Kenneth Cole Stirs Debate on Abortion, Guns, Gay Rights and War

In its continuing effort to rid the world of every last prejudice, stereotype, human rights issue, environmental problem and other ailment facing the human race, Kenneth Cole is out with Where Do You Stand, an effort that aims to open debate on gay rights, woman's right to choose, gun control and war.

The effort is supported with an online site hooked up with which invite visitors to chime in on these topics. Offline advertising supports as well.

We're going to make one comment on one of the campaign's pieces of creative. And, in doing so, we're going to tip our hand and let you know we are decidedly pro-choice on the issue of abortion. One of the ads reads, "Should it be a woman's right to choose if she's the one carrying it all?"

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She Won't Remember Your Name But She'll Remember the View

Commenting on a new campaign promoting apartments in New York from MNS, MNS Executive VP of Marketing Ryan McCann told the New York Post, "You can make a correlation between the quality of your apartment and the quality of women you get."

Well, if that were actually true, all one would have to do is rent an apartment from MNS. Oh wait.

As part of the campaign, on the MNS website, visitors are asked to share their wildest hook up stories. The campaign's tagline reads, "I don't remember his name, but his apartment..." OK, guys. You know what to do next.

Ashton Kutcher, Alessandra Ambrosio Front Colcci Campaign

Last month, Ashton Kutcher and Brazilian model Alessandra ambrosia were seen in Brazil shooting a campaign for fashion brand Colcci. These images over at Radar Online are the result of that shoot. The pair are now the face of the brand, replacing Gisele Bundchen.

Red Lobster: We Sea Food Differently

A new Grey New York-created campaign for Red Lobster features employees of Red Lobster, a first for the brand. Each commercial highlights an employee and what the love about the company. The employee stories are said to be unscripted and come with the new tagline, Se Food Differently."

The campaign also communicates several changes the chain has recently made including the addition of wood-fired grills and certified grill masters.

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Thankless Consumers Rip Summer's Eve For Being Racist

For years people have been complaining about feminine hygiene product advertising calling it unrealistic with the category's portrayal of women frolicking in white pants through flower-filled fields. Well, thanks to The Richards Group, we now have a more realistic portrayal (nay we say celebration?) of feminine hygiene products.

So how do people react? We give you one guess. They complain. Yup. They complain. A new series of ads featuring a vertical hand vagina voiced by African American, Latina and Caucasian women are being called sexist and racist.

On sites from AdWeek to The Consumerist to MoxieBird to the Daily News the reaction to the campaign is discussed. And it's not very positive.

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Sadly But Predictably, Got Milk PMS Campaign Plugged

Oh it's a dangerous road to travel when marketers decide to poke fun at, well, just about anything these days. As you have certainly heard, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners created a Got Milk campaign called Everything I Do Is Wrong which highlighted the plight of men faced women women experiencing symptoms of PMS. The campaign payoff was the reference to research that found milk could mitigate the effects of PMS.

But even scientific fact couldn't save this campaign which has since been pulled by the California Milk Processor Board. Many people felt the campaign portrayed women in an unfavorable light leading many to believe they become raging lunatics every 28 days or so.

Any man who has lived with any woman for any period of time understand there's a modicum of truth to that portrayal. Of course that doesn't mean all women lose complete control and turn their men into losers who can't do anything right.

Unlike many, we have no problem with this campaign. Why? Because if we can't poke fun at ourselves, what's left? If we can't inject a bit of humor into our lives, we might as well all become monks. Oh wait, even they know how to have fun. If we can't take a moment and just chuckle, we're going to turn into a world filled with cause groups that will dumb us down to the point where we all turn into emotionless robotic automatons.

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Slim Jim Aims to Cure Male Spice Loss

The new Slim Jim campaign from Venables Bell & Partners reminds us of that Snickers commercial with Mr. T in which he made fun of a speed walker. That commercial got several people up in arms who somehow equated the spot to bashing gays. We didn't see it that way.

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Printer Promises to Handle Your Work With Care, Not Like Luggage

No one likes their stuff mistreated. Not their produce. Not their luggage. Not their construction materials. And certainly not their print work. Which is the message of this print campaign for Brazilian printing company MAIS. Created by Sao Paulo agency Mohallem/Artplan, the campaign envisions print work being tossed around as if it were carelessly handled produce, luggage and construction materials.

The produce and construction material version are here and here.

Your Fellow Employees Are Your Biggest Security Threat

A new MossWarner-created print campaign from digital security firm Beyond Trust features a cast of evil-doers and aims to call attention to one of the biggest and often overlooked security threats; your fellow employees.

The strategy places a face on the seemingly trustworthy employee who, often times have access to a company's most valuable data, could in fact wreak digital havoc. Three types of internal threat are portrayed: the disgruntled employee, intent on doing harm; the well-intentioned, accidental security breach; and the hacker whose stolen employee identity lets her appear to the system as an insider.

The campaign targets IT administrators, compliance auditors and CIO/CSOs at Global 2000 companies with compliance and security requirements. It breaks in August issues of digital security trade publications such as CSO and SC. Online and direct will support print.

We particularly like some of the campaign's headlines which include, "Network Manager. Server Czar. Duke of Disaster" and "Office Administrator. Desktop Diva. Oops Opportunist" which, likely, unwittingly portrays the office manager as a blithering idiot.

See the other two ads in the campaign here and here.

Summer's Eve Says The Vagina is the Center of Civilization

In a decision to focus on the fact women 18-34 go to the movies a lot during summer - as opposed to the supposed fact a cleaner, fresher smelling vagina will improve their chances of getting hired - Summer's Eve, with help from The Richards Group, is out with a new campaign that celebrates the vagina.

A new TV spot which will also show in National CineMedia's FirstLook movie theaters entitled "The V" stars Cleopatra and other female heroines gets all epic and basically comes to the conclusion the human race would be nowhere without the vagina so we had best take care of it, preferably with Summer's Eve products.

Of the shift away from the typical approach to selling feminine hygiene products which include featuring women in white pants frolicking freely in fields of blowing grass and flowers, Summer's Eve Director of U.S. Marketing Angela Bryant said, "The whole category has been talking to women the same way since feminine hygiene products have been in the marketplace, and ironically, many media outlets won't even allow the use of the word vagina in advertising. We are way past-due for a change. Hearing from women on our listening tour last year cemented that now is the time. This campaign is about empowerment, changing the way women may think of the brand, and removing longstanding stigmas: Summer's Eve is not a means to confidence, rather it's a celebration of confidence, of being a woman, and taking care of their bodies."

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