David & Goliath Calls Attention to Homeless With Thought-Provoking POP

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When was the last time you saw a homeless person? Do you even remember? And if you do remember, you probably just walked right by, right? On behalf of the Weingart Homeless Center, LA-based agency David & Goliath set out to change that all too common behavior among the non-homeless.

The agency, along with photographer Ewan Burns, photographed 12 of the 70,000 homeless people in Los Angelos holding a cardboard sign on which each of them wrote, "Before you turn away, put yourself in my place."

The agency then made life-sized cardboard cut outs with the face removed and placed the cutouts near shopping centers in Beverly Hills and Santa Monica.

Admirable work. Check out the video overview of the project.

by Steve Hall    Feb-11-09    
Topic: Campaigns, Cause, Good, Outdoor, Point of Purchase



Hope in the Slammer, Witch Buddies, Ad Poetry

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- "Twitter for sports." And then our eyes rolled back in our heads, and then we died.

- BFFs with the Wicked Witch of the West. She seems fun. DDR, your house or mine?

- The question we all must ask. Sometime.

- Shepard Fairey, the guy who did that Obama/Hope poster we all love to wheatpaste on walls that don't belong to us, gets arrested before his first solo art show. Duuuude. Sux.

- Scroll down to the part that reads "cb with a Flair."

- Intern sweatshop haiku.



Men Don't Always Want Their Equipment to be Bigger

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There isn't much that skeeves a guy out more than alluding to testicular injury and that's the nut this PSA from the Government of Ontario cracks. Calling attention to the apparent return of Mumps, the PSA highlights the isolation required when Mumps is detected and some of the weighty symptoms that con come with the disease.

by Steve Hall    Feb- 9-09    
Topic: Cause, Commercials, Strange



Quirky Take on Child Abuse May Leave You Feeling Queasy

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Here's a set of prints that go with this child abuse/wedding reception ad by Whybin\TBWA Sydney for Australia's ASCA (Adults Surviving Child Abuse). Each approaches the topic with blithe, discomfiting irony.

You know, it's the kind of thing you'd find funny if it weren't so ... not-at-all.

See greeting card: "You're a special dad (slap, kick, pow!)"
See birthday cake: "Celebrating 20 years since you said I should have been aborted" -- arrow down if you can't see all of it at once.

Collective wince.

by Angela Natividad    Feb- 9-09    
Topic: Campaigns, Cause, Magazine, Poster



Child Abuse Is Funny. Oh Wait...No It Isn't

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Now here's a marketing approach to child abuse you don't see very often. One part wedding reception. One part comedy routine. And one part awkward. The tagline, "If only it was this easy to get over child abuse" pays it off. While some might take offense to this approach, at least they only used humor for the first half of the spot after which they returned to the usual, somber message delivery you expect to see in this type of commercial.

Whybin\TBWA Sydney created the work for Adults Surviving Child Abuse.

by Steve Hall    Feb- 6-09    
Topic: Campaigns, Cause, Good



What's a Penny Good For? Making Change.

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See what 1620 pennies can become -- in the span of 30 seconds! Ain't technology somethin'.

This time-lapse video is for the Million Penny Project, a group that takes up various causes (its current darling is homelessness) and solicits donations from local businesses.

The result of the short film -- an image composed entirely of pennies -- was displayed at a Miami bus stop last month to promote "Pumped for Change," an effort to raise $10,000 worth of pennies.

more »

by Angela Natividad    Feb- 6-09    
Topic: Campaigns, Cause, Guerilla, Online, Outdoor, Video



ESPN's 'Homophobic Fist Kiss' Lays Fist Bump to Rest

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Ah...the fist bump. That manly expression of...well, who the fuck knows? The whole fist bump thing is stupid, awkward and dumb. And has become even more so since Agency.com's Subway video.

It has nothing to do with homophobia, as some have dubbed it when called a "fist kiss" in this Shaquille O'Neal and Mike Breen ESPN commercial, rather everything to do with some men's odd desire to appear "yo, dude" cool or something. It's just dumb.

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by Steve Hall    Feb- 5-09    
Topic: Cause, Celebrity, Commercials, Opinion



Sean Penn Rolls Out the Money For Hungry Children

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With a supremely effective visual, this PSA for the United Nations World Food Program in which Sean Penn illustrates how, comparatively speaking, cheap it would be to feed every hungry school child for a year makes a powerful statement.

With the Wall Street plan costing $700 billing, the Iraq war costing $600 billion and the European stimulus plan costing $200 billion euros, the $3 billion dollars needed to feed hungry children for a year seems quite affordable.

by Steve Hall    Feb- 4-09    
Topic: Cause, Celebrity, Commercials, Good



Breaking! New Technology Turns Computer Screen Into Tanning Bed

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To convince people of the dangers of skin cancer, UK charity SKCin, with help from Rubber Republic, has launched ComputerTan, a fake company and website that purports to have developed a "revolutionary new way to help keep you looking healthy, young and attractive in the office."

The gist? ComputerTan makes it possible to get a tan from your computer monitor. Activating the free trial loads a cool, full screen tanning screen which, after a while, delivers the punchline...in the form of disgusting pictures of people with nasty skin cancer legions. Gross.

But, it works. The effort hopes to make people aware of the fact skin cancer kills up to five people each day in the UK. There's a mobile app and even a line of products supporting the effort.

An infomercial-style video placed on YouTube hopes to lure visitors to the site under the guise ComputerTan is the real thing.

by Steve Hall    Feb- 3-09    
Topic: Cause, Mobile/Wireless, Online, Spoofs, Video



Shiny Happy Relay Puts Olympic Torch in Canadian Hands

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"Carry the Torch" is an animated cause spot meant to encourage Canadians to "Create a better Canada." The song is called Shiny Happy Relay; lyrics appear below. (It is such RetroJunk fodder.)

A TotalWork effort developed by BBDO/Toronto and Proximity/Canada, the spot depicts RBC's "Arbie" character kicking off the Torch Relay in the top half of the North American continent.

Canadians that feel the fire can register at rbc.com/carrythetorch, enabling them to take hold of the actual Olympic torch as it crosses their borders.

more »

by Angela Natividad    Jan-30-09    
Topic: Campaigns, Cause, Events, Online, Television