Last week students Jennine Punzone and Manasvi Abrol of Miami Ad School Brooklyn incurred the wrath (well ... not really) of no less than Philip Morris, having used a class assignment to propose an app called Bump a Smoke.
If you're a social smoker, or just somebody who comes up a stick short once or twice too often a week, the idea is brilliant. The hypothetical app lets you buy virtual smokes, which you can then exchange for real ones.
What irked Philip Morris was the unauthorised use of its Marlboro brand in the app mockup, and AgencySpy, which has covered the project in past, received the following letter from one Bill Phelps of Altria Client Services:
Kiran: The "Bump a Smoke" concept you posted this morning is in no way related to Philip Morris USA or the Marlboro brand. The company does not approve of this use of its trademark. Could you please update your post to clarify this or remove the image? Thanks.
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Here's the unholy union that you knew was coming. The AARP appeals to the self-deprecating golden-agers of 'morrow in a kitsch-ass ad called the "Get-Over-It-a-Thon," starring Betty White, Betty White and wicked senior poster girl Betty White!
The premise is simple: You're not too young to register for AARP, and it's only $16, so bite the bullet.
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This isn't creepy at all. To plug its aggressively pink N8 smartphone, Nokia's produced "Freedom," a music video that Influencia describes as "a mix of Lady Gaga, Rihanna and The Exorcist." Its frontliner is none other than Mattel's Barbie, circa 1950s or around the time the pointy bra was born.
Barbie appears in all her plasticine antiquated glory, outfitted in a pink the same shade as the N8, sometimes with garishly coloured hair, other times with Sharpie tattoos, at least twice with Nokia signs covering her mammaries, and a few times -- disturbingly enough -- lounged on top of an N8 amid a circle of her own disembodied limbs.
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Nike's ads are epic so often it's almost banal. But this latest, "Chosen," is an anthem like no other. Filmed over two years across seven locations (Hawaii, Florida, New York, Los Angeles, Whistler, Aspen and Bali), it whets your appetite for adventure with bruising sports too often relegated to boyish recreation: skating, surfing, BMXing, snowboarding.
Famous faces include skater Paul Rodriguez, snowboarder Danny Kass, and surfers Julian Wilson and Laura Enever. But as good as their cameos in pro form is the brand finale: the swoosh, and Nike's "Just Do It" slogan -- symbols tattooed into our cultural roots -- brought to the fore in flames. Perhaps the advertising you would expect from Volcom clothing , but this is a new step for a company such as Nike.
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Here's one of those wack ideas masquerading as something novel. "Unbore Anything!" is an ongoing campaign for Carlsberg's still beverage Festis, whose name is already quirky enough to invite ideas of the same ilk.
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Our super hot friend Amber Lee Ettinger, otherwise known as the infamous Obama Girl, has a new gig. She's hosting a new web show called Gadget Girl from Digital Driver. On the show, Ettinger will make viewers aware of the latest technology as well as offer up tips and tricks.
As far as we can tell, she won't be hosting in a bikini but that's probably a good thing because when Amber's in a bikini, the last thing people are concentrating on is what she's saying. And, to be clear, we don't mean that to be rude. It's just a fact. When you're hot, you're hot. And people are gonna look.
Anyway, if you're a gadget geek who loves to watch hot chicks talk about tech, you're gonna love Gadget Girl. And just as a public service of sorts...if you really, really want to see Amber in a bikini, here she is in all her glory.
Recently, Jennifer Aniston appeared in a new print campaign for SmartWater. In one ad, she lounges in white shorts in a chair, In another, she is seen getting out of a car in a black cocktail dress. Now, a third ad has been released and, much like every other celebrity who has something to pimp, Aniston appears nude. Of course, that would be quotation-mark nude as her hand covers her breast as she rests on one elbow and looks longingly into the camera.
We have to wonder. Is this just business as usual? Should we assume that at one point or another every celebrity is going to get "nude" and sell us something? Or is this an "I'm still hot!" cry from Aniston? Who knows what Aniston looks like when she rolls over in the morning but she sure still looks hot all dolled up in these ads. You decide.
Looks like Nokia is doing whatever it can to stay alive and the brand has enlisted Barbie to help. In a new ad, called Freedom, for the very girly Nokia N8 Pink phone, director Dave Wilson tells us he wanted to "celebrate the world of hot pink and the glamor that goes with it." You can check out both the making-of video and the actual ad below.
Of the music in the commercial, Wison said, "Being able to work with the Sugarbabes' Freedom as a soundtrack for the piece lent itself to the empowered personas that we'd created for the dolls." Good God what a load of ad blather! But, hey, the ad is kind of fun. Except for the fact Wilson gleefully twists Barbie's head all the way around as if she were Linda Blair in The Exorcist.
All to sell a phone. From a company that isn't doing so well financially and is rumored to be in talks with Microsoft over selling itself to the software giant. But hey, pink is the new success. Or success is the new pink. Or whatever...
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Here's the issue we have with "green" commercials like this one from TBWA\Chiat\Day for the Nissan Leaf: they make no sense. In this commercial, a world is envisioned in which everything is powered by a gasoline engine. Except at the end when Robert Downey Jr. wonders what it would be like if everything didn't because we call drove a Nissan Leaf.
Uh, where the hell do people think the energy comes from to generate the electricity needed to charge the Nissan LEAF's batteries? Currently, mostly fossil fuels which power the electric plants. have you seen an electric plant? They have smokestacks. Which emit fumes. Which harm the atmosphere.
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Canon just launched a new campaign, Long Live Imagination, in collaboration with Ron Howard. On May 22nd, Ron Howard and Canon invited photographers to submit their "most imaginative" photographs based on movie themes for Project Imagin8ion, a user-generated photo contest aimed at inspiring a Hollywood short film. The Long Live Imagination site hopes to foster dialogue within the community and with Canon.
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