Click For Bigger Boobs
OK, then. We know boobs have been used to sell beer forever but not in association with the large shady area a pair of prodigious breasts can provide. Under the photoshopped boobage of one woman, another woman holds a glass of Foster's beer accompanied by the headline, "Well. You Wouldn't Want A Warm Beer, Would You?" At first we thought we were looking at some new form of breast-produced beer milk until we came to our senses and focused on the shadier aspects of this ad. Thanks to flickr user mollyeh11 for this one.
Yesterday, one of Goodyear's gigantic, flying billboards crashed into an industrial park in Florida during a thunderstorm. No one was injured but that's not going to be an easy ad medium to replace.
AdFreak reports on a pair or artists who convinced area merchants in Vienna and its Chamber of Commerce to go along with an ad cover up scheme in which all signage and ads on a popular shopping street were covered for a two week period. In the end, the Chamber of Commerce paid advertisers $245,000 for the privilege of covering their ads.
Johnny's Drunken Stupor
Adrants reader and Animal Publisher Bucky Turco comments on the Johnnie Walker "Keep Walking" outdoor campaign which has featured imagery that conveys forward motion or progress. Recently, Turco noticed an execution of the campaign that used dominoes as imagery and questioned the choice of that visual as it relates to spririts advertising, commenting to Adrants, "The other day I came across this Icon ad that featured swirling lines of falling dominoes. The image of falling dominoes seems a dubious illustration to use for progress, especially for a spirits brand. Does it mean that if you don't drink enough JW your life will begin to "fall like dominoes." Could it mean 'Keep Walkin' fast this way so your drinking troubles don't catch up with you? Or is simply 'Keep Walking,' even if its not in a straight line?"
Spirits advertising has to walk a fine line between imbuing a sense of adventure and excitement and the plain truth alcohol can make you drunk and stupid. Perhaps this illusory image of dominoes gets a bit too close to crossing that line.
Sometimes regular sized billboards don't do the trick and big ass billboards are required. This big ass billboard, captured by flickr user iconoblast, makes perfect sense for H & M's $9.90 bikini separates. Whether you have a big ass or not, H & M's got a bottom that will fit. And they want to make sure everyone within three miles of this billboard knows it.
While we all love a racy ad and any excuse to write about one, it seems marketers are simply creating them now in order to have them banned. Take the Plugg Jeans ad. It shows two hotties on the beach. The guy is holding a girl in a manner only seen in the confines of a photoshoot and the girl has her right hand in the guy's crotch. Hey, nothing wrong with sex but Plugg Jeans must have been smoking crack if they thought this ad would be quietly accepted by all media. Of course, that was the strategy all along according to Plugg Jeans parent company Andrew International President Andrew Kirpalani who told Ad Age, "We wanted something exciting, something provocative, it doesn't make sense otherwise to spend the money to be in Times Square."
The image was to grace a slot in Times Square but billboard owner Boston Properties declined to accept the ad as presented and asked for changes. The ad was also declined by Elle Girl and Teen People but accepted by Jane. To acquiesce to those concerned, M Media Creative Director Michael Cooper has toned down the ad a bit to unsexify the image somewhat.
UPDATE: Apparently it's now up.
This Ain't My Graf
Street art site Wooster Collective summarizes (then alters the story for accuracy here) recent happenings in the world of corporate graffiti. Recently Time Magazine paid CopeII to create a graffiti billboard in New York. Earlier this week a graffiti artist was arrested in Chicago for buffing - covering up with black paint - another graffiti artist's work, commissioned by Critical Massive, for Axe Deodorant. This has caused a battle within the graffiti community. Graffiti wants to be art. Not commerce. But even natural graffiti artists need to make a living. Not to mention ad agencies which can't leave a single inch of potential media space untapped.
Yesterday, it was sex in advertising that came in a pair. Today, it's transportation announcement advertising. We'll call it ad-nouncevertising. Following Alaska Airlines forcing a captive plane load of passengers to listen to flight attendant-read Bank of America Visa ads, commuters passing through Penn station this morning were subjected to promotional announcements for the Belmont Stakes. Is there no peace, I ask? Is there no f'ing peace? Not that bleary eyed Penn station commuters are would even hear such announcements before they had their morning shoot up of Starbucks.
With the recent likelihood New York City will not be chosen as host for the 2012 Olympics, some have pointed out the countdown clock is now an unfortunate, gigantic reminder of the city's failure.
Adrants reader Bucky Turco, spotter of all things advertising, points out the odd juxtaposition two advertisers can find themselves in when the medium they use does not naturally provide exclusivity. Turco explains, "I was walking on east 14th St. and 3rd Ave. when I happened upon this bus stop. On both sides of the same stop were vodka ads, one for Absolut, one for Stoli. Not only were both vodka ads, but both we're for their new lines of Peach vodka. And another interesting twist was that both ads had polar-opposite creative: Absolut pushed for a tropical and bright feel, and Stoli for an arctic and monotone feel."
