This is completely left-field. Eager to associate itself with Who's Next '07, an international fashion show, Wrangler (yeah, did you see that coming? We didn't) somehow deluded itself into thinking that setting mannequins all over Paris would be really clever and avant-garde.
We are overwhelmed by deja-vu.
Why do people think mannequins in human settings are going to be a big deal-maker?
Whatever. See the video here. It's a little long. The effort took 60 dummies, disseminated through the city in the wee hours of the morning preceding the September 7-8 show. We kind of think this one is sexy if you ignore the fact that Wrangler's logo is in desperate need of some contemporary TLC.
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72andSunny and Goldfrapp give us Meltdown for the Zune. It takes place in the desert with an ice cream cone and two cobras, which share the sweet instead of fighting for it. At some point their scales get all disco fever, and shortly thereafter, a shitload of other ice cream cones fall out of the sky.
The ad vibes like something off Cartoon Network with the '80s sex music and gyrating cobras and whatnot. We also can't help but wonder, are the ice cream cones metaphors for the now-ubiquitous iPod?
According to the press release, the ad is supposed to illustrate sharing (as in, filesharing) between the cobras, which is rewarded by all those other ice creams falling from the sky.
Wait - is this the same Zune that actually discourages sharing by restricting users to the Windows platform? Half the time it doesn't even play music purchased from the MSN music store. Don't give us this schlock about sharing.
Neat ad, though. Weird, but neat.
- WPP New York is reportedly not going to defend its $70 million Jenny Craig crative account which has been placed in review handled by Blank and Associates.
- The New York Post is expanding its Page Six gossip section to a full blown Sunday glossy magazine section debuting this Sunday.
- Walter Kronkite is returning to television and will appear on the newly launched Retirement Living TV.
- In an interesting mashup, the Polygamous Marriage conference in New Orleans October 26 brings together media, account planing and creative to hear speakers such as Modernista's Gareth Kay, Fallon's John King and Naked's Paul Woolington.
- As if there weren't already an overabundant plethora of awards shows, AdWeek now wants to honor supposed future creative geniuses before they even become geniuses with its "10 Best Creative You Don't Know" showcase.
2wenty 4our has an interesting collection of print ads that are eye catching in different ways. There's a campaign for Planetaria Mixers that makes cakes so fast you can trow them at bothersome door-to-door salesmen and religious fanatics. There's a Spanish campaign for some sort of deodorant that has women running away from their lovers in their underwear.
There's a campaign for Zu Shoes whose shoes are so hot they leave a trail of spent men behind. There's a Cup O Noodles campaign that oddly places the product in a little cubby embedded in people's stomach. And, of course, there's a beer campaign from Sol which leaves men transfixed by female ass.
Two make a trend and we're dubbing it Vaginads. Yup, vagina ads. Last week, Tom Ford debuted a new campaign which prominently featured his fragrance product directly between the legs of a naked woman. Now, we are tipped to German company Vivaeros which has a product called Vulva.
And yes, as the name indicates, it has everything to do with that particular female body part and the (good) smells that emanate from within. While the whole thing reads like one big spoof (an email to the company confirms it's the real deal, though), there seems to be some seriousness to it. The company, reacting to the predominance of erotic products which makes a person more attractive to another, has bottled the smell of sex (in the form of a "beguiling vaginal scent") and is selling it as a fragrance for men to wear seemingly to bring them pleasure in the absence of the real thing.
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We love a good hoodia ad. Here's one in which a woman goes from fat to skinny, then gets fat again before your eyes. Guess it can't be pegged false advertising if she balloons back to original size, and if the company shrouds a very clear promise under the guise of a study, rather than overtly promoting "the new magic bullet" of weight loss.
Did we ever work out what the old magic bullet was?
