It must suck being a premium vodka maker when you're not one of the two or three brands that, for whatever unknown reason, seem to take off and get adopted by those enjoy emptying their wallet just to get drunk. While Grey Goose sold 700,000 cases in 2006, Belvedere sold just 380,000.
In a new $20 million Berlin Cameron-created campaign, Belvedere is crashing the party with ads featuring Vincent Gallo and his posse literally crashes uptown parties with downtown attitude. There's also a Terry Richardson-shot print campaign with lots of red lipstick and provocative stares.
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It appears the NFL is still sprinting as fast and as far as it can from another wardrobe malfunction with the apparent solution being the older the rocker, the less likely they'll be to even consider exposing the crinkles that lay beneath their clothing. Unlike Janet Jackson, who exposed some fairly fresh looking breast flesh four years ago at the Super Bowl, it's unlikely this year's half time artist, Tom Petty, will leave any possibility his not so young chest - or any other body part - will be seen by the world's eyeballs.
Yes, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, a band that was popular something like 200 years ago will take center stage for Super Bowl XLII February 3 at the University of Phoenix Stadium. Stay tuned for our review. Last year, you hated what we had to say about Prince. Just imagine what will have to say about this guy once he takes the stage.
I've known Tony Pierce since Adrants was a part time gig started while I was between jobs and was read by one person. Me. That was early 2001. Now, in late 2007, Adrants is, if we can be so egotistically blunt, a major contender in the ad world. Now, in late 2001, Tony Pierce, who was most recently Editor at the LAist is moving on to the LA Times where he will oversee the newspaper's 25 blogs. Times do change.
I think the LA Times' decision to hire Tony is an amazingly astute choice. Newspapers know they have it tough these days and they need to explore new publishing channels. In an exit interview with LAist News Editor Andy Stemberg, Tony cuts through the crap and tells it like it is. Bloggers are bloggers and journalists are journalists. Each have their strengths and weaknesses. Pierce examines this in his interview and refreshingly steers clear of early days, blogger-bashes-MSM rhetoric. For as much as blogging has contributed to the world of information transferral, mainstream media still holds the cards when it comes to infrastructure, extensibility, expertise and a lot of other things.
It will be very interesting to see how Tony marries the two worlds. If his past successes are any indication, newspaper publishing and blogging are going to become and even more delicious cocktail than they already are. Congrats, Tony.
Some might say this French American Apparel ad is offensive (for the full effect, click the "more" link below which is NSFW). There's been much discussion over the years about American Apparel's ad campaign and whether or not it reduces females to play things for men. But if you spend even a few minutes on Flickr, Webshots, Photobucket and any number of weblogs that obsesses over the given subject matter, you will come to realize that women of a certain age really do like to pull their shirts up and show us their tits.
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We're a little late to the chase on this one, but we thought it was worth mentioning that Cyber Monday traffic increased 26 percent this year. The top 100 retail websites received about 5.07 percent of all US visits, and expectedly, Amazon topped the retail charts.
That means either fewer people have qualms about online shopping, or more people are getting lazier about leaving home. (We actually went out on Black Friday, and the workout in patience and marathon running we got is no joke.)
Even when a man as important and legendary as Martin Scorsese is involved, ads which spend half their time on the "making of" aspects and credits of those involved always seem egocentrically forced. That is not to say this creation from JWT Spain for Freixenet Cava isn't good. It is. It's very good. In fact, it's amazing if you cut off the "making of" puffery and credits at the end. Because when you layer on commentary from JWT Executive Creative Director Alex Martinez like, "never before has art been so close to and tied in with advertising," if sort of makes you want to throw up...a little...in your mouth.
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Remember that one time we thought a serial killer was out to get us, but the threat turned out to be a customizable online promotion for Showtime's Dexter?
That promotion just won Best use of Viral Marketing at the BIMAs this year. Put together by Ralph & Co., London, it generated 300,000 unique Dexter emails and over 750,000 pageviews.
See the UK campaign, Ice Truck, or the US campaign, Slice of Life TV.
Gotta love a viral campaign that makes your friends feel like they're the targets of an unhinged, virtually un-catchable sociopath. We know it gave us a happy rise.
Ooh, fun. Heat, SF shot us this ad for Speed ProStreet, a game by EA Games.
The spot glides between real video imagery and gritty animation, which still exhibits a dull gleam of reality. And the music brings you back to the first time you watched Rebel without a Cause, when so much was on the line in that one game of chicken. You know, before James Dean started crying and shit.
The agency hoped to leave gamers with the sense that "every battle counts" on both real or virtual streets. (We're sure mom will love that manifesto when it's spouted over her kid's next speeding ticket.)
The spots will run on ESPN and other gamer-friendly stations.
For reasons having mainly to do with the writers strike, which is slowly sucking all the life and vigor out of TV (even online TV!), we ended up watching The Breakfast Club on Hulu last night.
We're not really sure what in hell Hulu is doing. We heard somewhere that they're trying to make their ads more intuitive and more in line with the online viewing experience. So tell us why the entire fucking film was jam-packed with the same mind-numbing ad for Chevy hybrid SUVs.
In said ad, unfortunate users witness the creation of an ice cream sundae. And it's ugly and horrifying. Everything from the elevator music, to the pallid vanilla, to the badly-poured chocolate, to the artificial whipping cream, filled us with glorious disdain for everything Chevy. (Especially the Lumina.) And, somehow, John Hughes, too.
While Jerry Sobara Furs, according to some quick research, certainly seems to be a real company, celebu-blog Jezebel took a look at the company's latest ad in the December issue of Vogue and wonders if PETA was involved. Positing the ad could not possibly be real, Jezebel writer, Moe, says "I mean, I know fuck-all about fashion, and I know you don't make gold-colored fur jacket with gold buttons and gold bric-a-brac trim. And if you do that, you definitely don't force the model to stand against a bronzy-gold wall and leaning on a gold paisley chair with a mustard-gold gloved hand.
Humorously, the writer also wonders what the motive was behind the casting of the...um...not so beautiful model in the ad asking if Sobara "put out a call for 'pre-op Celine Dion, only 50-75 percent uglier?'" It goes on from there. And we thought we were harsh.
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