Speaking about the computer as if it were an extension of one's self, HP has launched a new ad campaign that celebrates (over analyzes?) the relationship between computer and human and how it is "one of the most personal things you own," " your own broadcast network," "your private media empire" and "it's your life." There are tinges of past Apple campaigns the the recent HP images campaign embedded in this campaign. One spot, hosted online, ends with a virtual desktop which you can drill into as if it were your own. Unfortunately, one of the spots ends with that nasty, consistency-ruining Intel ending. But, with all the monet Intel throws at computer makers just to show that logo and sound bite, we're stuck with that for a long time.
One of the coolest Visa "Life Takes Visa" commercials, in my opinion, is the one with the work which dances to Afrika Bambaataa's "Looking for the Perfect Beat." Blended Films has posted an interview with Patrick Smith, the man behind that dancing worm who talks about the creation of the worm, the spot and the choice of music. On the site, there's also promotional AIM icons and the spot itself.
Yesterday, we shared a few pictures of Apple's New York store opening. Today, we have a video that further captures the insanity and the power the Apple brand holds over us. It's just a computer store, people! Relax. Go home. Have a beer. Seeing James Woods and Kevin Bacon really isn't that exciting. Unless, of course, your life is meaningless and ll you need is a few pieces of geeky white electronics to spice it up.
Now that Visa is in on the whole graffiti thing, graffiti artists might as well throw aways their Krylon, call it a day and move on to some new, yet to be tinged by marketers form of expression. Visa, with help from artist Trish Grantham is taking its "Life Takes Visa" to Greenwich Village in the form of of a giant wall mural with the tagline, "Life Takes Expression." Below the mural, Visa will display other artwork in the form of sculpture, furniture, fashion and more graffiti from artists Christopher Natrop, Jeff Soto, Andy Diaz Hope, Anne Faith Nicholls, AXIS, Erik Pawassar, Parvez Taj, Ron Reihel, Christopher Cuseo, Eric Joyner, Elizabeth Paige Smith, Charlotte Ronson, Dario Antonioni and Hayley Starr.
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One really has to wonder what goes through the mind of a designer sometimes as indicated by some recent Tyson packaging. Brenner Thomas points out this bit of odd packaging from the food giant for its Sunset Strips chicken strips on which an image of a chicken appears to be eating itself...well...a chicken strip, that is. One might argue it looks like a french fry but we doubt it. Apparently, cannabalism is alive and well in the chicken business.
In a natural move, Nikon, as part of its Stunning campaign - the one which recently featured Kate Moss - has entered into a deal with photo site Flickr whereby any picture taken with a Nikon camera and uploaded to Flicker will display a small Nikon log next to the information section on individual photo pages. Also, photos tagged "nikonstunninggallery" will be featured on Nikon's NikonStunningGallery website and a prominent link to Nikon's site is featured on Flickr's homepage. If ever there were an appropriate campain to appear on Flickr, this would be it.
FishNChimps has detailed the story of how Nike, apparently, stole the logo from Hackney, a poor London borough for use on its World Cup line of sportswear. Hackney, whose logo has been in place for 40 years has asked Nike to share the profits of the line with the borough to fund its schools. Hopefully, this doesn't turn out to be yet another piece of stunt marketing.
In a move that could be described as both the display of good corporate behavior as well as a cheesy effort to leverage natural disaster for corporate gain, MasterCard is lending its "Priceless" campaign to the state of Florida for use in a combined campaign to persuade Floridians to make sure they're ready for hurricane season. On the good corporate behavior side of the story, MasterCard will donate the cost of a print ad campaign in four Florida markets to deliver the hurricane preparedness message. On the not so good corporate citizen side of the story are the lobbying efforts MasterCard may have implemented to get Florida Governor Jeb Bush to sign into legislation a bill creating a tax holiday from May 21 to June 1 on all purchases. Hmm. Lower taxes. Higher purchases. More charge card usage. More money for MasterCard.
It seems Boston's Digitas has been busy creating a Geocities-like site for Gillette called NoScruf. NoScruf stands for National Organization of Social Crusaders Repulsed by Unshaven Faces, a group ,headed by apparent swimsuit model Terry Tarentelli, that is sick and tired of the unshaven, male scruffy look. In a sort of protest, women on the site appear unshaven with hair on their legs and under their arm pits. There's a couple films that document the movement. The site is purposefully designed to look like crap and just like Geocities sites of yesteryear, there's broken links, cheesy graphics and really bad typeface. It all kinda makes you want to go out and by a really good razor...from Gillette, of course.
So am I supposed to buy this deodorant because there's hot roller girls in the ad or am I supposed to show this ad to a woman who finds green underwear and fish net stockings appealing so she can buy it? Please. Help me out here. Who is Right Guard selling to here? What's the message? If you're gonna pull the hotties out of the closet for your ad campaign, at least be clear on who's supposed to get excited about them.
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