PETA may just have a heyday with this one. A recent Gmail correspondence resulted in this set of Google-served text ads. The mash-up was so strange we had to keep it - not just because of the menagerie of animals but because we can't believe there's such a thing as Squirrel Circus. (Watch the video. We're building a squirrel playset the second we get home!)
While the acrobatic squirrels amused us two minutes too long, the Armadillo Eliminator strikes us as sinister. Those bottles of death fluid are like a cross between antifreeze and Dip.
Like food poisoning after a post-Lent binge, the content spider probably experienced a bad reaction to the recent rodent rampage at KFC and the Geico caveman. But of course we could be totally wrong - armadillos and squirrels feature regularly in discussions we have with strangers over the internet.
We're always open to a time-waster. TAMBA gets all competitive by hopping in on Comic Relief's Digital Challenge, where they launched a new game called Red Lead in honour of Red Nose Day 2007.
The idea is to get the Red Noses from one side of your monitor to the other without getting stabbed by a sharp pencil. Different sorts of noses, like the golden ones, are magical. In case you wondered, there is a cause attached to this.
Note image to the left. Then consider what we said here. The game is cool and all, but are we destined for one sensory violation after another today?
Quitting alone is perilous, so say three ads that demonstrate how sporadic and undependable "cold turkey" really is. Catch spot one, spot two and spot three.
Created by Wongdoody for the Washington State Dept. of Health, Cold Turkey builds upon the previous No Stank You! campaign.
The whole pimply uncooked bird gimmick is weird. And what's wrong with cold turkey, anyway? Cold turkey's helped us quit hundreds of times. As any experienced smoker will tell you, quitting hundreds of times is way better than starting hundreds of times.
Make the Logo Bigger points us to this :15 ad tag-team featuring Geico's perpetually frustrated existentialist caveman.
As a bonus he also points us to the Phil Sims golf spot that preceded the Super Bowl. The inclusion of the caveman in the good-sport world of green hills, khaki shorts and pompous conversation is priceless. "What is this, youth soccer?" he barks competitively. We almost died laughing.
It's easy to criticize an ad that tries to be cool. But when an ad tries to be corny, we're kind of at a loss for what to do.
Corny Moments, a Coca Cola Light spot created by Santo Buenos Aires, can only be described as "an ever-expanding corny moment" according to the eloquent Brentter. We still haven't worked out how we feel about it, but Caterpillars, another spot from the same campaign, gives us chills. Does this mean Coke succeeds?
There's a sense of violation associated with being made to experience a corny moment. It's something we wouldn't wish upon our worst enemies, a stop-the-world-so-I-can-get-off feeling akin to what you experience when someone unexpectedly touches your belly button. It's not cozy.
Spots directed by Nes Buzzalino. The Corny Moments song is by Diego Grimblat Music.
We've all dreamed of being scouted by someone who happens to notice the pure geniosity of our existence. Most grow up to chock this dear wish off to fancy, but the fantasy actually became reality for Matt Harding.
It's a weird story. The 30-something gamer travels the world with a few buddies and does a goofy dance on tape at every stop they make. Probably because of people sitting at desks all day, the video goes viral. Then it's picked up by Stride Gum, who likes Matt's dance so much they're sending him around the world again.
We dig Matt but don't know how the jig will help hock gum. Will he be chewing and dancing at the same time? We see some liability issues there - some people can't walk and chew gum at the same time. The risk of injury is in fact so vast that chewing gum was banned in Singapore.
While we're sure retail campaigns like Gap's (red) and Kenneth Cole's Are You Putting Us On? mean well, they don't always ring sincere to the adxhausted audience they aim for.
With fingers on the pulse of a social backlash, Words Pictures Ideas and Romantic Static marry up to bring us the cynical Buy Less Crap, a pithy-prints effort pushing for less, not more, purchase-oriented donation.
