Attention Cause Groups: Here's An Ad For You to Complain About

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If you believe the stereotype that women don't drink beer then you'll probably like this UK campaign for Molson-owned Animee Beer which is out with girly-flavored beer including clear filtered, crisp rose and zesty lemon.

If you're one of those types that feel women are always treated as sexual objects in advertising then you'll likely hate this ad. After all, what's more degrading than three women sitting atop three giant phallic symbols?

by Steve Hall    Oct- 5-11    
Topic: Racy, Strange, Trends and Culture



Dating Event Promoted With Blowjob Video

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Well here's an interesting way to promote a dating event. Singapore blogger Peggy Heng, a model and celebrity blogger of sorts in the city, created a four minute video about the trials and tribulations of dating. The video progresses to a scene in which Heng in about to give a face painted man a blow job but just before she begins, she stops, turns to the camera and says, "But that is not the way to solve relationship problems."

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by Steve Hall    Aug-31-11    
Topic: Racy, Strange, Trends and Culture, Video



Sears Still Gasping For Air With Help From The Kardashians

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Is it just us or is the match up between Sears and the Kardashians a total non-sequitur? Number one, you have an extremely conservative, run-of-the-mill department store that's the last thing on anyone's mind when the word "fashion" enters the conversation. Number two, you have the Kardashian sisters who, in some circles, are the furthest thing from run-of-the-mill.

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by Steve Hall    Aug-30-11    
Topic: Brands, Celebrity, Commercials, Opinion, Trends and Culture



When Advertising to Monkeys, Sex May Sell, Too

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The last session of the Cannes Lions this year was (maybe aptly) titled "Monkey See." Led by Elizabeth Kiehner and Nick Buttrick, it covered a project between Yale students and ad creatives to advertise to monkeys.

The goal is best encapsulated by Frans de Waal: "To endow animals with human emotions has long been a scientific taboo. But if we do not, we risk missing something fundamental, about both animals and us."

Science has found we're 95-98.5% identical to chimpanzees. And a place called the Comparative Cognition Laboratory has for the last six years been running something called the Monkey Marketplace, which has taught capuchin monkeys how to live with money and exchange it for things that they want every day.

Read the rest on Yahoo! Scene.

by Angela Natividad    Jun-25-11    
Topic: Industry Events, Trends and Culture



The Cannes Lions Midweek Existential Crisis

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It's hard to describe the state of you in Cannes by the middle of the week. By Wednesday night, it's likely you haven't slept in four days. The drinking starts around noon, and you're constantly being blindsided by huge vacuums of people who want to chat about their creative ideas, which seesaw between brilliant and horrific, depending on what fluid you just swallowed.

One guy spent a night regaling Ask Wappling and me about his "sublime" comic strip idea, in which men and women have short, terse exchanges -- sort of like XKCD but stupid. (Man: "Hi!" Woman: "I shaved my legs for this?") The men are always smiling penises, and the women are squiggles in the shape of their pubic hair. Squiggles can vary by size and type.

Be careful when you've been chosen for a creative revelation like this. The less convinced you look, the more insistent the person gets about his genius.

But the trauma I felt, watching those banal prattling penises and vaginas appear in front of me, is only a distant memory. It was Monday around 5 AM.

Read the rest on Yahoo! Scene.

by Angela Natividad    Jun-23-11    
Topic: Industry Events, Trends and Culture



Cannes Lions: Bob Garfield on Creativity, Being an Ad Critic + the Ad That First Inspired Him

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Creatives young and old have had a love/hate relationship with Bob Garfield, who for the last 25 years has produced his "Ad Review" segment on Advertising Age. (His position on this? On a scale of one to five, few ads are total zeros and few ads are prize fives. Over his whole career the average ad has received about a 3.4, significantly higher than the average true quality of industry television advertising output at large.)

Ad bloggers, whether or not they agree with his arguments, arguably see him as the person who began what they continue today. He's also the author of The Chaos Scenario and co-hosts National Public Radio's "On the Media."

I ran into Bob at the Carlton this weekend, then later Monday in front of the Palais, sporting a decidedly cannois summer hat. (I didn't know at the time, but it was also his birthday.) He thoughtfully agreed to sit and talk at a nearby beachside restaurant -- which we only later discovered is probably the loudest atmospheres in all the land.

So forgive the sound on this bad-boy. Click below to see the video, and read the rest of this piece over at Yahoo! Scene.

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Do or Die Time For Big Ad Agencies Says Barbarian Group's Rick Webb

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Here's a video of Barbarian Group Co-Founder Rick Webb, shot at Internet Week, telling ad agencies it's time for them to realize technology is an aspect pf marketing that can no longer be ignored. He acknowledges the day of agencies relying on outside tech providers to handle their tech needs (as opposed to doing it themselves) is over. He also notes the unbundling of agencies is very much the wrong thing to do in this tech-fueled era of hyper-integration.

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by Steve Hall    Jun-10-11    
Topic: Agencies, Industry Events, Trends and Culture



Hit MoMA for Your Fix of 20 Years in Advertising

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Ooh! This looks like it'll be fun. On Monday, the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP) premiered The Art & Technique of the American Commercial show at MoMA New York.

The show explores the last 20 years of American advertising, a nostalgia-heavy treat fit to dilate the pupils of any ad geek, but it'll also be very "present"-oriented -- that is, you'll be seeing how the work has evolved to produce the aesthetics used in great advertising (think Apple) today.

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by Angela Natividad    Jun- 8-11    
Topic: Events, Industry Events, Trends and Culture



Cataphiles Replace Parkour Practitioners As Latest Ad Trend

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Forget old school raves in undisclosed warehouse locations. That's so yesterday. Wait...even saying "so yesterday" is, well...so yesterday. Anyway, moving on, Sapient Nitro is out with new work for Footlocker that touts the Padded Collar Loopback from Converse. And, apparently, the fact that the only place hipsters party now is underground. Literally.

Yes. Cataphiles, as they are known, are urban explorers who traverse the catacombs of Paris and, according to this work from Foot Locker, have a really great time doing it. Who knew a few dank, dark, underground passageways could be filled with so much hipsteresque frivolity?

Previously in the strange land of Foot Locker advertising: Fetishistic Spanking.

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by Steve Hall    Apr- 5-11    
Topic: Campaigns, Commercials, Trends and Culture



Behind Megan Fox, MTV Does Facebook, Left is Right

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- A behind the scenes look at the recent Megan Fox Emporio Armani shoot. 'Nuff said.

- About.com Advertising blogger Paul Suggett has had it with ads that use actors who pretend to be a brand.

- MTV is doing a behind-the-scenes look at Facebook employees.

- Here's the latest Left Brain Right Brain ad for Mercedes Israel. Shalmor Avnon Amichay/Y&R Interactive Tel Aviv created.

- Galpin Jaguar says, "If a customer buys or leases an eligible comparably equipped Mercedes, BMW, Audi, Lexus or Porsche within 10 days after a new Jaguar test drive at Galpin, they will receive an American Express Gift Card valued at $1,000,"

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by Steve Hall    Mar-29-11    
Topic: Campaigns, Promotions, Social, Trends and Culture