A British Muslim activist group, Muslims Against Advertising, is fed up with sexually charged ads and has begun defacing and tearing down billboards that show scantily clad women revealing "offending" body parts. The group has set up a website (a lame geocities site down, apparently, due to all this news) listing advertisers it feels are offensive and offers tips to vandals.
Thong-maker Sloggi, which runs provocative billboards specifically to push limits to garner press coverage, is one of the groups biggest targets.
The European Commission has warned fast food companies to stop advertising junk food to children and suggests the industry self-regulate itself or face legislation which would limit advertising. Along with America, Europe is getting fat. A recent study predicts 50 percent of British children will be obese by 2020. In Southern Europe, one in three kids are clinically obese, 36 percent of Italian nine year old are overweight and 27 percent of Spanich children are deemed overweight.
Australia has dubbed its obese kids Generation O. Writing in Ad Age, Executive Editor Jonah Bloom says the obesity scare is blown out of proportion and food giants are not entirely to blame.
UPDATE: Association of National Advertiser CEO Bob Liodice wrote an editorial in today's Ad Age arguing the recent issuance of the Center for Science in the Public Interest's "Guidelines for Responsible Food Marketing to Children" is an infringement on free speech. He posted the editorial on his weblog.
Created by 72andSunny, trendy sports fashion brand Quicksilver has launched a collection of television spots that feature X Game medalist Todd Richards and Danny Kass.
The Richards and Kass spots use kitschy surf movies from the 1960s (like Gidget and Beach Blanket Bingo) as visual inspiration. The ads incorporate music produced and composed by Tom Baxter, grandson of Les Baxter, who scored many of the surf movies of that era. For the humorous dialogue scenes between the two athletes, Kass and Edwards were shot against a rear projection screen, which created the purposefully low budget look and effect of Kass and Richards ³snowboarding² against a park background when, in actuality, they were goofing off on a Burbank sound stage. The director then interspersed these dialogue segments with cutaway trick shots culled from stock footage.
The spots break January 20 on ESPN, FOX Sports and ABC, with additional ads created for viewing on the Quicksilver website.
Ripping apart a current television campaign for Jamster Ringtones which employs the visual of a dancing guinea pig to promote its new Hampster Dance ringtone, Claymore, writing on Adland, points out the crude animation was basically stolen from a Doner Advertising created 2002 Super Bowl spot Blockbuster ran called "Kung Fu" featuring a guinea pig and a rabbit.
With side by side comparison, Claymore makes it quite clear the visual was obviously ripped right out of the Blockbuster spot and slammed, badly, into the Jamster spot. Hmm, do we hear the lawyers making calls today?
For the introduction its new cold water laundry detergent Tide Coldwater, Procter and Gamble has launched a website to promote the product, give away free samples, allow visitors to tell their friends and add their zip code which places them on an American map to illustrate how product usage has spread. Signing up to receive the free product leads visitors to a data gold mine-building optional survey which queries laundry detergent brand usage, feelings about Tide, temperature used when washing clothes and Tide Coldwater purchase intent.
A social network of sorts and a real world demonstration of the six degrees of separation concept, the Tide Coldwater site is powered by Eyebeam's Forward Track, an open source project designed to promote online activism.
Following the January 15 launch of its 5 second television campaign to promote its V-Series cars, Cadillac is set to announce a contest wherein amateur filmmakers can submit their own 5-second spots, with the winner driving off in a CTS-V. The contest will be announced at Sundance, with submissions taken between Super Bowl Sunday and Feb. 17. Submission will be made through CadillacUnder5, a site which features John Travolta in his Chili Palmer character from the upcoming MGM movie Be Cool.
Stock photo house Corbis and uber-comic company Marvel Enterprises, Inc.
today announced an agreement to make Marvels world-renowned Super Heroes available for use through Corbis. The deal grants Corbis with the rights to license Marvels digital content for editorial and commercial use on a global basis. Shortly, the world of advertising will be saved.
Under the new multi-year license agreement, Corbis will gain rights to the thousands of images featuring Marvels library of more than 5,000 characters -- including such ever-popular figures as Spider-Man, the Incredible Hulk, the Fantastic Four, The X-Men, Elektra, and Captain America and makes them available for use in print and broadcast media. The arrangement provides creatives with simple access to Marvel character art and the rights clearance services necessary to use them in editorial and commercial advertising projects.
Marvel content will be available for licensing at Corbis beginning January 19, 2005. Marvel content at Corbis is available for preview here.
Please, don't everyone jump at once. We love the Super Heroes but, like the Matrix/Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon-based cam span pivot trick, we'll tire of Hulk "crushing the competition" very quickly.
Just five years out of the decade, the nineties are already making a comeback. Next week, Nerveana, a 90s-themed nightclub will make its debut. The club will have a "Basic Instint" room, a VIP booth inside a white bronco and will serve Monica cocktails. With the premiers of VH1's I Love the 90's, Part Deux, 90s CDs and other 90s-themed club sprouting up, the decade is roaring back. We think it's insane but marketers won't. Expect tributes to the 90s popping up in ad campaign very soon.
Upon hearing it's agency, Interpublic Group's McCann Erikson Worldwide, was going to pitch the $300 million Intel account, AMD, treated like a cast off wall flower, said screw you to McCann and put its account up for review. Joining Interpublic for the Intel chase will be WPP's Berlin Cameron/Red Cell along with Y & R. Incumbent Euro RSCG Worldwide is out.
Wireless entertainment publisher Wicked Wireless announced Wednesday it has partnered with adult entertainment star Jenna Jameson to create an adult wireless entertainment offering. New York-based Wicked Wireless said the Modeltel Mobile Storefront, featuring R-rated wallpaper, "moantones" and other content, will first launch for Telefonica subscribers in Central and South America before being offered in the U.S. on a limited basis in late 2005. Jameson explains the offering, saying, "W'll provide [moantones] in the universal language of sexy sighs recognized around the world but with our own personal touch. The technology is way beyond most of us, but the bottom line is that you'll able to hear the other Jenna's Web Girls moan and me when your phone starts to ring.
We'll also provide audio content in Spanish plus photos and text features."
We're quite sure this service will be quickly and secretly downloaded to friend's phones becoming the biggest phone-related practical joke since calling a bar and asking the bartender to page "Mike Hunt."
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