Meet HI NRG, a vodka-based energy drink whose campaign site Dance Responsibly features three videos that have captured violations of our sensory rights.
Inspired by the self-policing "drink responsibly" sash alcohol brands are so fond of wearing, HI NRG claims to give you so much energy that it too must be had responsibly. Lest you diverge, the stern dance police will (you hope, we're sure) whip you back into shape.
And because it wouldn't be a legit marketing strategy without one, the site also features a CGM campaign for $3,000, almost a third lower than the going bedroom-dancing rate of $10,000, a figure that seems to fall out of CGM coffers like candy out of a big fat pinata.
Because neither the pleather-porting sex kitten cops nor the dance-themed campaign were enough of a back-decade rip-off, the drink had to call itself HI NRG too.
The campaign was put together by Kojo Interactive. We really can't think of a more devastating attempt to manifest the 90s. Wait, Alicia Silverstone just turned the corner.
One thing that's awesome about viral video is it gives brands a platform to loosen their politically-correct, manifesto-rich ties and shake out saltier inclinations.
Raw Talk from the Raw Bar, a video for Legal Seafoods restaurant, takes full advantage, running amock with sailor-caliber curses and sub-par seafood punning.
Whether the mouthy food or the mouthy company comprises the referenced "typical shellfish bastards" is your call.
Vlan! points us to some ads for the Smart car, a vehicle that, however practical, looks just as awkward as the expressions crystallized in these winning moments for icons like Saddam and Bush.
Awkward.
Smart's slogan: "Open your mind."
We wonder who they're talking to. We're pretty sure none of these foiblers suffered from lack of imagination - they all did some zany things that ended up upsetting most everybody in the world.
Could it be that we're supposed to identify with them? If that's so, the tags on the ads aren't deeply encouraging. For example, the line just above Clinton's frowny face reads, "Interns and cigars. Not smart." No shit, Sherlock.
We really dig this effort for PCA by Saatchi and Saatchi, Sydney, meant to discourage drunk driving by encouraging pre-meal meditations on jail.
Text reads, "Prison food doesn't taste this good." We don't know if the earnest forks prevented drunk driving but we're pretty sure they yielded a bit of implicit jail-rape humour, which make for handy ice-breakers for when dinner talk starts to wear thin.
Okay. Leo Burnett, Sao Paulo sent us this Fiat ad, which we'd like to say we get, but we're really not sure.
Is the car fast? Is that it? Is it super strong or safe? Is it actually a train in an anomalous body whose unique capacities enable it to "lead the pack," so to speak, like Rudolphe the Red-Nosed Reindeer?
Are we overreaching?
It's a back. It's a knee. It's a head. It's a butt. It's a distended stomach. It's a gigantic breasts. It's a...wait...should we have to work that hard to figure out what a visual is in an ad? Of course not but in this case it really doesn't matter because this is an ad for a skin care product. And back, knees, heads, butt's, stomach and gigantic breasts all have skin. In this ad for Vaseline Intensive Care Cocoa Butter, the marketer keeps us guessing which, when you think about it, is one great way to get people to pay attention to your ad.
Perhaps giving eMarketer a run for its money, a new site and newsletter, MarketingCharts from Watershed Publishing, publisher of MarketingVOX and MediaBuyerPlanner, has launched to provide marketers with charts, graphs, tables and all manner of data for marketers, advertisers and agencies.
We are told, "Content will focus on daily updates of key marketing data, both traditional and interactive, and daily stories digesting the latest studies and other data-intensive developments. Users will be able to download Excel files of data for their own use." The site will be edited by former MarketingVOX editor Vahe Habeshian.
XLNTads, a sort of network that brings together people who like to create stuff (CGM) and brands interested in tapping that expertise for their advertising needs. While sounding a bit like a cheap way for marketers to get ads made, they are approaching social and consumer generated media the right way by involving those who are in the thick of it. They have formed a Creator's Advisory Board, which includes such famed CGMers as Kevin McNalty to make sure the marketing minds at XLNTads are in tune with the segment.
As a run up to its official July launch, the company is hosting a contest which will award $5,000 to the person who develops the best campaign to promote XLNTads itself.
Apparently, this is what web design firms do during down time. Seemingly for our amusement and, in the process, to demonstrate their stellar design skills, 10mg interactive has offered up a stuffed bunny who needs surgery. With defibrillator, razor, scalpel and other surgery tools, those inclined can zap the bunny, cut him open and play with his intestines. Fun, huh? We're definitely calling these guys for our next project!
Wow. We just might have to start liking Agency.com and put that whole Subway deal behind us. But, maybe not since the Subway video-creating Agency.com is not the same as the London-based Agency.com that created this new work for British Airways' new Club World Cabin. While lushly displaying all the first class cabin's accouterments, visitors can play a game in which the cabin's features are explored while searching for a pair of airline tickets which, if found, enter one in a drawing. The drawing's winner receives two tickets in the Club World Cabin from London to New York and a stay at the Intercontinental Barclay Hotel. We entered. Twice.
|
|
