In a nod to current world events, here is a little advertising video, called Homicide Bomber, urging all of us to make love, not terror. In the ad, a stunning Ethiopian model is walking down a famous boulevard in Tel Aviv, Israel. Men are mesmerized by her looks, which cause them to do the usual silly things men do when confronted by a hottie. She strolls down the side walk with nothing but a sheer mini covering her wobbling ass. She finally encounters a homicide bomber with an explosive belt wrapped around waist, on his way to blow up a sidewalk cafe.
While the two are at a standstill, she notices a slight bulge in the bomber's pants. Is it the bomb? Is it something else? The homicide bomber also notices the bulge, which, unfortunately triggers the bomb, causing him to uh...explode in typical male fashion: prematurely. There is a happy ending though. The message Make Love, Not Terror appears in Hebrew, Arabic and English appears at the end and the two, well, you'll have to use your imagination as to what they do next.
From Keta-Keta. Windows Movie Format. Click the image to view the ad.
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The Intermedia Group's Brand Recall Index Shows Old Navy's Love Boat style spots are at the top of consumers minds in recall.
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Flying always has its problems and there's always something to complain about. Most times, you just bitch to your friends about it. But it you have a weblog and you write about your experiences with an airline, or any product or service for that matter, it's not just your friend who gets to hear the story.
Kristin is a Madpony Girl. What's a Madpony girl, you ask? A Madpony Girl is a girl (two actually, sisters) who has a web site and writes about her life (college, her shoes, living in the South, etc). Kristin just took a Southwest Airlines flight from her hometown of Oklahoma City to Phoenix Arizona. Great flight. Good service. But when she landed, things didn't go so well. The airline lost her bags.
Now, if you know Kristen, you know she has a lot of shoes. LOTS of shoes. She can't live without her shoes. So, what's a girl on a trip to Arizona to do without shoes? She begs Southwest to help her on her weblog while chiding the airline at the same time.
"now, i would imagine that you're the kind of multibillion dollar corporation who really wants to know your customers, so let me tell you a little about myself.
i'm 5'8, i'm a college junior, I CANNOT SURVIVE FOR ONE WEEK WITH ONLY ONE PAIR OF SHOES.
makeup is easily replaceable. clothes are bit harder, but i am in scottsdale, the shopping capital of the american desert. i am skeptical of finding another perfect swimsuit, as that can often be somewhat difficult. but there is no way i could replace my collection of beautiful and exotic shoes and sandals.
please hurry southwest. i just don't know what i would do without my cute little cobians. and my bc shoes. and my reefs. and my little esprits with the flowers and the maddens and the little black sandals and the nm70s.
(not so) patiently waiting,
kristin"
A sad story indeed. Innocuous? Maybe. But what happens when hundreds of thousands of people are publishing weblogs? What happens when an ad campaign becomes pointless because everyone can poke a whole in it because they all know the "real" story because they are all reading other people'sweblogs who have had first hand experience with the brand? Kristin was very polite in her criticism. But we all know most people are not that polite. It's something to think about, marketers.
I'd link directly to Kristen's story but her links are broken. Go the Madpony homepage and find the post for Monday, June,2 2003.
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To all you Flash designers out there, take a look at this site. in my mind, it's the best Flash site I have seen in a long time. Too bad we don't see more of this stuff. and I don't mean the semi-nude photos either. I mean the way cool design. Take a Look. Thanks to ApeChild for finding this one.
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There used to be a time when babes were literally babes until they were not. Namely until the reached 18 or 21. Now, we have jailbait being marketed rampantly. OK, maybe that's a harsh assessment. But there's no where you can turn these days without seeing some hot 15 or 17 year old staring you back in the face. How's a guy supposed to react to that? Be attracted to the girl? Feel like a pedophile? A girl in a sexy outfit is a girl in a sexy outfit. Yea, yea, yea, there are limits. Don't get all bible on me.
The point is....um...uh...damn, I just forgot. I just got distracted by those pictures. You don't care what my point is anyway, you just want to look at the pictures!
And besides, so do I. So I'm going to stop preaching about it and just sit back and enjoy it. Bring it on! Distract me. Stare back at me and make me believe I'm actually a hot 22 year old guy. Make me believe that you actually want me....to talk to you. Let me see that vast 2.5 months of sexual experience glimmer from your sultry eyes. Bare your belly and squeeze your cleavage for me as I...oh wait....sorry...this isn't a porn site. This is supposed to be all about serious advertising news. Porn? Advertising? Aren't they the same thing anyway? Alright, so advertising is a little different than porn, I guess. Thee two industries sell themselves but advertising people do with their clothes on. Mostly.
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My agency has just launched a new web site. Big deal, right?
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Well, we have to say goodbye to the Miller Lite Catfight spots (see below) but we can continue to revel in the creativity of our fellow brethren with this weeks collection of spots. There in a nose ring fest for Heineken, some common sense from AllTel, Edmund Hilary climbs Everest for Toyota, Old Navy does a Love Boat spoof, and Denis Leary beats the crap out of a car for Quaker State. OK, so maybe they aren't all that creative.
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After a last 6-8 week flight featuring Pamela Anderson in a spot called "Pillowfight", Miller Brewing will retire the boobfest campaign. I'll be sad to see it go but I'm sure there will always be something even more exciting down the road from beer advertisers. Their ability to play to the latest trend and men's inborn inability to stop staring at women in bikinis makes that a certainty.
So tune in this Summer as Pamela Anderson bounces across your screen in the midst of a pillowfight and weep as the catfighting ends.
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"Procter & Gamble's extensive use of false and misleading advertising for the last nine months has misled consumers and the retail trade," Michael Gallagher, Playtex CEO, said in a statement. "As part of a massive sell-in with unprecedented spending, Procter & Gamble launched this product behind false claims in advertising, promotional material, direct mail, coupons and presentations to the retail trade in an effort to entice our consumers away from our products. We expect the jury verdict and this injunction will put an end to this practice of deception by Procter & Gamble."
Take that, P & G! Claiming P & G made inaccurate claims regarding its Tampax Pearl tampons, Playtex has won an injunction against P & G which requires P & G "to immediately recall from retailers and distributors, all offending promotional products, displays, as well as an immediate halt to all television and print advertising, packaging, direct mail, sales presentations and coupons making the claims." That's going to be an expensive marketing recall even for P & G.
"Between the leg" products" seem to be a hot topic this week with complaints building in the U.K. over both the marketing of tampons using a 70's style kids television show and a recently banned condom campaign. Behave yourself down there, will you? [via BrandWeek]
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