In what it calls its "biggest and boldest marketing effort in company history," ASICS America Corporation tapped agency vitrorobertson to give us the "Sound Mind, Sound Body" campaign. More print here and here.
Maybe it's the soothing pastels. The ads are beautiful, don't get us wrong, but where BIG and BOLD are concerned they feel more like a Nike campaign on Zoloft. ASICS America could probably learn something about both "big" and "bold" from its overseas Onitsuka Tiger efforts, which -- we'd guess -- chose Ritalin as Drug of Choice.
Pro-femme magazine Ms. recently got a spanking in the Jewish community for rejecting the ad at left. It features images of three Israeli women in power: president Dorit Beinisch of Israel's Supreme Court, foreign minister Tzipi Livni, and speaker Dalia Itzik, above the words, "This is Israel."
The American Jewish Congress -- which submitted the ad -- said Ms. first approved it, then rejected it at the last minute under grounds it would "set off a firestorm," which, as often happens, it did anyway.
"Since there is nothing about the ad itself that is offensive, it is obviously the nationality of the women pictured that the management of Ms. fears their readership would find objectionable," deduced president Richard Gordon of the American Jewish Congress. (Because when people reject us without explaining themselves, it's obviously because we're brown.)
In response, Ms. pointed out Tzipi Livni's career and accomplishments are profiled in its current issue.
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