Playboy Says 'Fur Out, Love In'

The heart-shaped placards in this Brazilian Playboy ad created by Neogama BBH should really read, "Flesh Out, Saline In." It would do a far better job explaining what's going on in this leftist campaign for the magazine which takes on everything from fur to pollution to bullfighting. See the whole campaign here.

Jennifer Aniston Doesn't Excite in Glaceau Water Campaign

We simply can not put our finger on it but we haven't thought of Jennifer Anniston as attractive or sexy since back in the Friends days when, it seemed, nothing she wore could cover her permanently erect nipples. And even though she's doing the naked pretzel thing in this new ad campaign for Glacea Smartwatter, we're still not feeling it the way we did back then. It's very nice photography but it's just not exciting us that much about the product. Which, of course, is just fine because who really wants to get that excited about a bottle of water?

Milk Worse Than Second Hand Smoke

The Truth campaign's latest commercial informs the public tobacco companies, in 1996, said drinking a glass or two of whole milk is riskier than second hand smoke and does so in its usual fashion with Derrick Beckles...and his glasses... visiting a dairy farmer. The perplexed farmer simply can't believe anyone could say such a thing about something so wholesome as milk. Though there are those out there who think drinking milk is disgusting, claim most milk contains harmful additives and the fat content (remember, we're talking whole milk here) is bad for the body, equating that to the inhalation of second hand cigarette smoke is a bit of a stretch even for the Truth campaign.

Why doesn't the Truth campaign just show a picture of this dude and be done with it.

Newsflash! Hearing Aids Are Cool!

A long time a go in a place far, far away, a certain class of people were once not so affectionately known as retards. Now, far more affectionately, if a bit sterile-sounding, they're known as mentally-impaired/challenged/disabled. As well, there once was a class of people known as cripples. These very same people are now known as the handicapped.

In the 19th century, doctors coined the terms midget and dwarf to describe people whose height was other than normal or proportional. These height-challenged (oops, did we just make up a new one?) are now known as little people. Doctors even threw around the terms moron, imbecile and idiot to describe people of varying (and low) IQ levels. Now, not so much.

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Nike Loosens 'Victory' Jockstrap, Rebukes Man Boobs

Advertising for Peanuts points us to a Nike ad put together by Wieden & Kennedy, Amsterdam for the UK.

It's a lot more casual than other work they've done but maybe it's a precedent-setter for the type of tone their iPod collabo will take. Because really, we haven't seen jack out of this liaison since the OK Go liftoff.

Forget the Jetpacks - RAY GUNS Have Finally Arrived

For Weta Workshops, which makes action figures and other collectible props for movies and stuff, New Zealand's Touch/Case Next gives us SteamPunk ray guns.

And best of all, the ray guns are real (if not really deadly, at least really for sale). Models like the ManMelter 3600ZX and the FMOM INDUSTRIES Wave Disrupter are "constructed from metal with some glass parts," and only 500 of each is being manufactured.

Tell us that doesn't bring your lawn dart-loving '80s baby out to play, and we will glower at you in disdain.

For our own purposes, the Goliathon 83 dissolves seven-ninths of an elephant in 10 earth seconds. We could really use that kind of power whilst standing in line at the post office.

Capitalism is the New Revolution! (Really?)

Propaganda and advertising play in the same sandbox. With that in mind, we re-examine Forbes' longtime "Join the Movement!" marketing stint, where images like this and this are used to trigger a taste for the concrete jungle that recalls a certain Slavic brio (1, 2).

The Economist kinda does it, too.

When did red become the new green? Are they two sides of the same coin? Oh God, is that what Christmas is all about?!

Homeless People Used to Condemn Use of Homeless People In Ads

Dripping with egotistical irony, this Giovanni+Draftfcb Rio de Janeiro-created campaign for the Creative Club of Rio de Janeiro rips on the nation's apparent obsession with the use of homeless and disabled people in advertising seemingly to achieve creative brilliance and win awards at their expense.

With headlines, "I helped a copywriter become a creative director", "I've made a creative team win a lion at Cannes" and "Thanks to us. An art director had his salary doubled," pulls no punches while, at the same time, does the very thing it's trying to stop.

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Whales Get Honor Treatment from Contrite Japanese

Leo Burnett made this pretty little GreenPeace video for Japan, which is currently undergoing some drama having to do with whaling and such.

Because whale meat was the main source of protein for the island after WWII, Japan feels it has the right to go on whaling, even if there's no demand for the meat (according to the Greenpeace pressie, considering we don't ourselves know how much or how little the island folk need whale meat today).

So Greenpeace goes, okay, let's restructure this historical conversation and turn the notion of man-to-whale relationships into one of reciprocal respect, instead of a Giving Tree situation (we hated that book, by the way) - where one side keeps giving until there's just nothing left.

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United Colors of Benetton Returns From Dead With New Campaign

The United Colors of Who? Oh, Benetton. Sorry. It's just been years since we've seen anything from the clothier. In fact, we figured they went out of business but no. They are back and this time they are taking on the cause of domestic violence. Each ad stylishly coordinates their clothing line's colors with the bruises on women's faces to drive home the message. Damn. Did we just say "drive home the message?" Sorry, we thought we left that in the conference room years ago after realizing a message can't actually be driven and that saying stuff like that makes one appear to be an idiot. OK so maybe mobile billboards are an exception but we digress.

Benetton is back and they have a message. And as a bonus, maybe the campaign itself will deliver its own version of violence in the form of a slap upside the head of fashionistas who are more concerned with how they look than the plight of women around the world. Damn, that was bitchy.

UPDATE: Surprise, surprise. They're fake. Yawn.