Stop the presses! This is amazing news! "Unprecedented" as the release screams! I mean, really. Can you believe it? St. Pauli Girl has, for the first time in its history, named the same woman to serve as their busty barmaid. Yes, Katerina Van Derham, who was chosen last year, has been chosen again to serve as the brewer's cleavage...uh...spokesmodel.
For those who like to drool over and objectify women who, for no other reason than being born with good genes, have big breasts and a hot body, the brand is asking people to vote for the official 2010 poster. Basically, the two choices boil down to whether you like boobs or booty.
As Sunday approaches I sit here with mixed emotions about Super Bowl advertising. Should I care because it's my job? Should I just enjoy the game like the rest of the world and boycott the lame ass idiocy that attempts to pass as advertising? Why can't I get excited this year?
Perhaps it's that I've written about so many Super Bowl ads over the past eight years, I simply can't get excited about seeing the same old stupidity over and over again. Go Daddy? Oh please. Another "men are idiots" beer ad? Gag. The eTrade babies? Make it stop!
Perhaps it's that I've heard everything there is to hear and viewed everything there is to view before the ads ever hit TV. There used to be an anticipation for something NO ONE could EVAR see until it appeared during the game. No longer. The ads are everywhere. And not just for journalists and bloggers. Many marketers toss there stuff up on YouTube well in advance of the game. So all that goes on inside my head during the game is a running commentary, "Yup, seen that. Predictable. Seriously? Yup, knew that was coming. Yup, that's as stupid as I thought it would be. Danica Patrick. Yawn. Guy throws a phone across a locker room. Check. Beer babes wrestling. Oh wait, that was pretty good! The Clydesdales. OK, not bad. Man sneaks beer into party under giant cheese wheel. Oh for fuck's sake. Talking babies. Talking animals. Monkeys. Can't wait until this fucking game is over so I can go back to watching some decent programming with ads that don't try so hard they shoot themselves in the foot before they end up in the can."
Perhaps it's laziness. Why go to the effort of blogging/tweeting/tagging/commenting/uploading ads when everyone else is doing the same thing. We used to care what Bob Garfield said. Does anyone give a shit any longer? Does anyone give a shit what what I have to say? And, no, I'm not equating myself to Bob Garfield. But does anyone really care what I have to say about the ads? Why is my opinion any more important than anyone else's?
Perhaps it's scheduling difficulties. I'll be stuck at a conference Monday after game day. While the rest of the world is blogging and bitching about the ads, I'll be slinging some mindlessly irrelevant blather on a panel about social media. And who really gives a shit about that? Super Bowl ad commentary or social media platitudes. It's like choosing between getting my left eye poked out or my right.
Maybe it's because the world has become so politically correct, the chance of me seeing anything interesting is about as likely as my chance of ever writing for Advertising Age. Giant breasted women in bikinis mud wrestling? Those days are gone. A gerbil shooting out of a cannon? Nope. A hot girl that says "throw it to me. I'm gonna be wide open?" Too offensive. Suicidal robots? Never. A Snickers kiss? Not a chance. A Salesgenie ad featuring Asians and Indians? You know the answer to that one. In our quest to become sensitive to everything, we have become a risk-averse, spineless, humorless nation afraid of everything.
OK, whatever. Follow me @adrants or @stevehall. I'm sure I'll have something ridiculously irrelevant to say about the ads during the game. And I'll be drinking. So it could be good.
Montana must be a really interesting place to live. It seems the state has a serious case of schizophrenia. And It appears to be the only place in the country where you can simultaneously die a horrific methamphetamine death and win the lottery Teletubbies-style. That is if the state's advertising is any indication.
Take this latest work from Citrus for the Montana Lottery. It's hippy dippy, animated style makes it hard to believe anyone in the state has ever heard of aspirin no less methamphetamine
Seems everyone wants to be GoDaddy these days. With yet another Super Bowl approaching, more and more advertisers are releasing the "banned" versions of their commercial online where standards and practices aren't so stringent. Now it's kgb's turn.
kgb is an SMS service that lets people text questions and get answers so they don't end up looking like an idiot in front of their friends. Or, in the case of this commercial, with their head up their ass.
So when a real agency isn't up to the task of doing a little pro bono work for a non-profit like Network for Animals, virtual agency "gig," which lives on YouTube, is happy to step in and take over. And gig has something to offer aspiring actors: the chance to appear in a "real" commercial for the client.
The idea here, of course, is to get people interested in the cause. The pseudo agency/YouTube contest is not a new one but there's something intriguingly watchable about this series.
Not that we didn't already know this but reality TV and the notion those chosen to participate in those shows are TV's new ratings capital is explored in a detailed Advertising Age article written by Andrew Hampp.
In the article he examines the success cable TV has had with (cheap) reality programming that focuses on previous unknowns (tather than highly paid actors) who, because of the show, become quite famous. The Kardashians are offered up as the prime example.
Last night during the Grammy Awards broadcast, a DISH Network commercial touted the fact it's prices are lower because it doesn't pay for expensive celebrity endorsements. Which is kind of funny because if DISH Network didn't advertise at all, it'd be even cheaper. Of course no one would know that because, well, that's what advertising is for, right?
Love a good (that's a relative term, of course) Groundhog Day joke? You might like this new Grey-created commercial for truTV which hypes its NFL Full Contact series premiering the day after the Super Bowl. In the ad, Pittsburg Steelers' Troy Polamalu is pulled from hiding. He sees his shadow and it is proclaimed there will be six more weeks of football.
Kinda funny but we're not too sure how well a Groundhog joke will go over after Groundhog day. After all, we are a country that's all about anticipation and lead up. Christmas stuff hyped before Thanksgiving. Valentines Day hyped before New Years. Back to School hyped the days the kids get out for summer. Watching this commercial is going to make people wonder how many months ago they saw Puxatawney Phil. Anyway, look or the commercial in the second quarter just before the two minute warning.
Make the Logo Bigger's Bill Green takes a long look at that "gun reference" Nike ad featuring Kobe Bryant and Lebron James. Some are offended Nike would allow such a reference. Some, such as Lebron (in a hilarious contradiction), defend the ad claiming the notion it's a gun reference is ridiculous. Some, like us, don't give a shit and think people should move on and not read so much into stuff. Not you, Bill. All those other conspiracy theorists and cause group kooks.
Of course NBA players bringing their guns into the locker room isn't so smart either.
But seriously, give it a rest. Move on. There's nothing to see here. Go live your life and appreciate it. Don't waste it whining about advertising. Oh wait...
Yes, indeed. Some combinations are very funny. Others not to much. In this new campaign from Sydney-based Three Drunk Monkeys for radio station Nova 969, a new morning team is promoted by highlighting odd combinations. Like a cow and a man on a tennis court, a woman with balloon hands performing a vasectomy and hot twins having a barbecue with a cannibal.
It's up to you to decide whether or not these combinations are, in fact, funny or just strange.
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