A former Adrants intern just found her first full time job in advertising and wrote to tell us how she got the job.
"Hey there. So after the awesome internship with you guys, my friend Tim told me he just got a job at an agency and, just like you always said, practically all the work he does has to do with sex. So you know I've only been out of college for a while and all I've been doing is clubbing, drinking and fighting off guys who only want me for sex :-) Seriously! What's up with that? It's not like I have a sign on me that says, 'Free orgasm. Insert here!' I mean, you know I'm nice looking but still! That doesn't mean any guy can just climb on top of me, groan like an animal for 60 seconds and then just roll over. I mean come one. I have a college degree! I'm not just a repository for a guy's pent up urgencies whenever his need arises.
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A buddy at Deep Focus sent us this news about Rap Cat, demonstrable success that guerrilla advertising, performed properly (assuming Rap Cat was), unlocks the quality of loyalty and evangelism in the demo it's meant for.
We don't know about all that. And five pages on a video that we couldn't hang with past the first minute was five pages too many. We did think Rap Cat was a good way to showcase how vacuous mainstream rap is (and has been for awhile), and maybe it's commentary on the whole lolcat phenomenon too. Who knows.
All we know is we felt embarrassed watching it, and somewhat impatient, and a little aggravated, and after all that washed away we had a strong suspicion Rap Cat was intended to generate just those feelings. Because it sure wasn't funny.
(For the record, Deep Focus had zip to do with Rap Cat. The bling-sporting feline was the brainchild of Amalgamated, a wee NYC firm.)
"Welcome to DMBDO, the hottest agency in the business, where the work comes first, unless something better comes along." This is the welcome line for Puppet Agency, a wicked take on agency life in serial form.
We tried in our lazy two-minute way to figure out who was behind it, but the whois on the domain is, of course, anonymous. But we've been tipped it's BBDO. Blue Sky Agency.
The featured agency episodes, though, are funny as hell and surprisingly insightful. They take every inane frustration you suffer at your desk, talking to all sorts of digression-happy vainglorious folk, then magnify them - with puppets! And oh, what a theme song.
See the first installment, Junior's Advice. Way to encapsulate a character that doubles as both puppet and complete tool.
We're kind of crazy about this parody site for (sic) culture's iDea, which contests the iPhone with a table napkin and an awkward pear-shaped logo sporting a bite on the "wrong" side.
Like the iPhone, it's got simplicity going for it - and like the iPhone, it can accommodate your biggest ideas, then act as a vehicle to communicate it to the rest of the world. Add-on accessories include masking tape.
As an act of goodwill, the small print divulges that the parody site was created on a Mac. That aside, we think it's less a jab to the miracle technology and more a nod to the simple things we take for granted.
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With all the work it's done to court the "we are woman, hear us roar" demographic, we harbor serious doubts that this viral for Dove is the genuine article. Really, do they even sell deodorant cans like that anymore?
It certainly gets the point across (only amazing sensory deception could bring a sexual partner that, uh, close), but we'd be understating if we said the ad only made us a little sick. (And what's with that chick's teeth?) Then again, we really liked the idea of man omelet, so...
The London 2012 Olympic logo having pulled a Pokemon on us, Phil Hatten Design decided we could all use a little Wolff O'Branding. So they decided to re-brand, re-undesign and re-spell the Union Jack as the Unionjack (at left).
True to Wolff Olins' branding manifesto of "frenetic, contemporary and stretchy (which they call 'dynamic, modern and flexible')" design, Hatten lamented he was only able to work the word "branding" in twice.
In the forward-looking spirit of 2012, the final result looks like some hacked-together early 90s concept logo for a shoe that lights up on impact. The only thing we need is a remixed version of the "Clarissa Explains it All" theme song, and hey, we've got a new anthem, too.
What do you say, UK?
Thanks to Scott at Advertising Industry Newswire for the heads-up.
We never thought we'd tire of the millions of erectile dysfunction spoofs that have found there way to us but we finally have. It's just not that much fun anymore to listen to a fake voice over drone on about 36 hour erections while a dude walks around with a big dick prop sticking out of hin his pants. Except, of course, when that dick prop and closing elevator doors are in the same scene and the spoof stars Cuba Gooding Jr.
Here's some iPhone spec work from Ryan Landels, Director for a Santa Monica production company. Landels has taken the scene in the movie 2001: A Space Odessy where the astronauts first discover the monolith which Landels has replaced with the iPhone. It's a nice piece of work that could certainly be a part of Apple's official iPhone campaign.
If you haven't watched HBO's Big Love, you really should. It doesn't matter that the show's about a polygamist family focusing on a guy with three wives and three houses and they're battle to "fit in" while navigating the difficult restrictions "their own kind" place upon them. What matters is the show's keen ability to make other lifestyles seem as normal and everyday as your own. Aligning perfectly with that notion or normality is this campaign from Seattle-based Creature which spoofs fragrance and Viagra ads in a way that makes the lifestyle seem normal while also poking fun at it.
The spots (here and here) have been released on YouTube and fake ads have been placed on the HBO Big Love site. Spoof-like print ads are also part of the campaign and will be placed in sections relevant to the individual ad's focus.
This has been circulating the 'net for awhile, but the information it conveys is so life-changing it merits a mention nonetheless.
Ever wonder what the difference is between marketing, public relations, advertising and branding? You probably have good textbook examples and some similar spoofs, but like anything else, the best way to learn is with an example involving sex. (Unless the topic you're learning is sex itself, in which case the best example involves Barbies or birds and bees.)
A reader points us to this series developed by Neutron, LLC.
The best thing about it is next time you're faced with any of the illustrated situations you'll know exactly what's going on. And knowing is half the battle. (That's a cheap meme.)
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