May 2012
26 posts
6 tags
The Prometheus Paris Metro Stop
We’ve posted before about Ridley Scott’s upcoming film Prometheus, but the latest stunt really pulls out all the stops and transforms an abandoned Paris Metro stop into an ad for the film that lets riders imagine themselves on an alien world for a few short moments.
5 tags
Ad-Supported Afterlife
The notion that people will be able to download their consciousnesses into computers has been the stuff of science-fiction for ages. Humorist Tom Scott (of Klouchebag.com fame recently developed the idea of an ad-supported hyperreality that he demos in the video above. A sardonic take on the possibilities afforded by technology.
8 tags
How to Diffuse a Klout Bomb
In the last month, there have been two memes which have taken aim squarely at Klout’s self-importance and ultimate meaninglessness. The first, Kloutbombing, is in reference to the way that your friends (or enemies) can list your online social presence as being influential for topics that are irrelevant or irreverent (e.g. farts, diapers, etc).
The second development is a bit more...
5 tags
Amazing Underwater Content
In GoPro’s latest spot for its HD cameras, two divers take the viewer into an amazing underwater world. Truly a captivating spot.
5 tags
Pepsi's New Branded Content Strategy
In this new spot for Pepsi Max, NBA rookie of the year Kyrie Irving poses as an elderly man while he takes on some “regular guys” at a pickup game in New Jersey, with predictable results.
6 tags
Hilarious and Depressing Anti-Copywriting
If you’ve ever seen an ad in a magazine or on a billboard and thought “that copy is terrible and suggests its own bitter response” then you’re going to like The Depressed Copywriter, which features all manner of depressing/sarcastic takes on advertising that’s reminiscent of Adbuster’s “Culture Jam” series of the early 2000s.
6 tags
Uniqlo's Alarm App?
For its latest campaign, Japanese clothing retailer Uniqlo has partnered with Grammy nominee Cornelius (aka Keigo Oyamada) as well as Yoko Kanno to create a beautiful sounding and looking alarm clock application that wakes users with gentle song. Check out this beautiful video as well. It’s available for free from the App Store and Android Marketplace.
7 tags
What's the ROI of Your Mother?
In this hilarious and insightful talk from Gary Vaynerchuk at 500inc, he compares the ROI on traditional media like billboards and magazines to contemporary social media ROI. Turns out that social media generates more engagement and better metrics. What a shocker.
6 tags
Gorgeous Branding Reel - MiTV
Argentinian TV station MiTV shows off this gorgeous new branding reel to get the look and feel “just so.”
7 tags
"We're Better Together"
This great spot from Wing Young for El Circulo really puts the viewer on edge thanks to taking on the tried-trope of good guys splitting up in horror movies.(Thanks, Koumiko!)
6 tags
"The Employees First Effect"
In this “tribute to the makers of our world,” IT company HCL Technologies provides an epic voiceover narration and accolade to the “employees” out there, which, according to HCL Technologies, is just about everyone. So way to go.
7 tags
VW Goes for Dad's Heartstrings
You want your kid to stay safe, right? Or do you just want to cry at commercials?
7 tags
Going Further With Branded Content
Ford’s latest spot for its 2013 lineup does something that few manufacturers have dared to do - it ditches the logo entirely.
That’s right - the iconic scripted “Ford” in white on blue is gone and in its place this ad features… nothing. Ford’s message in this ad is twofold - on the one hand, they’re saying the obvious, that “Ford cars stand on...
7 tags
Sacha Baron Cohen Trolls DC Diplomats
In the latest publicity stunt to promote his upcoming film “The Dictator,” Sacha Baron Cohen has mailed fake invitations from “Robert Mugabe” to attend a screening of the film at the presidential residence in Harare, Zimbabwe. Some might consider this offensive, and others entirely within the spirit of the film. Sound off in the comments.
6 tags
Dior's Secret Versailles Garden
The latest spot from Dior showcases the always-fleeting and ephemeral elegance of beautiful models in absurd clothes prancing around an empty Versailles.
4 tags
Canadian Athletes Are Unstoppable
This new campaign from BBDO Toronto showcases Canadian runner Alister McQueen as he races around a track surrounded by impediments, symbols like wheelchairs, emergency room gear and other scenes, demonstrating that for an athlete - even an athlete that’s missing a leg - unstoppability is always the goal.
6 tags
Movie Industry Shoots Self in Foot
The MPAA has long been known to be a major foe of the legitimate consumers who purchase its members’ products. One of their longest-standing issues is the horribly annoying FBI anti-piracy warnings, which plague legitimate purchases but are conveniently left-out of pirated versions of media.
Rather than abolishing these unskippable screens, the MPAA has decided to add an additional screen...
5 tags
Volkswagon's Lighthearted New Spots
In the latest spots from Volkswagon, we see some great storytelling via brief vignettes which extol the car’s features in ways that you would expect. Above, the viewer hears about all the engineering that went into creating a beautiful door-closing sound, and below, we see two young men who survived a collision and are only able to be worried about their punishment by virtue of the...
