'Balls' Culturally Misrepresented in VW 'Turbo-Cojones' Billboard

It seems some Hispanics don't like the American version of "having big balls" let alone being told the VW GTI has Turbo-Cojones. Apparently, to "have balls" doesn't really mean one is a badass Mofo to a Hispanic since the word "cojones" refers literally those bulbous round objects inside that hairy, baggy sack of flesh that hangs between a man's legs. Not exactly an image that conjures a bold risk taker. And so it goes. Another billboard comes down because of cultural misunderstanding. The board, in New York, LA and Miami will be replaced by the less "culturally offensive" Spanglifications "Here today, gone tamale" and "Kick a little gracias." How un-ballsy. Image from El Blog De Popo.

Giant Billboard Attacks Passerby

Now we all know advertisers are hard pressed to attract the attention of message-weary consumers but we never thought they'd take to literally clobbering people over the head to get them to pay attention to their ads. This past Wednesday around 2:30 PM, a piece of a large L'Oreal billboard in Toronto's Eaton Center fell and hit a man seriously injuring him along with two others. High winds, versus an aggressive guerrilla media planning strategy, were blamed for the incident. Local TV report here.

Florida Allows Citizens to Advertise Political Beliefs on License Plates

Odd as it may seem, our New York City culture correspondent Bucky Turco found himself in Florida this week and marveled at the state's license plate citizen advertising program whereby the state lets people select from a list of ahundred or so messages to emblazon their license plates. Without surprise, Turco found and photographed one of the more controversial messages people can choose to slap on their vehicles.

McDonald's Bus Shelter Makes Mouth Water For Crap

Just what you want while waiting for the bus: that mouth watering, tantalizing reminder of how much you'd love to stuff your face with a 1,000 calorie burger only to be reminded later by your stomach it wasn't the best decision you could have made. See more here.

Leo Burnett Istanbul created the piece and the media agency is OMD Turkey.

Army Poster Conveys It's More Fun Not to Join Up

Ironic Sans points out an ad for the Army that, perhaps, sends the wrong message. In the ad, citizens are shown smiling and army personnel are shown with stern, even angry or sad expressions. To us, it looks like being a citizen is a lot more fun then joining the army. We're guessing the top brass is of the opinion smiling soldiers convey a weakness, hence the bad ass, military facial expressions.

Decapitation Ad Sells...Something

This is just one of those ads that would cause so many complaints in America that, well, it's not running in America. It's running in China. To say this ad attracts attention is an understatement. See more "executions" here.

Outdoor Razor Ad Shaves Grass

Here's an interesting ad for BIC found by Creative Criminal. You don't see outdoor ads like this very often but you should. It's definitely attention-getting.

Screw the Mustache, Asian Women Sell Milk Albums

We're just gonna say it. Asian women are hot! Asian women in ads are really hot. Asian women in ads for milk, well, we'll leave that little fantasy to your own private machinations. We're not gonna share our every dirty little thought with you now. We know you have plenty of your own. So who would you buy milk from? This girl or some Hollywood star with a milk mustache? See a bigger image here and a second image here.

UPDATE: We're totally wrong. Well, sort of., It is an ad but not for milk. It's for a new album from Kodi Kumi, a popular Japanese singer. Asian women are still hot though.

Model Wrapped Around Lamp Post Commands Attention

We don't know where this lamp post ad is or who the advertiser is but it certainly is attention getting. Beyond the effective merging of the actual lamp post with the post in the ad, there's the whole woman wrapped around a pole like a pole dancer thing that never fails to increase the height of attention commanded by such imagery. See the full image here.

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Nationwide Brings More Consumer-Generated Times Square Action

Following Time Magazine's lead, Nationwide Insurance is doing the consumer-generated Times Square billboard thing. Visitors to the Life Comes At You Fast site can submit a "moment" that somehow relates to the whole Life Comes At You Fast thing and, if accepted, it will appear on Natonwide's Time Square billboard. TM Advertising did the work.

We suppose there's a vanity play here and we're sure we're jaded by years of this stuff but...oh screw it...we were going to complain but whet the hell. People love to see their own faces in public places. We're just not the stand behind the GMA camera and wave like an idiot sort of guy.