United Colors of Benetton has a quarterly publication for young people called COLORS Magazine. Each issue is themed and outfitted with occasionally controversial imagery, multicultural flair and an underlying desire to connect people through shared quirks and charming differences.
We don't think all print magazines are going to die, and we hope COLORS is one of the survivors. The content sometimes feels a little too self-conscious, but we dig its global roaming eye and its interest in burrowing into uncomfortable or strange topics -- like boys that like to wear skirts.
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The most loved and hated socnet du moment is partnering with Crushpad, a company that lets amateurs make, sell, brand and market their own wines -- to produce a Twitter-branded Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.
1/4 of the proceeds for the project, dubbed The Fledgling Initiative, go to a nonprofit called Room to Read, which promotes literacy for children in places like Sri Lanka, India, Laos, Zambia and Nepal.
According to Biz Stone and Ev Williams, the partnership's in keeping with their commitment to grow Twitter -- "because if you can't read you can't tweet!"
So there you have it. Ignite a future for the high-profile navel-gazers of tomorrow with your own bottle of Twitter wine, which goes for $20 a pop. Every case sold buys 60 local language books for Room to Read. You can also keep up with The Fledgling Initiative and find ways to get involved by following @fledgling.
French Vogue's set off the sensitivity meter with its decision to paint Dutch model Lara Stone black for the October issue.
Another thing that bears mentioning, if only for its strangeness: after painting Stone brown, the makeup artist painted parts of her white again for some shots.
This is racking up the usual stink about racism in advertising (Birth of a Nation comes, unbeckoned, to mind). Commentary ranges from "Why not just use an African model?!!" to arguments that the move is a statement on the complexity of race and identity. Some people also think this is a knee-jerk reaction; one user observed that the rag once dressed a woman up as a man, and nobody complained.
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With help from Crispin Porter + Bogusky (featuring built-in tweetage from @bogusky hisself!), two intrepid messengers from Brammo are on a mission to present President Obama with the most energy-efficient electric vehicle in America: the Brammo Enertia powercycle.
The pair adds a dash of bloggable epic to the quest by road-trippin' it from Detroit to Washington, DC: the route automotive CEOs took when they made their pilgrimages to beg for bailout aid.
"But instead of seeking aid, were going to present President Obama with a homegrown solution to the transportation crisis," the pair writes gleefully.
To succeed in their quest, dubbed ShockingBarack, they're depending on little more than "the kindness of everyday Americans." Visit the ShockingBarack website to offer them a place to crash, a source that'll help them get in touch with the President or an outlet to fuel their motorbikes. (They promise to reimburse you the $0.30 it takes to charge them.)
If you lack the inclination or the geographic convenience to do either, follow the journey. The latest video -- where they visit the Mayor of Adrian bearing a peace offering of donuts -- appears below.
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FirstBank, Colorado demonstrates its commitment to small business by giving your card more traction than the corner cafe's bulletin board.
A series of rotating displays in high-traffic areas feature tons of business cards for their small business customers, flanked by the tagline "We care about small business."
"The cards get lengthy readership from airport travelers, who stand nearby for up to 90 seconds, or longer, while awaiting the next airport shuttle train," explained the pressfolk.
See a close-up. Don't you just wanna pass valuable time to the little one with the heart with the rainbow tail? We know we do!
Work by TDA Advertising & Design, Boulder.
Say hello to "My Home is Like Hell," a campaign that encourages the intrepid to move if their current residence feels anything like eternal damnation.
The effort is for Vlanimmo.be, a Belgian firm that specializes in helping users find new homes either to buy or rent. Agency Cherry and Cake plans to produce four videos that feature an actual home in hell, and the unhappy protagonist Matt Demon, whose Facebook and Twitter you can follow if you don't have enough fictional friends.
See Episode 1 in English below; Episode 2 follows but is only available in French.
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"Okay dancers, show me 'crazy with happiness'!"
You gotta love whatever comes after a statement like that.
"Kinderkreis," a universe constructed for Gushers video "Danse Gooshers," is a fictional TV show where occasionally uncomfortable-looking German kids are offered a product. Then they tell the host how they feel about it -- think "crazy with happiness!" -- and a series of spandex-ensconced interpretive dancers pump out that sentiment to the best of their abilities.
Watch orange man go ballistic. He's feeling it! But for a real thrill, wait until the dancers are greenscreened in with the faces of inexplicably delighted children.
We ask you -- what on the internet is better than this? Curious work by Publicis Modem.
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Nikon's COOLPIX S1000pj does this neat, if not evidently useful, thing where you can project your photos onto a wall. To promote this feature it came up with "Helicopter Boyz," an outdoor event at Yomiuri Land where two boys -- with cameras strapped to their bodies -- shake ass onstage while photos are projected behind them.
Lends a very cool effect. Watchy watchy. Note though that the music will be ricocheting from one end of your brain to the other for at least the next hour.
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If you're a fan of that Warren Beatty Bulworth-esque statement about everyone "co-mingling" until we're all the same color, you just might like this new effort from We Love People for fashion brand Blend. The agency worked with artists from baghdad, Tehran, Myanmar and Afghanistan to spread positive messages about "blending" the world.
So yes, it's the same old if we could al just get along" message that everyone always agrees to and aspires to but, sadly, never seems to work.
So yea, there's a video. It's typical. Give it a watch.
It's not as if the Diversity in Advertising drum hasn't been beaten to death but, maddeningly, it's still an issue. And, to be honest, maddeningly, we're sick of writing about it. So can we please deal with it and move on?
But in order to move on, more talk, maddeningly, is needed. And more talk is what we have in the debut episode of AdVerve, a podcast hosted by Live and Uncensored's Angela Natividad and Make the Logo Bigger's Bill Green. In the first episode, Angela and Bill interview Hadji Williams, copywriter and author of the book Knock the Hustle.
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