There's been a lot of talk about David Beckham's package and all those ginormous billboards on which it is displayed. Well now, as we mentioned back in May, Beckham has put all his clothes back on and is sparring with people over Sharpie pens he covets in a new commercial breaking July 7.
In the commercial, created by BrandBuzz New York, Beckham is asked to autograph several items and, after signing his name, covets the Sharpie he used to do so. Along with a cute street fight with a little girl, Becjham also steals a Sharpie from a woman at a gas station but he can't fool her. So, he gives the woman his shirt, autographs it and makes off with the Sharpie of his dreams.
While it's understandable the people asking for autographs would have some increased affinity for Beckham but for Beckham to have that sort of affinity for a...pen, well, oh wait...this is a commercial, not real life. Oops, sorry. Unrealistic things happen in commercial all the time. Totally normal. All good.
For KahloRivera100, Ken Carbone of Carbone Smolan Agency created a playful print that riffs off the King and Queen of Hearts.
"I chose to emulate the structure of a playing card, as it best demonstrates the duality of this royal couple in the history of art," Carbone said.
Some backstory: Kahlo and Rivera, lovers, political agitators and artists, got married and made each other completely miserable until Kahlo's death (lots of cheating and general ego-clashing). They apparently loved each other too much to really separate.
Carbone's work piece is especially appropriate in light of a recent video sent to us by BC Dairy, which depicts the Queen of Hearts cheating with the Jack of Spades. (Frida is reputed to have cheated on Diego with Trotsky, who was murdered with an ice axe. Okay, maybe this connection is kind of a stretch.)
KahloRivera100, which celebrates the 100th anniversary of Kahlo's birth and the 50th anniversary of Rivera's death, is sponsored by Alliance Graphique Internationale. It will feature over 100 contributions, including this one, and will appear at the Club de Banqueros de Mexico AC in Mexico City this July.
Liverpudlians adopt fragments of Spanish culture in "Turning Spanish," created for Nike by 72andSunny.
They won't be reading any Don Quixote, though.
The spot aspires to cash in on the emotional cachet of Fernando Torres. He's the English Premier League's current It Guy. And while I guess it's funny to hear some 'Pud go "Gracias, mate!", the whole thing felt like a really long "Sorry ... you had to be there"-type story.
In this case, I think you have to be from Liverpool.
Look, look: It's Obama's first General Election spot, courtesy of AgencySpy and Tribble. I'm guessing much of the footage came straight out of his wedding video collage, because there are a ton of baby pictures in that bad-boy. See Obama at left, all James Deaned-out.
The video's a rehash of his values and how he proposes to graft them onto the US of A. It's an old story, but there's just something about the guy. He's magnetic. He's ... witchcraft.
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- Technorati has launched its blog ad network.
- In April, Facebook caught up to MySpace and is now reaching 115 million people each month according to Comscore. It's not like we didn't see this coming years ago. Though MySpace still beats Facebook in the U.S. with 72 million monthly uniques as compared to Facebook's 36 million.
- Ew...just ew.
- Cyber Lions and Design Lions Cannes shortlists have been announced.
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Back when the first Harry Potter movie came out and, while on the train bound for Hogwarts, Hermione, played by Emma Watson, responded to something Harry or Ron by saying, "pleasure!" in the thickest of English accents, I was hooked. Then I slapped myself realizing she was like 12 at the time.
Fast forward to 2008. Watson, now 18, has been selected by Chanel as the new face for the company's Coco Mademoiselle fragrance following Keira Knightley. Watson has, no doubt, grown up to become a beautiful woman certainly worthy of appearance in a Chanel campaign, albeit with the proper repackaging. Yes, she's got one more Harry Potter movie to do but the girl's gotta get on with her life, don't you think?
On June 18 at 5PM at Macy's in San Francisco, Giorgio Armani will unleash a giant poster with a David Beckham image from the Emporio Armani Underwear campaign. Shield your eyes little ones as the big one may be too much for you to handle. That or scrawny Victoria who'll, no doubt, be there to make sure her husband's junk remains her own, might smack you with one of her fake boobs.
- Can your manly-man hair pass the caress test?
- If a chaste mermaid won't save Starbucks, maybe frozen bananas will. (Ugh, dude.)
- Some celebrities educate the public on the Burma situation; John Cusack tallies similarities between McCain and Bush. MoveOn, as usual, is helping raise money to get the ad on air.
- Apparently the Copyright Nazis are after more than just pirates these days. In the UK, you can be prosecuted for playing music too loud or playing it for callers on hold without a license. From now on, let's just keep all music secret and see how the record industry fares.
- Baseball and the Tour de France aren't the only sports to disillusion one-time fans; almost half of Advertising Age readers believe the NBA rigs its games. I fondly await the day Canadians lose faith in hockey. Oh wait, many - already - have.
- A Microsoft Xbox Live group banned a player because he used "gay" in his gamer tag, "RichardGaywood." Upon discovering that was the guy's name, they BANNED IT ANYWAY. Microsoft, you charmers, you.
Last week, Visa announced Lindsay Lohan would become the new face of this year's Visa Swap fashion show, a UK event which encourages people to swap unwanted clothing. Along with clothing charity Traid, Visa Swap is the place for the fashion conscious to check out the duds of their fellow fashion conscious brethren and buy them with points earned for donating their own clothes. All clothing items left over are donated to Traid.
[Witty Lindsay Lohan comment about how her clothes are no good because they are likely alcohol or puke-stained from her social antics goes here but...well....it's just not presenting itself right now.]
With help from Adidas, Missy Elliott has launched Respect M.E. Originals, a clothing line she plans to promote through mEgo.com's social avatars and widgets.
She's also picking five girls to serve as global brand ambassadors for Respect M.E.'s 2009 tour. Would-be models must register an mEgo account.
Respect M.E.'s promotional imagery brings Gwen Stefani to mind. She also launched a clothing line -- L.A.M.B. -- and lolled all over a gilded throne to promote it on an album of the same name. Guess that's the thing to do when you're a diva. But hey. If I were 15, I'd sooner play "brand ambassador" for Missy than for Macy's.
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