« Last week 14-Oct-07 | This archive, pg:  1  |  2  |  3  |  4  |  5  |  6  | Next week 28-Oct-07 »

Emerald Nuts' Ceiling Crawler Robert Goulet Hospitalized

06_RobertGoulet.jpg

Robert Goulet, recently of Emerald Nuts Super Bowl ad fame has been hospitalized for the past 22 days in Los Angeles in critical condition. The Tony, Emmy and Grammy winning star suffered shortness of breath a few months ago and was recently diagnosed with Interstitial Pulmonary Fibrosis, a fatal condition. his one chance of survival is a lung transplant.

Here's hoping we see him in yet another Super Bowl ad this year.

by Steve Hall    Oct-24-07    
Topic: Celebrity, Super Bowl 2007



Punching Bag-Shaped Kids Help Illustrate Bully Behavior

rival_bully.jpg

Incredibly, this ad for Highmark by Mullen serves to remind us of two childhood nightmares: the one where we're alone, friendless and talked-about; and the one about the sinister carnival where clowns eat you. (It's the punching bag thing that does it.)

The spot talks about the impact bullying can have on a child's life. The bottom line is to keep communication open with kids so they have somewhere to run when they're hurting.

That new monster "cyber bullying" is also highlighted. Good to know the child safety gurus are keeping up. It only took them 10 years and the advent of Web 2.0 to realize that rumors fly via text message, too.

by Angela Natividad    Oct-24-07    
Topic: Cause, Commercials, Good, Television



Petra Nemcova Replaces Gemma Atkinson As La Senza Apokesmodel

la-senza-petra-nemcova.jpg

Lingerie company La Senza has chosen Sports Illustrated cover girl and Czech supermodel Petra Nemcova for its new spokesmodel for a soon to be launched ad campaign. Nemcova will replace the decidedly more curvaceous Gemma Atkinson who appeared in the brand's campaign for the past six months.

by Steve Hall    Oct-24-07    
Topic: Campaigns, Celebrity, Racy



KFC Enlists College Kid for Dirty Work

willitspill.png

A college kid named Will is working with KFC to promote the company's Triple Dip Strips. See the challenges on Will It Spill.

The idea is the packaging will protect eaters from spills while enabling them to dip on the go. True to form, the package doesn't hold while Will rides a mechanical bull. Did we really expect it to? Well, kind of.

"Yup ... that's a spill," Will concludes, lying facedown and observing the mess he made all over the padded floor.

This is what Tupperware is for.

by Angela Natividad    Oct-24-07    
Topic: Guerilla, Online, Promotions



India Gets Weird With Condoms

india_condoms.jpg

Maybe it's because it's India. Maybe because it's just plain goofy. Maybe it's just Bollywood gone Madison Avenue. Maybe it's just...oh, whatever. Just watch this weird educational video about condom usage from Nrityanjali Academy, Secunderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India.

by Steve Hall    Oct-24-07    
Topic: Strange, Video



Facebook Invites Ad Community to Witness Its Demise

facebook_house.jpg

Facebook's up to something and we're not even going to speculate other than to say, "Facebook, Meet MySpace. May you both have a fine time languishing on the digital nursing home veranda awaiting certain death."

by Steve Hall    Oct-24-07    
Topic: Online, Social



TBWA Get Icy, Black Publishes, Sexist Ads Collected, Douchenozzles Celebrate

sexistads.jpg

- TBWA has opened an icy cold office in Reykjavik, Iceland with a staff of 20 who hope to tap the country's growing economy and serve one of the world's highest per capita income populace.

- Cathie Black is out with her new book, BASIC BLACK: The Essential Guide for Getting Ahead at Work (and in Life) from Crown Publishing. "BASIC BLACK is a memoir masquerading as a guide to career and life from one of the first women to take a forefront role in the advertising industry, American magazine and newspaper publishing."

- Using its out of home touchscreen network, Ecast delivered a 14 percent click through for AMC's The Two Corey's. Now if we could only get results like that online.

- Want sexism in advertising? Media Circus has a collection of the twelve most sexist ads in recent years.

more »

by Steve Hall    Oct-24-07    
Topic: Agencies, Outdoor, Publishing



Real Mad Men Get Their Due At One Club Hall of Fame Induction

Delaney_Abbott_Dusenberry.jpg

OK. Enough about that fictional silliness on AMC's Mad Men. It's time to raise a glass to the real Mad Men in this business. Last week, the One Club held its Creative Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony at The Metropolitan Club where Tim Delaney, Phil Dusenberry and the late Paul Rand were inducted for their lifetime achievement of work

more »

by Steve Hall    Oct-24-07    
Topic: Industry Events



Wake Up And Smell Your Marketing (Again)

stupid_guy.jpg

Previously on Adrants. Everyone who works in marketing and any business touching it should take the time to read this article. On CBSNews.com, Dick Meyer wrote an editorial hammering home points we've touched on here before such as the portrayal of men as idiots in advertising, the hyper-political correctness foisted upon the industry and society at large and the acceptance, what scholar Charles Murray relates to "ecumenical niceness," of kids dressing and behaving like thugs fueled by marketers and the entertainment industry elevating "thug culture" to culture at large. If that's a lot to digest, just read the article and think long and hard about what cultural imagery you mirror in your marketing. Don't cop out using the tired, "Oh we're just identifying with culture," and turn a blind eye to what you are perpetuating.

more »

by Steve Hall    Oct-24-07    
Topic: Opinion, Trends and Culture



Mad Men's Don Draper Kicks Verizon Dumb Dad's Ass

don_draper.jpg

Over the years, we've commented on the emasculated, sole-searching, directionless, man syndrome made famous by those Verizon Dumb Dad ads. Writing in Entertainment Weekly about how today's man just won't grow up and how he's portrayed by show creators and advertiser as a aimless, child-like buffoon, Mark Harris captures, perfectly, the ironic attraction of AMC's Mad Men.

He writes, "...the 35ish Don Draper is a New York advertising whiz with a wife, a mistress, unquenchable ambition and not an iota of little-boy-ishness; in fact, he's determined to grind his inner child into dust and obliterate any trace of vulnerability...He's a relic of an ancient civilization, and a flat out terrible role model. But in his struggle not to lose his soul, he is also, indisputably, a grown up. No wonder he suddenly seems like the sexiest thing on television."

more »

by Steve Hall    Oct-24-07    
Topic: Opinion, Trends and Culture



« Last week 14-Oct-07 | This archive, pg:  1  |  2  |  3  |  4  |  5  |  6  | Next week 28-Oct-07 »