In contrast to Gap's campaign, where donations are tied to purchasing (red) clothing modeled in the ads, (less) ads feature naked models with headings like (red)icu(less), meaning(less) and point(less). The website lists multiple charities where people can donate without having to purchase a heart-warming hoodie.
This isn't the first spoof on Gap's (red) but we dig the way it makes the point. While we see the benefit of turning philanthropy into its own sort of brand in a consumer culture, we can't shake the feeling there's a conflict of interest in blurring the lines between purchase and social responsibility.
Promotions like the Carl's. Jr./Hardee's Spicy Buffalo conjure up major differences between Adrants editors. To start with, Hardee's for Steve is Carl's, Jr. for Angela, who is going, "WTF is Hardee's? Talk about a double-entendre!"
It also brings up the gender issue. While Steve can be sold by the buffalo wings by both the blonde (who knows our names!) and the sandwich, Angela can't help thinking, "I'm tired of sexy girls undressing to sell me shit. What happened to the Chippendale market? Doesn't Kasey Kahne want to sell me something? Jude Law? This guy?"
Come on, Carl's Jr. (or Hardee's, as applicable). The ovarian gender isn't all just eating salad over here. We have needs too. Show us some buffalo.
Hi. It's Steve. Angela, Chippendales? They wear Speedos! G Strings! Eew! Make me puke! I'll take a sexy girl undressing to sell me shit any day of the week thank you very much! And what's with the sexy image in your article here? Huh? Huh? Who's perpetuating the sex sells theme now? :-)
Steve - Speedos and male G-strings are the warrior loincloths of today. What could be hotter than a warrior in meat-slaying battle gear? Yeah, can't think of anything, can you? I rest my case.
And PS. Unconditional purchasing allegiance to the prototype Barbie blonde? So passe. I'd venture to call it Neanderthalic, but even the Geico caveman's too cool for that. >=) *Flips hair*
Oh but Angela. We men pride ourselves on our Neanderthalic simplicity. Why bother with all that overly complex emotional stuff that bogs you ladies down when a simple "Dude, we cool" and a busty blond in a bikini will do it for us every time? Simplicity, baby!
I can't beat the simplicity argument. *long pause* Man, losing to you sucks. I think I'm going to head back to my room, cry and listen to Jagged Edge's cover of "All Out Of Love" on repeat.
It's all good. What would Adrants be with out fair and balanced coverage? Oh wait. Fair and balanced? We don't do that? That wouldn't be any fun. And we like fun so we're just going to keep writing about politically incorrect, thong-clad hotties who hate gun control, love suicide, hate PETA (but love to appear nude in their ads), like sex with midgets, think ads that make men look stupid are cool, like to make fun of fast food workers and think kids who get fat at McDonald's is because of their own stupidity and not that or marketers.
Hardee's and Carl's Jr. are up to their spicy hotness again. If you remember, this is the restaurant chain that had Paris Hilton slather herself all over a Bently while eating a giant hamburger. Now, with help from Spacedog Interactive, the chain has enlisted the services of another delicious-looking (hey, we're talking about food here so we can use the word delicious if we want!) blond named Ashley Hartman who takes center stage on the company's Spicy Buffalo site and alluringly frolics about for your pleasure. It's all to promote the chain's new Buffalo Chicken Sandwich.
On the site, you'll find a description of the sandwich, a history of Frank's Red Hot Sauce, a behind the scenes look at the commercial shoot and, of course, the spots themselves. The best line in the commercials: Good thing chickens have big breasts. Yes, the entire thing is laced with double entendres and we love everyone of them. Bring on the cause groups!
Without question, this President's Day (yes, the dealers now think it's President's Month) promotion from New York/ Long Island Honda Dealers is, by far, the best promotional work we've ever seen from a car dealer. In a nod (well, basically a complete rip off) to Jib Jab, the video (click the talk bubble next to George Washington) on the site has a collection of Presidents rapping about the great deals you can get at the dealership. In true dealership style, the video breaks down the cost of an Accord LX lease to $6.41 per day aligning it closely to a cup of Starbucks coffee.
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