'LA Weekly' Shakes Ink-Splattered Death Rattle

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The economy shake-up means hard times for everybody, but print news weeklies are probably among the heaviest-laden. Few people are willing to wait a day to see news in print; fewer still have the patience for a week, not when they can load Google News and have at it instantaneously.

In a desperate bid at self-preservation, the LA Weekly has launched "LONG LIVE PRINT." Weeklyites invaded the Detour Festival in Downtown LA to wave signs, distribute bookmarks (cringe) and ink the message onto other people's shirts with a printing press (nifty!).

Other media ran on newsstands and in the LA Weekly itself. See the creative in all its grungy glory:


Cool work by Ignited LA. Painfully valiant though, given that we've never thought much about the LA Weekly, and now we associate it with the struggle of by-weeklies to remain relevant in an increasingly by-the-Tweet kind of world.

by Angela Natividad    Nov-21-08    
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Cause, Events, Guerilla, Newspaper, Outdoor



Christine Dolce's Assets Fight Fur For PETA2

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Christine Dolce, internet superstar, model (FHM, Playboy), actress, radio personality, designer, make-up artist, is, again, fronting a PETA2 Fur is Dead" campaign.

In a making of video, Christine boobs says she wanted to team up with PETA because boobs she's against animal cruelty and thinks boobs it's bullshit anyone would wear real fur and boobs kill animals for it when there's plenty boobs of genuine looking fake fur boobs products on the market. She boobs says it's not right boobs and it's uncalled for boobs which is why she has boobs decided to work with boobs PETA again.

She explains boobs her interest in PETA was sparked by boobs a video Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor boobs did for the organization which boobs focused on the abuse of animals boobs in the fur trade. She calls boobs anyone who wears real boobs fur lazy and ignorant for boobs not understand the cruelty behind boobs the manufacture of fur clothing.

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by Steve Hall    Nov-13-08    
Topic: Campaigns, Cause, Celebrity



Greenpeace Spoofs Pirates of the Caribbean.

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The Curse of the Bluefin Tuna Industry. Cringe. See variants in The Economist (really?) and last week's European Voice. The people named on each poster are villainous Fisheries Ministers that failed to better regulate Mediterranean bluefin tuna. God help us.

Moved by a conviction stronger than yourself? Send angsty pro-tuna letters to Fisheries Ministers for Italy, France and Spain.

by Angela Natividad    Nov-12-08    
Topic: Cause, Magazine



Smokerman: The Superhero that Needs a Breather

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Tearing the chapter in irony out of theTruth.com's tattered playbook, Crowell Advertising brings us Fight the Ugly, home base to a lame-duck action figure named Smokerman.

Um, diggin' the 'stache.

See ads in which the action figure, stopping often to catch his breath, tries saving trains or disarming plastic bombs. The spots -- prepared for the Utah Department of Health -- will air during morning cartoons, where hopefully they stop kids from smoking as opposed to, oh, making the puff-puff seem fun.

by Angela Natividad    Nov-12-08    
Topic: Campaigns, Cause, Commercials, Strange, Television



Rats Flung from Helis, Obama's Facebook Push, SocNet-Addicted Mommy Bloggers

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- Be a GAMER. Made of steel. Video game school will show you how.

- The US Army is using webcasts by overseas soldiers to bait new recruits. The series is called -- wait for it! -- "Straight from Iraq." Soldiers are ready to take your questions.

- Keep up with Advergirl's social manifesto on how companies are using social media. It's illustrated!

- To remind us all how with-it and un-stodgy it is, Microsoft (I guess?) sends rats skydiving. Sick 'em, PETA.

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Head, Shoulders, Knees, Toes Pull Heart Strings

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You had to go and do it didn't you, Lowe Roche Toronto? Bring us down. Make us feel all emotionally overwrought. Make us feel like we're a loser because we live our happy life without much regard for those who don't have it as fortunate. Force us to watch the lives of others decay in front of our eyes - all within 60 seconds.

To that, we say brilliant. Yes, brilliant. This commercial for the ALS Society of Canada hits hard and dramatically illustrates the life-altering effects of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, more commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease. In the spot, we see the increasingly debilitating effect of ALS and his family. It's not pretty. But then again, neither is the disease. And that's the whole point.

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by Steve Hall    Nov-10-08    
Topic: Best, Cause, Commercials



Great Apes No Longer to be Used in Commercials. Cadbury Drummer Said Despondent.

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PETA announced that the Ad Council will pledge to no longer use great apes in future commercials because of the way in which the animals are raised and trained. I'm just bummed because I won't be able to see the little hairy critters use laser pointers anymore. Hilarity ensues no more! If I'm Cadbury? I'm setting up a microsite to accept donations to help find work for their soon to be out of work drummer. His future once promising, him and his band will now be forced to work small clubs just to get by. Sad.

by Bill Green    Nov- 7-08    
Topic: Cause



The Organ You Have in Mind Is Not the Organ You'll Get Inside Her

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Like a sledgehammer, this Duval Guillaume-created ad for Belgium's Organ Donor Foundation bluntly deflates mens' egos and, like a reality slap upside the head, manipulates them into realizing the rigid organ they have in hand isn't the one which will do this woman the most good.

As Adland writes, "thanks for that lesson in truth in advertising Duval Guillaume."

And as we'd say, Cruel, cruel and more cruel!"

But we'd also say," Simply brilliant."

by Steve Hall    Nov- 7-08    
Topic: Campaigns, Cause, Good, Magazine, Racy



Tappening Tries Hitching Ride on the Goodship Obama

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Maybe because using plastic bottles to promote tap water ain't workin' all that great, Tappening decided to accomplish what many have before it: self-promotion by way of Obama. Check out the triage of ads it produced to "congratulate" Obama on his "decision" to stop drinking bottled water.

Hoping to seem witty, the Tappening also attributed Obama's success in winning Democrats' favor to his anti-bottled-water stance.

That's the first I've heard of it. If Obama actually did declare war against bottled water, it hasn't stopped him from offering some to his fainting fans (scroll to 1:56).

by Angela Natividad    Oct-31-08    
Topic: Bad, Cause, Political, Poster



Mercy Corps Saturates NYC with Starvin' Marvins

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When I saw the words "You can't eat sympathy" in the ad at left, the concept of world hunger came second to the memory of chunky kids in high school that eat their feelings. (Oh, come on. You watched Mean Girls, didn't you?)

But nah. It's Mercy Corps' Action Center effort to make people more aware of world hunger. If you're living in New York, you've probably noticed people walking around with body paint that makes them look skeletal. That's agency Household Name's way of telling you to think on hunger over lunch.

Also see World hunger just got a little closer to home.

by Angela Natividad    Oct-31-08    
Topic: Campaigns, Cause, Guerilla, Poster