Forrester Senior Analyst Jeremiah Owyang has written a concise summary with insightful commentary on the Louis Vuitton brand-jacked Darfur t-shirt situation. Briefly, an artist, Nadia Plesner, created a t-shirt showing a Darfur child holding an LV bag and a little dog.
Imagery sound familiar? It should and that's Plesner's point who explains, "My illustration Simple Living is an idea inspired by the media's constant cover of completely meaningless things [ie. Paris Hilton]. My thought was: Since doing nothing but wearing designer bags and small ugly dogs apparently is enough to get you on a magazine cover, maybe it is worth a try for people who actually deserves and needs attention."
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Whether you're an air traffic controller or some random kid in Toledo, Burma could use your help tackling that slippery "human rights" concept.
Seriously. There's some screwed-up stuff happening there, including ethnic cleansing and the imprisonment of a Nobel Peace Prize winner, and Will Ferrell took time out of his busy Funny or Die schedule just to tell you so.
In the next 30 days, other celebs will lend their earnest faces and awkward jokes to Burma: It Can't Wait, orchestrated by Fanista and Digital Influence Group. Up to bat tomorrow: Jennifer Aniston and Woody Harrelson. Sure it's an odd pairing (Natural Born Killers meets Friends?), but crisis has a way of making unlikely bedfellows.
Loving how the site cuts right to the chase with that big red DONATE button.
- There's something about spoken word poetry that makes us clench our glutes. You know, like someone about to suffer something unavoidably bad. This spoken word PSA by "MIKE-E" for the American Cancer Society wasn't terrible, but we winced all through it anyway.
- Google Maps, meet GTA IV.
- So Twitter went down for just exactly too long, and in that time frame Jolie O'Dell discovered Chatterous (now in alpha!). It will get you laid.
- New Google killer on the loose. You know what's fun? Googling "Google killer".
- Starbuck's profits fell 28 percent compared to this time last year. Bummer. CEO Schultz says the crappy numbers "reflect the sharp weakening US consumer environment."
- Acura's TSX hopes to endear itself to Millennials by pointing out how we don't sleep. EVER. Printwork by RPA.
In tangent with Cat Fancy, Petfinder.com has launched "Cats Rule!", an ad contest that aims to do two things:
- Improve public perception of cats
- Encourage people to adopt homeless ones
Entrants must create a 7x10" print ad that demonstrates "the value and importance of cats, specifically of adopting one." The winner gets a full-page run in Cat Fancy's September issue. It will also appear on Catchannel.com and Petfinder.com.
That's one thing I don't get about this campaign. If its purpose is to alter negative public perceptions of cats, why preach to the saved? Get that bad-boy a full spread in Modern Dog or ... hell, Dwell.
The deadline for submissions is May 23. See guidelines. If after the height of lolcat and Caturday you can't put together a bangin' cat ad, sell your Big Black Pencil and go be an accountant somewhere.
What do bees and ice cream have to do with each other? Apparently, a lot if you are Haagen Daaz which relies heavily on the work of bees for their product's natural ingredients. It seems the bee population has suddenly dwindled and, with help from Goodby, Silverstein & Partners and Psyop, Haagen Daaz wants us to know we can help by donating money to to their cause.
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Last week at ad:tech, Steve and I ran into Marjorie Kase. Kase, in tangent with David Preciado and originator Mike Liskin, is a mastermind behind the Schwaggin' Wagon, whose mission is to gather craploads of SWAG (Stuff We All Get -- but don't actually want) for charity.
The Schwaggin' Wagon will take donations all through the Web 2.0 conference in SF this week. Follow the van's activities on Twitter (caution: psychedelia ahead) or check Facebook for tour updates.
Let's just hope the Schwaggin' Wagon doesn't cross paths with Plaid Tour '08, because the result (AESTHETIC WARFARE!) might give us epilepsy.
A soft-hued, angelic Alicia Keys appears -- on a first-name basis! -- for Alicia in Africa, a documentary following her efforts with Keep a Child Alive. (Not to be confused with that other video work she does.)
The film is streaming on the official site as well as on Blip.tv, which provided the video player; and on MySpace. (It's a wonder people still bother with that.) You can also download it for free on Spiral Frog.
But let's cut to the chase. KIDS! In AFRICA! With AIDS! Go DONATE.
Sometimes commercials delivers their message with a sledgehammer. Other times, such as with this Canadian Woman's Foundation commercial to end violence against women, the delivery is far more subtle. So subtle, in fact, that in this case the spot had to be watched a couple times before the message made sense.
The physical separation between the husband and his wife and two kids as they sit on the couch in the commercial is an analogous illustration to the emotional separation that can come with spousal abuse as well as the emotional separation caused by years of suffering abuse without complaint
It must be Amnesty International day. First there was the sex trafficking ad. Now there's the waterboarding ad.
Waterboarding is a torture method for encouraging prisoners to, well, do what they are asked to do. Apparently America uses this technique and Amnesty International doesn't like it. The :90 makes the point but takes an interminable :60 to get there. It's like some art director was like, "Dude, let's illustrate the beautiful innocence of water and then suddenly cut to the horror of its abuse." Um, yea. Next time, make it a :30.
They came for the smokers, and I did not speak up because I wasn't a smoker.
They came for the caffeine junkies, and I did not speak up because I drank neither coffee nor tea.
Then they came for sex, and chocolate, and my sluttiest Halloween costume, and there was no one left to speak up for me.
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