While we're sure retail campaigns like Gap's (red) and Kenneth Cole's Are You Putting Us On? mean well, they don't always ring sincere to the adxhausted audience they aim for.
With fingers on the pulse of a social backlash, Words Pictures Ideas and Romantic Static marry up to bring us the cynical Buy Less Crap, a pithy-prints effort pushing for less, not more, purchase-oriented donation.
In contrast to Gap's campaign, where donations are tied to purchasing (red) clothing modeled in the ads, (less) ads feature naked models with headings like (red)icu(less), meaning(less) and point(less). The website lists multiple charities where people can donate without having to purchase a heart-warming hoodie.
This isn't the first spoof on Gap's (red) but we dig the way it makes the point. While we see the benefit of turning philanthropy into its own sort of brand in a consumer culture, we can't shake the feeling there's a conflict of interest in blurring the lines between purchase and social responsibility.
In the pantheon of unintended hilarious road signage comes this image from Adrants reader Andy Malis who passed by a Maryland Friendly's on his way to work and simply had to turn around and capture the image for us. Family friendly Friendly's is now providing its patrons free sexual satisfaction as long as they buy five new sandwiches. We think this sign will be coming down soon.
Promotions like the Carl's. Jr./Hardee's Spicy Buffalo conjure up major differences between Adrants editors. To start with, Hardee's for Steve is Carl's, Jr. for Angela, who is going, "WTF is Hardee's? Talk about a double-entendre!"
It also brings up the gender issue. While Steve can be sold by the buffalo wings by both the blonde (who knows our names!) and the sandwich, Angela can't help thinking, "I'm tired of sexy girls undressing to sell me shit. What happened to the Chippendale market? Doesn't Kasey Kahne want to sell me something? Jude Law? This guy?"
Come on, Carl's Jr. (or Hardee's, as applicable). The ovarian gender isn't all just eating salad over here. We have needs too. Show us some buffalo.
Hi. It's Steve. Angela, Chippendales? They wear Speedos! G Strings! Eew! Make me puke! I'll take a sexy girl undressing to sell me shit any day of the week thank you very much! And what's with the sexy image in your article here? Huh? Huh? Who's perpetuating the sex sells theme now? :-)
Steve - Speedos and male G-strings are the warrior loincloths of today. What could be hotter than a warrior in meat-slaying battle gear? Yeah, can't think of anything, can you? I rest my case.
And PS. Unconditional purchasing allegiance to the prototype Barbie blonde? So passe. I'd venture to call it Neanderthalic, but even the Geico caveman's too cool for that. >=) *Flips hair*
Oh but Angela. We men pride ourselves on our Neanderthalic simplicity. Why bother with all that overly complex emotional stuff that bogs you ladies down when a simple "Dude, we cool" and a busty blond in a bikini will do it for us every time? Simplicity, baby!
I can't beat the simplicity argument. *long pause* Man, losing to you sucks. I think I'm going to head back to my room, cry and listen to Jagged Edge's cover of "All Out Of Love" on repeat.
It's all good. What would Adrants be with out fair and balanced coverage? Oh wait. Fair and balanced? We don't do that? That wouldn't be any fun. And we like fun so we're just going to keep writing about politically incorrect, thong-clad hotties who hate gun control, love suicide, hate PETA (but love to appear nude in their ads), like sex with midgets, think ads that make men look stupid are cool, like to make fun of fast food workers and think kids who get fat at McDonald's is because of their own stupidity and not that or marketers.
Hardee's and Carl's Jr. are up to their spicy hotness again. If you remember, this is the restaurant chain that had Paris Hilton slather herself all over a Bently while eating a giant hamburger. Now, with help from Spacedog Interactive, the chain has enlisted the services of another delicious-looking (hey, we're talking about food here so we can use the word delicious if we want!) blond named Ashley Hartman who takes center stage on the company's Spicy Buffalo site and alluringly frolics about for your pleasure. It's all to promote the chain's new Buffalo Chicken Sandwich.
On the site, you'll find a description of the sandwich, a history of Frank's Red Hot Sauce, a behind the scenes look at the commercial shoot and, of course, the spots themselves. The best line in the commercials: Good thing chickens have big breasts. Yes, the entire thing is laced with double entendres and we love everyone of them. Bring on the cause groups!
Without question, this President's Day (yes, the dealers now think it's President's Month) promotion from New York/ Long Island Honda Dealers is, by far, the best promotional work we've ever seen from a car dealer. In a nod (well, basically a complete rip off) to Jib Jab, the video (click the talk bubble next to George Washington) on the site has a collection of Presidents rapping about the great deals you can get at the dealership. In true dealership style, the video breaks down the cost of an Accord LX lease to $6.41 per day aligning it closely to a cup of Starbucks coffee.
