There's something totally classy about blowing coke up your nose with a McD's coke spoon. It ties you to America somehow, and to cheeseburgers, and to childhood.
In the '70's, McD's strange-looking stirring spoon gets adopted by the white powder cult. Panicked about becoming accomplices in the empire of blow, family-friendly McDonald's discontinues the multi-faceted units.
But this kind of thing doesn't die quietly. Artists Tobias Wong and Ken Courtney bring the hot spoons back - plated in 18k gold, disco-fever style. Pissed at their insolence, McD's released a cease and desist.
Oh come on. It's every fledgling brand's wet dream to be appropriated by some enthusiastic subculture. And who doesn't want the designer drug users (possibly now enthusiastic - and wealthy - pop-art consumers)? They define trendy.
Plus, coke-heads are generally skinnier than the obese protesters long courting the golden arches. They make natural retaliatory press. Getting fat? Forego the baked apple pie for a spoon. It's free! (Magic dust sold separately.)
While we're used to Google garnering residual PR for retooling old media for new ways to advertise, we're pretty unused to seeing Google actually advertise outside of sanctioned Google space or some kind of cross-brand. It's a card the uberbrand rarely pulls.
Shortly after deciding to make Gmail public (really this time, except not) Google's decided to start marketing for it too. And who did they tap as the vehicle to do the job? Youtube.
Nodding to critiques about big names doing bad at guerilla, Google makes sure we can't accuse them of getting too slick. The video takes place in a cubicle farm, is narrated by a 20-something and demonstrates Gmail's unique features with hand puppets made of office tools.
Clever, Google. They have a cavalier way of hawking great services by demonstrating none too shyly how much fun they're having. And even as VC's shake their heads in disgust at the grinning Googlers sipping smoothies, you have to admit few companies are willing to let their minions put their deskside office art on air. Maybe one day we'll be getting credit for our low-key talent as origami bird makers.
Irv Blitz-directed spot Swing, by agency Momentum for Grolsch, involves the most synchronized dancing beer bottles we've ever seen. And that's saying a lot considering when our own beer bottles dance, they are never nearly this snappy.
We haven't tried Anheuser-Busch's Grolsch lager, but suddenly we're curious, in part because we think it will make us better dancers. And we know this for a fact because listening to jazz, or at least something jazz-like, makes you smarter. It's been proven by science.
We pride ourselves on our unsurpassed potty-mouthage, so we feel a little outdone by this new Earth Day campaign that's kind of sponsored by Greenpeace.
The naughty prints are only "kind of" sponsored by Greenpeace because Exit3a copywriter Tom Mullen admits to AdCritic they haven't told the organization about the print series yet. "It's probably not legal, but there's too much paperwork, meetings and phone calls involved to get the campaign approved in time for Earth Day," he explains. "I figure Greenpeace is too busy getting sued by conglomerates to bother suing a few people who are trying to promote the cause. They can always officially deny the vulgarity."
If fortune favours the brave, perhaps that grace extends to those disinclined to ask permission for slapping mom-fucking ads out into the open and signing it Greenpeace.
We call this the conjure-bonds-by-insulting-the-source technique. This strategy occurs on the playground all the time, except it's done in crayon and usually ends in tears or angry phone calls. We have a feeling Greenpeace will be getting a few of the latter.
Out since early February and in a nod to television's Starsky & Hutch and Knight Rider, Hammer & Coop is a six episode online miniseries that pits a dude named Jim Turtledove against a white-suited megalomaniac named Sven Hartjan. The star of the show, though, is the 2007 Mini Coop. This is not an ad. This is a show and it's hilarious. Though it's not technically an ad, the show does a great job of pointing out the car's feature without it seeming too gratuitous.
Two of the six episodes are out and have Turtledove getting sidetracked by a bikini car wash and Hartjan sharing his maniacal plans with us. There's a funny action hero name generator so you, too, can have your own Jim Turtledove-like name. There's also the usual wallpapers, screensavers and buddy icons. Very nice work.
