An Adrants reader points to today's edition of Metro newspaper in Toronto carries a four page cover wrap ad for ISP Bell promoting their Bell Sympatico online service which includes parental and viral controls. On one panel, using an image of a school text book showing a woman's body with breasts and pelvic region blurred, the headline reads, "You'll do anything to protect your kids from inappropriate content."
Apparently, we are to believe that sex education is a bad thing and kids should be protected from it. That's twisted logic. Now if Bell had used an image of, say, Jenna Jameson with appropriate body parts blurred, the message would make far more sense. This ad basically says Bell will shield your kids from beneficially educational content which wreaks of over protectionism.
View a larger version of the ad here.
Oh those Brits and their humor. Here's a spot from Durex that has Mum stymied by the vibrating device she finds under the cushion of her daughters couch during a visit. Needless to say, the daughter is a bit embarrassed.
OK, so Valentine's day was two days ago and on that day, aside from Hallmark's website crashing, Bryan Adams revealed he was behind the disgusting Who Ordered Room Service viral video in which a waiter enters a hotel room and pukes all over a knecking couple enjoying some love on the bed. Yup, Adams' new album is called Room Service and somehow he thought the relationship between puking and promoting an album was a good thing. Usually puking is associated more with having a great distaste for something rather than having a great love for it.
Perhaps, for some odd reason, we're all suppose to hate his new album.
Experience the power puking here.
UPDATE: It's all a hoax. We've been had. Adland discusses the fake viral trend and how it is ruining any semblance of trust that might have, at one time, existed between marketer and consumer.
Photopia reports seeing outdoor posters in the window of an abondoned store in San Francisco for Abercrombie & Fitch which incorporate Nazi imagery.
Other than grabbing attention, we wonder what A & F were thinking.
Nothing, of course. They had nothing to do with it. As others have pointed out, seemingly unable to grasp our sense of humor, this is, clearly, a spoof. The work of someone with a great distaste for AF. Now we've spelled it out for you. It really does takes the fun out of it, doesn't it? View more images here.
To be clear, Adrants has contacted Abercrombie & Fitch and they have clearly denied any involvement with this imagery.
Just a few days after Napster spent $2.4 million to promote it's new, $15 per month, music rental service, Napster To Go, enterprising souls have already cracked the code allowing people to get up to 20,160 minutes worth of free music during the service's 14 day free trial period. That amounts to 252, 80 minute CDs. The site reports the hack works with Napster's standard service as well. Seems Napster is destined to be a free music service after all.
While it takes some work and some time, the process is not complicated and is described here.
Napster has responded with "A note from Napster's CTO" on their website claiming, as if to deflect focus from Napster, the hack will work on any music service. We're wondering how other music services feel about Napster's CTO making that statement publicly. It seems, though, Napster's CTO statement is referring to a process other than the one described on the "marv on record" site. We'll leave that technical debate to the geeks.
While we don't entirely condone the stealing of music, we do get a rise from "power of the people" responses to large corporation's stifling business practices. Music executives everywhere are wishing the computer was never invented.
To promote its new shoe, The Pump, Reebok has launched a new website that incorporates the "pump" aspects of the shoe into the website. Just as the shoe is pumped for proper fit, the site can be "pumped" to access the various sections of the site. On the site, there are links to television spots, wallpapers, shoe details, a store locater and a boxing game. It's simple and straight to the point. LA-based Zugara created the site.
Hotel Chatter reports Las Vegas developer Steve Wynn's commercial for his new Wynn Las Vegas Hotel, originally intended to air nationally during the Super Bowl, was blocked by competing Las Vegas hotels when it aired locally during the game. The Bellagio and the Mirage hotels blocked the Wynn ad ny placing their own company logos on television screens when the ad was scheduled to air. While the ad mentions nothing about gambling, FOX and the NFL declined to accept it, apparently, because the hotel's location in Las Vegas insinuates the activity of gambling in the hotel. The ad can be viewed on the Wynn Las Vagas website.
Former Promofilm US VP Manageing Director Pablo Trench whose company produces shows for Telemundo and former Zubi Advertising Creative Director Hector Prado have teamed to create The Lab, a branded entertainment company concentrating on developing band integration programs for the growing Hispanic market.
Like in the general market, the Hispanic media landscape is mushrooming and fragmenting into better defined niches. From only two big networks a few years ago (Univison and Telemundo), now audiences have two other networks to choose from (Telefutura y Azteca America), multiple Spanish cable channels (Galavision, ESPN Deportes FOX Sports, Gol TV, Discovery en Español. The History Channel en Español, HBO Latino, CNN en Español, etc.); new emerging English cable networks (mun2, SiTV, LATV and VOY); and numerous international channels from their home country in satellite TV. This is in addition to the hundreds of radio stations, print and websites targeting the Hispanic population.
The image of Planters Peanut's Mr Peanut will appear on 75,000 automotive registration stickers in Suffolk, Virginia, home since 1913 of Planters Peanuts. The deal appears to be a simple acknowledgement to the good deeds the company has done for the town over the years and not a paid placement. The image on the decals will be that of the Mr. Peanuts city-owned statue.
For delaying its promise to cut trans fat from the oil used to cook its French fries in 2002, McDonald's will pay $8.5 million in damages. The suit was filed by consumer advocacy group bantransfat which claim McDonald's failed to inform customers trans fat was still being used five months after it claimed it had ceased its use. Seven million of that sum will go to the American Heart Association to be used in educational campaigns. Also, McDonalds's was instructed to spend $1.5 million on an ad campaign admitting its fault.
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