If you went to the movies this past weekend, you might have seen what initially appeared to be a trailer for Saw IV but turned out to be a Scion promotion directing people to, by far, the weirdest site we've ever seen called Want2BSquare. The trailer, the site and wild posting are all part of an ATTIK-created promotion for the car maker's 2008 xB. Accompanying the campaign over the next two months will be virally-intentioned videos, events and guerrilla marketing (watch out Boston).
At the site, which creates a square universe, we are told, "visitors are encouraged to explore an expansive world, play games against other visitors, view a wealth of video content celebrating the xB's boxy shape, and discover other quirky experiences. These actions lead to the accumulation of points that can be redeemed for an array of prizes ranging from Scion key chains to DJ turntables." If the Internet were around when the "This is your brain on drugs" campaign first launched, this would have been the site leading the campaign. Truly kooky stuff. And fun. We especially like the Urban Zoo.
In its ongoing effort to give Americans a different kind of education, MoveOn.org is raising money to air this print ad about what the escalation really means.
We try to antagonize both political parties equally on Adrants, but we have to admit Bush's WMD claim about Iran smacks of something we've heard before.
You know what they say about gullibility: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. "Fool me six billion seven times, call me a Republican senator," Free Republic adds in our heads (out of context, but a catchy ending nonetheless.)
To be fair, Republicans, Democrats and alternative parties alike are sweating bullets about Bush's latest flight of projectile fancy.
The American Advertising Federation didn't like what Advertising Age had to say about a recent study the group conducted which found 69.3 percent of students in the organization's Most Promising Minority Students program are employed in marketing and communications. Advertising Age chose to twist that with a story headlined, "Nearly One-Third of AAF Minority Candidates Vacate Ad Industry."
In an apparent response to the Ad Age story, the AAF placed an ad in today's USA Today headed, "Mr. Advertising" with a visual of an African American packaged up like, well, a ready to go to work, fully-charged, easily upgradeable work doll. Questionable creative aside, why don't we all stop twisting facts and just have an open conversation. Gee. It just so happens Adrants is the major sponsor of an upcoming conference on the topic entitled, Advertising and Marketing Industry Diversity Job Fair and Leadership Conference.
At the event, held March 13 in San Francisco (and again in Boston May 16), industry professional, both minority and non-minority, will discuss the issue of diversity in advertising. Part of the event will also include a job fair for those interested in exploring a career in advertising. Maybe a bit less twisted rhetoric and more open dialog would be a healthy thing for all. More info here.
We all need our checks and balances. And when the ever-watchful public eye has set its sights on you, the checks can come in torrents. Such is the case with Rosie O'Donnell. For that Chinese "accent" she recently performed on "The View," Rosie's receiving a hailstorm of nasty response from the Asian community.
One that's generating some serious traffic on Youtube is the eloquent and forceful rebuke by poet Beau Sia, whose cool definition of "accent," and snarky "plus-sized lesbian" remark, rang like a slap in the face - and we're not even the targets.
We're not sure what's worse: Trumpster in a spitting rage, or the growing majority of the world's population raging poetic justice against you.
What happened to the funny and gentle Rosie, circa Harriet the Spy? Bring her back. We are scared of this manic new one.
Thanks to Bill for the tip-off.
Hmm. Apparently, bread is as deadly as cigarettes. According to this video, bread has a nasty side and one that seems to be just as bad as smoking cigarettes. it's a follow up to a video called Lovertising versus Hatevertising, which calls for "respectful/intelligent anti-smoking advertising instead of subhuman negative/shocking advertising." damn, everyone has an opinion!
KickinGreatDeals.com, the culprits responsible for the interactive celeb quiz banners where you can win Paris Hilton's G-string if you guess whose lips are whose, finally give up on that tired idea in favour of a new approach.
These celebrity surgery banners take the usual headline-whores and mash them up, nip/tuck style. We did a whole lot of staring before we even got to the awkwardly-posed question below: "Whos body is this?"
We started a snarky joke about that, then stopped. Hey, adult illiteracy is no laughing matter.
We had high ad hopes for Classmates.com. When they started unrolling the "She married him?!" ads we thought, how cute, they're going to play on cliches. High school is rich with them.
But an otherwise promising direction's lost its luster as Classmates.com failed to give us much more than the same pair of ads and the same cliche, both featuring the bespectacled chick we've come to consider their poster child.
Apparently this darling has stopped bringing in the dosh because Classmates.com is going interactive. Here we find their first effort. In line with the nostalgic yearbook photo theme they bring us ... an image jigsaw.
Unless you're Picasso there are only two moves worth making. If even then you're not clever enough to put the pieces together, just follow the green arrows on each square. Try not to blink; you might miss one.
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