7 tags
Ikea's Amazing Public Bathroom
In this brilliant campaign from Ikea, we see a public toilet they’ve built in Milan during Design Week. Ikea constructed an elaborate interior, lavishly decorated like a personal home, all done in iconic Ikea style, of course. Great reactions, although having hidden cameras in a bathroom has always seemed a little sketchy to us.
5 tags
Obama Camp Releases Women's Spot
The Obama campaign has recently released a clip-reel highlighting Romney’s record on women’s issues. We’re interested to see how Romney fires back.
Also igniting a firestorm in the blogosphere is the latest Obama camp infographic about women’s health under so-called “Obamacare”:
5 tags
Potato Heads Take It All Off
Revered childhood icons Mr. & Mrs. Potato Head shuck most of their accessories for this controversial new spot for Playskool, put together by DDB Paris.
4 tags
DWT - Driving While Texting
In this spot from Belgian’s RYD (Responsible Young Drivers) - some people who are taking drivers tests are misled to believe that texting while driving has become a part of the curriculum and are tested on their ability to text while driving - with predictable results.
6 tags
Hilarious SPCA PSA
In the latest SPCA public-service ad, we are introduced to Sultan the Tomcat, the father of more than 300 offspring. Great spot.
5 tags
Kenneth Cole Takes on Teacher's Unions
Kenneth Cole has decided to pull a billboard in Manhattan which criticizes public schoolteachers as being overpaid. A Kenneth Cole spokesperson, DAvid Sirota concedes that the issue is “too complex for a billboard” and that the fashionable clothier will be taking it down.
7 tags
Ashton Kutcher's Racist Fail
Ashton Kutcher is famous for many things, as media personality and venture capitalist and has increasingly come under fire for his half-baked philanthropy schemes.
While his recent return to popular TV show “Two and a Half Men” seemed to herald a return to prominence for the embattled Kutcher, his latest advertising campaign may signal that he’s more tone-deaf than back-on-top....
3 tags
Amazing Stop-Motion Paper-Art Music Video
by creative David Lüpschen
6 tags
Horrifying New Dating Strategy - Smelling Each...
Many people imagine that they are attractive at a very basic, chemical level, and that others will be attracted to them on the basis of raw animal magnetism. Most wiser folks realize that love and romance are very complicated, but that’s not stopping amorous young people from taking very seriously Judith Prays’s “Pheromone Parties” wherein guests anonymously smell the...
6 tags
Pepsi: Gateway to Pop Culture?
Pepsi is well-known for its marketing and advertising efforts, but this year is pulling all the stops to promote some of its many brands.
The new “Live for Now” campaign is based around Pepsi’s historic position of leveraging pop culture in its advertisements and includes a “Pepsi Pulse” interactive website which Pepsi hooes will serve as a major portal for those...
April 2012
50 posts
6 tags
Latin American Ad Winners
Advertising Age’s Brazilian partner publication, Meio & Mensagem recently sponsored a festival “wave” to highlight some of the best Latin American ads. Included here is our favorite, “Curiosism” for a São Paulo art museum, but we also enjoy this website, which features Brazilian heart throb Lázaro Ramos pitching for VW. Catch the rest after the jump.
4 tags
Samsung's Bizarre Australian Stunt
We’ve seen some off-kilter and botched campaigns in our day, but this latest Samsung spot from Australia’s Tongue agency seems particularly fraught. It appears as if Samsung has hired an an entire flashmob to hold “wake up” signs in from of an Apple Retail store in Sydney. It’s a little unclear what the intended message was.
5 tags
Zombie Grandmother Excuses
Draftfcb Argentina’s latest spot for Zonajobs shows an elderly woman being killed repeatedly in a variety of strange and increasingly horrific scenarios. At the end is a very interesting reveal showing the purpose of all of these, ultimately fictional, deaths.
5 tags
Vintage Victoria Secret Catalog
The folks over at Retronaut just published a (pNSFW) vintage Victora’s Secret catalog from 1979. It’s pretty shocking to see the similarities and differences with the looks of today.
3 tags
Agent Provocateur's (pNSFW) New Spot
In Agent Provocateur’s latest spot, they forgo the classy, sexy distance they’re famous for and instead grapple with the possibility of a strong, powerful woman who’s willing to chase down what she wants (read: a purse) by stripping to her underwear and conquering a man. Let us know what you think in the comments.
6 tags
Roller Skating or Drugs?
Drug abuse is a problem everywhere there are people but one enterprising Entrepreneur in Reno, Nevada thinks he has a solution. According to the folks at Roller Kingdom, Roller Skating is going to be one of the best ways to keep your kids off drugs. A little suspect as a premise, but it definitely makes for a hilarious and adorable video.
