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McCann Hires Jesus And Fidel Castro For Agency Campaign

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Advertising Goodness calls our attention to a couple self-promotional ads that McCann-Eriskson created. With imagery that features well known icons, the ads, very simply, make a powerful and convincing statement. We like.

by Steve Hall    Jan- 9-06   Comments (2)    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Agencies, Good, Magazine

Individual's to Appear on 'Person of the Year' Times Square Board

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Time Magazine is promoting its Person of the Year issue on the Reuters board in New York's Times Square. As part of the promotion, developed by Fallon, the first 50,000 people who submit their photo will, after review, be shown on the 45 foot tall electronic display at 43rd Street and 7th Avenue. There will also be photographers, who will beam photos of selected people to the board, roaming Times Square from 12 Noon until 3PM each day until December 8. Each headshot will be framed in Time Magazine's Iconic red border on a mock Time Person of the Year cover.

People don't have to actually be in Times Square to see their headshots displayed - a digital camera will snap photos of each new image as it is displayed, and will place these photos in a searchable database online at www.impoy.com. Photos can be emailed, printed and shared with friends and family. 50,000 headshots will rotate through the display along with real Person of the Year candidates such as Lance Armstrong, Condoleezza Rice, George W. Bush, Bono and J.K. Rowling. The display will ask passersby who they would choose to be Time's 2005 Person of the Year.

The promotion, presented by Chrysler, will run for a total of 6,000 minutes from Dec. 1 - Dec. 19 on The Reuters Sign in Times Square. We submitted our photo. You should too.

by Steve Hall    Dec- 4-05   Comments (1)    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Consumer Created, Magazine, Outdoor, Promotions

Condom Maker Says 'Let The Beast Go'

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Now here's something you don't see all the time. Well, at least not in public that is. There's plenty of it in private. Likely, without all that paint though. These ads for Humo magazine promise to give away Durex condoms in its next issue. Freakish as they are there's an even freakier TV spot for them as well. Obviously this is not an American campaign as we are far too prudish for this sort of thing. At least in our advertising.

by Steve Hall    Nov-22-05   Comments (5)    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Magazine, Strange, Television

Buick Takes Precision Route With New Lucerne Campaign

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Today, Buick launched a campaign, called "Beyond Precision," for its new 2006 Lucerne. Television spots focus on the exactitude with which the car is crafted which is not necessarily a new message but seems to work in this case. After all, there's not much else about a Buick that's all that exciting. At least we can be excited about the car's ad campaign.

A series of print ads will launch on Nov. 22 in USA TODAY and Nov. 23 in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal; and will run throughout the year in a variety of magazines and newspapers. Interactive inserts, coined "Buzz Prints," that feature product attributes of the Lucerne will begin running in publications in February. Additional campaign components include online advertising and promotional placements on prime time shows. Two of the spots can be viewed here and here.

more »

by Steve Hall    Nov-21-05   Comments (1)    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Campaigns, Magazine, Newspaper, Online

Ad Age Apologizes For SpecificMEDIA Cover Wrap Debacle

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Following a MediaPost Real Media Riff's column that roasted Ad Age for an editorial cover wrap attached to 1,000 copies of the magazine distributed at ad:tech in early November, Ad Age's Rance Crain, today, offers up a mea culpa and apologizes for what MediaPost deemed a serious ad/edit line crosser. Apparently unbeknownst to the magazine's management, including Crain and Editor Scott Donaton, a last minute deal was struck between someone at Ad Age and a company called SpecificMEDIA to adhere a front page cover wrap that appeared to look like news content and distribute it at ad:tech. Crain writes David Klein, publishing and editorial director of the Ad Age Group, sent an email to the magazine's staff stating, among other things, the publications credibility had been damaged by the wrap. Crain also makes no excuses for misjudgment.

In a nod to an American Business Media "Editorial Integrity: Under Assault?" panel Crain moderated last week, he noted readers have increased protection from "overzealous advertisers" by blogs and other journalists who will call out moves such as this cover wrap debacle. It's encouraging that Ad Age chose to publicly deal with this issues as it could very easily have simply swept it under the rug and moved on. Welcome to the conversation, Ad Age.

by Steve Hall    Nov-21-05   Comments (1)    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Magazine, Opinion, Publishing

'Sporting News' Gets 'Maxim' Cover Treatment

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Next week's Sporting News sure looks interesting as indicated by this front cover image sent to us with a note speculating its roots: "Perhaps it has something to do with Sporting News general manager Jim Borth formerly being the head of circulation at Dennis Publishing." Perhaps, indeed.

by Steve Hall    Nov-18-05   Comments (2)    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Magazine, Publishing

Seventies Porn Fashion Returns

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Wipe that smirk off your face, dude. This is a photoshoot for an ad, not a porn flick. Oh, and speaking of porn, those 70's pornographer sunglasses have got to go. No self-respecting hipster, metrosexual would be caught dead wearing those things so go back to your pad, turn on the lava lamp, push aside the multicolored, vertical beads in the doorway to your bedroom, turn on some Donna Summer and throw your women down on the red velvet sheets of your love nest and get vertical.

by Steve Hall    Nov-18-05   Comments (1)    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Magazine, Strange

Danica Patrick Beats Paris Hilton in GQ Ad Babe Showdown

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There's never a lack of ad babes peering, longingly, out of magazine ad pages luring guys into buying things they really don't need so it's without surprise that we find both been-there-done-that Paris Hilton and IndyCar babe Danica Patrick meeting our eyeballs as we flip though the December issue of GQ, which, by the way was a multi cover issue on which Jennifer Anniston appeared semi-nude but we, unfortunately, ended up with the Vince Vaughn version. Come on, Jim. You read Adrants. You know what we like. Send a memo to the circulation department, stat!

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Paris, who, hands down, has the best "do me" look, is in GQ hawking her Paris Hilton For Men fragrance. Oddly, the container looks like a lipstick wand so we're doubtful too many men will actually be seen buying or using this stuff. Danica, who has the more girl-next-door, wholesome look, except here, is smirking for TISSOT Swiss Watches. The ad carries the headline, "A Woman's Touch...in a Man's World," which appropriately, references her place in the male dominated world of car racing.

So in terms of which ad does a better job selling its product, without doubt, the award goes to Danica Patrick's TISSOT ad. It's a product an actual man would actually buy and Patrick's demeanor, at least in this ad, is far more tangible and realistic that Paris Hilton's airy, empty, vacuous persona seen here.

by Steve Hall    Nov-17-05   Comments (8)    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Celebrity, Magazine, Opinion

Unicef Says Put Trash in Child's Mouth

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This is not right. Sure, the message in this Unicef ad appears to be "don't be wasteful with food and other items because there are needy people in the world who need things" but an open mouth on a what appears to be a trashcan open wide, ready to have trash stuffed in. Wrong message. Very wrong.

by Steve Hall    Nov- 6-05   Comments (4)    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Magazine

Maxim Launches India Edition

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Dennis Publishing has announced its Maxim magazine will launch its 30th international edition, this time in India, making it the first, according to international licensing director Richard Bean, international men's lifestyle magazine in India. The magazine will debut this month under an agreement with Media Transasia.

Maxim's India edition will have a distribution of 80,000 copies, edited by Sunil Mahra and published by Piyush Sharma.

by Steve Hall    Nov- 1-05   Comments (10)    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Magazine

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