Snickers Sheds Homophobe Vibe with Plethora of Burlies

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Snickers is replacing its "Most Satisfying" tagline with "Feast," a move introduced by five new ad characters: a king, a Viking, a Pilgrim, a Polynesian and a Roman, which are all supposed to teach us a thing or two about glorified gluttony.

Check out the spot here.

Like a pubescent teen that acts extra-manly to keep people from thinking he swings the other way, the burly new focus will hopefully guide thoughts from the unfortunate Super Bowl ad incident, when people freaked out over those two guys tonguing over their last bit of that most satisfying candy bar.

by Angela Natividad    Sep- 4-07    
Topic: Brands, Commercials



Maggie Gyllenhaal Sexes Up (Down?) Agent Provocateur

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When we think of Maggie Gyllenhaal, the first thing that comes to mind isn't usually an Agent Provocateur campaign full of black lingerie and provocative sexual imagery. Granted, she did offer herself up as an office fantasy to James Spader in Secretary and played a trampy, hardnosed, harlot-like, character in SherryBaby but we still think of her as the wise-ass younger sister to real-life brother Jake in the atmospherically fantastic Donnie Darko. So it is with a bit of WTF we react to her appearance in the lingerie maker's latest campaign.

In the campaign, she seems to carry an air of 20's flapper but that's crossed with a dose of S&M, coy cuteness, subservient subjugation and playful elegance. It's got something for everyone.

more »

by Steve Hall    Sep- 4-07    
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Celebrity, Racy



Dolce & Gabbana Slip Leather-Clad Power into Hands of Emaciated Dominatrixes

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Why do we waste time pondering the suggested denigration of women in JBS or Sisley ads when Dolce & Gabbana has always made such an easy target?

It turns out that this season's series of ads are meant to take D&G's usual array of contorted femmes and put them in positions of empowerment - with chrome corsets, thin whips and naked man slaves.

Thank you, D&G, for realizing our dearest fantasies.

by Angela Natividad    Sep- 4-07    
Topic: Brands, Magazine



Playtex Lifts and Laughs, Leaves Lasciviousness Behind

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Perhaps one of the most unsexy bra brands is doing exactly what an unsexy bra brand should do. It's talking about the mundane, utilitarian purpose of a bra. While Victoria's Secret goes on and on about it's intimate apparel, Playtex, along with brands like Bravissimo, is has left the coy, playful, tantalizing, metaphor-ridden approach behind and has focused on what a a bra actually does: comfortably supports the part of a woman's body that needs supporting.

Granted, this no-nonsense approach isn't new even for the company that pioneered bra advertising on TV way back in 1954 but the company has updated, modernized and uniquely positioned its brand to...oh, who are we kidding? We just wanted to write about bras again. OK, who else has got a recently launched bra campaign we can use to fill our daily salaciousness quota here at Adrants?

by Steve Hall    Aug-31-07    
Topic: Brands, Campaigns



Alaska Airline Revives Paul Revere ... for Boston Flights!

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Adrants reader Will sent us footage of this guerrilla promotion that Alaska Airlines conducted in Portland for its non-stop to Boston service. The statue to the right of the Paul Revere guy is also an actor, though it's unclear what he's there to do besides freak people out.

We're trying to work out how you would gauge how well this converted on a survey. What would you ask people?

How Did You Hear About the Boston Non-Stop Flights?

- Via email
- Through a friend or Alaska Airlines employee
- Internet surfing (enter website)
- Via man dressed like Paul Revere/painted statue guy in Portland square (circle one)

by Angela Natividad    Aug-31-07    
Topic: Brands, Guerilla, Promotions



Diesel Fuels On, Firefox Pwns IE, MySpace Gets Spacelift, Nike Sends Office Foot Soldiers Running

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- More on Diesel's Fuel for Life. It all started with a guerilla campaign called No Legalization, in which the fabled Society Against Legalization fought tooth and nail to forbid public consumption of the perfume.

- Pingdom gets more people to divorce IE for Team: Firefox. We didn't realize the browser wars were so ... personal.

- NBC and News Corp execs name their nameless collaboration site Hulu "because it sounded fun and rhymed with itself," says MarketingVox.

- Yet one more reason to jump the Goodship MySpace for Facebook: Spacelift! Now you can turn your MySpace into Facebook! Holy shit! (Sorry - it just seemed like it had to be said.)

- For "Gone Running," Nike puts together a very hard-to-read do-not-disturb-type sign that vibes like a nervous breakdown (but with a light at the end of the tunnel!).

- Google and CNN become bosom buddies. That's ... sweet.

by Angela Natividad    Aug-30-07    
Topic: Brands, Online, Outdoor



Diesel: Yes We're Alive, But Our Love for You is Dying

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Diesel is really good at developing fairly coherent creative ideas and then half-assing them. For its Fuel for Life thing, which we kind of mentioned here, the gritty-chic company takes its "For successful living" slogan and applies it to a perfume (the aforementioned Fuel for Life).

Then it pimps out its homepage with all this busy-as-shit promotional material - most of which Adverblog valiantly tries to cover.

But what really ticks us off is the Italian model who greets us at outset with the burning rhetorical question, "Are you alive?" And he never stops asking. He keeps asking.

more »

by Angela Natividad    Aug-28-07    
Topic: Bad, Brands, Online



TrekStor Beats Blacks...Then Changes Product Name

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In an unfortunate and amusing product naming mishap, German company TrekStor had named one of its MP3 players i.beat blaxx. upon realizing the not so nice meaning of that product name, the company has since switched the name to a less culturally agitating and more simple blaxx. One wonders who looks at this stuff before it goes out?

by Steve Hall    Aug-27-07    
Topic: Brands, Strange, Worst



Hanes Gets a Little Racier, but Not by Much

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Maybe Hanes is a little sexier than we thought. The company has enlisted the aid of four relatively cute girls (dubbed The Comfort Force) to ask strange men to change their underpants. Clever. We do that all the time to no positive result, but then again we've never organized ourselves into a coalition.

See campaign site here.

Push the envelope further, Hanes - have said Comfort Force test the aerodynamics of your product at a local concert. We're sure small-time band geeks would appreciate having (clean) panties thrown at them.

by Angela Natividad    Aug-27-07    
Topic: Brands, Guerilla, Promotions



Subaru Gets Punny with 'Peel Out' Impreza Ad

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We're glad Subaru never tries to depict its Impreza as a super-sexy or even very fast car, because the only thing it really has going for it is its intellect. It's like that well-read but ugly girl in grade school.

Thus leveraging its best quality, this new ad for the Subaru Impreza has been cleverly titled "Peel Out." And instead of showing self-gratifying cuts of a Subaru burning precious tire across concrete (we actually can't even imagine that), it shows a Subaru jumping through pages of magazines after some drivers magically "peel out" of one.

There's probably more to it than that because the pressie was really long and gushy, but then we thought, if we need reading material to "get" a commercial, what the hell's the point?

by Angela Natividad    Aug-24-07    
Topic: Brands, Commercials, Television