We love a conspiracy theory as much as the next guy. That's why we're so attracted to the latest rumour about the mysterious Splasher, an entity splashing paint on street art in trendy New York neighborhoods, who suddenly appears to have an agenda.
To lend some background, the Splasher's been attacking local art through January and pasting manifestos alongside them, calling street art "fetishized [actions] of banality" and "a representation of the most vulgar kind: an alienated commodity." Readers are admonished not to remove the flyers because the paste is allegedly mixed with shards of glass.
I'm Not Sayin notes the latest batch of splashed posters coincide with the art instead of defacing it. And what's the "art" in question? American Apparel ads, of course. He then posits the Splasher is a guerilla campaign cooked up by American Apparel in order to attract (or provoke?) the attention of hipsters, artists and news outlets.
They've succeeded (if indeed it's them), though we'll throw a guess in the pool and suggest they may just be piggy-backing on an actual art-defacing, paint-happy ad-Zorro out yonder. Assuming it's all AA's doing, whether they'll be revered for cleverness or reviled for crime (which graffiti, however pretty, actually is) is another story.
Thankfully, lots of street art starts out as some kind of "defacing" appropriation of public space so we're sure they'll be sympathetic to the big brand's splattery assertion that they're all bourgeois tools.
The Child Health Foundation releases this ad to demonstrate one of the bigger cons of smoking with a very light touch. Copy reads, "Some children get to heaven earlier," and the campaign is by Serviceplan, Germany.
We're feeling a little bummed about it, and we don't even have kids. Or smoke. We wonder if we walked around with little halos on our heads like that and if mommy and daddy just chose to ignore them.
Here's something that might prove helpful for the hopefuls attending the Advertising Industry Diversity Job Fair and Leadership Conference taking place next week.
Shedwa points us to My Life in Advertising, a video podcast hosted by Sean McKenna of GSW. McKenna has a gift for portraying our industry pretty well and making it laugh-worthy too (in retrospect, that's probably not hard). Jokes aside, the show lends a decent look inside a typical agency. Apparently it's not all bloody murder.
Check My Life in Advertising out on iTunes.
There's a running Ebay sale for a Dodge Neon covered in over 1500 Pokemon cards from both the first and second generation. With a bid over $600 and seven days left running, we think the guys that did it have a decent chance of meeting their $7000 reserve, particularly if the sip and click trend keeps claiming victims.
"Just think about it," says Hypothetical Drunk Friend #1. "Can't you imagine how fucking awesome it would be to have a Pokemon car? When will we ever have this chance again?!"
"You're right!" exclaims Hypothetical Drunk Friend #2. "There's only 5 minutes left on the auction. Let's do this."
Auction end is met with hysterical giggles. Until the next morning.
Dun dun duuuuun.
It was just a matter of time before Borat got pinned a victim for his masochistic hairstyle but it turns out his case may be bigger than that, depending on whether you value the right to good hair over freedom of speech.
An annual human rights report released by Condy Rice criticizes the real Kazakhstan, listing relevant examples of human rights victims and including fictional character Borat, the woman-bashing, Jew-spooked Kazakh reporter invented by Jewish comedian Sacha Baron Cohen.
It's unsurprising Borat's come across some trouble considering the president isn't too keen on Cohen's charming rendition of Kazakhstan as racist, superstitious and misogynistic. The decision to pull Borat's website, Borat.KZ, is ceremoniously noted in the report: "The government deemed as offensive the content of a satirical site controlled by British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen and revoked the .kz domain."
We think it's sweet that the country has risen to Borat's defense. If we're going to chuck dirt at all our international friends anyway we might as well stop pretending it's for a good reason and go on righteously rallying for fictional characters.
Humbert Humbert had it rough too. Who wants to throw the rock at Mother Russia?
While it might be fun to watch and video tape your roommate's hot girlfriend strip down to her underwear, we're not sure it would be equally as enjoyable to watch and video tape your roommate strip down to his underwear and make out with his girlfriend while you watch. Oh wait. Sorry. Some people like that voyeuristic stuff. And, apparently, so does Network2, a destination for episodic web productions not destined or television but for your computer screen. A promotional video, created by Keta Keta, illustrates exactly what we're talking about.
When there's computer difficulties at home, sometimes there's simply no replacement for an actual human skilled in the ways of kicking the crap out of your computer until it works again. Big box retailer Best Buy created its Geek Squad, a cadre of computer techs that travel to people's homes in a customized VW Beetle. Others have followed suit. Now, Dell, without physical retail locations or a human geek squad to assist its customers in need of unsnarling nasty computer bugs, has launched Nerd Buddy. Well, they've actually launched DellConnect by humorously illustrating why it's really not so convenient to have a geek-like Nerd Buddy follow you around all the time to make sure your computer isn't causing you to use it as a projectile out of frustration.
Aside from the fact Best Buy's Geek Squad and other similar services are nothing like the Nerd Buddy Dell so joyously ribs, the computer maker explains its virtual tech support solution, DellConnect is better than having a human geek follow you around. It's all presented in one of those goofy, docu-style videos complete with fake scientists in white lab coats.
Some service journalism for you: Boards Magazine is giving the ad industry the chance to vote for its favorite up-and-coming talent with the First Boards Awards People's Choice Award. Selected from the top 10 finalists in the director's category from the First Boards Awards, this person will be honored at this year's installment of the First Boards Awards, to be held Apr. 5 at the Key Club in Los Angeles.
Vote for your favorite here.
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