Wistfully playing off the very, very, very...very old, but never tired, joke about sunglasses allowing one's eyes to secretly gaze towards distractingly enticing imagery undetected is a new Brazilian campaign for Polaroid Eyewear. With the proper Polaroid glasses, the guy in this campaign can enjoy the best of both worlds. The real one where he has to act as though his girlfriend is the only woman in the world for him or the fake world in which every piece of jiggling curvaceousness is his to freely explore and conquer in his fantasies. Some of us thank Polaroid for this bestowing this blessing. Others, not so much. See all three ads here. The campaign is the work of Santa Clara.
- Wieden + Kennedy London is seeking four people from outside the ad world to partake in its WKSide3 program which offers three month work at the agency.
- PSFK is organizing a future of marketing conference at which the likes of George Parker (now that's funny), Peter Rojas, Elizabeth Spiers, Cunning's Floyd Hayes, Anomaly's Mike Byrne and others will chat about where the industry is going.
- JC Penny Says "Every Day Matters."
- XM Radio does the Valentine's Day card generator thing.
- Suzuki does the webisode thing. Calls it The Briefcase.
This skin-crawling ad for Embarq so thoroughly grated the nerves on Bill that it gave us an uncourted sense of schadenfreude. In general, something about the ad embarrasses us in the same way your immortalization in the yearbook embarrasses you.
It merits adding that Embarq, who consider themselves trailblazers in the direction of common sense, will probably make good on a spot this annoying. It sort of clings, like toilet paper or static.
We're thankful that the song hasn't lodged itself in our heads yet but that's mainly because we're afraid of watching the spot a second time. We might catch '80's hair. And nobody wants that.
There's something inherently funny trying to get somebody to laugh who can't on pain of death, or at least hurt pride.
This is the inspiration for Royal Guard Cheese, a game where you try to induce a guard to laugh with well-placed props that include a feather, a rubber ducky and a teddy bear. Getting him to laugh like this could win you a free trip to London.
STA, are you paying attention? Just kidding. You know we love you.
Symantec's RockDotRock has added a Valentine's Day Serenade feature that allows you to send a customized message to your loved one (as long as they are o the list of 200 names) sung by the heavy metal rockers who grace the site. It's a nice continuation of the decidedly very different software campaign.
The thirty year old "I Love New York" campaign is about to get a makeover to the tune of $16 million. Speaking like he has a mouthful of marketing marbles affecting his speech, Empire State Development Corp. Co-Chairman Pat Foye said, "We want to maximize its value and get creative input from the leading advertising agencies around the state and the nation on how we can best be effective stewards of it." Hopefully the agency that takes on this challenge won't get caught spewing babble like this and puke out some piece of shit replacement for a campaign that's done just fine over the years.
Copyranter gives a quick review of a recent YKK zipper ad which has a visual of zippers tricked out to look like spiders and the tagline, "Fashionable by Nature." His conclusion? "OK, I fucking HATE 'Fashionable by Nature.' Lazy fucking line. We'd have to agree and would also add associating spiders with zippers is just going to make people suffer through a fit of arachnophobia every time they touch their zipper. Zippers. Spiders. Who's "creative" brain did this come out of?
We have to admit there's something about Altoids we just like. A lot. For Valentine's Day they've taken their running Curiously Strong theme and added a curiously twisted BDSM thread.
In a dark take on Herbal Essences' bubble-gum anti-Cupid campaign, Altoids embraces Cupid in all his glory ... and gives him a pair of handcuffs. And because ambiance is 9/10 of a good show, they've even opened up temporary Altoids Chocolate Shoppes, prime purveyors of their devilish chocolate mints, with darkened windows and threesomes hidden in the wallpaper. The stores are in NY, Miami and Chicago and will remain open until tomorrow at 10 PM.
Aside from the product there's not much branding going on and the prevalent hearts have slashes down the middle that recall melting chocolate. We are afraid of the (whip-wielding, leather-clad) part of us that says "YES" too readily to this bad-ass positioning scheme, which was concocted by Bigheads Network in tangent with Gigunda Group. All it needs is a cross-brand relationship with Lelo and it'll really be in business.
Bandages are one of those categories that nobody pays much attention to - and they should, because anybody who's anybody has a box or two in the house. People just don't do enough to make them interesting.
That's why we admire the effort behind these nifty bacon bandages by Accoutrements. What is it about putting a slab of meat on a wound that makes you feel 10 times more awesome? We're not really sure, but in the unlikely event that meat bandages fail to make you feel cool, don't worry: there's a free toy inside.
Doesn't the thought just fill you with a glow? We just want to run out there without our knee pads and do something crazy, like climb fences with that prickly stuff on top.
Just as we remember all the times we were pleasantly surprised for Valentine's Day, we also remember all the men, sets of grandparents and dowager aunties who gave us Russell Stover chocolates. While the drugstore candy makes good for fits of chocoholism, receiving the uncute white boxes as gifts does not always a happy recipient make.
But better packaging, chic flavours, an organic line and fresh marketing are all part of Russell Stover's plan to not only change that but take on competitors like Ghirardelli and Lindt. And with the help of PHD Media out of St. Louis, they'll even be dabbling in some guerilla work.
Well, if Target could change its image (granted, in the space of a decade) we're fully confident that Russell Stover can. Their challenge will be to convey less of a drugstore vibe without alienating the little old ladies who pull those boxes off the shelves most often. In the meantime, we remain unconvinced by the idea of a Russell Stover private reserve label. But the market, like love, is fickle. Maybe next year we'll feel differently.
We're seeing a lot of work where the background of an ad is incorporated into the ad itself. This Chandon Rose billboard, which lends new meaning to the notion of community activity, is a good example.
Check out a further shot here. Thanks bunches to Adrants reader Janine, who caught this in NYC recently.
So we're looking at this commercial in which an older couple is having a conversation but it's subtitled because, well, after you're in a relationship for a long time, one assume everything's already been said but e can't figure out what the ad's trying to say. But the end of the ad with it's tagline, "A real relationship is built over time," all is apparently explained. While it's true a solid relationship does take time to build but as a person looking for banking services, does anyone want their bank to take 40 years to "understand" them?
Oh screw that, the ad's funny. The ad was created by Duval Guillaume in Belgium.
|