4 tags
Haute Couture Ads for Gucci's Fiat 500
In the most recent spot’s for Fiat’s special edition 500 by Gucci, Fiat and Gucci invited several brilliant creatives to design ads. Others can be seen after the jump.
4 tags
African Men Speak Out
In this short public-service announcement produced by non-profit Mama Hope, several African men, listed as “Benard, Brian, Derrick, and Gabriel” speak out about the way that African men are perceived in media from the United States. An interesting and at times humorous take on the way advertising and media portray African men.
4 tags
Hot Fireman Makes You a Margarita
If there’s one thing that can add to the allure of a hunky fireman, it has to be kittens. In the latest spot from Sauza Tequila, they’ve used this perfect mix to construct another good mix: a Sauza Tequila-based margarita. Olé.
6 tags
Self-Promotion Goes Terribly Wrong
New Jersey Actress Racquel Bailey has decided she’d like to star in a Tyler Perry movie and has purchased some billboard advertising which features her face, website and a message to “let me be your next leading lady” in a spot where she believes it will be seen by Tyler Perry himself. Whether the billboard stunt will be successful remains to be seen.
7 tags
Chevy's Robot Graffiti Car
In this new spot from Chevrolet, Jeff Soto collaborates with a Chevy Sonic filled to the brim with spray guns, robot arms and other amazing graffiti-inspired robot technology to create an amazing mural in Oakland as part of Chevrolet’s “Let’s Do This” campaign.
4 tags
Anti-Logging Activism Takes on QR Codes
Anti-Logging activists in Australia have recently begun targeting the country’s largest furniture retailer by affixing QR codes to furniture in the store which promises to enter customers into a drawing. When the codes are scanned, however, a video is played which shows that the wood used in the construction of much of the furniture and flooring comes from high conservation-value forests.
5 tags
Apple's Star-Studded New Siri Ads
Apple’s latest spots for voice-recognition feature code-named “Siri,” sports celebrity talent in the form of Samuel Jackson and Katy Perry. Interesting new move for Apple, given that their most recent celeb talent, Justin Long and John Hodgman, don’t roll with the same crowds as Perry and Jackson.
4 tags
Buzzfeed CEO on Emotional Marketing
Buzzfeed CEO Jonah Peretti is concerned with marketers who want to spread messages which consumers find insulting and that reflect poorly on them. We should be making ads, he argues, which encourage people to share without feeling like jerks.
4 tags
Tumblr Announces Paid Advertising
Chances are, if you’re reading this blog, you’re familiar with Tumblr. Although Tumblr is 5 years old, it has only recently began allowing users to highlight certain posts on their blogs for $1. Beginning soon, Tumblr will begin posting ads to users dashboards for a variety of corporate partners.
6 tags
Oreo's South Korean Breastfeeding Ad
In the latest Oreo spot in South Korea created by Cheil Worldwide, a beautiful young baby is shown breastfeeding while staring wistfully at an Oreo. It’s unclear whether this ad has been approved by Nabisco Korea.
5 tags
Lesbian Kiss from Urban Outfitters Outrages Bigots
A recent blog post from SF Gate highlights the furor raised over a recent Urban Outfitters photograph depicting two kissing women.
While UO hasn’t issued an official response, the company’s president and CEO, known bigot Richard Hayne has donated large amounts to the Rick Santorum presidential campaign and has pulled pro-gay-marriage T-shirts from shelves in the past. (Thanks Jonah!)
4 tags
Star-Studded Children's Literacy Spot
Mother New York has recently created a musical spot for the pro-literacy non-profit Reading is Fundamental. A start studded cast including Jack Black, John Legend, Carrie Brownstein, Jason Schwartzman and others sing to the original Roots-composed song. The spot also features time-tested reading favorite LeVar Burton of Reading Rainbow fame.
5 tags
Latest Viral Spot for Ridley Scott's "Prometheus"
In the latest viral spot to promote the launch of Ridley Scott’s “Prometheus,” the viewer is presented with an android, David, introducing and promoting himself as a product.
5 tags
Are These Nuts Manly Enough?
Planters’ New Marketing Strategy for Their Nut Mixes
In order to reach teens and young adult men, Planters Nuts has created a new ad which features a team of anthropomorphized nuts who are on a mission to save the world.
5 tags
How's Your Breath?
Tic Tac’s Latest Campaign Knocks em Over
In the latest spot from Tic Tac, which has already reached 2 million views, French streetwalkers are reminded that their breath might be able to use some minty freshness by faking the collapse of all of France from their bad breath alone. Upon consuming a Tic Tac, however, they are hailed as a hero.
5 tags
Diet Coke as Haute Couture?
To launch Diet Coke’s new bottles, Coke enlisted the renowned Jean-Paul Gaultier to create some unique takes on the classic design. In them, he dresses up the bottles in both his classic Breton sailor stripes and some exotic corsetry. Ooh la la!
