Scandal! Beyonce Has Light Skin in L'Oreal Ad!

So last week, panties were in a twist over what appeared to be the lightening of Beyonce's skin for an appearance in a L'Oreal ad in Elle magazine. Of course, L'Oreal denies it. However, a look at several past images of Beyonce would run counter to that denial.

The net? Who cares. She's beautiful no matter what color she is.

Energizer Appeals to the Urchin in Us

Under the tagline "Never let their toys die," Energizer UK depicts kids in various states of, uh, toyless engagement. The campaign won top accolades in Press Advertising at the Cannes International Ad Festival.

See the work (helpfully labeled by ME!):

o Merry-Go-Hostage
o Pretty Pretty Puppy
o Not Quite Rain

Put together by DDB/South Africa to support Energizer's "longest-lasting battery" position. Awesome stuff. What'd you guys do, spend a week at the primary school?

Waifs Make Women Less Hungry, More Spendy

You gotta love skinny models. They wear clothes well, improve sales, make other women feel bad. The best part? They don't eat. Think of the savings!

A survey of 194 female college students, aged 18-24, found women feel uglier after seeing thin models. They are also more likely to buy products held in a gamine's claw than from ads with "regular-size models." (Here's a secret: none of us enjoy being characterized as "regular." It's like being called "homely" -- a big fat fucking slap in the face.)

Seeing thin models also made women less likely to accept a snack pack of Oreo cookies offered as a thank-you for their participation in the study. Well, no shit.

You know what a woman does want to do after seeing all those runway waifs? (Second to shopping, that is.) Drink. A lot. And that's why we're so keen on Gawker's coverage of the same survey. It's right next to a banner ad for Sobieski vodka. That's targeting to win!

Real French Fries Shame Fake Breasts

Riffing on the increasingly fake aspects of culture from implants to injections to extensions, Toronto agency Zig created a print campaign for New York Fries which draws a dichotomy between fakeness and the all natural goodness of New York Fries.

Witty campaign but what's really sad is the fact an actual ad campaign is needed to sell something that is supposed to be fried potatoes and nothing else. Food - and everything else in this world - has become so processed, hardly anything is real anymore.

For example, breasts. Big breasts are great. Every woman seems to want them and every man seems to want to ogle and fondle them. Fine. Nothing wrong with obsessing over big breasts (well, OK, maybe it is a bit degrading to reduce a woman to a body part) but fake big breasts are exactly that. Fake. Not real. They don't look real. They don't feel real. They aren't attractive to look at. They aren't real. And fake isn't fun.

Neither are fake French Fries. Two other fake-focused ads are here and here.

Classic Ad Gimmicks Used to Help Save Energy

This is sorta nifty. Motivated by the assumption that youth adopt ideals based on how they're presented, Grey/Madrid launched Compra esta actitude ("Buy this attitude") on behalf of the Madrid City Council.

The effort tells people to save energy by twisting up gimmicks we're all familiar with. Ads were inspired by shampoo and perfume ads, and even those totally improbable amateur online videos.

Creative is divided by medium: Internet, TV, Radio, Grafica. Run a barcode scanner over each to see the work. The image at left is from the shampoo spoof, where a woman with lustrous hair swings it in the direction of a lightswitch and flips it off. And here's the online video they're pushing: "The light pong masters," inspired in part by stuff like "Guy catches glasses with face" for Ray Ban. Expect some heavily edited, totally improbable ping pong action. Yeah, baby, yeah.

Women Make Less, and You Can Take That to the Bank

To make a point about how women make less money than men in the work force, Miljopartiet de grona -- the green party in Sweden -- ran a print ad that compares currency featuring men to lower-value currency featuring women. The tagline: "Different gender, different worth."

Commercial Archive observes the idea's been done before; moreover, income disparity is slightly more complicated than some male-chauvinist exec going "Hey, a girl, I'm gonna SAVE."

On a casual YouTube quest for gender-disparaging videos, I found this clip about penis power. Please watch it. It will make your whole day. (Yes yes, SFW, but plug your headphones in.)

No, Cinnamon Sticks are Not Made of Sweet 'N Low.

Healthy Food Brands is reintroducing the Sweet 'N Low candy line. Chadwick Communications was selected to spread the word, so it created a print ad campaign that I guess makes the candy look low-fat yet saucy.

"Light my fire" is at left, and here's "Get off my cloud."

"Sweetened with isomalt and acesulfame potassium." LOL.

Glamour Stiletto Run Travels to Moscow. Hotness Abounds

A couple years ago, we covered Glamour's Stiletto Run, a promotional event highlighting the launch of Dutch Glamour at which hundreds of women wearing heels ran a 75 meter sprint to win $10,000 Euros.

Last year the event was held in Amsterdam. We missed it but this year, just this week, it was held in Moscow and while a member of our vast Adrants reporting staff wasn't in attendance to capture the event first hand, thanks to Flickr, we can share all the glamorous, high heeled hotness with you today.

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Driverside Pays Parking Tickets, Cars Go Zen, Actresses Put Brand Icons Out of Work, Gary Busey Becomes GotVMail Mascot

- Jezebel compiled a list of the top 10 female product advertising icons -- and the actresses that could replace them. That Mrs. Butterworth's/Queen Latifah one is hella funny. Now you: go forth and laugh.

- Driverside.com, which sends reminders for auto maintenance and calculates repair estimates in your area, is paying parking tickets off for 100 San Francisco inhabitants. Register at the above link and check back July 25th to see if you're among the scott-free parking violators.

- Gary Busey's objectively bananas, and here's proof. If you're planning to argue, I've got three words for you: stupid, misfortunate placenta.

- Neat water campaigns: submerged-society ones for Australian brand Insight, quiet dreamscape ones for Diesel.

- BooneOakley is behind State Farm's "Experience Peace of Drive" car wash campaign. (Apparently you also get a free massage.) More from the effort: bathing car, car and yoga, car and cucumber, car and candles, car and acupuncture. (Kinda cool. I had a fat friend whose mom made him visit an acupuncturist to induce weight loss. It didn't work, but he kept telling her it did because he found the needles soothing.)

Hey There, Easy Rider. Florida Wants to See Your Day-Glo Chaps.

The DHSMV and the Florida Rider Training Program are looking for cool ways to get bikers to dress more visibly. So they launched Ride Proud Dress Loud.

The associated print ad campaign -- put together by Kidd Group -- features bikers in various shades of yikes! and oh my!. There's also some wince-worthy flaming-leather action. Great balls indeed.

More ads here.

Our source at Kidd says a lot of hardcore bikers are pissed about the campaign. Well hell, sour grapes, it could always be worse. Good stuff from Kidd though. I like a little colour on my burly man.