Fashion Label Airwalk has signed pro surfer Anastasia Ashley, whose been surfing since age five, to represent the company's Airwalk Footwear in Fall 2007 and Spring 2008 advertising campaigns. Anastasia will be joining longboard champion Josh Mohr, vert skater Andy Macdonald, street skater Rodney Jones and snowboarder Jimmy Dowd on the 2007 Airwalk team.
A Los Angeles native, Anastasia has been competing in surf contests since she was six. She's won 200 local, regional and national titles. The 20-year-old pro surfer has already taken two National Scholastic Surfing Association National titles, and other professional titles including winning the Professional Surfing Tour of America, being named the Hawaiian Triple Crown Rookie of the year, and being runner up in 2006 at the ECSC W.Q.S event.
Ashley is currently competing full time on the ASP World Qualifying Serie), and is currently ranked 13th in the world rankings. And as is required by any hot, female athlete, she's done the usual Teen People, Cosmo Girl and FHM appearances.
Shannon Stephaniuk from Glossy Inc. did some sleuthing for us about the music in the new Pepsi Pinball commercial. We really like commercial during which a guy takes a wild ride on the ball through the streets of San Francisco. We also really like how the snickering creatives behind this ad, as Shannon's research indicates, seemingly slipped past the client the fact the original lyrics of the version of the song used in this ad, 1977's Jet Boy Jet Girl, are about one guy giving head to another.
Perhaps all those hipster marketers over at Pepsi are too young to remember seventies punk. Perhaps they actually know what they're doing trying to connect with in-the-know hipsters all while slipping it under the radar of Pepsi's culturally disconnected top management. Perhaps neither the agency nor the client has a clue regarding this song's origin. Perhaps, as one commenter points out, it's because the song is not really the song but a version of the song sung by another guy in another band that used to be in the original band. Confused? We are too. No matter what, we just think it's pretty funny.
The 2007 Create Awards, a creative competition for professionals and students in advertising, film and video, motion graphics, graphic communication, photography, printing, interactive media, and copywriting has announced its official call for entries beginning March 15 and closing on June 1.
This year, the organization has tripled the Best of Show Award to a $30,000 Dream Studio Prize Package with products from Adobe, Hewlett-Packard, Kodak, NEC Display Solutions, Alienware Computers, Wacom Technologies, Digital Tutors, Softimage (a Division of Avid), Iomega, Wiredrive, Microtek, Inovartis, LensBabies, E-Frontier, Spam Cube, AutoFX, Corel, Pantone, Tivity Software, and Extensis.
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Adrants reader Jeff Wasiluk writes to tell us, "For most of us, day to day creativity only pays off in our minds. Sure there is the occasional award, standard company raise, maybe you even got a pat on the back. Good for you. But me, I'd rather have those little sparks of brilliance put my ass on the beach and a mai tai in my hand." Point taken. Which brings us to Rather be in Hawaii, a site from Starwood Hotels and Hawaiian Airlines, on which you can upload an image of an unpleasant moment of your life and have it paired with another image of vacation perfection. If you win the contest, you get a 5 night stay in Hawaii at a Starwood Hotel with airfare courtesy of Hawaiian Airlines. Go ahead. Upload your misery and go to Hawaii.
After reading a piece in Snackable Content which ended with, "Well I guess it certainly is one way men can get Giovanni in their pants," we simply had to share with you the story that led to that one liner. Aria Giovanni, the gorgeous and curvaceously top-heavy model, has teamed with Brickhouse Mobile to create Ariamobile, a site where Aria lovers can download videos, photos and ringtones featuring Aria. With images titled "So Big," "Overflow" and "Dangerous Curves," the site offers up all manner of curvaceousness to make using your cell phone more pleasurable than you ever thought possible. Except, of course, when you mother calls and you have to mentally rectify the sound of your mother's voice in your ear with the body of Aria in front of your eyeballs so that your head doesn't explode from the ickyness that combination is sure to conjur.
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