It seems Americans really are a bunch of hypocrites. It's OK to be gay in movies and on TV. In fact, it's OK to have a gay character on almost every single show and movie. So much so that you'd think everyone in America was gay. Except if you watch American advertising.
When it come to advertising, as Bill Green points out, American advertising is still in the closet. He points to a Hyundai commercial which allows us to observe a potential rendezvous between two women. There's no sex. There's no kissing. There's no touching. The two woman aren't even in a scene together. But...the implication is they will, of course, be together in, perhaps, the biblical sense later on.
Austin-based branded community provider Powered has, along with Portland-based StepChange and New York-based Drillteam, aquired Joe Jaffe's social media agency crayon. Jaffe describes the new corporate entity as "the first full-service social media agency with scale.
On his blog, crayon Partner Greg Verdino who will take on the role of vice president, strategy & solutions, wrote of the acquisition, "Together, we can offer everything a CMO needs in order navigate the world of social media and effectively integrating all things social into an overall marketing strategy -- beginning with strategic planning, running through service delivery and execution, capped with a surefire commitment to delivering measurable results, and supported by a program-proven set of technology platforms."
- Those Japanese. They think of everything. For the ladies whose nipples get much too large for concealment in cold weather, try the USB Bust Beauty Pad.
- The long, frustrating road to "Strawberry Flavored Juice Drink Blend" and the idiocy of selling juice that really isn't juice.
- And then there's the whole exposed nipple thing American Apparel loves so much. NSFW>.
- Julia Allison. You've never hear of her (unless you're a social media troll and love Twitter) but she is now featured in a new Sony ad alongside Justin Timberlake.
- Be sure to check out episode 5 of AdVerve with Bill Green and Angela Natividad.
- Conde Nast ad pages dropped 43 percent (8,359 pages) in 2009.
French Vogue's set off the sensitivity meter with its decision to paint Dutch model Lara Stone black for the October issue.
Another thing that bears mentioning, if only for its strangeness: after painting Stone brown, the makeup artist painted parts of her white again for some shots.
This is racking up the usual stink about racism in advertising (Birth of a Nation comes, unbeckoned, to mind). Commentary ranges from "Why not just use an African model?!!" to arguments that the move is a statement on the complexity of race and identity. Some people also think this is a knee-jerk reaction; one user observed that the rag once dressed a woman up as a man, and nobody complained.
Ford evangelist Scott Monty's sent us some stats on the progress of Ford's Fiesta Movement, whereby 100 social "agents" drive around the country in Euro-spec Fiestas and complete appealing monthly missions related to volunteerism, adventure, style and design.
Black Eyed Peas partnered with Oprah to celebrate the 24th season of her show, which sought to drum up viewership with big kick-off fetes on Michigan Ave.
We watched with polite interest, having been forced to watch many a flashmob over the past coupla months (especially since the death of MJ), and were left with three as-yet-unanswered questions.
Never mind Birkin bags and pretty scarves. The object at left is a new and insanely luxurious piece of social currency dubbed WHY -- the Wally Hermes Yacht. Outfitted with 900 meters squared of thermophotovoltaic panels (that's their way of saying it's also green), it was designed in partnership with Hermes and a company called Wally, which specializes in futuristic boats and yachts.
The pricey contentment-eating boat porn was dropped into our laps by Wisey, author of The Digestif, who told us that WHY takes Hermes' luxury ethos to a new level: don't just sport your means around your neck or on your arm: LIVE INSIDE IT. Alongside whales or off the coast of Greece!
Crush/Toronto, a master at taking a book's soul and turning it into pop art, drew us into the bosom of Douglas Coupland's The Gum Thief in 2007.
This year it's doing the same for Coupland's latest novel, Generation A. The approach is different: more existential, with some Tarantino pulp thrown in.
"A lot of these "facts" are classic examples of how to lie with statistics."
"Brilliant collection of stats, the evidence seems to be compelling. Top sound track to so many thanks to you and Fat Boy Slim for an uplifting five minutes:)"
Had enough social media charts? Not so fast, this is the net--it won't ever run out of those. Welcome to the Social Media Revolution. (Maybe after reviewing it this is why Ad Contrarian is calling it quits for now.) It's ambitious factoids supposedly backed up by a ton of sources, but as with anything 2.0, there's just too many ways to look at data like this and still sound right. Regardless, those two comments pretty much sum up the two opposing camps of this brief look at social networks and internet trends. It's got a Web 2.0 proprietary name though: Socialnomics!
