This has Wexley School for Girls written all over it. Oh wait, of course it does...because they did it. They created it for MSN Search. Using the kooky infomercial format and several of its stars, Anthony Sullivan, Matthew Lesko and Tony Little, Infomercial Madness pumps up MSN Search informercial-style and offers visitors the chance to make their own promotional informercial. It's all a bit cheesy but, then again, we're talking about the cheesiest form of advertising here.
A recent study says that, contrary to the youth-savvy appearance of Apple ads, over 46% of Apple's user base is 55 and older. The 18-24 crowd actually shoot for Gateways, which makes more sense considering the average college student budget doesn't factor in a whopping $1500 laptop. Even if they do froth at the mouth for them.
In terms of mobility Apple still whoops everybody's ass. Purchase-wise they just may skew more toward the stodgy suited guy and less toward the cute crooked haircut guy in their sweet hand-holding ads. - Contributed by Angela Natividad
It's logical we're not too sure what this Dentsu Canada-created spot for madamedgar is all about because we were equally perplexed when we visited their website. Either we're not hip enough to know, don't want to take the time to find out or we're just plain stupid. You tell us.
Despite the lame On4Life tagline and the suggestion they've done this before, Levi's Red Tab campaign gets its point across nicely and doesn't waste words doing it. It also happens to be damn good-looking. Check out the subtle use of shading in one variation and the contrast between dark, light and body shape in another.
We've always lamented Levi's unique penchant for creating visually stunning, provocative adwork while somehow still managing to suck in the real world. Let's hope they get it right. They can start by firing the douche who named the campaign. - Contributed by Angela Natividad
In Altoids Factory, which looks suspiciously like a Chinese sweatshop, assist two little men in the hefty task of turning plain Altoids into sour ones by creating clusters beside the proper packaging. The game is mystifying as we couldn't begin to guess what some of the packages are supposed to represent and thus wasted a lot of time putting 'toids beside the wrong containers resulting in no transformation of any kind.
Keep your dirty dealings to yourself, PR guy Al Toid. We will not take part in your shady time-wasting practices. Oh, and your music sucks too. - Contributed by Angela Natividad
- Kid runs away from home, forgets passport, TV show promoted.
- Alex Bogusky gets his elf on over at Office Max.
- If you're going to spoof a Mac/PC ad for your holiday card, the least you could do what make it good. TM Advertising didn't.
- Joe Jaffe examines the long, slow death of the portal.
At this week's Search Engine Strategies Conference in Chicago, Jim Hedger from Webmaster Radio detailedhow Google is serving AdWords ads to terrorist sites within the company's social networking site Orkut. Some think it's malicious. Others think Google can't possibly monitor every single site in the world for content. Hedger also discussed how money earned from click fraud on these sites is "supporting" terrorism. You decide. Is there anything Google can or should do to minimize this?
In another attempt to keep Canada busy, Ontario-based Fuel Industries creates the following advergame for Johnson and Johnson.
Mr. Reach and the Mouth of Mystery has our hero Mr. Reach pursuing danger of all sizes and shapes to save his buddy Jerry the narrator. Both are dormant TV personalities from the 80's and 90's. The site calls this "a story filled with secrets, romance, and adventure that dates back almost three hundred years... a story that could actually hold the key to the very answers you are seeking."
Our only question is whether all this romance and adventure and shit takes place inside our mouths. Because that's normally where toothbrushes fight injustices of all kinds - in our mouths. And if the answer is yes, this takes place in our mouths, oh man. That's a porno spoof just waiting to happen. - Contributed by Angela Natividad
You know what this whole Wal-Roehm scandal is all about? Nothing. She just got caught. Hundreds of agency and client-side executives do exactly what she allegedly did and no one ever hears about it. We're not saying that makes it right. We're just saying.
But let's examine further. She's accused of having dinner with agency execs. What marketing director hasn't done that? She's accused of taking rides in ad execs fancy cars. Who wouldn't want to do that it offered? She accused of indicating to an agency exec said agency had the upper hand. Who hasn't been optimistic when discussing business with a potential partner? She's accused of accepting gifts from ad agencies courting the Wal-Mart account. Oh please. What agency on this earth doesn't do that when trying to win an account and what marketing director doesn't slide them into their briefcase before anyone notices?
more »
Well, so much for those Lego ads. And so much for their creators. Today, the creators of the ads, Black Wu and Darren Cheung have acknowledged the ads are, in fact, fake, and that they were created as a "personal trial to challenge creativity." Commenting on the creation of these ads, they state, "We got so carried away that we came out with the stupidest idea that upset a broad audience. This was obviously done without the knowledge of any of the Saatchi & Saatchi managers."
Another letter from Saatchi & Saatchi Guangzhou China Head of Admin Ms. Cherry Yang clarifies the ads did not officially emanate from Saatchi, no one inside the organization was aware of their existence and that Wu and Cheung "have been dismissed today as their irresponsible personal behavior have severely affected our company's professional image." Well, there you have it. Pair creates spec ads to gain notoriety. Stupidly attaches employer's name to ads. Piss off employer. Get fired.
|
|