Apparently asterisks are bad.* In a campaign called “Don’t be an Asterisk,” the US Olympic Committee and the Ad Council associate them with steroids and inauthenticity.**
Witness as a high school jock repulses once-loving classmates when an asterisk starts forming on his forehead. (Apt, I guess, since steroids are supposed to make you break out like whoa.)
But here I was, all this time, thinking the teen angst market was reserved exclusively for the zit zappers. Speaking of which, J&J — parent company of Neutrogena! — funded this effort, which was put together by TBWA/Chiat/Day/NY.
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*Good thing Cingular left the game before we all found out, or it would’ve been mayhem!
** Truthfully, I always thought the # sign was more abrasive.
