In the course of his Presidency George W. Bush has both enraged and made us laugh, often at the same time. We've seen plenty of ways where his unique talent has manifested in reactionary advertising. Sometimes the results are funny, sometimes they piss us off, and often they do both at once.
Either way, it's become impossible to leave the States without a good sense of humour -- or an iron-on maple leaf.
Ivan of CreativeBits put together an invaluable collection of print ads where Bush is the star. This close to November, it almost makes us fond of the guy -- the way you grow fond of a stooge you're about to screw over in a drug bust.
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In specific, the Honda Pilot will steer you into the path of geriatric ballooning nudists, jetpack users and at least one guy trapped in a cement block. All will be male, and all will be slightly left of your comfort zone.
These unlikely Good Samaritan scenarios highlight the Pilot's merits: rearview camera, navigation with voice recognition and "surprising" fuel efficiency. None of that is terribly unique, but all of it is now lodged in my brain, if only so I can turn the ads into slow-night bar fodder.
But wait! There's print stuff too. See Youtility and Ride Ready, which are less creepy, but also less interesting. Agency: RPA.
Or possibly just turn it into a thumb. TBWA\Wien, Vienna: what were you thinking?
Gizmodo, which is now an Xbox convert, says the PS3/Playboy ad was not formally approved by Sony. That's nice and all, but it's still repelling people right and left.
At times like this, it's not enough to say "Sorry, this ain't ours." Contrary to popular belief, a crappy ad can adversely impact sales. Sony needs to pull some Vatican crap and deploy a creative assassin. Or maybe some sort of secret weapon, like the Giant Mouse of Minsk.
Ads for Recount: The Story of the 2000 Presidential Election, are plastered all over NYC. Here are a few: "swinging chad," "hanging chad" and "pregnant chad."
Each refers to a punch card that ballot machines may have trouble reading. The subtext isn't quite a definition of the phrase; it's more like a description of how political minds saw them in the context of the 2000 election. (Remember Florida?)
Witty.
See the actual definitions for these terms. Next time you pass by one of these posters, snicker like you're in the know.
On Monday night I hit One Club's 14th Annual Student Exhibition. Buzzing from a bottled cola high, creatives-in-training hovered from display to display, murmuring competitive remarks.
It kind of felt like a grade school science fair.
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This weekend, I noticed a local store window with several signs promoting its blowout "economic stimulus sale." Dominos has similarly launched a "recession-buster deal." I even saw Craigslist postings using the recession as a marketing message.
IMHO there's nothing better than reminding me of our country's financial woes to entice me to spend more money. Sure, the economy's tanking, but at least now I can get 20 percent off everything!
So...how do you get the word out about your grass-fed meat? No, not that kind of meat you vegan sicko! Beef meat. From cattle. That kind. OK, so how do you get the word out? Well, you slap wild posting up all over the city, of course. And, you tweak your copy so it mirrors lines from popular movies, song lyrics and ad slogans.
This approach yields "I love the smell of grass-fed beef in the morning," So grass-fed a caveman would eat it" and "Say hello to my grass-fed friend." The work was created by Olive for La Cense Beef. There's also a microsite with even more wordy witticisms.
Gift shops aren't exactly hotspots of envy. When I think "gift shop," I think over-expensive cigarettes, travel deodorant and hand-whittled local goods.
But there's this gift shop in St. Louis called Lusso. If its advertising is anything to go by (and when would it ever lie?), objects from Lusso compel people to steal, pick fights, and take back wedding presents.
Maybe it's the handmade gift-wrap service. See acts of insanity here:
o In certain cases, there is no honor among maids.
o Always remember who was absent from the cha-cha line.
All this to tell you Lusso's moved to The Crescent on Carondelet Plaza. Now that you know, go thee forth and wreak havoc. Agency: Rodgers Townsend, St. Louis.
- Big spenders who can't be bothered to attend a fashion show: Prada wants your business. Click on "Prototypes Auction" at Prada.com to see what's bid-worthy.
- Product packaging can be vastly improved with the addition of Braille.
- Twitter, allegedly the 439th largest social networking site, is deemed niche but influential. (The niche aspect is part of what makes something influential in the first place ... right?)
- Yelp.com released a self-serving documentary to showcase its whole anti-Zagat, down-with-the-homies feel. The mini-doc was fast made mockumentary fodder by the anti-Yelp Elite, which seem to think Yelp's all about hair. No arguments here. And apparently Yelpers find the mock more amusing.
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This is awesome. Jobsintown.de used the "people on display" gimmick (other examples: 1, 2, 3) to drive this point home: "Life's too short for the wrong job!"
Cog-in-the-wheel miserati are trapped inside self-service machines. Catch them toiling away in ATMs, vending machines, photo booths and coin-op washers.
No real people were actually encased; otherwise, this might have been kinda risky.
Part of what I liked about this campaign was the sheer variety in the implementation. It's like somebody saw human hands behind every device we take for granted.
Thanks to the people at influencia for sending it over.
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