Mashing up the green movement, artistic collaboration and esoteric naming devices (consider Gnarls Barley), all of which are really hot among organic smoothie-sucking elite, Blake Hamster comes at us with manifesto in hand, burning down traditional e-tail norms and whatnot.
And while we're not sure what's happening in the picture at left (a rape? A drug transaction? An arm's-length grope?), we crazy-dig their eco-sexy overpriced fare.
Plus they come at a good time considering duds have finally surpassed electronics, revenue-wise, over the Internet.
It's understandable women don't want to sit on a toilet seat covered with piss launched by men who can't aim properly so it makes sense an airline would eventually provide bathrooms for women only. That's exactly what Silverjet has done but it also leads us to believe they cater to only to lesbian mile high club members. Where's a poor straight girl to go?
For some reason, Miller Lite thinks it's beer is only for smart people. Or at least that's what Crispin Porter + Bogusky wanted Miller Lite and the rest of us to think as we watch this recent commercial. We've all seen these idiots out and about and have always distanced ourselves from them. Nothing like being lumped together with a bunch of chanting idiots...especially when a beautiful bartender mistakenly thinks you're one of the buffoons.
Speaking of bad context, AdFreak observes an awkward instance for wood: at a theme park.
If you've seen Shrek, you know it's possible to incorporate raunchy grown-up giggles into apparently tame kid-fare without looking like a total asshat.
Six Flags Great Adventure in Jersey has yet to learn this subtle art, considering they erected a gigantor billboard for their big wooden El Toro ride upon which is writ "It's good to have wood" - right over the head of the perennially cheerful Bugs Bunny.
While they were at it, they might as well have gone all the way and made a cock-shaped roller coaster in the style of the French. Then El Toro would have been aptly named.
A company makes a 12-month media buy and it passes as news worthy of publishing. We passed on the press release yesterday figuring, oh, who the hell wants to read about a company that just made a media buy? That's like sending out a press release when an agency holds a traffic meeting. MediaPost didn't pass on it and features it as it's first story in its Online Media Daily newsletter. We're not even going to mention the details because you can read all about it over at MediaPost..
Even funnier is the byline on the story. It took two entire human beings to make this story happen. OK, OK, they did make a phone call to one of the company's CEOs. Apparently, one person had to dial the number while the other asked the questions. OK, OK, 12 month online media commitments aren't common. OK, OK, supposedly it's a lot of money. Whatever. We have a traffic meeting to attend. Oh wait. We have to send out a release first. OK, now we can go. Later.
For this edition of Contextual Advertising Screw-Ups, a festive Pizza Hut ad appears atop a CNN story about a death row inmate who, for his last meal on earth, ordered pizza for a transient.
And while that was fuzzy-sweet of him, we weren't quite raring to order pizza online immediately thereafter.
(Note to Pizza Hut: add the word "killer" to campaign negative keywords.)
We do love a good contextual advertising screw-up. And because we're feeling nostalgic, let's tilt our heads and recall the time Expedia sent 35,000 troops to Iraq, or the time Microsoft sponsored the Wii contest water death, or the time a turpentine ad added texture to the tale of the pregnant girl who drank it to off herself.
Hearing this rendition of Duran Duran's Hungry Like the Wolf as played by Bruce Campbell smarmy lounge act-style for Old Spice's Ahoy Body Spray makes the eighties seem like an era much more distant than the actual 20-25 years that have past would suggest. Surrounded by a bevy of beauties in front of a fire, Campbell, recently seen in an equally smarmy role in Spiderman 3, offers up his rendition of the Duran Duran hit which the girls seem to love. Or maybe it's the Old Spice Ahoy Body Spray they like as indicated by their Axe-style attraction to the man as he plays...or pretends to play. At one point during Campbell's serenade, his hands completely leave the keyboard while the smarm continues to ooze from the grand piano.
This campaign very wittily separates itself from Axe while, at the same time, mocks Axe's man-magnet approach to selling body spray. Even the Hungry Like the Wolf lyrics play into the joke. This is Campbell's second outing for Old Spice and it works. His first involved sitting around a fireplace dispensing advice with the same smarm displayed in the second outing.
This recent work was created by Wieden + Kennedy and directed by The Perlorian Brothers.
The aptly named agency Mother, New York gives us Maternacord, the ultimate Mother's Day surprise.
Our favourite scene from the promo video:
Daughter: "It's tingling."
Mom: "That means it's working."
Why get Mom an iPod when you can umbilically reconnect? It's so deliciously creepy.
We just thought this was funny. And it wasn't that long ago, either.
In April 2004 Garrett French of Web Pro News wrote a post about Google's announcement of GMail - which, in Google's "loose, freewheeling" style, fell just before April Fool's Day.
"How long," French scoffed, "would it take before that ocean of email burst from the Google server farm and sank Washington?"
*Observes moment of silence for nostalgic wave*
Funny how standards can change.
American Copywriter's Tug McTighe has some supremely wonderful advice for those working in creative. It's supremely wonderful because it's rooted in common sense rather than the stereotypical egomaniacal lunacy we so love to pin on creatives from time to time. It's not so much that this advice is new but everyone can use a refresher course from time to time. Tug says creatives should bail on concept, copy or layout that's been revised more than three times. By then, it's time to start over. Don't come up with a kick ass concept before you've immersed yourself in research. Or at least let the AE do it for you and summarize.
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