergency so we can ditch a date.
To rid us of the inconvenience of praying for follow-through, Cosmo hosts a call-back service that enables serial daters to pre-set a time for the phone to ring.
Because the ringing effect just ain't fancy enough, you can select the type of caller you want, too.
Consider the potential. This doesn't just make date-ditching easier; it also makes check-skipping more convenient. And it would probably make a unique morning wake-up call too.
The function is powered by Moderati and can be accessed at the mobile component of the Cosmo site. The service costs a dollar and, we suppose, saves you some dignity.
Thanks go out to Snackable Content, who knows how the single do suffer.
To raise awareness (and hopefully funds) for the homeless, Munich-based magazine Biss disseminates 300 strange little posters and print ads to show nature doesn't automatically grant everybody a place to call home. They are somewhat creepy as expressions cross between homeless angst and something sea creaturish. The layer of slime probably throws us off. Or is that malnutrition?
Copy reads, "Nature doesn't provide everyone with a home. Help homeless by buying this magasin."
See the snail and turtle variations.
Agency Yamamoto Moss Mackenzie walked out of the National Agri-Marketing Association Awards with first place for a series of ads they did for John Deere Credit's Farm Plan.
The ads involve burly farmers taking bubble baths and walking decked-out little dogs. The idea goes that the Farm Plan lets them focus on la dolce vida.
It's odd enough that an association for agri-marketing in specific exists. Beyond that, it's entirely possible that the salt of the earth may also be preoccupied with exfoliating.
Concord Litho is helping NBC with a promotion for the May 3 episode of My name is Earl. The promotion really stinks. In fact, it doesn't just stink, it stinks six different ways. It stinks so bad, NBC is going to make people stick their noses in the stink delivered courtesy of TV Guide.
Yes, during the May 3 "Laugh 'n Sniff" episode, NBC will prompt viewers with on-air graphics to rub one of six corresponding numbered boxes on TV Guide's scent card, which will release aromas connected to the My Name Is Earl storyline, including the smell of "a brand-new car," and the chocolaty-creamy signature scent of Oreo cookies who is sponsoring the episode. The stinky ads will appear in the April 30 issue of TV Guide.
Copyranter posted this ad for Chubb that sets our '80's sensibilities aflame. He also points out the less-than-subtle hard-on reference, courtesy of handy ol' Urban Dictionary.
Huh.
That's mildly violating but perhaps insurance providers don't have to worry much about throwing double-entendres around and courting a lawsuit. Man, those guys must be good.
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