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Copyranter points us to Joel Spolsky, a self-professed geek, who was miffed by a recent Traveler's Insurance ad that was headlined, "To catch a geek, you have to think like a geek" and went on to say, "Fashion sense aside, today's high-tech criminals are evolving constantly... Give your independent agent a call, and spend your time taking your business to the next level. Instead of worrying about a crook in ill-fitting pants."
Joel argues it's wrong for Traveler's to view geeks as some sort of security-related insurance risk and the whole geek versus non-geek thing is so high school. He continues by questioning whether insurance agents are really any more capable than geeks to protect a company's security and that the ad attacks the very people whose job it is to implement sais protection.
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Now here's an ad that made Adrants reader Stacy initially go, "Huh?" The headline reads, "I found it's nice being noticed for something other than my intelligence," which caused Stacy to ask, "What the f#@??!!" While there was concern for a moment that advertising had returned to the classic days of woman-as-homemaker-in-front-of-the-refrigerator, a visit to the web address (screen shot) in the ad explained the woman was simply happy to be noticed for something other than her less-than-glamorous nursing scrubs look when she wore a Silpada necklace to work one day and then decided to sell the stuff, resulting in her quitting her job and making tons of money. The moral of the story? "Get noticed for your brains and your beauty." Oh, and sell lots of Silpada jewelry too.
Following its belief that exposing oneself to great ads from other advertising professionals will better one's own creativity, Ad of the World, with help from JWT Bangkok, has launched a promotional campaign that highlights how copying...uh...acknowledging others great creative will results in great creative of one's own.
To be fair, inspiration is a powerful motivator that fuels creativity. knowing what others have done and why helps align one's own creative thinking and, ideally, fosters new, original creativity along the way. The campaign visually illustrates how exposure to, and mashup of, great creative can produce interesting results. We're not sure about that twisted pig, though. See the entire campaign here.
If memory serves, after 9/11, wasn't it the French who sort of dragged their feet and made things difficult for the countries trying to tally together against Bin Laden? If so, that might explain this ad for French tree hugger site Defi Pour La Terre which thought it would be witty to transform the image of two trees into the twin towers burning on that fateful day. All to somehow equate the value of a tree to the value of a human life.
We not sure any amount of time passed makes this sort of thing OK. Then again, we're American. We knew people on Flight 93. The French? Well, perhaps they didn't know anyone who died that day or just feel Americans can't keep their hands out of other countries' issues. While the latter may be true, mocking a world event such as 9/11, at least for now, is still in very bad taste. And the French are supposed to know about taste, right?
- Google command over the ad industry may increase even further with the purchase in-game ad company Adscape Media.
- Time Inc. is not having a good time these days as automaker cut $100 million in ad spend across the publisher's titles.
- It would appear the Saatchi 17 are now wishing they never left in the first place haviing just been axed by Interpublic.
Instead of harping a self-righteous "smoking kills" or "quitting can improve your quality of life" message with some skipping in the flowers imagery, NicodermCQ takes a different tack: it hawks its nicotine patch as an age lifter and clarifier.
Clever. We all know what the detriments associated with smoking are; the only problem is that tools for quitting just aren't as cute as the sultry puff-puff. Considering some women already use a patch for birth control, looking upon a nicotine patch as a beauty tool may be just what the doctor ordered.
AllState, best known for its mild-mannered commercials and provocative slogan, "Are you in good hands?" conducts an out-of-character but well-orchestrated PR stunt with the help of Leo Burnett.
In the subsequent ad a man on a mission steals a vehicle and drives it surreally off the top of a Marina City parking garage in Chicago. And just when you're like "OMGWTFBBQ," that soothing meme of a tone takes over: "AllState. Are you in good hands?"
Nervous laughter all around.
This print ad, where a Grand Am teeters precariously over the edge of that same parking structure, follows up on the idea.
AllState, typically favouring the soberest of marketing stances, surprised us with this one. It's a little like God making a joke at our expense. We're sure they got some good buzz out of the deal and maybe even an account or two since people accidentally drive off narrow parking structures all the time.
Doodles are coming back in a big way as suddenly everybody's under the impression they say a lot about you.
To perpetuate this strange idea Lunar BBDO creates a doodle campaign for UK-based Samaritans, which according to the website provides "emotional support for people who are experiencing feelings of distress or despair, including those which may lead to suicide."
Creative director Daryl Corps tells AdCritic, "If you stand close to the poster you'll see the detailed doodles -- but stand back and you'll see that these doodles make up the image of someone who should contact the Samaritans."
Suddenly we want desperately to hide the desk calendar we've been idly doodling on for the last year. Our little pinwheels, inky slashes and bug-eyed monsters make us feel very naked in the face of all this concerned scrutiny. Didn't Patrick Bateman of American Psycho do a lot of doodling too? Look at that. One day you're doodling; the next day you're trying to push a live cat into an ATM machine.
The Sopranos and A&E pair up for Suitcase of Cash, an intelligent though slightly labyrinthine campaign that aims both to court interactivity and get people more involved in their advertising (rather than having them turn in a bunch of manic self-aggrandizing homemade videos).
The game coincides with the January 10 premiere of the show and recalls McD's annual Monopoly contest, though it makes better use of multiple media. Users collect game pieces to arrange on a virtual gameboard.
The game pieces are banner, print and outdoor ads, which can be photographed and uploaded, then mailed to an address that uses military face recognition (kind of like MyHeritage?) to ID the piece in the photo. For online ads, users just need to click, which we're sure will generate higher numbers for everybody's media kits this year.
Our heads are spinning but it sounds like fun and a $100,000 grand prize ain't small pickin's. It would be awesomer still if there was an Assassin twist to it - knocking people off and taking their game pieces would be right up our alley and even better for the Soprano's tie-in.
Women's health and reproductive rights organization IPAS campaigns to get women to speak up when they've been sexually abused. The ads well illustrate both the rage and sense of isolation that occurs when a person's been compromised. The little tear on the right cheek is helpful too, and the font is nice and raw.
The ads were put together by Santaclara, a spankin' new Sao Paulo agency. Well, this is a good strong start. Ethnic variations for IPAS are here and here.
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